Reimagining Soviet Georgia

On today's episode we discuss "The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and their Afterlives" with the book's author David Leupold.

Book description:

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the question – what is left of the socialist city? – this book aims not only to trace the material and mnemonic remains of the socialist city,  but to show how the Soviet discourse of the city at times engendered radical ideas that challenged the narrow confines of state socialism itself.

These ideas are, for instance, the efforts of Esperanto-speaking internationalists from Czechoslovakia to build the internationalist city from below in the Central Asian steppe, the quest of Armenian Futurists to root the architectural style of Soviet Armenia in the country’s Persianate heritage, or a Jewish-Kyrgyz philosopher's vision of turning a science town in the hinterland of Moscow into the first ecopolis of the USSR. In an effort to rethink the life and afterlife of the Soviet city from its geographical South, the book explores the material and immaterial legacies of socialist-era urbanization in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. To this end, it embarks on a historical and ethnographic journey to urban sites in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In a quest to reconstruct competing visions of urbanity that emerged from within the Soviet South, using varied empirical sources in Armenian, Czech, Kyrgyz, and Russian, the book outlines four urban visions: bottom-up urbanity, rooted urbanity, polycentric urbanity, and ecocentric urbanity. By understanding the social vision of a "socialist city of the future" beyond the political center in its trans-local independence, the book highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Soviet South and its historical embeddedness within the regional dynamics of the Global South.

In this book David Leupold brings formidable historical imagination and ethnographic research to enliven the shape, contours, and textures of the "socialist city" and its afterlife beyond the demise of the Soviet Union.

David Leupold is a scholar of memory politics, research fellow at the University of Rijeka and the author of the award-winning book Embattled Dreamlands. The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish Memory (2020). He was a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Michigan Department of Sociology and the principal investigator of his DFG-funded research project Future Images of the Past (2021-25) at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient.

Episode music:

TAHA - ღამე

On today's episode we explore the development of secondary education in Georgia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent marketization processes.

The education sector widely privatized resulting in lower quality education, poverty wages for teachers and ideological conflicts over curriculum.

Why did this happen and what does it mean for secondary education in Georgia today?

Our guest is education expert and former school teacher Nika Maglaperidze

Nika Maglaperidze is a PhD student and administrator at the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University, Ireland. His research interests focus on educational theory, continental pedagogy, and curriculum studies. He is a former school teacher.

Read Nika's recent article here:

https://pie.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/pie/article/view/1967

Episode music:

პანიკა - "სიგარეტი კლავს"

On today’s episode we explore the political-intellectual world of Stalin, from his embrace of Marxism in Georgia at the turn of the century to his years in the Kremlin as head of the Soviet Union, with historian Geoffrey Roberts.

Guiding our discussion is Roberts newest book Stalin’s Library (2022). In it, Roberts constructs a riveting intellectual biography of Stalin as a Marxist through Stalin's engagement with other thinkers, his own writings as well as his notes and annotations on books in his personal library.

We also discuss how Georgia shaped Stalin’s political development and much more.

Geoffrey Roberts is an historian, biographer, and political commentator. A leading Soviet history expert, his many books include an award-winning biography of Zhukov, Stalin’s general, and the acclaimed Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War. He is emeritus professor of history at University College Cork and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Check out Geoffrey Robert’s website to read his writing and more:
https://geoffreyroberts.net/

Episode music:
Tkveoba - მოლოდინი

On today’s episode we discuss the ins and outs of the European Union and how it structurally, institutionally and ideologically reinforces its own legitimacy through “civil society” within current and prospective member states.

Our guest is Thomas Fazi.

Fazi is the author of the book The European Propaganda Machine: The Dark Side of NGOs, Media and Universities (2026) - (published in Italian).

Book description:

A topic no one talks about: for the first time, the apparatus through which the European Union has built, financed, and implemented a widespread system of control over public discourse is dismantled piece by piece. Through a documented analysis of the flows of money to NGOs, media, and universities, the text shows how European public resources are being used to generate artificial consensus, marginalize dissent, and promote an integrationist ideology presented as neutral and inevitable. What emerges is a portrait of a largely co-opted “civil society,” a structurally dependent media, and an academia transformed into a vehicle for political legitimacy. This investigation raises fundamental questions about the state of democracy in Europe and the increasingly blurred lines between information, activism, and propaganda.

