Dr. Natalya Chernyshova is author of the book Soviet consumer culture in the Brezhnev era, and the upcoming The most Soviet republic: Belarus in the long 1970s. She is a historian of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Queen Mary University of London.

In this podcast we discuss:

* A brief history of Belarus and its quarrelsome but dependent relationship with Russia

* Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s populist appeal as an outsider and anti-corruption fighter, and his rise to power

* Belarusian national identity; Soviet identity, nostalgia, and legacies

* The 2020 protests, sometimes called the Anti-Cockroach Revolution, triggered by the government’s COVID-19 response, the contested 2020 elections, and pent up dissatisfaction with Lukashenko’s rule

* Jews in Belarus

* Memories, censorship, and internet controls

* Stuck between Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania

* Media and opposition in exile

The Rhyming Chaos podcast is produced by Jeremy Goldkorn and Maria Repnikova, and edited by Cadre Scripts. The theme music is Paper Boy, composed and performed on the guzheng by Wu Fei. Our closing music is Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, arranged and performed by Wu Fei. Our cover art is by Li Yunfei.

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