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Episodes

Trailer 2: Teddy Goes to the USSR
May 16, 2022

Trailer 2: Teddy Goes to the USSR

Coming May 30! - Teddy Goes to the USSR, a new six-part podcast series follows one such American, Teddy Roe, to shine light on Soviet tourism, police surveillance, consumerism, race, and everyday life through his extraordinary three-month trip to the ...

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Suffering and Survival in Leningrad
May 10, 2022

Suffering and Survival in Leningrad

Guest: Jeffrey Hass on The Human Condition under Siege in the Blockade of Leningrad, 1941-1944 published by Oxford University Press.

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Trailer: Teddy Goes to the USSR
May 9, 2022

Trailer: Teddy Goes to the USSR

Coming May 30! Teddy Goes to the USSR, a new six-part podcast series follows one such American, Teddy Roe, to shine light on Soviet tourism, police surveillance, consumerism, race, and everyday life through his extraordinary three-month trip to the Sov...

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The Collapse of the Soviet Union
May 3, 2022

The Collapse of the Soviet Union

Guest: Vladislav Zubok on Collapse: The End of the Soviet Union published by Yale University Press.

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Stalinism, Memorial, and Perestroika
April 26, 2022

Stalinism, Memorial, and Perestroika

Guest: Nanci Adler on Memorial, Stalinist repression, and Russia's incomplete transitional justice.

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Perestroika in the Periphery: Tajikistan
April 19, 2022

Perestroika in the Periphery: Tajikistan

Guest: Isaac Scarborough on perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet system in Tajikistan.

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Esperanto in Revolutionary Russia
April 12, 2022

Esperanto in Revolutionary Russia

Guest: Brigid O'Keeffe on Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia published by Bloomsbury.

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Soviet Pronatalism
March 22, 2022

Soviet Pronatalism

Guest: Mie Nakachi on Replacing the Dead: The Politics of Reproduction in the Postwar Soviet Union published by Oxford University Press.

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Letters to Perestroika
March 15, 2022

Letters to Perestroika

Guest: Courtney Doucette on letter writing, Nina Andreeva, and perestroika "from below."

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Stalin and His Books
March 6, 2022

Stalin and His Books

Guest: Geoffrey Roberts on Stalin’s Library: A Dictator and His Books published by Yale University Press.

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Russia, Ukraine, and the West
Feb. 25, 2022

Russia, Ukraine, and the West

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, the morning before Russia invaded Ukraine. -   - Guests: Michael Kimmage, Marlene Laruelle, and Fyodor Lukyanov on the ongoing geopolitical crisis between Russia, Ukraine and the West.

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Russia’s Labor Dilemma
Feb. 18, 2022

Russia’s Labor Dilemma

Stephen Crowley on Putin’s Labor Dilemma: Russian Politics between Stability and Stagnation published by Cornell University Press.

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Ditching Communism in Poland
Feb. 11, 2022

Ditching Communism in Poland

Guest: Tom Junes on Poland in the 1980s and its legacies.

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The Lenfilm Art House
Nov. 19, 2021

The Lenfilm Art House

Guest: Catriona Kelly on Soviet Art House: Lenfilm Studio under Brezhnev published by Oxford University Press.

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The Things of Late Soviet Life
Nov. 15, 2021

The Things of Late Soviet Life

Guest: Alexey Golubev on The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia published by Cornell University Press.

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Soviet Flower Power
Nov. 5, 2021

Soviet Flower Power

Juliane Furst on Flowers through Concrete: Explorations in the Soviet Hippieland and Beyond published by Oxford University Press.

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Russia Upside Down
Oct. 29, 2021

Russia Upside Down

Guest: The Americans creator Joe Weisberg on Russia Upside Down: An Exit Strategy from the Second Cold War published by Public Affairs.

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The Return of the Romanovs
Oct. 22, 2021

The Return of the Romanovs

Guest: Russell Martin on the recent wedding of George Romanov and Victoria Romanovna Bettarini.

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Cold War from the Margins
Oct. 18, 2021

Cold War from the Margins

Guest: Theodora Dragostinova on The Cold War from the Margins: A Small Socialist State on the Global Cultural Scene, was published by Cornell University Press.

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The Vampires of A. K. Tolstoy
Oct. 8, 2021

The Vampires of A. K. Tolstoy

Guest: Irina Erman on her article “Nation and Vampiric Narration in Aleksey Tolstoy’s “The Family of the Vourdalak” published in the January 2020 issue of The Russian Review.

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Cuban-Soviet Scientific Exchanges
Oct. 1, 2021

Cuban-Soviet Scientific Exchanges

Guest: Clare Ibarra on scientific exchange between Cuba and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

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African Students in the USSR
Sept. 24, 2021

African Students in the USSR

Guest: Constantin Katsakioris on the experience of African students in the USSR during the Cold War.

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Unpacking Alexey Navalny
Sept. 17, 2021

Unpacking Alexey Navalny

Guests: Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet, and Ben Noble on Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future? published by Hurst Publishers.

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Revisiting the Russian Military
Sept. 12, 2021

Revisiting the Russian Military

Guests: Michael Kofman and Dmitry Gorenburg give an update on the Russian military.

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