Show Notes : Content warning: there will be a brief mention of rape from 12:20 to 12:28. This week, Matt and Cameron get into their tuxes for a Devil’s Ball celebrated all the way from across the skies to the distorted apartments of Moscow, covering chapters 19 through 25 of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita . They’ll be talking sex, they’ll be talking fairytale morality, and you bet they’ll be talking about dismembered heads. All in all, fairly normal things when you’re celebrating wi...
Oct 20, 2023•50 min
Show Notes Content Warning: there are mentions of rape around 10:55-12:30 and 27:45-28:10 This week, Matt and Cameron lace up their sailing shoes and dig into Guzel Yakhina’s sophomore novel A Volga Tale . Hop on your skiff and let’s get discussing! Major themes : Fairy tales, women with “K” names, justified societal shunning Buy this book with our affiliate links on Bookshop or Amazon ! 01:51 - A link to Part 1 of our episodes covering Guzel Yakhina’s Zuleikha . 23:52 - Korenizatsiia 27:1...
Oct 13, 2023•53 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron explore Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris . They talk genre, they talk the meaning of the soul, and they draw a couple points from — hold on, what do you mean he wrote a book about it ? I did all this research and he just…he just wrote a book? Okay, that’s fine. Well, they’ll cover what he has to say, where they agree and disagree, and what it means to become human. Major themes: The only genre is film, ears: the road to the soul, “just be happy doing ...
Oct 06, 2023•1 hr
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron track the (alleged) Devil’s progress through Moscow through his debut at the Variety Theatre and beyond in Chapters 10-18 of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Grab your hidden speculative currency and turn in to follow the aftermath of Woland’s arrival, his magic tricks, and — finally — the arrival of The Master into the plot. Major themes: Referential mania, a theoretical Margarita, Is the Soviet Man actually new? 13:45 - Nathan for you clip E...
Sep 15, 2023•50 min
Pick up a copy of Drs. Karpukhin and Vergara’s edited collection of pedagogical essays, Reimagining Nabokov: Pedagogies for the 21st Century here! Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron tackle “Signs and Symbols” by Vladimir Nabokov and are joined in this effort by Drs. José Vergara and Sara Karpukhin. Dr. Vergara is both a returning podcast guest and an Assistant Professor of Russian on the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship at Bryn Mawr College, and Dr. Karpukhin is a Lecturer in Russian at the Univ...
Sep 08, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron debut the first episode of a new series we’re calling “Office Hours.” Sit down with us as we catch up about our lives, talk about Matt’s thoughts on Reddit and bookstagram, and stray into Cameron’s fascination with a particular alternate history author. We recorded this episode while sipping on Espresso Martinis, per the request of our supporter Kaitlin. Major themes: What is fiction anyway?, Rodion “Richard” Raskolnikov, Suspicious Civil War literature 2...
Sep 01, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron kick off their next big read, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, covering chapters one through nine. Join us as we talk about how the devil definitely doesn’t exist according to the USSR, how the devil definitely does exist according to the Devil, and the true story of the Gospels (at least, if you believe the Devil). Oh, also there’s a lot to say about Soviet life. And, somehow, all these features come together much more neatly than you’d expe...
Aug 18, 2023•54 min
Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron dive into a work that’s been on the sidelines for far too long: The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, along with the extremely helpful Dr. Tatyana Gershkovich. She is the author of Art in Doubt: Tolstoy, Nabokov, and the Problem of Other Minds (Northwestern UP, 2022), and essays published in PMLA, The Slavic and Eastern European Journal, the Journal of the History of Ideas, the Paris Review, and more. Come along with us to understand the unreliability of the...
Aug 11, 2023•59 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into the short story “The Performance,” from Sergei Dovlatov’s book The Zone . Get ready to dive into the most underrepresented point-of-view in the Soviet camp system: the guards. Well, kind of. Get ready to get stagnant and talk a bit about the state of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, but mostly about a play in a prison camp where all the old Bolsheviks are played by prisoners. Ideological confusion abounds. Major themes: The real no-termers, dirty ...
Aug 04, 2023•51 min
Show Notes : A quick note: this episode will contain some references to suicide throughout along with one mention of rape. This week, Matt and Cameron quietly consider the movie Leviathan (2014), directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, while standing on the edge of a cliff. Come along as they talk about a dismal family story that may or not have a lot to do with the biblical Book of Job and institutions of good and evil. Grab an entire bottle of vodka and your military surplus AK-style rifle, then tune ...
