Pushkin House Podcast

Listen to Katja Petrowskaja, author of Maybe Esther, one of six shortlisted titles for the 2019 Pushkin House Book Prize, in conversation with Sergei Ostrovsky on the PH Podcast.

How do we explain the influx of Western culture to the Soviet Union? Clem Cecil talks with Eleonory Gilburd, author of ‘To See Paris and Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture’. The Soviet Union was a notoriously closed society until Stalin's death in 1953. Then, in the mid-1950s, a torrent of Western novels, films, and paintings invaded Soviet streets and homes, acquiring heightened emotional significance.

1983 holds an extraordinary and largely unknown Cold War story of spies and double agents, of missiles being readied, of intelligence failures, misunderstandings and the panic of world leaders. Borimir Totev talks with Taylor Downing, author of ‘1983: The World at the Brink’ about what contemporary leaders can learn from the past and how we choose to remember fear.

The blast that put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. Andrew Jack talks with Pushkin House Book Prize 2019 winning author, Serhii Plokhy, about his book ‘Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy’. Serhii explores how the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, while workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate.

An audio guide to the 'Mother Tongue’ exhibition by Yevgeniy Fiks. Borimir Totev follows New York-based Russian artist Yevgeniy Fiks, as he explores the historical gay Russian argot. This coded language dates back to Soviet times. We reclaim and celebrate Soviet-era Russian gay argot as a unique cultural phenomenon and give a historical context to today’s post-Soviet LGBT+ community, whose language partially evolved from it.

When an old cassette tape has the power to change your whole future. Borimir Totev talks with artist Laura Footes, who was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at the age of 13 and told by doctors it was unlikely that she would ever be able to travel or be in regular employment. Mikhail Bulgakov’s ‘The Master and Margarita’ provided an alternative fantasy world and was formative for Laura as she lay in her hospital bed.

Don't be so quick to blame King George V. There's more to the Romanovs story. Borimir Totev talks with Helen Rappaport, author of 'The Race to Save the Romanovs: the Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family', about the Romanov family, the assumptions, and the important anniversaries.

How to transform from an oligarch into bourgeoisie in Putin's Russia? Borimir Totev talks with Elisabeth Schimpfossl, author of 'Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie'. We figure out how Russia's former robber barons transformed into a new social class.

What were you doing whilst the Soviets secretly mapped the world? After the collapse of the Soviet Union an astonishing treasure trove came to light. Borimir Totev talks with life-long map collector and co-author of 'The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly Mapped the World', John Davies about the hundreds of thousands of Soviets maps showing in chilling detail countries and cities throughout the world.

In conversation with curator Elena Zaytseva about the exhibition on show at Pushkin House, Amateur Bird Watching at Passport Control.