Vladimir Kozlov’s new book "Shramy" (Scars) explores street battles between anti-fascists and neo-Nazi skinheads in Moscow during the late 2000s. No stranger to these subcultures, Kozlov uses "Shramy" to reflect on the roots of Russian fascism in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
How did elements of neo-Nazi subculture seep into the Russian mainstream? And how does the Putin regime manipulate “Nazism” and “anti-fascism” for its own domestic and geopolitical ends?
The Eurasian Knot spoke to Kozlov about his punk past, how it shaped the writing of "Shramy," and how violence, ideology, and the complexities of Russian society have led to public support for the war in Ukraine.
patreon.com/posts/russian-antifa-120405835
Meet this week's featured guest, Adriana Helbig!
Dr. Helbig is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in Applied Ethnomusicology. Her book "ReSounding Poverty: Romani Music and Development Aid" synthesizes her 20 years as an ethnographer working on Romani music, culture, and human rights in Europe.
For more on Romani music, listen to our interview with her below:
patreon.com/posts/romani-music-and-119915522
Who speaks for whom within the Romani rights movement today? This is the question that drives Adriana Helbig’s investigation into the relationship between development aid and Romani musicians in her book, Resounding Poverty. Her findings are crucial as are provocative: NGOs unintentionally perpetuate narratives of Romani life that continue to marginalize the poorest among them. And while aid is crucial, it also fails to address issues of poverty, community, and health particularly in rural areas. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Helbig about the fraught and complicated presence of NGOs in postsocialist space, the tensions between aid and agency, the pressure Romani musicians face to perform "gypsiness" for non-Romani audiences, and her personal insights about conducting research in Ukraine and how her own family history intersects with her academic work. We even listen to some music by the Carpathian Ensemble, a University of Pittsburgh student group that Helbig directed. highlighting the challenges and rewards of representing Romani music in an academic context.
patreon.com/posts/romani-music-and-119915522
Nationalists are not born. They are made. But how? That journey is far trickier. Fabian Baumann’s award-winning book, Dynasty Divided: A Family History of Russian and Ukrainian Nationalism, traces how one family in 19th-century Ukraine split into opposing branches–one embracing Ukrainian nationalism and the other Russian imperial nationalism. Shulgin/Shulhin family story shows how national identities form through the microcosms of family, private spaces, intellectual circles, and intentional choices rather than predetermined ethnicity. The Eurasian Knot asked Baumann to take us through the Shulgin/Shulhin family, their efforts to craft opposing nationalist identities, and how exile after the Russian Revolution led both branches to craft nationalist narratives of their experiences. The Shulgin/Shulhin story may be a century old. But their journey into Ukrainian and Russian nationalism has inescapable implications for us today.
patreon.com/posts/tale-of-two-118094985
OUT NOW! 📽️
Head over to Patreon to check out this extra-special episode, as we had the opportunity to interview the director of the 2024 film adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s 'Master and Margarita,' Michael Lockshin! 🌟
patreon.com/posts/adapting-master-116697574
Georgia in Crisis
Georgia recently held parliamentary elections. The ruling party Georgian Dream eked out a majority, adding to its over decade long rule. The elections, however, were not without controversy.
The opposition has claimed vote rigging, its supporters hit the streets, and some Western governments have cried foul. Georgia now is in crisis.
What is the context for this political crisis? How does it relate to Georgia’s post-Soviet transformation, economic liberalism, and the current geopolitical conjecture? Is Georgia gravitating toward the EU or Russia? Or is trying to avoid Ukraine’s fate by maintaining a balance between both?
To get some insight, the Eurasian Knot turned to Bryan Gigantino, co-host of the podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia. He recently published an article, “In Georgia, a National Election Is a Geopolitical Struggle” in Jacobin that put these complex issues that are shaping Georgia’s social, political, and economic fate.
patreon.com/posts/georgia-in-116245715
What was life like in the Soviet era for those who dared to speak out against it?
In preparation for tomorrow, refresh your #euraknot memory with last week's deep dive, "The World of Soviet Dissidents," with guest Benjamin Nathans!
patreon.com/posts/world-of-soviet-115800053
Meet this week's guest!⭐
Benjamin Nathans is a professor of Soviet, Russian, and European Jewish History at the University of Pennsylvania and is the acclaimed author of Princeton University Press's “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement,” which tackles the legacy and intimate history of the USSR’s courageous dissenters.
His prize-winning work focuses on Judaism in both Imperial Russia and greater Europe, and has served as the foundation for a renowned academic and curatorial career. Check out his book through the link below!⬇️
press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691117034/to-the-success-of-our-hopeless-cause
The World of Soviet Dissidents
Soviet dissidents have long been objects of fascination.
Who were they? What made them dissent? What did they believe? And what did they endure at the hands of a repressive Soviet state? We now have a clearer picture thanks to Benjamin Nathans’ new book, "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement."
Soviet dissidents, or as they preferred to be called "rights defenders," navigated a complicated choreography between the movement, the police, and its supporters abroad. Their approach was a strategy of "civil obedience," that is pressuring the Soviet government to follow its own laws. Though amounting to around a thousand active participants, their influence grew, especially as they were lionized in the Western media.
In this conversation with the Eurasian Knot, Nathans recounts this history, highlighting the often-overlooked role of women, dissidents’ complex relationship with Soviet society, and what their experience can teach us today.
patreon.com/posts/world-of-soviet-115800053
Meet this week's guest! ⭐
Ian Lanzillotti is an assistant professor of History at Washington & Jefferson College, where his research on Russia’s Caucasus region led him to publish “Land, Community, and the State in the Caucasus: Kabardino-Balkaria from Tsarist Conquest to Post-Soviet Politics,” through Bloomsbury Press. His research focuses on the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of Russia, and the interactions between communities held together by a space rife with conflict, migration, and change.
You can find him on this week's episode, "A Deep Dive into Kabardino-Balkaria," out now on Patreon!
bloomsbury.com/us/land-community-and-the-state-in-the-caucasus-9781350137448
Kabardino-Balkaria is a small republic within Russia's North Caucasus region. It’s an ethnically diverse area, home to Kabardians (a Circassian Muslim people), Balkars (a Turkic Muslim group), Russians, among others. The republic also has an incredibly fraught history—Tsarist conquest, the decimation of the local population in the 19th century, the Soviet-era ethnic deportations, and the ethnic and religious politics of today. Yet, unlike other parts of the North Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria has maintained relatively stability. Why? What about its long history that has prevented interethnic and religious strife? How did Russian colonization shape it?
To get a better sense of this complex, and rather little-known history, the Eurasian Knot spoke to Ian Lanzillotti to paint us a picture of Kabardino-Balkaria over the long durée, and what it means to the region.
patreon.com/posts/deep-dive-into-115355939
Happy Halloween! 🎃👻🧛
Ring in the spooky season with our 2021 episode "The Vampires of A. K. Tolstoy," which tackles vampiric and monstrous themes in 20th century Russian literature, and features guest Irina Erman!
patreon.com/posts/vampires-of-k-5716602
The Eurasian Knot treats your ears to stories about Eurasia’s complex past, present, and future. But it doesn’t have to be. Eurasia will never appear the same.
