Sean's Russia Blog

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.

Teddy Goes to the USSR explored American tourism, KGB surveillance, consumerism, race, and daily life through Teddy Roe’s trip to the USSR. And many of Teddy’s observations were inevitably informed by the Cold War and American tropes. So, what to make of Teddy’s journey and what it says about Soviet life? In this final episode, TGU host Sean Guillory and historian Leah Goldman highlight key moments in the series to tease out the contradictions and reflect on America’s and the Soviet Union’s entangled relationship. The post Ep 6 Cold War Colored Glasses appeared first on SRB Podcast.

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 SRB Podcast.

Like many Americans, Teddy judged the USSR through a consumer lens. What could Soviets buy? How much? And what was up with those long lines and shortages? Teddy wasn’t very impressed. Yet, the “standard of living race” was a front in the Cold War like any other. And Soviet communism was losing. But things were never so simple. By the late 1960s, Soviet people were consuming more than ever. They were becoming consumers just like in the West. So, what was it like to shop in the USSR? And was buying stuff part of the Soviet dream? The post Ep 3 Teddy Goes Shopping appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Teddy assumed the KGB would monitor his travels around the Soviet Union. In Kiev, Teddy discovers that someone went through his luggage. And half-century later he learns his suspicions were correct. The KGB wrote a report on him, complete with excerpts from his diary. What was in this report? What did the KGB hope to learn from Teddy? And what was this vast network for keeping tabs on tourists anyway? The post Ep 2 Teddy Meets The KGB appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Teddy Roe took an extraordinary trip to the USSR in 1968. For three months, he travelled from one end of the USSR to the other. Most Americans at the time believed the USSR was their greatest enemy. Teddy was among tens of thousands who toured the Soviet Union. Why did Americans want to travel there? Why did the Soviets want them to come? What just what was the tourist experience like? The post Ep 1: Teddy Greets the USSR appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guests: Drs. Carmen Andreescu and Alex Dombrovski on their work on mental health in Ukraine though the Global Initiative on Psychiatry - USA. The post Mental Health in Wartime Ukraine appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Christian Raffensperger on the place of Kyivan Rus' in the wider European medieval world. The post Kyivan Rus’ appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Sean Griffin on his prize winning article “Revolution, Raskol, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: The 1,020th Anniversary of the Day of the Baptism of Rus” published in the Russian Review. The post The Day of the Baptism of Rus appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guests: Victoria Smolkina and Georgyi Kasianov on the complexities of memory, history, and politics in narrating Ukrainian history. The post Between Memory and History in Ukraine appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Artemy Troitsky reflecting on his life in the Soviet and Russian rock scenes. The post The Soviet Rock Scene appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guests: Polly Jones and Zuzanna Bogumil on memory, politics, and trauma of Stalinism. The post Working Through Stalinism appeared first on SRB Podcast.

REEES faculty profile on Zoltan Zelemen about his research on neo-medievalism in international relations, law, and democracy. The post REEES Faculty Spotlight: Zoltan Kelemen appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guests: Ben Aris and Ilya Matveev on the Russian economy during wartime. The post The Economic War appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Adrienne Edgar on Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples:  Ethnic Mixing in Soviet Central Asia published by Cornell University Press. The post Mixed Marriages in the USSR appeared first on SRB Podcast.

 Rebroadcast of my 2016 interview with the recently departed Anne Garrels, author of Putin’s Country: A Journey into the Real Russia. The post Remembering Anne Garrels appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guests: Alessandro Iandolo and Natalia Telepneva on Soviet engagement with West Africa during the Cold War. The post Soviet Aid to West Africa appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Jonathan Brunstedt on The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR published by Cambridge University Press. The post Soviet WWII Mythologies appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Olga Petri on Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siècle St. Petersburg published by Cornell University Press. The post Queer Spaces in Imperial St. Petersburg appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Guest: Timothy Blauvelt on Clientelism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom: The Trials of Nestor Lakoba published by Routledge. The post Clientelism in Soviet Abkhazia appeared first on SRB Podcast.