Russian and Eurasian Studies

Russian and Eurasian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Russia and Eurasia about their new books.

Luca Anceschi, "Pandemic Politics in Central Asia: Authoritarian Contagion" (Routledge, 2026)

August 2, 2026

Pandemic Politics in Central Asia

Luca Anceschi
Hosted by Adam Quinn

Pandemic Politics in Central Asia: Authoritarian Contagion (Routledge, 2026) examines how the authoritarian regimes of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and U…

Magdalena E. Stawkowski, "Atomic Collective: Radioactive Life in Kazakhstan" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

August 1, 2026

Atomic Collective

Magdalena E. Stawkowski
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, Kazakhstan inherited the remnants of one of the world's most contaminated landscapes: the Semipal…

Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, "Parallel Journeys: Eurasian History Through Travelers’ Eyes (400 BCE–1936 CE)" (Cambria, 2025)

July 31, 2026

Parallel Journeys

Anthony J. Barbieri-Low

Parallel Journeys: Eurasian History through Travelers’ Eyes (Cambria Press, 2026) is a comparative history of Eurasia told through travel writing and …

On Who Blew Up Nord Stream: A Conversation with Author Bojan Pancevski

July 28, 2026

On Who Blew Up Nord Stream

Hosted by Paul Starobin

The September, 2022 attack on the Nord Stream pipelines transporting Russian gas to Germany was perhaps the greatest single act of sabotage in modern …

Anna Lively, "Revolutionary Connections: Russia and Ireland, 1905-1923" (Oxford UP, 2026)

July 28, 2026

Revolutionary Connections

Anna Lively
Hosted by Aidan Beatty

Anna Lively is a historian of modern Ireland, Britain, and Russia. Awarded her PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh in 2022, she is current…

Victoria Donovan, "Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East" (Daunt Books, 2025)

July 26, 2026

Life in Spite of Everything

Victoria Donovan

Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (Daunt Books Publishing, 2025) is a unique reflection on the much-mythologised Donetsk and …

Galina Bogatova, "Casting War As Love: Russian Colonialism in Familial Terms" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026)

July 25, 2026

Casting War As Love

Galina Bogatova
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Casting War As Love: Russian Colonialism in Familial Terms (Palgrave Macillan, 2026) by Dr. Galina Bogatova unpacks the hidden imperial logic behind R…

Martin Shaw, "The New Age of Genocide: Intellectual and Political Challenges After Gaza" (Agenda Publishing, 2025)

July 22, 2026

The New Age of Genocide

Martin Shaw
Hosted by Kelly McFall

The Israeli destruction of Gaza has returned the idea of genocide to the centre of world politics, with sharp conflicts between protesters and lawyers…

Diana Cucuz, "Winning Women’s Hearts and Minds: Selling Cold War Culture in the US and the USSR" (U Toronto Press, 2023)

July 11, 2026

Winning Women’s Hearts and Minds

Diana Cucuz
Hosted by Alisa Kuzmina

In this episode, Alisa interviews Dr. Diana Cucuz about her book, Winning Women’s Hearts and Minds: Selling Cold War Culture in the US and the USSR (U…

Molly Crabapple, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund" (Random House, 2026)

July 5, 2026

Here Where We Live Is Our Country

Molly Crabapple
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Molly Crabapple joins Michael Stauch to discuss the history of the Jewish Labor Bund, the subject of her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Count…

Dmytro Soloviov, "Ukrainian Modernism: Modernist Architecture of Ukraine" (Fuel, 2025)

July 3, 2026

Ukrainian Modernism

Dmytro Soloviov
Hosted by Megan Buskey

Ukraine’s modernist buildings are an extraordinary blend of function, avant-garde aesthetics and ingenious design, but despite these qualities, they r…

Andy Byford, "Science of the Child in Late Imperial and Early Soviet Russia" (Oxford UP, 2020)

June 27, 2026

Science of the Child in Late Imperial and Early Soviet Russia

Andy Byford
Hosted by Polina Popova

Between the 1880s and the 1930s, children became the focus of unprecedented scientific and professional interest in modernizing societies worldwide, i…

Kirill Shamiev, "Imperfect Equilibrium: Civil-Military Relations in Russian Defense Policymaking" (Oxford UP, 2026)

June 26, 2026

Imperfect Equilibrium

Kirill Shamiev
Hosted by Leo Bader

Why has Russia's military struggled to adapt to the challenges of contemporary warfare? Despite years of attempts to improve its military capabilities…

Jonathan Daly, "The Man Who Knew Russia: Richard Pipes, Humanist and Cold Warrior" (Stanford UP, 2025)

June 21, 2026

The Man Who Knew Russia

Jonathan Daly
Hosted by Erika Monahan

He’s been called the man academics love to hate. One time, when the author disclosed that he worked with Pipes, the colleague responded, “I will forgi…

Alena Ledeneva, "Russian Pendulum: Paradoxes, Practices and Patterns" (UCL Press, 2026)

June 20, 2026

Russian Pendulum

Alena Ledeneva
Hosted by Adam Quinn

Alena Ledeneva is Professor of Politics and Society at the University College London and a founder of the Global Informality Project. Her research fo…

Cristina Florea, "Bukovina: The Life and Death of an East European Borderland" (Princeton UP, 2025)

June 16, 2026

Bukovina

Cristina Florea
Hosted by Roland Clark

Bukovina, when it has existed on official maps, has always fit uneasily among its neighbors. The region is now divided between Romania and Ukraine but…

David Leupold, "The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and Their Afterlives" (Routledge, 2026)

June 15, 2026

The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities

David Leupold
Hosted by Ernest Lee

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the q…

Ida Kinalska-Pietruska and Isabella Skrypczak, "A Polish Girl in Siberia: Surviving and Transcending Exile" (Disruption Books, 2026)

June 14, 2026

A Polish Girl in Siberia

Ida Kinalska-Pietruska and Isabella Skrypczak

A memoir of a child’s forced relocation to Siberia under Stalin’s Gulag system reveals the potential for true human kindness in the face of extraordin…

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

May 29, 2026

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

Hosted by YIVO Institute

Sh. An-ski (Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport, 1863-1920) was a writer in Russian and Yiddish, a revolutionary, a wartime relief worker, and an ethnographer who…

Gennady Estraikh, "The History of Birobidzhan: Building a Soviet Jewish Homeland in Siberia" (Bloombury, 2023)

April 26, 2026

The History of Birobidzhan

Gennady Estraikh
Hosted by Alisa Kuzmina

In this episode, Alisa interviews Dr. Gennady Estraikh. His book titled, The History of Birobidzhan: Building a Soviet Jewish Homeland in Siberia (Blo…