Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron kick off a three-week series in an attempt to figure out just what, exactly, is to be done. This week, they’re reading What Is To Be Done? by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, perhaps one of the influential books (in the Russian context) that you’ve never read. Sit down, strap in, and prepare yourself for political theory disguised as a horribly written novel! Major themes: Rakhmetov Being an Absolute Unit, Sewing Collectives, Subtext is for Cowards. Our links: ...
Mar 12, 2021•51 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron finish reading We by Evgeny Zamyatin where they finally uncover I-330’s secret plans, the truth of the Benefactor, and the dark secret of voting: that before The One State, it was done in private—as if it were an occult ritual. Get your pink slip, drop the blinds, and tune in! Major themes: The False Neutrality of Logic, Math, The Final Number. 10:37 - If you’re wondering why I left this in, it’s because I didn’t properly restart my sentence so there was ...
Mar 05, 2021•38 min
Show Notes: This week, Cameron releases some pent-up stress by yelling about 1984 for...a bit. Then Matt gets personal in a 20 Questions Gauntlet—time to find out what his most embarrassing sartorial decisions have been. Tangentially, you’ll also find out how long it takes him to google ‘sartorial.’ Also...apologies to Edith Wharton. You deserve better. Major themes: POUM, Ranting about 1984, Converting NPCs to Russian Orthodoxy in D&D. The music used in this episode was “Bella Ciao,” by Toa...
Mar 01, 2021•36 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron tackle the first half of Evgeny’s Zamyatin’s We . Perhaps the first novel of sci-fi dystopia as we would recognize it today, We portends a dark future where Ciphers rise uni-millionly, work uni-millionly, and have sheepishly (I like to imagine) register for sex day uni-millionly. Come along as we follow the journey of D-503 as we read the novel that launched a thousand rip-offs. Major themes: Pink Slips, 1984, and Mathematical Socialism. 08:46 - “Enclave”...
Feb 26, 2021•43 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, reading “Song of the Final Meeting,” “Lot’s Wife” and Requiem. Each of these selections comes out of a very different place in her life, so join us as we examine her development as a writer! Also, the development of a life under Stalinism. That’s the less fun way of putting it. Major themes: The Great Terror, Translations, The Eyes Have It. 03:52 - Fun fact, “uh-dyeh-sa” is a very Russian pronunciation of Odessa. De...
Feb 19, 2021•47 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into metaphors for communism and explorations of grief in “The Cow” and “The Third Son” by Andrei Platonov. Coming of age during the Russian Civil War, Platonov became an official member of the Communist Party in 1920—though he quickly became critical of the party, especially as it began to unveil its plans for industrialization in the New Economic Policy, and was soon expelled. These conflicting feelings are well-represented in his very strange work...
Feb 12, 2021•44 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron will learn not to specifically challenge the devil in “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy. Hailed as “the greatest story that the literature of the world knows,” by James Joyce (honestly, it might be more notable if someone hasn’t lauded a work by Tolstoy as such), How Much Land makes use of the skaz storytelling style in order to convey a morality tale about a man who, in his greed, learns exactly how much land he needs. Major themes: Koumiss...
Feb 05, 2021•39 min
Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron talk about what they’ve been doing and reading in their free time, how knowing Russian has changed their understanding of Russian-language literature, and dunk on their International Relations degrees. Also, join our Discord ! I promise that we'll only likely be deep in a weird conversation when you enter. Major themes: Warhammer 40k, Thoughts (™) on having degrees in IR, Matt being a real scholar. 01:50 - I decided to look this one up and it turns out the...
Feb 01, 2021•31 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron finish the second half of Fathers and Children by Ivan Turgenev. In doing so, they discuss the finer points of dueling etiquette, the most ironically romantic death possible, and go on about the Narodnaya Volya again . The humor and conflict are finely interwoven into the latter half of this text and we hope you appreciate it as much as we do! Major themes: Feeling bad about not calling our parents more often, self-deceiving characters, the collision of i...
Jan 29, 2021•47 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron read chapters 1 through 17 of Fathers and Children (1862) by Ivan Turgenev. The literary responses of this book include many of the most prominent in the Russian canon, not least of all is Chernyshevsky’s What is to Be Done? and the myriad responses that book induced (among its respondents were Dostoevsky and Lenin!). But what exactly makes this book such a mainstay of mid-19th century political debate? You’ll have to stick around to find out... Major the...
