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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Mark Gamsa on Harbin: A Cross-Cultural BiographyThe post Harbin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Sunday, October 13, 1935, and someone, we don’t know, who mails a letter. It’s addressed: “Kremlin. To Comrade Stalin.”Now, there was nothing odd about people writing Stalin. They wrote to him a lot.So, when Comrade Sentaretskaya, one of the secretaries sorting Stalin’s mail, got to this letter, she had no reason to worry . . . . that is until she opened it.Just what was in this letter?Find out March 31 when The Eurasian Knot debuts with A Gift to Stalin, two episodes about a letter mailed to the Soviet dictator and what it might have meant in the Soviet Union. Available wherever you get your podcasts.The post Trailer: A Gift for Stalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American tourists expected few chances to meet Soviet people. You’d only see what Soviet officials wanted to show you. Touring the USSR, many assumed, was nothing more than a front row seat at a big show. And real Soviet life was hidden under layers upon layers of propaganda. So, if you wanted to see the truth of Soviet life—avoid officials and seek out “regular people.” Teddy wanted to seek out “regular” Soviet people. And he had a few chances to visit people’s homes. What did Teddy discover about “regular Soviet life and people” as a result? And what did it say about the Soviet system as a lived experience?The post Ep 5 Teddy Meets The Soviet People appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teddy had few “official” meetings in the USSR. A factory here. A collective farm there. Maybe a school or two. And there was one question Teddy’s hosts always asked: “Why are you still lynching Blacks?” American racism was a global issue during the Cold War. And pointing to it was a strike at America’s Achilles heel. Soviet media devoted a lot of time to the Civil Rights Movement. And Teddy arrived in the USSR just when Martin Luther King was assassinated. So, just what was this Soviet concern for American Blacks? Was it merely a whataboutism, a way to deflect American criticism of Soviet life? Or was there something more to it?The post Ep 4: Teddy Talks about Race appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.