Jul 21, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron get into something a little more modern with a short story from Ukrainian writer and translator Sophia Andrukhovych, “An Out-Of-Tune Piano, An Accordion.” Come join in as they debate the meaning of the fantasy or dream (or maybe terrifying reality?) of a woman named Viola as she stumbles upon a sort of danse macabre in the midst of worrying about her dying husband, Renat. Major themes: Dreams, Cats = good/bad?, “Diseased predator” 02:04 - The White Chalk ...
Jul 14, 2023•45 min
Want to learn more about Khvoshchinskaya? Read Matt's post on our blog here . Show Notes : Apologies for Cameron’s audio quality. This episode was recorded on a back-up microphone in a Reno bathroom. This week, Matt and Cameron dive into an author you may not have heard of before in the short story On the Way: A Sketch by Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya. They talk childhood, imagining the fantastical, and why don’t we remember one of the highest paid authors of the late 19th century in Russia. Grab you...
Jul 07, 2023•50 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron say “sayonara” to Tipsy Tolstoy and “come on in” to The Slavic Literature Pod . RIP to having a valid reason to reference drunkenness on our resumes. Plus we address some questions you may have about the change. 08:53 - CarolynMarieReads' Youtube channel 09:21 - Shae McMullin's Instagram The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube . Our links: Website | ...
Jun 28, 2023•24 min
Show Notes : Note: This is a re-run of The Captain’s Daughter by Aleksandr Pushkin It’s week 4 of Matt and Cameron’s June break. So this week, we’re looking back at one of our favorite books from this podcast, originally put out in October of 2021. Major themes: Is it really fatalist?, My boy Pugachev, Benedict Anderson will never leave us alone 04:52 - It’s “ Farmer’s Daughter ” by Rodney Atkins, if anyone’s wondering. 35:09 - “ Alexandr Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter: A Poetics of Violence ”...
Jun 16, 2023•58 min
Shownotes: Note: This is a re-run of The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry It’s week 2 of Matt and Cameron’s June break. So this week, we’re looking back at one of our favorite books from this podcast, originally put out in June of 2022. Major themes: The Time Between Dog and Wolf, Re-writing the past, Toasting to art 35:30 - To avoid spoilers, go to 36:42 51:59 - The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry (click on the “Buy” button to see a list of places where you can purchase this book) Th...
Jun 09, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Shownotes: Note: This is a re-run of Zuleikha (parts 1 and 2) by Guzel Yakhina. It’s week 1 of Matt and Cameron’s June break. So this week, we’re looking back at one of our favorite books from this podcast, originally put out in April of 2021. Major themes: Forest spirits, Vestigial pagan folklore, and Dekulakization. 03:51 - Here’s a link to the article that I heavily cited in this episode: Fear and Belief in the USSR’s “Great Terror”: Response to Arrest, 1935-1939. 51:20 - Much of the informat...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 33 min
Shownotes: Some quick updates before we head into our June break: HERE IS THE LISTENER SURVEY! The music used in this episode, and for the last time in a new release, was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube . Please go show them some love and buy their albums if you’re able. Our links: Website | Discord Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands...
May 31, 2023•28 min
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron actually finish War and Peace by covering both epilogues. Did you want to find out what happened to the characters? Too bad! It’s time for more argumentation about history. Well, okay, there’s a little bit of character wrap-up. But most of it, predictably, is about farming. Just another day with Tolstoy. Major themes: Better History, Questionable Theories, Live Laugh Love Levin 00:58 - I meant to say “75 serving” and “120 serving,” which is far less than 10...
May 26, 2023•56 min
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron finish War and Peace!! Well, minus the epilogue. Tune in to hear about the meeting of old acquaintances, the passing of old friends, and the quiet night at the end of a war. Book 4, Part 4. It’s the end of a true epic, in the most literary sense of the word. Be there or be square. Major themes: PTSD = Cool Dude, Super Friendship, Laws of History The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandca...
May 19, 2023•54 min
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron continue Napoleon’s invasion into Imperial Russia into its final phase: a slow, deadly retreat accompanied by irregular warfare in War & Peace’s Part 3 of Book 4. This is what Cameron studied for a potion of his degree and he is going to make that your problem in this episode. Follow along as we catch up with the youngest Rostov, Petya, as he finally deploys in the theater of war, and also find Pierre turning monastic during a death march. Nothing but g...
