Show Notes : Cameron goes on a tangent about Spain between 4:32 and 9:02 so…feel free to skip that part if you want, it has no bearing on the episode. This week, Matt and Cameron jump back into Russia’s past with an exploration of one of Tolstoy’s later works, Father Sergius. In this piece, Tolstoy explores his own version of hagiography - or the telling of a Saint’s Life - with all his usual flair and strong opinion. He is also uncomfortably horny in his writing. Have fun with that! Major theme...
Jan 07, 2022•56 min
Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron have a few announcements for you…and then a whole lot of reflecting. Stay tuned for our Father Sergius episode, which will be released when we return on January 7th! Thank you all for listening! And being here for a whole year. Sometimes we can’t believe we’ve made it this far; on the other hand, blowing past our expectations has made it easier to imagine that we’ll be sticking around for a long time. 00:57 - Unless you’re a Patreon member, in which case, ...
Dec 03, 2021•26 min
Show Notes : If you’d rather not hear references to sexual assault, skip 19:35 - 20:06; mild mention between 45:15 - 45: 20. This week, Matt and Cameron continue building the factory in the second half of Fyodor Gladkov’s Cement . Following the assault upon the factory, dark clouds loom on the Soviet horizon as committees interfere, the effects of the NEP become clearer, and a party purge approaches… Grab your shovel, comrade, and get to work! But don’t forget to put this podcast on while you di...
Nov 19, 2021•58 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron kick off a two-part series on Fyodor Gladkov’s Cement , one of the most famous examples of literary Socialist Realism. (Or...is it?) Stay tuned to hear one man’s brave journey to...make a factory work again amidst famine and devastation. No - wait, that’s not a good sell — stay tuned to hear Matt and Cameron argue that Cement is much more interesting that a simple plot summary makes it seem. Major themes: Committees, Simple-hearted, working-class politica...
Nov 05, 2021•51 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron explore the effects of addiction with Bulgakov’s “Morphine,” wherein a doctor begins to treat a minor malady with an ultimately fatal cure. Grab your drink of choice - though laudanum would be thematically appropriate, it is not advised - and tune in to hear us talk about the Russian medical profession in the twenties! I promise - it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds. Major themes: Anna Karenina?, Medical Terminology, Story Forms 36:35 - Here’s the ...
Oct 23, 2021•43 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron take up positions as Sergeants of the Guard in Aleksandr Puskin’s historical novella, The Captain’s Daughter . We’ll be talking about the real history of the Pugachev Uprising, the place of violence in Pushkin’s era, and - naturally - about imagined communities. So grab your grapeshot, find your local pretender to the throne, and tune in! Major themes: Is it really fatalist?, My boy Pugachev, Benedict Anderson will never leave us alone 03:45 - It’s “ Farm...
Oct 08, 2021•57 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron take up their surgical tools to dissect Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog , in which a dog is turned into a man, a creation is turned into a proletarian, and a doctor is - maybe - turned into a murderer. Written in 1925, the novella reflects Bulgakov’s reactions to the changing world around him in ways general and specific - we’ll tease apart what we find interesting and not about this approach. Take a seat and grab your favorite scalpel, it’s time to re-...
Sep 24, 2021•50 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron celebrate life, death, and cultural identity abroad in The Funeral Party by Lyudmila Ulitskaya. The plot of this book is deceptively simple: in a sweltering New York apartment, a group of Russian emigres take care of a quickly dying artist who is the nucleus of their strange little community; in another way, the book is about everything other than that. A ranging, almost ethnographic, and incisively written look into a split section of emigre life, this i...
Sep 10, 2021•48 min
Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron talk about movie night and the novel Laurus! This is a preview of the Bonus Episode that will be coming out on Patreon in a few days (as you can tell...it was one of our drunker ones). Major themes: Rusalka, Audible Sponsorships, and Laurus. The music used in this episode was “bella ciao,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube . Our links: Website | Discord Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Advertising In...
Sep 08, 2021•8 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron are joined by Dr. Kaitlin Shirley as they discuss “The Meek One,” sometimes alternately translated as “A Gentle Creature.” In usual Dostoevskian fashion, “The Meek One” explores themes of exploration (or perhaps better called: thoughtful misunderstanding) of one’s self, the place of suffering, and questions of domination. Introspection, suffering, and attempts to control, oh my! It’s Dostoevsky hour, everybody. You can also find Dr. Kaitlin Shirley as Dos...
