The Eurasian Knot

The Eurasian Knot
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The Eurasian Knot

To many, Russia, and the wider Eurasia, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But it doesn’t have to be. The Eurasian Knot dispels the stereotypes and myths about the region with lively and informative interviews on Eurasia’s complex past, present, and future. New episodes drop weekly with an eclectic mix of topics from punk rock to Putin, and everything in-between. Subscribe on your favorite podcasts app, grab your headphones, hit play, and tune in. Eurasia will never appear the same.

  1. Intimate Lives of International Communism

    3 DAYS AGO

    Intimate Lives of International Communism

    In the 1920s and 1930s, hundreds of mid-level office workers served in the Communist International, or Comintern. And while we know a lot about famous communists, historians have mostly overlooked the personal experiences of these minor radicals. A good place to begin uncovering those lives is to look into Hotel Lux, the dormitory for foreign communists in Moscow. Because it is in the Lux, Maurine Casey says, where you can better understand the motivations, social networks and intimate relationships of Comintern staff. What did they think of living in Soviet Russia? How did their experiences change between the 1920s and 1930s? And how did their personal dramas dovetail with their political beliefs? And why are their stories so important anyway? To learn more, the Eurasian Knot spoke to Maurice Casey about this “lost world” of international communism in his book, Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals published by Footnote Press. Guest: Maurice J. Casey is a Research Fellow in History at Queen’s University Belfast. He is the author of Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals published by Footnote Press. It is available now in bookstores and online as an ebook and audiobook.

    54 min
  2. Gulag Memory in Russia’s Far North

    14 OCT

    Gulag Memory in Russia’s Far North

    From 1929 to 1958, hundreds of thousands of prisoners from across the Soviet Union were sent to the Komi Republic in Russia’s Far North. After their release, many left the region. But many also stayed in Komi and rebuilt their life under the shadow of the prison camp. And by the late 1980s, many of these former prisoners began writing memoirs, collecting and preserving documents, and building organizations to work through, publicize and house these materials. The result was the Komi branch of Memorial. Crucial to these efforts was the “camp brotherhood” that bound former prisoners. The shared experience of the camp became the basis for forming informal networks, mutual support, and collective solidarity. These showed that even in horrible, life threatening conditions, people still find companionship and support. And it is this, Tyler Kirk says, served as the foundation for gulag memory projects in Komi. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Tyler Kirk about his book After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia’s Far North to get the full story. Guest: Tyler Kirk is Associate Professor and the Arthur T. Fathauer Chair in History at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He’s the author of After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia’s Far North published by Indiana University Press. Send us your sounds! https://euraknot.org/contact/  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/euraknot  Knotty News: https://eurasianknot.substack.com/ Website: https://euraknot.org/

    1 hr
  3. The Russia That Was Lost

    7 OCT

    The Russia That Was Lost

    A curious thing occurred after Stalin died in 1953–the emergence of Imperial Russia in Soviet culture. Sure, there was some of this before–the rehabilitation of Imperial figures, events and symbols during the patriotic fervor of WWII. But now, the imperial past returned as a lament, a Russia that was lost, among Soviet Union’s liberal intellectuals and conservatives to discredit the socialist project. Interestingly, this Imperial revival survived the collapse of the Soviet system. And the idea of the “Lost Russia” still resonates among Putin loyalists and liberal oppositionists, forming an odd consensus that has contributed to the reemergence of authoritarianism. Just what is this “Russia that we lost”? How does it attract otherwise political adversaries? And what does this mean for the politics of memory today? To answer these questions, the Eurasian Knot spoke to Pavel Khazanov about his new book, The Russia That We Have Lost: Pre-Soviet Past as Anti-Soviet Discourse published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Guest: Pavel Khazanov is Associate Professor of Russian at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and the author of The Russia That We Have Lost: Pre-Soviet Past as Anti-Soviet Discourse published by the University of Wisconsin Press. For the next month, you can buy The Russia That We Have Lost for $30 with the promo code: AA251. Send us your sounds! https://euraknot.org/contact/  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/euraknot  Knotty News: https://eurasianknot.substack.com/ Website: https://euraknot.org/

    1h 1m
  4. Free Marc Fogel!

    30 SEPT

    Free Marc Fogel!

    In August 2021, Marc Fogel landed in Sheremetyevo to begin his tenth-year teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He didn’t make it past customs. Security searched his bags to find 17 g of medical marijuana. Fogel suffers from chronic back pain and pot is the only thing that gives him relief. He was arrested, given a hasty trial, and sentenced to fourteen years in a Russian prison, an outrageous penalty. Marc still sits in a Russian prison today as a hostage, despite recent prison exchanges between the US and Russia. Why is Marc Fogel still in a Russian prison? Why hasn’t the US declared him “unlawfully detained” despite the similarity of his case to Brittney Griner’s? Or has Marc, a guy without celebrity or connections, just been forgotten? Ambassador Eric Rubin was recently in Pittsburgh to bring attention to Marc Fogel’s plight. The Eurasian Knot sat down with the Ambassador to talk about life as a diplomat and the Fogel case. Guest: Ambassador Eric Rubin has had numerous diplomatic appointments over his 30-year career in the US State Department. Most recently, he served as ambassador to Bulgaria from 2016 to 2019. Before that he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 2008-2011. He has recently devoted his time to free Marc Fogel, an American teacher who has been imprisoned for marijuana possession in Russia since 2021. Send us your sounds! euraknot.org/contact/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/euraknot Knotty News: eurasianknot.substack.com/ Website: euraknot.org/