Thomas Fazi is a critically-acclaimed writer and journalist. His books include The Battle for Europe: How an Elite Hijacked a Continent — and How We Can Take It Back (Pluto Press, 2014), Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (co-authored with Bill Mitchell; Pluto Press, 2017) and The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor — A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green; 2023). His latest book, published in Italian, is The European Propaganda Machine: The Dark Side of NGOs, Media and Universities (2026). His articles have appeared in numerous online and printed publications. He is a columnist for the British magazine UnHerd and the American magazine Compact.

Episode music:

მინდა და ვთხრი - სმა

On today’s episode we sit down with Max from International Research Centre DDR (IFDDR) to discuss their excellent study on land reform and socialist agriculture in the German Democratic Republic (known globally by it’s German acronym the DDR - Deutsche Demokratische Republik):

The Land to Those Who Work It: From Land Reform to Socialist Agriculture in the DDR

Study description:

Within just 45 years, the conditions in the East German countryside changed fundamentally. This transformation took place in several stages.

The first stage (1945–1948) instituted a land reform that broke up the centuries-old land ownership structures in the countryside. This process of democratisation created the first framework for new relations of production based on cooperation. The second stage (1952–1960) was characterised by the Genossenschaftsbewegung (the cooperative movement), which was able to resolve the contradictions between modern technology and small-scale production in the interests of farmers and agricultural workers, without ruining, displacing, or subordinating them to the interests of big business, as occurs under capitalism. By the same token, the agricultural cooperatives also provided the rural population with previously unattained social and cultural rights and opportunities. The third and final stage (1970s–1980s), built on this foundation and saw the development of large agricultural production complexes and deepening cooperative relationships between the various stages of production, from primary production to processing and distribution.

Of all the changes in East Germany’s forty-year socialist history, the most revolutionary developments occurred in agriculture, as they were the most comprehensive.

International Research Centre DDR (IF DDR) is a research collective tht investigates the history of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and the societal changes it achieved. The DDR’s 40-year commitment to progress, peace, anti-fascism, anti-colonialism, and internationalism stands in sharp contrast to the history of capitalist West Germany and represents a wealth of knowledge for progressive movements seeking to tackle social challenges today.

IFDDR’s objective is to enrich current debates with historical experience. To do so, it examines and analyses the functioning of key sectors of the DDR’s socialist society: the planned economy, the health care system, the legal system, agriculture, education and so on. A critical appraisal of this history offers a deeper perspective on the fundamental possibilities and difficulties that arise when constructing alternative social, economic, and political models.

Read more about IFDDR here

Check out their studies here

Episode music:

შავი პრინცი და ბაბე - “დაკარგული გული”

On today’s episode we discuss Cold War liberalism with historian Daniel Bessner.

In the mid-twentieth century, Cold War liberalism exerted a profound influence on the US state, US foreign policy, and liberal thought across the North Atlantic world. The ideology transformed politics, society, and culture writ large. From impacting US foreign policy in the Middle East, to influencing the ideological contours of industrial society, to shaping the urban landscape of Los Angeles, Cold War liberalism left an indelible mark on modern history.

During the Cold War and through the US-led post-Cold War “unipolar” moment, Cold War liberalism and Neo-conservativism guided a messianic US foreign policy. In post-Soviet countries like Georgia and beyond these ideologies would have profound influence, the remnants, contradictions and consequences of which we can still see today.

Daniel Bessner is an Associate Professor in American foreign policy at the University of Washington. He co-hosts the podcast American Prestige and has published pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New Republic, The Nation, n+1, and other venues. He is the co-editor of Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency (2026)

Check out Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time Of Emergency here

Listen to the American Prestige podcast here
Episode music credits:
SVLA - ბნელი და ნათელი ღამეები

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZk_9uPWuXw

On today's podcast we welcome Ivan Katchanovski to discuss his most recent book The Russia-Ukraine War and its Origins: From the Maidan to the Ukraine War (2025) .

