Sinopsis
Weekly interviews on Eurasian politics, history and society.
Episodios
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Climate Change and Authoritarianism
17/02/2025 Duración: 59minDebates about climate change and what to do about it occur a perilous political climate. It’s a problem that requires international cooperation. But elected politicians increasingly deny climate change, break global agreements, turn inward, and embrace authoritarianism. It’s a situation that both Eve Darian-Smith and Boris Schneider know well. Darian-Smith has written about the right-wing political responses to climate change, particularly to devastating fires, in the US, Brazil, and Australia. Schneider watches climate policy in Eurasia. What are some of the issues that intersect these regions? Are there shared ideological and policy actions? And what of resistance by climate groups hoping to stem the tide? These questions and more, are in this first episode of a six-part interview series “Eurasian Environments: Climate Justice and Sustainability in Global Context.” In each episode, experts on Eurasia are put in dialogue with those focusing on Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Guests:Eve Darian-Smith i
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Recording Georgians in WWI POW Camps
10/02/2025 Duración: 01h04minIn 1916, the German anthropologist Rudolf Pöch and musicologist Robert Lach set out to the Eger prisoner of war camp with a unique research agenda: to record the language and folk songs of Georgian prisoners from the Russian Empire. The recording equipment was clunky and its recordings scratchy and faint. Nevertheless, Pöch and Lach were doing some innovative recordings, not just in terms of their ethnographic research, but using multi-channel recording to capture Georgian polyphonic singing. What were these recordings for? How did they fit into theories of race science of the time? And just who was Lavrosi Mamaldze, the Georgian singer these recordings documented? The Eurasian Knot wanted to learn more and sat down with Brian Fairley to talk about his deep dive into early twentieth century audio recording in WWI POW camps.Guest:Brian Fairley is the UCIS Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. He studies song, sound, and media across historical and ethnographic settings. His manuscript, “Separati
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Intellectual Roots of Neoliberalism
03/02/2025 Duración: 42minNeoliberalism has so many meanings that some say it has no meaning. Nailing down a consensus is also hampered by the fact that no one calls themselves a “neoliberal.” There’s even calls to abandon the term altogether since it’s become more a slur than doctrine needing analysis. Enter Max Trecker. He took the debate over neoliberalism as an opportunity to investigate its intellectual origins in the 1920s and 1930s. What did it mean then? What was neoliberal thought a reaction to? And what would those neoliberals think today? Also, in this interview, Max talks about an additional project: How Ukraine has been imagined as an economic space. It’s an issue not only of historical import, but enormous relevance today as Ukraine plans its postwar future.Guest:Max Trecker is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department at the University of Pittsburgh and an economic historian and postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for History and Culture of Eastern Europe in Leipzig, Germany. He’s the author
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Saving Seeds During the Siege of Leningrad
27/01/2025 Duración: 49minIn 1941, as Nazi forces laid siege to Leningrad, a group of Soviet botanists faced an unthinkable choice: eat their life’s work, a rare seed bank, or starve to death. This is the dilemma at the heart of Simon Parkin’s story about the world's first seed bank and its dedicated botanists. At the heart of this tale is Nikolai Vavilov, a brilliant botanist who traveled five continents collecting specimens before falling victim to Stalin's purges. Through meticulous research and newly accessed archives, Parkin reveals a vivid tale of the sacrifice of 19 scientists during the siege’s 900 days. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Parkin to learn more about Vavilov’s seed bank, the moral dimensions of choosing science over death, and how their legacy lives on in modern agriculture.Guest:Simon Parkin is a British author and journalist. He is contributing writer for the New Yorker, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the author of three narrative non-fiction books, including The Island of Extraordinary Captives, winner
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Russian Antifa vs Neo-Nazis