    1h 3m
  5. A New History of Northern Eurasia

    23 SEPT

    A New History of Northern Eurasia

    In college, I took Russian history classes–Early Modern, Imperial, Soviet. And all the specialty topics within those frameworks were Russia-centric, and especially Moscow-centric. And the narrative, more or less, told the story of the Russian state. This schema has become scrutinized since the collapse of the Soviet system, and increasingly since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. But while there is much talk of decentering, decolonizing, and deconstructing, there has been little by way of application. Enter Marina Mogilner and Ilya Gerasimov. They, along with Sergei Glebov, have written a new textbook, A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 600-1700, that seeks reconceptualize the story we tell about the region and the people who live there. The Eurasian Knot wanted to know more. Marina and Ilya both obliged. Guests: Ilya Gerasimov is Executive Editor of the journal Ab Imperio. He’s published widely on Russian imperial history. His most recent book Plebeian Modernity: Social Practices, Illegality, and the Urban Poor in Russia 1906–1916 is published by University of Rochester Press. Marina Mogilner is Edward and Marianna Thaden Chair in Russian and East European Intellectual History and Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois. Here most recent book is Jews, Race, and the Politics of Difference. The Case of Vladimir Jabotinsky against the Russian Empire published by Indiana University Press. They are co-authors with Sergei Glebov of A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 600–1700: From Russian to Global History published by Bloomsbury. Send us your sounds! https://euraknot.org/contact/  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/euraknot  Knotty News: https://eurasianknot.substack.com/ Website: https://euraknot.org/

    1h 3m
  6. The Sound of Socialism, Part 3

    9 SEPT

    The Sound of Socialism, Part 3

    There’s a fascinating sound object from the People’s Republic of Poland: the “sound postcard.” These flimsy, colorful, plastic rectangles could be mailed to loved-ones and friends just like any other postcard. Except they came with a bonus. Etched on the card was a poor quality recording of a popular song, and even sometimes with a personalized vocal greeting. These were produced by the state. But overtime, they were also manufactured in people’s apartments and sold hand-to-hand at markets and stalls of the grey economy. What does the sound postcard tell us about recording, listening, and circulation under state socialism? As a memory or an object of nostalgia? In part three of the Eurasian Knot series, “The Sound of Socialism,” Sean talked to Andrea Bohlman about her research into the sound postcard and what it says about everyday life in socialist Poland. Guest: Andrea Bohlman is an Associate Professor in the Music Department at the University of North Carolina. She studies the political stakes of music making and sound in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She’s the author of Musical Solidarities: Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland. She recently published, “Sounding Plastic: The ‘Great Career’ of the Felxidisc in Socialist Poland” in the Winter 2023 issue of the Slavic Review.

    47 min
  7. Women in Russian Politics

    3 SEPT

    Women in Russian Politics

    Gender equality was one of the many promises of the Soviet Union fell way short of realizing. In more ways that can be recounted here. But interestingly, women played an important role in municipal governance. Women sat on soviets and did most of the mundane and humdrum administrative work. Most of these women who occupied these unpaid, and often thankless positions, were pillars in their community–doctors, principals, and others with local authority and stature. This trend continues in post-Soviet local administration. Women rarely rise to the upper echelons of power. But they wield it at the local level–the very backbone of the system. Why do women occupy these positions? How does it impact politics? The Eurasian Knot turned to Valeria Umanets, a new postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh to learn more. Guest: Valeria Umanets is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include women and politics, non-democratic political institutions, historical political economy, and post-Communist states. Valeria is currently completing a book manuscript based on her dissertation, “Political Participation of Women in the Soviet Union and Russia: From State-Sponsored Feminism to Putin’s Machismo.”

    46 min
  8. Illiberalism and Civil Society in Hungary

    26 AUG

    Illiberalism and Civil Society in Hungary

    Over the last 50 years, civil society has become synonymous with the Eastern European transition from communism to liberal democracy. It was civil society that brought down communist governments. And its civil society that struggles to preserve the democratic gains since 1989. But what happens to civil society organizations and activists in illiberal regimes? How do they resolve the tensions between grassroots activism and politicians, the local and national? These questions are urgent in Viktor Orban’s Hungary where participation in democratic institutions has narrowed. To get some answers, the Eurasian Knot turned to Daniel Mikesz, Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, to discuss his book, Civil Movements in an Illiberal Regime: Political Activism in Hungary published by Central European University Press. Guest: Daniel Mikecz is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Political Science at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences and an Associate Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of ELTE. In the academic year 2024-2025, he is a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He’s the author of Civil Movements in an Illiberal Regime: Political Activism in Hungary published by Central European University Press.

    50 min
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About

To many, Russia, and the wider Eurasia, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But it doesn’t have to be. The Eurasian Knot dispels the stereotypes and myths about the region with lively and informative interviews on Eurasia’s complex past, present, and future. New episodes drop weekly with an eclectic mix of topics from punk rock to Putin, and everything in-between. Subscribe on your favorite podcasts app, grab your headphones, hit play, and tune in. Eurasia will never appear the same.

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  • Creator
    The Eurasian Knot
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2024
  • Episodes
    303
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © The Eurasian Knot 2023
  • Show Website
    The Eurasian Knot

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