Sean's Russia Blog

Guest: Erik Scott on defection, the Cold War, and the regulation of borders and movement in a globalizing world. The post Defection and the Cold War appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Ilya Vinitsky on the persistence of fakes, forgeries, and frauds in Russian literary culture. The post Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guests: Rafael Khachaturian and Richard Antaramian on Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. The post The Cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guests: Elmira Muratova and Michael Kemper on Islam in the Soviet and Post-Soviet contexts. The post Islam, Repression, and Memory appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer on the evolution of indigeneity and religion across the Soviet and post-Soviet divide. The post Useable Pasts? Shamans, Spirituality and Resistance appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Katya Tolstaya on theology, belief, and the remaning spiritual scars after Gulag. The post Theology after Gulag appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guests: Fenggang Yang and Kung Lap Yan on Christianity, worship, and religious persecution in China. The post Christianity in China appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Anna Kovalova, Pitt's new Visiting Assistant Professor in Slavic Languages and Literatures, on her work on early Russian cinema. The post REEES Faculty Spotlight: Anna Kovalova appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guests: Geneviève Zubrzycki and Jose Casanova on the place of the Catholic Church in Polish politics and national identity. The post Catholicism in Poland appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guests: Anca Sincan and Tatiana Vagramenko discuss the how secret police files document religious belief and worship in communist Romania and Ukraine. The post Secret Police Archives as Depositories of Faith appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Catherine Wanner on lived religion in Ukraine, belief, belonging and community, and the impact of the war on religion. The post Lived Religion in Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Bruce Grant revisits his book, In the Soviet House of Culture: A Century of Perestroikas, on the Nivkhi of Sakhalin, their Soviet experience, and the complexities of indigeneity. The post The Nivkhi of Sakhalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

It’s Pride month! Misha Appeltova, Irina Roldugina, and Kate Davison join us to talk about their research on gender, sexuality and queer under state socialism. The post Queer Under Communism appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

The Soviet Union was a latecomer to the whaling industry. But after a bumbling start, by the 1960s, Soviet whalers were slaughtering over 20,000 whales a year. The decimation of the world’s whales in the 20th century, a genocide in which the Soviets played no small part, has had catastrophic results on the world’s ocean environments. Ryan Tucker Jones tells us about the Soviet whaling industry, the lives of Soviet whalers, their attitudes toward their craft, and the lasting trauma of the hunt the ocean’s majestic creatures. The post Red Whaling appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Roma Shatrov is the founder of the Silent Cape Nature Park in Sakhalin. Irina Grudova is Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin. Roma is obsessed with Ainu history and culture and has dedicated the Silent Cape to revitalizing their tradition. Irina is a local Ainu activist and is skeptical of such outsiders looking to exploit her heritage. Yet Roma and Irina instantly hit it off and formed a strong bond over their mutual love of the Ainu. Rusana Novikova brings us a story about the romanticism and self-discovery at the heart of Irina and Roma’s complicated friendship, and its potential promise for Ainu and Russian relations. The post Ainu Fever appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Mark Gamsa on Harbin: A Cross-Cultural Biography The post Harbin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guests: Paul Josephson and Sharyl Corrado on conquering nature, settlement, and Russian expansion in the Arctic and Sakhalin. The post Conquering Nature in Sakhalin and the Arctic appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Ed Pulford and Soren Urbansky on the cross-cultural and diverse past and present of the Russian Far East. The post The Far East appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

It all started with a letter to Stalin in 1935. And when a Kremlin clerk opened it, there was a piece of shit inside. Was the turd an insult? A way of saying to Stalin, “You’re a shit. Here’s some shit”? Perhaps. But I ended Part One of a Gift for Stalin on a different note: that the turd addressed to Stalin was no slight at all. It was, in fact, a gift. A little brown present for Comrade Stalin. The post A Gift for Stalin, Part Two: The Accursed Share appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

It’s Sunday, October 13, 1935, and someone, we don’t know who mails a letter from the outskirts of Moscow. It’s addressed: “Kremlin. To Comrade Stalin.” It arrives a few days later. And when Comrade Sentaretskya, one of the secretaries sorting Stalin’s mail, got to this letter, she had no reason to worry . . . . that is until she opened it. The post A Gift for Stalin, Part One: Dear Comrade Stalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.