Jan 22, 2021•40 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron delve into Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, along with Dr. Kaitlin Shirley, who earned her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas, Austin. Her dissertation, entitled “Dostoevsky and the Rousseau Trap: Considerations on the Man of Nature and Truth. And on His Proposed Reformation,” analyzes many of the themes in Notes which we will be discussing in this episode. Dr. Shirley has some really interesting connections to make—espec...
Jan 15, 2021•50 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron explore “The Overcoat,” by Nikolai Gogol. Once called, “the greatest Russian short every written,” by Vladimir Nabokov, this story has been adapted into plays, ballets, and over a dozen movies—all of which are a testament to the power of Gogol’s writing, though none are more so than the text itself. Join us as we jump into the story of Akaky Akakievich’s technicolor coat. By popular request of my mother, I have censored some cursing in this episode. Major...
Jan 08, 2021•37 min
Show Notes : This week Matt and Cameron read “Twenty-Six Men and a Girl,” by Maxim Gorky. Born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, it was only when he had begun publishing fiction in his early twenties that Gorky would adopt his later-famous pseudonym, likely as a reflection of the critical lens he took in his analysis of the then-Russian Empire (‘Gorky,’ in Russian, means bitter). This story, published in 1899, serves as the prototype of a genre which would later be named “social realism, “ which focuse...
Jan 01, 2021•32 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron read Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov. Although the Gulag narrative was most popularized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's works, Shalamov’s tales are equally compelling, especially driven by their mix of reality and fantasy. As a not one, not two, but three-time convict sentenced to hard labor Shalamov wrote stories that combined his real experiences with fantasy in order to convey the realities and feelings of life in the camp. Stay tuned for this one, because...
Dec 25, 2020•45 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron finish Zakhar Prilepin’s Sankya (affectionately retitled Sankya: Reeeeee ), reading chapters 8-13. They’ll also be going over the ties between the messaging of the story and some of Prilepin’s real-life political engagement. Major themes: fatherlessness, arson, murderous intent, National Bolshevism. 8:00 - I meant to say 2014. Please don’t come for me in the comments. 13:17 - “eet eez” 17:39 - Right as according to his own moral philosophy, not according ...
Dec 18, 2020•57 min
Show Notes : In this episode, Matt and Cameron drink too much. Major themes: Russia, melancholia, Banana Republic, desecrating holy sites. If you enjoyed this episode, then you might interested in supporting us on Patreon . You can get all kinds of goodies there, including access to future bonus episodes, input on what we'll be reading in the near future, and even a hand-written thank you note from Matt and I. The music used in this episode was 'bella ciao' by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more...
Dec 14, 2020•32 min
Show Notes : Content Warning: there will be minor discussion of sexual violence at 27:53-28:23, 32:40-32:55, and 34:40-35:13. There will also be a description of graphic violence at 33:52-34:06. This week, Matt and Cameron will be reading the first half of Sankya by Zakhar Prilepin. Prilepin—a former soldier, OMON officer, and journalist—is famous for his literary work exploring the malaise and directionlessness of young men in modern Russia, and also infamous for his involvement in the National...
Dec 11, 2020•1 hr
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron take on “The Nose,” by Nikolai Gogol. Written in 1835-6, “The Nose” tells the story of a mid-ranking St. Petersburg bureaucrat who loses his nose. The story recounts how Major Kovalyov’s nose takes on a life of its own, how he is not of high enough rank to talk to it, and, finally, how he gets it back. Major themes: Table of Ranks, Peter the Great, Magical Realism, Phallic symbolism. The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. ...
Dec 04, 2020•41 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron will be delving into a few short stories from the collection Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel. Babel was an early Soviet writer who covered the Polish-Soviet 1920 war as a journalist and would later use these experiences as the basis for this very story collection. If you’re interested in getting a first-person look into what exactly the various conflicts across the crumbling Russian empire, Babel is absolutely a great introduction. Major themes: Bolshevism, Bu...
Dec 04, 2020•58 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron will be reading “Alyosha the Pot,” a short story by Leo Tolstoy which was once called one of his “most perfect creations,” by literary historian Dmitri Mirsky. Tolstoy is a writer who needs no introduction. Most famously known as the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina , Tolstoy also wrote prolifically about Russian life, semi-autobiographically, and his religious and political convictions. His beliefs about life often come across in his works, espe...
Dec 04, 2020•34 min
