In this episode, Nick and Eliza talk with widely respected historian and sociologist Marlène Laruelle about the concept of illiberalism and its spread across Europe. Dr. Laruelle explains how she frames the relatively new term as a cluster of ideologies that is challenging liberalism in its various forms, mostly based around two key arguments: (1) the need for sovereignty, and (2) the idea that traditional hierarchy must be reinforced and protected. She also talks about Russia's rebranding of it...
Nov 25, 2023•46 min
On this episode, Adam Klein, director of the Strauss Center for International Security & Law, shares his insights on the concerns around security versus freedom of speech; his work covering the confluence of law, surveillance, and emerging technologies; and his unique perspectives on global affairs. PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on November 6, 2023 at the LBJ School for Public Affairs, UT Austin. If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please em...
Nov 20, 2023•43 min
On this episode, Dr. Michael Dennis, a leading expert on the Chechen Republic, tells the multifaceted story of the Chechen fight for independence, including the consequences of the Chechen Wars, the rise of the Kadyrov family, lessons learned by the Russian Army, impacts on the Putin regime's decision-making in crises, and Chechnya's role in Ukraine. Dr. Dennis also talks about the future of the North Caucasus and the different actors' stakes in this fraught region. Thanks for listening! This ev...
Nov 15, 2023•55 min
On this episode, we talk with Financial Times' Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon who speaks about his personal path to journalism in Putin's Russia, the state of the country's economic system, the political ineffectiveness of Russian oligarchs, and much more. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST Max Seddon has been the FT's Moscow bureau chief since 2021 and leads coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He was previously a correspondent in the Moscow bureau, where he wrote about the tug-of-war o...
Nov 04, 2023•29 min
On this episode, Slovakian politician and academic Martin Klus talks with us during a trip to Texas about the state of the Slovak Republic following the recent elections favoring a more Moscow-friendly government. Slovakia's move towards the pro-Russia camp in which Victor Orban's Hungary sits will make things difficult for its eastern neighbor Ukraine and easier for Putin in the European space. Per statistics that Dr. Klus cited as a fellow at the Bratislava-based think tank GLOBSEC, 55% of Slo...
Oct 19, 2023•34 min
On this episode, Misha talks with Ruslan Pukhov, a Russian defense analyst and the director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST). Mr. Pukhov shares about the origins of CAST during the late 90s, the state of Russia's defense economy, and his views on the current war in Ukraine. He states that neither the Ukrainian public nor Ukrainian leadership and elites understand what "victory" means in terms of a realistic approach and that continued American support...
Oct 15, 2023•48 min
On this episode, we had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Paul Edgar, the interim executive director of the Clements Center for National Security at UT Austin. Paul spoke about how he went from the military to academia, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and his goals for the Clements Center as a leading educational institution for discourse around history, strategy, and statecraft. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST Paul Edgar is the Associate Director of the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for Nat...
Sep 30, 2023•41 min
On this episode, Misha and Taylor speak with Lada Egorova, a Russian filmmaker in Los Angeles who has an ambitious and timely project, creating a TV comedy about Slavic emigres to the US and their culture. The show is titled BLIN, meaning 'pancake' and explores the Russian community and its culture in Los Angeles. As Lada mentions in the episode, one of the inspirations for BLIN is the TV show Ramy on HBO. Learn more here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7649694/ SYNOPSIS: When New Yorker, Katia, r...
Sep 26, 2023•37 min
On this episode, Mark McNamee, political, economic, and intelligence analyst, talks with host Nick about a range of topics pertaining to Russia's War in Ukraine: from the late Prizoghin's mutiny to China's and Russia's relationship rooted largely in an anti-Western agenda and what this means for the continuing conflict. Thanks for listening! PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on September 15th, 2023 via Zoom. If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, pleas...
Sep 18, 2023•40 min
On this episode, Cullan is joined by Dr. David Cooper, the department head and associate professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois, to speak about his recent book on two Czech Manuscripts and the story of their successful forgery and dramatic discovery in the early 19th century. Dr. Cooper elaborates on the manuscripts' importance to the Czech cultural revival during the period of "Medieval mania" in Europe and the role they played in proving t...
