The Eurasian Knot

Researchers Anca Sincan and Tatiana Vagramenko discuss secret police files documenting religious belief and worship in communist Romania and Ukraine. They explore religious objects, gender dynamics in the KGB and religious communities, photographs in the archives, legacies of secret police archives in Romania, and the challenge of preaching religious freedom to underground communities.

Guest: Catherine Wanner on lived religion in Ukraine, belief, belonging and community, and the impact of the war on religion.The post Lived Religion in Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Bruce Grant revisits his book, In the Soviet House of Culture: A Century of Perestroikas, on the Nivkhi of Sakhalin, their Soviet experience, and the complexities of indigeneity.The post The Nivkhi of Sakhalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.