May 05, 2023•56 min
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron move away from particular characters and start talking about the long arc of history in Book 4, Part 2 of War and Peace. As the French army retreats from Moscow, it’s the perfect time to ask the question: hey, wait, was everyone wrong about calling Stalingrad the Soviet War and Peace? You’ll have to listen to find out. Plus we’ll learn about the function of pain in Tolstoy’s work, which will really lighten the mood. Grab your water for a long march back to ...
Apr 21, 2023•58 min
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron start on Book 4, Part 1 (after diverging from our original plan to combine parts 1 and 2) and do a deep dive on how we can really analyze wisdom, on the horror of war collapsing into peace, and whether self-sacrifice can ever be a true ideal of Christianity. That’s right, it’s the big ideas section! Well - the whole book is the big ideals section, but this is a great survey of some of Tolstoy’s most interesting ideas. Grab your Youtube video of Slavoj Zizek...
Apr 14, 2023•57 min
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron fiddle while Moscow burns. They finish Book 3 of War and Peace by finally engaging with the direct interaction of war and society. Unfortunately for the population of Moscow, that comes as their city burns. Why that is? Well - Tolstoy has some opinions. (Unsurprisingly, those opinions begin with the fact that Moscow is mostly built of wood, which may have something to do with the fire). Grab your least flammable cocktail and tune in! Major themes: Hanging’ ...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron continue Part 2, Book 3 of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace . Get your sabers ready, we’re about to head into one of the defining battles of 1812. Well - at least as Tolstoy would have you believe. And - for once - Marya appears in a scene without 2-3 pages of the narrator ragging on her looks. Who would have thought we’d come this far? Get your victory drink of choice ready, and tune in! Major themes: Beating Peasants, War Crimes, Losing Your Way to Victory 2...
Mar 17, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron continue their slog through Book 3 of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, covering part 1. Get ready for more teen marriage plots, a little elucidation on Tolstoy’s thoughts on doctors, and the funniest section for Pierre so far. And trust us - that last bit jumped over a high bar. Grab your copies of the Book of Revelations and tune in! Major themes: More Teen Marriage Plots, Too Hot to be Godly, Anti Doctor Content 12:21 - As Eric Blaire, a.k.a. George Orwell...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Parts 4 and 5 in Book 2 of War and Peace . If you read Anna Karenina and thought, I like these hunting scenes 500 pages in but I wish they were more brutal and had more undertones about the aristocracy - don’t worry, we’ve got you covered here. And Natasha’s upcoming marriage comes under pressure. Grab your finest elopement garments and strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Major themes: "Uncles," Kissin’ Cousins, Elopement but it’s Kidnappin...
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Book 2, part 3 of War and Peace to find the answer to an important question: is life over once you turn 31? And it’s time to turn a little religious and a little conspiratorial with Princess Marya and Count Pierre. Nothing better than covering two years of life in around 100 pages. Grab your finest soiree attire, some champagne, and tune in! Major themes: Hottie or Nottie, Gnarled Trees, Illuminist Freemasonry 05:51 - Hollywood Access is, of cou...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Book 2 of War and Peace and cover parts 1 & 2. In this part, we get the honor (you might say) of getting to compare child marriage plots, duels, and bullying of my! Grab your kvass of choice and get ready to get into War and Peace . Major themes: Child marriage, duels, battle plans 21:11 - National Treasure , truly the greatest American contribution to the arts. 36:03 - Ritualized Violence Russian Style: The Duel in Russian Culture and Liter...
Feb 10, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron finish up the first section of War and Peace by covering Book 1, Part 3. They’ll be delving more into the Kuragin family and their shared habits (and even some shared facial expressions), and keeping up with the military boys as they meet their idols…and have very different reactions than expected. Grab your reluctant wedding champagne and tune in! Major themes: The Pettiness of Great Men, Bad Fathers, Vacant Expressions 02:53 - Ohio actually has produced...
Feb 03, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron turn to the war part of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in Part II of Book 1. Grab your field rations and greatcoats as we follow Andrei, Nikolai, and company into battle with the French. And although this seems to be the opposite…perhaps the battles parallel the “peace” of Moscow society more than it first appears. You’ll have to tune in to find out. Interested in the video version of this podcast? Find it here . Major themes: Strawberry-Flavored Koumiss, ...
Jan 20, 2023•54 min