Sep 03, 2023•38 min
On this episode, Lera and Cullan chat with Tatiana Tkacheva, a research fellow at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, about the strategies of the autocrat in dealing with regional governors. In her paper, she and her co-authors attempt to answer this question by using the example of premature withdrawals and dismissals of Russia’s regional governors from office. Tatiana also talks about her previous publications about the United Russia (UR) party and their declining popularity in R...
Aug 18, 2023•33 min
On this episode, Lera sits down with Anastasiya Osipova, a scholar of Soviet and contemporary Russian and Ukrainian cultures, who shares about her research on DOXA, a student journal on political harassment in academia that emerged from Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2017. DOXA was stripped of its status as a university organization in 2019 and since then exists as an independent magazine. After February 2022, DOXA left Russia and continues to operate outside of the country. "In recent ...
Jul 31, 2023•38 min
On this episode, Lera and Misha sit down with Dr. Alexander Chertenko, a professor of Ukrainian literature at the University of Giessen in Germany. Dr. Chertenko is uniquely positioned to trace the wartime development of Ukrainian literature in the country since 2014. He also illuminates the usually underdiscussed topic of literature in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts from 2014 until Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Thank you for listening! To learn more about UNDIPUS check out the...
Jul 08, 2023•42 min
On this episode, Elise Herrala takes us on a tour of the evolution of art and artists in Soviet Russia and post-Soviet Russia. Elise also gives us some insight into what is going on today in Putin's Russia in terms of state repression and renewed restriction on creative freedoms. You can check out her book here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Transition-Field-Post-Soviet-Russia/dp/0367086867 Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST: Elise Herrala teaches at Haverford College. She holds a doctorate in s...
Jun 24, 2023•39 min
On this special episode, Sergio and Misha get the opportunity to speak with Sasha Zaritska, the lead singer of U-pop band KAZKA, and Andriy Urenov, producer and manager of the band. Their new single "Bez Kohannya" (Without Love) is out this Friday! Listen to the end of the episode for a sneak preview. Learn more about KAZKA and check out their music on their official site https://kazka.band/en/ . To watch an amazing concert given in the Kyiv metro by Kazka in late 2022, follow this link: https:/...
Mar 23, 2023•51 min
On this episode, Valentina Glajar and Alison Lewis share their personal stories and research on the history of East Germany's STASI and Romania's Securitate and the dismantling of these secret police forces. Thank you for listening! You can listen to Douglas Selvage's episode here: https://www.slavx.org/listen/episode/b54c0fff/operation-denver-and-russias-disinformation-playbook-with-douglas-selvage ABOUT THE GUESTS Dr. Valentina Glajar is a professor of German at Texas State University. She is ...
Mar 07, 2023•37 min
On this episode, Cullan talks with Professor Michal Kšiňan about his monograph on the Slovak national hero and co-founder of Czechoslovakia, Milan Rastislav Štefánik. Michal talks about Štefánik's military career and meteoric rise and the place he continues to hold in Czechoslovakia history and memory. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE BOOK https://www.routledge.com/authors/i21001-michal-kian This is the first scientific biography of Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919) that is focused on analysi...
Jan 21, 2023•33 min
On this episode, Cullan sits down with lauded historian Ulf Brunnbauer, managing director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg, Germany, whose research on the social history and anthropology of Southeast Europe reveals that the Balkan region is in many ways more globalized than the rest of Europe. ABOUT THE GUEST: Ulf Brunnbauer, Academic Director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg, holds a PhD in history from ...
Jan 08, 2023•29 min
On this episode, historian Dr. Ivan Kurilla from European University in St. Petersburg shares about his research on the rich and little-known history of US-Russia relations since the 18th century. Dr. Kurilla explains how the US and Russia are "constitutive others" that have developed historically within the same political language, were both projections of the Greater Europe, and at times shared similar social and political upheaval and transformation. Please visit European University's website...
Dec 30, 2022•36 min
On this episode, venerated political scientist Dr. Robert Freedman joins us to expound on the various wars and conflicts that Russia has gotten into, not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria, Libya, Mali, and more. Dr. Freedman articulates Putin's current goals as he sees them, touches on the liberal use of the Wagner Group by Russia, and prognosticates on the future of the war in Ukraine and Ukraine's prospects in joining Western security organizations. Thanks for listening (and happy holidays to...