20/01/2025 Duración: 48minVladimir Kozlov’s new book Shramy (Scars) explores street battles between anti-fascists and neo-Nazi skinheads in Moscow during the late 2000s. Kozlov is no stranger to these subcultures. He’s long been involved in Russian punk. And though he never participated in these street battles himself, his failed attempt to make a documentary about Antifa for Russian television gave him an inside look at the scene. Now, almost two decades later, Kozlov uses Shramy to reflect on the roots of Russian fascism in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How did elements of neo-Nazi subculture seep into the Russian mainstream? And how does the Putin regime manipulate “Nazism” and “anti-fascism” for its own domestic and geopolitical ends? The Eurasian Knot spoke to Kozlov about his punk past, how they shaped the writing of Shramy, and how violence, ideology, and the complexities of Russian society have led to public support for the war in Ukraine.Guest:Vladimir Kozlov is a writer and filmmaker born in Mogilev in the Belarussi
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Romani Music and NGOs
13/01/2025 Duración: 01h02minWho speaks for whom within the Romani rights movement today? This is the question that drives Adriana Helbig’s investigation into the relationship between development aid and Romani musicians in her book, Resounding Poverty. Her findings are crucial as are provocative: NGOs unintentionally perpetuate narratives of Romani life that continue to marginalize the poorest among them. And while aid is crucial, it also fails to address issues of poverty, community, and health particularly in rural areas. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Helbig about the fraught and complicated presence of NGOs in postsocialist space, the tensions between aid and agency, the pressure Romani musicians face to perform "gypsiness" for non-Romani audiences, and her personal insights about conducting research in Ukraine and how her own family history intersects with her academic work. We even listen to some music by the Carpathian Ensemble, a University of Pittsburgh student group that Helbig directed. highlighting the challenges and rewards of
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Introducing: The Eurasian Climate Brief
03/01/2025 Duración: 48minThe 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) ended in late November in Baku. Two weeks of intense climate negotiations unveiled deep divides—particularly between the Global North and South over climate finance and contentious debates on the right wording of transitioning away from fossil fuels.In this episode Angelina Davydova and Boris Schneider dissect the outcomes of the conference, offering insights into the broader implications for climate action, both globally and in Central Asia. Joining the conversation is Kyrgyz journalist Anastasia Bengard, who attended COP29 as a fellow of the Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) programme. She shares her firsthand observations from the conference, shedding light on the positions and statements of her home country and Central Asia at large, as detailed in her reporting for 24.kg.Tune in as we delve into the complex narratives and challenges that will define the future of climate action across Central Asia - and beyond.The Eurasian Climate Br
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The Russia and China Brain Trusts
23/12/2024 Duración: 01h05minWho are those “experts” who sit in Washington DC and come up with policy toward China and Russia? You know, those academics, journalists, and think-tankers who generate the knowledge US officials rely on? David McCourt’s new book, The End of Engagement, takes a stab by examining American foreign policy expertise on China and Russia since 1989. His main focus is on the divide within the Russia and China watching community. For Russia, it’s between "Russia we havers" versus "Russia we wanters,” and for China, the "engagement" against the "strategic competition" partisans. Curious to hear more, The Eurasian Knot spoke to McCourt to get a social profile of these expert communities, including how personal cliques, academic cred, and resumes influence how we understand Russia and China.Guest:David McCourt is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. His new book is The End of Engagement: America's China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989 published by Oxford Univer
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A Tale of Two Nationalisms
16/12/2024 Duración: 01h40sNationalists are not born. They are made. But how? That journey is far trickier. Fabian Baumann’s award-winning book, Dynasty Divided: A Family History of Russian and Ukrainian Nationalism, traces how one family in 19th-century Ukraine split into opposing branches–one embracing Ukrainian nationalism and the other Russian imperial nationalism. Shulgin/Shulhin family story shows how national identities form through the microcosms of family, private spaces, intellectual circles, and intentional choices rather than predetermined ethnicity. The Eurasian Knot asked Baumann to take us through the Shulgin/Shulhin family, their efforts to craft opposing nationalist identities, and how exile after the Russian Revolution led both branches to craft nationalist narratives of their experiences. The Shulgin/Shulhin story may be a century old. But their journey into Ukrainian and Russian nationalism has inescapable implications for us today.Guest:Fabian Baumann is a research associate at Heidelberg University working on the
