The Eurasian Knot

Guest: Natalia Krylova on life, love, language, and the Soviet Avant Garde.The post The Soviet Avant Garde appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did generations of Russian revolutionaries communicate in prison? Especially under strict surveillance, censorship and enforced silence? One way was through the sound of tapping. Prisoners used purposeful “tuks, tuks, tuks” in a coded pattern to communicate through their cells' thick granite walls. This syntax of taps developed in the 1820s and continued well into the 20th century. How did this tapping language develop and spread? How did it help concretize a collective revolutionary identity? The Eurasian Knot talked to Nicholas Bujalski to learn more about his prize winning article “Tuk, tuk, tuk!” A History of Russia’s Prison Knocking Language” published in the July 2022 issue of the Russian Review.Guest:Nicholas Bujalski is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Oberlin College. His writing has appeared in The Russian Review, Modern Intellectual History, and the Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, and his current book project is a cultural, intellectual, and spatial history of Russia’s revolutionary movement through the prison cells of the Peter and Paul Fortress. His article, “Tuk, tuk, tuk!” A History of Russia’s Prison Knocking Language” won best article in Russian Review in 2023.Send us your sounds! PatreonKnotty News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Brian Milakovsky with a grim update on Ukraine, the war, and the shrinking prospects of even a lousy peace.The post Ukraine’s Gloomy Winter appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Christopher Read on Vladimir Lenin's legacy 100 years since his death.The post A Century Without Lenin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Maria Lotsmanova on her genealogical journey to find information about her repressed great-grandfather, Jacob Jansen.The post Genealogy in Russia appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Vladimir Alexandrov on The Black Russian published by Grove Press.The post The Black Russian appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Gabriella Safran on Recording Russia: Trying to Listen in the Nineteenth Century published by Cornell University Press.The post Recording Russia appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Sasha Senderovich on How the Soviet Jew Was Made published by Harvard University Press.The post Making the Soviet Jew appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Erik Scott on defection, the Cold War, and the regulation of borders and movement in a globalizing world.The post Defection and the Cold War appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roma Shatrov is the founder of the Silent Cape Nature Park in Sakhalin. Irina Grudova is Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin. Roma is obsessed with Ainu history and culture and has dedicated the Silent Cape to revitalizing their tradition. Irina is a local Ainu activist and is skeptical of such outsiders looking to exploit her heritage. Yet Roma and Irina instantly hit it off and formed a strong bond over their mutual love of the Ainu. Rusana Novikova brings us a story about the romanticism and self-discovery at the heart of Irina and Roma’s complicated friendship, and its potential promise for Ainu and Russian relations.The post Ainu Fever appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.