Actually Existing Socialism

In this fascinating episode Alexander Herbert joins to discuss his book “What About Tomorrow?: An Oral History of Russian Punk from the Soviet Era to Pussy Riot”. As always on this show, we’re covering something new  by talking about both counterculture music and the late Soviet Era. I myself have virtually no understanding of the punk genre, so don’t think you need to be a Punk Rock enthusiast to enjoy this episode as the topics we broach include: soviet regulation of media, how all of this ties into the end of the soviet union and more! 

Alexander Herbert, who holds a Masters in Russian history from Indiana University, and a PHD in Modern Russia from Brendeis University, is an expert in the history of the Soviet Union and Global Environmental History. His research examines the interrelations of science, technology, and environmental change in the late USSR. Alexander is additionally interested in the intersection of popular culture and education and has published two books: the first on the history of punk rock in the Soviet Union and Russia, and another that uses horror films in the late USSR to examine the anxieties and fears of late Soviet society. He has also taught classes on the history of capitalism, radical politics in Europe, film history, and underground culture.  Support the podcast at patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Alex's Substack

"Nothing lasts forever: Russian Punks in Georgia" (Alex's documentary mentioned in the episode)

Lenin in 45 Volumes Intro Music

Outro Music

In this episode, Samantha Lomb returns as a guest to talk about a recent book she edited entitled:  Win or Else: Soviet Football in Moscow and Beyond, 1921-1985.

In Win or Else, the late soviet historian Larry E. Holmes shows us how Soviet football culture regularly disregarded official ideological and political imperatives and skirted the boundaries between socialism and capitalism. Drawing on rich archival materials as well as newspapers and interviews with former players, Win or Else reveals the foundations of Soviet sports culture and the hazards that teams faced both in victory and in loss.

This is a fun conversation even if you aren't interested in the sports. We cover the early history of the Soviet conception of sports to the intriguing connection Soviet soccer had to the NKVD, the state security organization that would later become known as the KGB - and everything in between!

You can support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Get the Book here - Win or Else: Soviet Football in Moscow and Beyond, 1921-1985

Intro/Closing Music

Isaiah Rashad x Aaron May Type Beat

Gabriel Rockhill joins to talk about a controversial concept for Western socialists: “siege socialism”. A term coined by the great Michael Parenti.

Unlike most episodes of this show we won’t be focusing on a specific country but examining the variety of past and present socialist countries through the lens of historical materialism and dialectics, two concepts Gabriel explains for us. 

Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, and the author or editor of over nine books, as well as numerous scholarly and general public articles.

He is the editor of the upcoming translation of Domenico Losurdo’s magisterial Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn. It is is a paradigm-shifting book that provides a trenchant critique of the Western left intelligentsia. It reveals how its dominant ideological orientation—characterized by defeatism, utopianism, and anti-communism—is rooted in the political economy of imperialism.

You can support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

To learn more about Gabriel's work check out the following links: 

https://x.com/GabrielRockhill

https://monthlyreview.org/product/western-marxism/

https://gabrielrockhill.com/

https://criticaltheoryworkshop.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@criticaltheoryworkshop5299

https://monthlyreview.org/product/western-marxism/

Intro/Closing Music 

Sardana returns to finish our discussion on her recent study published through Ziibiing Lab "Indigenous Diamonds : Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia." 

In our discussion we delve into the impacts extractivism has had on the people of the Sakha Republic before, during, and after the Soviet Union (USSR). Sardana, who is Sakha, also gives her own personal and community experiences of growing up both Indigenous and Soviet. 

Sardana Nikolaeva is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Ziibiing Lab (Global Indigenous Politics Collaboratory) at the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto. Her work broadly centers on Indigenous politics, Indigenous classed and gendered experiences, geopolitical 'economy, economic sanctions, and extractivism.

The Indigenous Peoples of the Soviet Union (Part 1) w/ Alice and Dennis Bartels 

Support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast

Sardana's study

Indigenous Diamonds :Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia.

Sardana's appearances on other podcasts 

Indigenous diamonds w/ Sardana Nikolaeva

Indigenous People and the Soviet Union: a Sakha perspective w/ Sardana Nikolaeva (pt.1)

An Other's view of Russia w/ Sardana Nikolaeva

Sardana Nikolaeava joins this episode to discuss her recent study published through Ziibiing Lab "Indigenous Diamonds : Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia." In our discussion we delve into the impacts extractivism has had on the people of the Sakha Republic before, during, and after the Soviet Union (USSR). Sardana, who is Sakha, also gives her own personal and community experiences of growing up both Indigenous and Soviet. 