Aug 27, 2021•56 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron cover Part 8 of Anna Karenina, the FINAL section of this incredibly dense novel. Although you may expect this story to end with Anna’s death—a belief we would understand given both every movie adaption and the fact that this novel is named after her—life goes on for the other characters. So join us as we cover the final journey of the most important character of part ll: Levin’s brother, Sergei. Oh, and I guess we find out what happens to the other charac...
Aug 13, 2021•52 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron reach the penultimate Part 7 of Anna Karenina full of exciting things like Levin awkwardly visiting people he doesn’t know at Kitty’s behest, Levin getting into gambling, and Levin not liking this new-fangled Wagnerian art. Am I missing something? Hm. It can’t be all that important…can it? Apologies for Cameron’s audio in this episode—he was recording away from his usual set-up so the quality is a little lower than usual. The appropriate punishment shall ...
Jul 30, 2021•50 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron travel from light love affair to life after marriage (and pseudo-divorce) with Levin and Kitty’s life, paralleled with Anna and Vronsky’s. Of course—we are reading Tolstoy after all—this is not merely their story, but also that of Sergei and Varenka and Vasenka and so many other interesting characters that we run into in this part. Grab your gun, get up early for snipe hunting, and don’t forget to bring along this podcast to keep you entertained! Major th...
Jul 16, 2021•55 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron get their teeth into the incredibly action-packed Part 5 of Anna Karenina! Seriously. Even if we weren’t comparing this to two straight parts full of farming and legal procedure, it would still stand out. Throw away your farming equipment, grab your finest wedding attire, and get ready for marriages and domestic unrest and familial drama, oh my! Major themes: Death, Honeymoonin’, Born Again Christianity. 08:57 - 1967, is the year the Soviet version was re...
Jul 02, 2021•53 min
Show Notes : (Apologies about the confusing intro, this was originally slated to release alongside our Friday episode where we also announce the format change.) In order to better accommodate our increasingly busy lives combined with the amount of work we try to put into each podcast episode (reading, researching, recording, editing, promoting, etc.) Tipsy Tolstoy will be switching over to a biweekly release schedule. Further details are in this bonus episode. We plan to use this time to better ...
Jun 30, 2021•8 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron examine One Soldier’s War by Arkady Babchenko, the biography of a Russian soldier who served in the first and second Russo-Chechen Wars. This is, in all honesty, a pretty tough read; but there is an unfortunately dearth of English-language focus on Russia’s first military conflicts as a post-Soviet state. Don’t worry if you’re not all that familiar with Chechen history—we’ll be covering all of that in an extremely long context section! We tried to keep th...
Jun 25, 2021•52 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron keep it rolling with part 4 of Anna Karenina. This section might be alternately titled: Oh, you were tired of farming were you? Let me show you something much less interesting and good for humanity. That is the long way of saying that this section is mostly about Karenin’s committees. Saying that, however, sells this part a little short because it also contains one of the most important scenes in the book. I guess it really is all about light and shadow. ...
Jun 18, 2021•47 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron (finally) respond to the request of a Patron and tackle Matryona’s House by Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn. In this loosely autobiographical story, we follow our unnamed narrator’s time living with the eponymous Matryona in the very interesting town of Peat-Produce as he better understands the dynamic of living in this small town. Ah, and also there are cockroaches. Many, many cockroaches. Have fun!~ Major themes: Cockroaches, Allegories for the USSR, Torfoproduk...
Jun 11, 2021•42 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron keep the summer of Anna Karenina rolling with part 3 of Tolstoy’s legendary novel. After a little over 250 pages of simmering desire and clashing wills, we slow it down with a lengthy inspection of Levin’s life on the farm—a topic which may at first seem to be an overlong digression from the main plot, but may just set up some of the most important themes of the book. Or maybe we’re finding justifications for having to read many, many chapters about mowin...
Jun 04, 2021•46 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron pull out their soap boxes and get maudlin drunk as they cover The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich. The Unwomanly Face of War is an oral history of the disparate experiences of Soviet women in World War Two, told in fragmented tales revolving around various themes. Get out your Soviet Union-centered history textbooks, find the appropriate wartime alcohol substitute, and tune in to this...sad, but extremely informative episode. Major themes: Sa...