Dec 23, 2022•45 min
On this episode, Lera speaks with Emily Joan Elliott of H-Net about what got her interested in Soviet and post-Soviet history and her particular focus on migration to Moscow and the Priemnaia (reception desk) of the Supreme Soviet. Per Elliott's research: "the Priemnaia received thousands of complaints and petitions annually, often from individuals or groups who argued that local soviets or enterprises failed to deliver on various aspects of their material wellbeing, including housing. But the P...
Dec 13, 2022•32 min
On this episode, Sergio talks with Yacov Zohn, football historian and former semi-professional footballer in Russia, France, and the US. Yacov's research into the development of Soviet football sheds light on the immense political pressure placed on the primary USSR team, the Sbornaya, to win each and every game--but ultimately the unrealistic aim to earn gold at the Olympics in 1952 is never realized. Yacov also discusses how Lavrentiy Beria himself was involved in the politics of the sport. Th...
Nov 28, 2022•24 min
On this episode, Friederike Kind-Kovács visits with us in Austin, Texas, to talk about her latest book which explores the ways in which migration, hunger, and destitution affected children's lives, casting light on their particular vulnerability in times of distress. You can find her book "Budapest's Children" (published by Indiana University Press) here: https://iupress.org/9780253062161/budapests-children/ . The book series referenced in the episode is Worlds in Crisis: Refugees, Asylum, and F...
Nov 23, 2022•28 min
On this episode, recorded in-person at the ASEEES 2022 Convention in Chicago, Lera and Taylor sit down with Will Pomeranz, the director of the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, to talk about his experience practicing Russian law in Russia, the work of the Kennan Institute, the evolution (and devolution) of Russian law from the tsarist period through Vladimir Putin today, and the legality of the referenda in Ukraine. A timely discussion, especially in light of the bombings Poland at the Ukraine-P...
Nov 16, 2022•37 min
On this episode, author and historian Brigid O'Keeffe joins Sergio and Misha to discuss her research and newly released work on the rise and fall of the multiethnic Soviet Union. The social histories which Dr. O'Keeffe mentions are: Jeff Sahadeo's Voices from the Soviet Edge https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501738203/voices-from-the-soviet-edge/ and Adrienne Edgar's Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501762949/intermarriage-and-...
Nov 08, 2022•47 min
To continue our discussion on the effects of the War in Ukraine on the energy sector, Foreign Policy columnist and Stimson Center senior fellow Dr. Emma Ashford joins us to share about her book "Oil, the State, and War: Foreign Policy of Petrostates." You can find more about this comprehensive guide to understanding petrostates and the significant role that oil plays in international relations here: http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/oil-state-and-war . Follow her on Twitter @EmmaMAshfo...
Oct 31, 2022•40 min
On this episode, Misha speaks with Middle East expert Nicole Robinson who expounds on how MENA countries have responded to Russia's War in Ukraine and the reasons why. Ms. Robinson sheds some light on the future of the region as the conflict evolves and Russia's capacity to arm and feed its regional allies dwindles. Furthermore, she suggests that Russia's declining influence may allow for other actors to increase their influence in the Middle East region -- actors such as China, for example, whi...
Oct 25, 2022•40 min
On this episode, Taylor talks with the director of CREEES, Dr. Mary Neuburger, about her latest book entitled Ingredients of Change: The History and Culture of Food in Modern Bulgaria. Thanks for listening! From the publisher: Ingredients of Change explores modern Bulgaria's foodways from the Ottoman era to the present, outlining how Bulgarians domesticated and adapted diverse local, regional, and global foods and techniques, and how the nation's culinary topography has been continually reshaped...
Oct 21, 2022•42 min
On this episode, Eliza talks with sports historian Bruce Berglund who shares about his personal love of hockey, the global development of the sport, the rise of hockey in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and its role of hockey in the expression of national identity on the international stage. Thanks for listening! We encourage you to check out Dr. Berglund's excellent book, entitled "The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...
Oct 14, 2022•48 min
On this episode, Lera and Taylor speak with returning guest Leonid Ragozin who candidly updates us on the war in Ukraine and helps us make sense of the fog of this conflict and the continual stream of headline-making actions from the Kremlin. They discuss Putin's mobilization orders, the West's response to Russians fleeing the draft, an unseen struggle for power within the Russian military, the "annexed" Donbas region, and the role that the coming Winter may play in the war for Europeans depende...
Oct 07, 2022•42 min