Sardana Nikolaeva is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Ziibiing Lab (Global Indigenous Politics Collaboratory) at the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto. Her work broadly centers on Indigenous politics, Indigenous classed and gendered experiences, geopolitical 'economy, economic sanctions, and extractivism.

The Indigenous Peoples of the Soviet Union (Part 1) w/ Alice and Dennis Bartels 

Support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast

Sardana's study

Indigenous Diamonds :Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia.

Sardana's appearances on other podcasts 

Indigenous diamonds w/ Sardana Nikolaeva

Indigenous People and the Soviet Union: a Sakha perspective w/ Sardana Nikolaeva (pt.1)

An Other's view of Russia w/ Sardana Nikolaeva

In this episode we’ll be discussing Sopo's article on Jacobin entitled "How Free-Market Ideologues Dismantled Health Care in Post-Soviet Georgia". In doing so we will be talking about not only her memories of Soviet Georgia, but the memories of her family members and Georgian workers, doctors and nurses. We delve into the origins of the soviet socialist healthcare system, its operations, its historic outcomes, as well as its catastrophic dismantling in the 1990s.

Sopiko Japaridze is cofounder of Georgia’s Solidarity Network, an independent union. She has been a labor and community organizer in the United States and the post soviet Easten European nation of Georgia. I highly recommend you follow her work on twitter at @sopjap - to get excellent analysis on modern Georgian events from a communist perspective. I also recommend giving Sopo’s podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia a listen! 

Support the show at patreon.com/aesthepodcast. 

Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast

In this episode, Charles Xu of the Qiao Collective (a diaspora Chinese media collective challenging U.S. aggression) joins to walk us through the long history of solidarity between China and Palestine.

We do this through discussing "The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity’s Future" which is Charles' recent article published on the Qiao Collective website. We’re going to be talking about the origins and basis of this revolutionary solidarity between the people of China and Palestine, how this relationship has changed over the years, China’s stance today on Palestinian resistance and how this revolutionary history manifests in the present.

If you found this episode useful - Charles and I had an extended discussion on the state of China’s support for other global south countries in general which is accessible via Patreon. 

www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast

www.twitter.com/aesthepodcast

The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity’s Future

Qiao Collective Twitter

This episode features Dominique Petit-Wagner discussing her masters thesis entitled: "Briefing the Ambassador: Joseph Davies and the U.S. Press Corps in Moscow, 1936-1938." 

Our discussion focuses on American Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and a few American journalists who bought into the socialist realist presentation of the Soviet Union during the tumoulotus 1930s. We talk about what socialist realism was, why and how these eminent Americans supported the Soviet Union, and what this tells us about modernization during the Stalin period.

Dominique Petit-Wagner is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Soviet, Canadian, and intellectual history. Whereas her MA thesis explored American perceptions of the Soviet Union and their controversial immersion in socialist realist culture in the late 1930s, her doctoral research seeks to contrast and compare these findings against the experiences of Canadians touring the USSR in the interwar period.

Link to Dominique's paper: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/175e024b-31d4-478f-8453-39578212230e/content

To support the show you can join the patreon at patreon.com/aesthepodcast

You can follow the show on twitter @aesthepodcast

This episode features sociologist Dr. Agata Zysiak talking about her recent work  "Limiting Privilege: Upward Mobility Within Higher Education in Socialist Poland" (2023), which examines first-generation students' struggles with reluctant academia in a developing socialist world that was looking for equality.

We talk about the successes and failures of this ambitious socialist program, its similarities and differences to race based affirmative action in North America, and what this tells us about social reproduction and the zombie impact of social systems even in the face of dramatic social revolution.

Agata Zysiak, PhD, is a historical sociologist working at Vienna University in Austria and the University of Łódź in Poland. You can get 30% off Limiting Privilege: Upward Mobility Within Higher Education in Socialist Poland and any other Purdue University Press book by ordering from their website and using the code PURDUE30 at checkout.

This episode features Zoe Stephens (@Zoediscoversnk), an experienced tour guide to North Korea (DPRK). Using her own experience, knowledge, footage and education - Zoe’s goal is to present a image of North Korea that aims to humanize the people of the DPRK in ways that are rarely seen in the West.

She tells us what is required to visit on a guided tour, what to expect, what are some common misconceptions, and even the fascinating opportunity to stay for a few days with a North Korean family outside of Pyongyang. This episode was recorded in 2023 - before the re-opening of the border for tourism - so while we speak to the expectation of re-opening it has now happened as of early 2024. 

Link to all of Zoe's social media/project pages: https://linktr.ee/zoediscovers