May 28, 2021•46 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron continue the Summer of Anna Karenina with Part 2 of Leo Tolstoy’s canon-defining work Anna Karenina . Come join us as Anna reveals her affair to her husband, Kitty finds (and then quickly loses) religion, and Levin...thinks about farming. He also chastises his peasants for farming not the way he wants them to. Scintillating stuff. Also, Sativa’s still on the bread thing like half a year later. There are a lot of fun details to go over, so tune in! Major t...
May 21, 2021•46 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron attempt to unravel Andrei Sinyavsky’s short story Pkhentz , which stars a man in the late USSR who is fundamentally uncomfortable with everything from the concept of food to the idea of sexual attraction. Come to figure out if this is a political allegory, stay for Andrei Kazimirovich’s evaluation of sausage-making. Major themes: Cacti, Water Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink, Overuse of the Word ‘Alienation’ 22:50 - Count how many times I can say ‘a...
May 14, 2021•38 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron kick off the Summer of Anna Karenina with Part 1 of Count Tolstoy’s famous novel! Join us as we delve into a tale of “the beauty of light and shadow,” as Matt absolutely does not want you to describe it, and explore one of the most intriguing characters ever put to the page. Oh, and Konstantin Levin is there, too. Sit back, find a partner for the Mazurka, and tune in! Major themes: Adultery, Definitions of Evil, Special Smiles. 44:45 - Spoiler: it doesn’t...
May 07, 2021•46 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron take on Anton Chekhov’s famous fanfiction of Anna Karenina, “The Lady with the Dog.” Filled with adultery, complex emotions, and so much gray , Chekhov’s tale is a 15-page story with an 800-page amount of needed analysis. Oh, and Cameron finally gets to mention “A Doll’s House”. At least it’s not The Lord of the Flies this time. Major themes: Anna Anna Everywhere, Watermelon, Where did the dog go? 05:48 - If you know a way to import Vasileostrovskaya beer...
Apr 30, 2021•39 min
Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron take on the second half of Zuleika by Guzel Yakhina, wherein our eponymous heroine fully sheds her old identity as the “pitiful hen,” and—deep in the woods of Siberia—becomes a hunter, mother, cook, medical assistant, lover, and everything you might have imagined to be impossible in such exile. As with the first half, Zuleikha continues to be an absolute joy to read and talk about so get your 100-proof vodka and enjoy! Major themes: Call your mom, Bad man ...
Apr 23, 2021•48 min
Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron tackle the first half of Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina, following the story of the so-called ‘Pitiful Hen,’ as her farm is collectivized, her husband is killed, and she is sent half-way across the USSR to build her own prison. With a great focus on the integration of pagan folklore and (then) modern Islam and a surprising number of action-filled setpieces, Zuleikha is an absolute joy to read and talk about. Sit back, crack open a home-made berry moonshine, and...
Apr 16, 2021•47 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into several adaptations of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina alongside Ally Pitts of the Russophiles Unite! Movie podcast. Although a bit different than our usual fare, we had a ton of fun recording this with Ally. Mustache licking, French speaking, unfaithfulness ahoy! A huge thank you to Ally for coming on to this episode! It was incredibly fun to record. You can listen to Russophiles Unite! anywhere you get your podcasts and you can follow him and his ...
Apr 09, 2021•1 hr
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Love of the Worker Bees by Alexandra Kollontai, a major figure of early Soviet Union Bolshevik politics. Though she would later fall out of favor due to her outspoken opposition to the changing Bolshevik party, Kollontai remained a USSR official, Marxist feminist theorist, and author until her death. I know, I know, more Soviet political theory—some day you will find this as interesting as we do. It’s just a matter of time. Major themes: Adulter...
Apr 02, 2021•43 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron finish the “What Is To Be Done?” series with Vladimir Lenin’s take on the matter. Perhaps it is only fitting that we end the trilogy with the man who would very much put this question to rest by making it irrelevant (at least, for a time). Come listen to us fully devolve into a political theory podcast—it’s fun, we promise. Major themes: Constant references to recent articles in Iskra , Learning to write for the revolution, Trade Unionism. 05:41 - Though ...
Mar 26, 2021•39 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron continue their series on “What Is To Be Done,” with Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 response to the question, tackling matters of his experience with the poor in Moscow, his views on money, and the existence of an “idle class” in Russian society. Join us as we read what is ostensibly Tolstoy telling you a story about his experiences but then very suddenly becomes 100 pages of straight political theory—it’s fun, we promise. Major themes: Idiosyncratic Religious Beliefs...
Mar 19, 2021•53 min