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Adapting Master and Margarita
25/11/2024 Duración: 51minIn 2020, Russian-American filmmaker Michael Lockshin and his co-writer, Roman Kantor, were offered an impossible task: to adapt Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita for the big screen. It was a daunting task to rewrite such a beloved novel, with its complicated and overlapping narratives. Lockshin and Kantor hoped to succeed where others failed. After a period of touch-and-go, the film was released in Russia in January 2024 to critical and viewer acclaim. It also received fierce scorn, particularly from Russian state propagandists. To date, the film remains unreleased internationally due to complex rights issues following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How has Lockshin dealt with all this personally and professionally? What does he make of the controversy surrounding the movie essentially cosplaying its plot. Lockshin recently visited Pittsburgh to screen the film. The Eurasian Knot jumped at the opportunity to interview him about it and its fallout.Guest:Michael Lockshin grew up in Russia an
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Georgia in Crisis
18/11/2024 Duración: 01h47sGuest: Bryan Gigantino, co-host of the podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia, on the context and causes for the current political crisis in Georgia.The post Georgia in Crisis appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The World of Soviet Dissidents
11/11/2024 Duración: 01h09minSoviet dissidents have long been objects of fascination. Who were they? What made them dissent? What did they believe? And what did they endure at the hands of a repressive Soviet state? We now have a clearer picture thanks to Benjamin Nathans’ new book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement. Soviet dissidents, or as they preferred to be called “rights defenders,” navigated a complicated choreography between the movement, the police, and its supporters abroad. Their approach was a strategy of “civil obedience,” that is pressuring the Soviet government to follow its own laws. Though amounting to around a thousand active participants, their influence grew, especially as they were lionized in the Western media. In this conversation with the Eurasian Knot, Nathans recounts this history, highlighting the often-overlooked role of women, dissidents’ complex relationship with Soviet society, and what their experience can teach us today.Guest:Benjamin Nathans i
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A Deep Dive into Kabardino-Balkaria
04/11/2024 Duración: 01h58sGuest: Ian Lanzillotti guides through the history of Kabardino-Balkaria in his book Land, Community, and the State in the Caucasus published by Bloomsbury.The post A Deep Dive into Kabardino-Balkaria appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Soviet DIY Folk Museums
28/10/2024 Duración: 47minGuest: Erin Hutchinson on her award-winning article, “Gathering the Nation in the Village: Intellectuals and the Cultural Politics of Nationality in the Late Soviet Period” in the January 2023 issue of the Russian Review.The post Soviet DIY Folk Museums appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Intimate Lives of International Communism
21/10/2024 Duración: 54minGuest: Maurice Casey on the “lost world” of international communism in his book, Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals published by Footnote Press.The post Intimate Lives of International Communism appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Gulag Memory in Russia’s Far North
14/10/2024 Duración: 59minGuest: Tyler Kirk on After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia's Far North published by Indiana University Press.The post Gulag Memory in Russia’s Far North appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Russia That Was Lost
07/10/2024 Duración: 01h38sGuest: Pavel Khazanov on The Russia That We Have Lost: Pre-Soviet Past as Anti-Soviet Discourse published by the University of Wisconsin Press.The post The Russia That Was Lost appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Free Marc Fogel!
30/09/2024 Duración: 01h03minGuest: Ambassador Eric Rubin on the efforts to free Marc Fogel, an American serving 14 years in the Russian prison for possessing 17 g of medical marijuana.The post Free Marc Fogel! appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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A New History of Northern Eurasia
23/09/2024 Duración: 01h02minGuests: Marina Mogilner and Ilya Gerasimov on their new textbook, A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 600–1700: From Russian to Global History published by Bloomsbury.The post A New History of Northern Eurasia appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Sound of Socialism, Part 3
09/09/2024 Duración: 46minGuest: Andrea Bohlman on the curious history of the sound postcard in People's Republic of Poland.The post The Sound of Socialism, Part 3 appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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