Ivan Katchanovski specializes in researching comparative politics, conflicts, political communication, and policy in Ukraine, the US, and Canada. He teaches at the School of Political Studies and the Conflict Studies and Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He previously held academic positions at Harvard University, the State University of New York at Potsdam, the University of Toronto, and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Open access to the book:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-98724-3

Book description:

This open access book examines the Russia-Ukraine war and its origins. Based on analysis of a large number of primary and secondary sources, it provides a systematic analysis of this crucial war, its nature, outcome, possibility of peaceful settlement, violence against civilians, and origins. The book examines the role of such factors as the NATO accession of Ukraine, Russian imperialism, democracy, genocide, and the far-right in the start of the war and traces the conflict escalation ladder, which culminated in this war, to preceding violent conflicts in Ukraine, in particular, the Euromaidan, the Maidan massacre, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the war in Donbas. The Russia-Ukraine war is the most significant armed conflict of the 21st century in the entire world and in Europe since World War Two in terms of countries involved, casualties inflicted, and actual and potential impact in the world. This book analyzes the involvement of different conflict parties, such as the Ukrainian, Russian, and Western governments, Donbas separatists, and the far right, in this crucial war and in the Euromaidan, the Maidan massacre, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the war in Donbas, and the nature of these conflicts. This book also examines support for pro-Western/pro-nationalist and pro-Russian/pro-communist political parties and presidential candidates and attitudes towards separatism and joining the European Union, NATO, and the union with Russia in regions of Ukraine in parliamentary and presidential elections and surveys since the Euromaidan.

After spending decades in Soviet and Western archives, historian Michael Jabara Carley has released a magnum opus three part trilogy on the Soviet diplomatic struggle - and ultimate failure - to create a defensive alliance and collective security arrangement against Nazi Germany in Europe in the years prior to the outbreak of World War 2.
On today’s episode we are joined by Michael Jabara Carley to discuss how Soviet diplomatic efforts for an anti-Nazi alliance failed, the intransigence of Western powers, what led to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact, the ultimate causes of World War 2, the uses and abuses of History today and much more.
Michael Jabara Carley is a professor of History at the Université de Montréal. His research and writing focuses on the history of the relations of the USSR with the western powers especially in the period from 1917 to 1945. His work has made wide reaching use of Soviet and European archives. His books include: Stalin’s Great Game: War and Neutrality, 1939-1941 (2025), Stalin’s Failed Alliance: The Struggle for Collective Security, 1936-1939 (2024), Stalin’s Gamble: The Search for Allies against Hitler, 1930-1936 (2023), Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations (2014).

On today’s episode, historian Mohamad Kadan takes us on a deep dive into the emergence of Marxism and Communist politics in Palestine in the early 20th century and immediately following the Nakba - the mass ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel.
Mohamad explores how questions of Palestinian anti-colonial struggle and self-determination, class, Marxist internationalism, nationalism, Zionism and imperialism shaped articulations of Marxism and on the ground Communist political organizing in Palestine.
Mohamad Kadan is a PhD student in History at Rice University, focusing on global histories of Palestinians, the communist movement, and settler colonialism.
His writing can be found here:
https://rice.academia.edu/MohamadKadan
For more reading on Communism in Palestine:
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/328-the-palestine-communist-party-1919-1948

https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/hls.2010.0103

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43997993
Episode image:
Palestinians raise their arms during an outdoor rally in Abou Ghosh in 1936, likely to vote to endorse the general strike that would become the longest in modern history. (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

On today’s episode we explore the emergence and development of Bolshevism in Georgia, from the Russian Empire-wide revolutionary moments of 1905 and 1917, through the era of Menshevik rule in the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921), to the establishment and first decade of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic 1921-1931.
In the discussion, we examine the local roots of Bolshevism in Georgia in the years prior to Sovietization in 1921, as well as the role of youth and youth organizations in pre-Soviet revolutionary processes and mobilizations as well as in early Soviet state and nation building in the Georgian SSR.
Our guest is Giorgi Beridze
Giorgi Beridze is a Doctor of Political Science and an invited lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. His doctoral research examined labour policy-making and the role of business elites in Georgia, with particular attention to transformations in policymaking following the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union in 2014.
His research interests include the history of the Marxist movement in Georgia, labour history, labour rights, Europeanization theory, biopolitics, and security studies. From 2023 to 2024, he served as Head of the Department for the Study of the Archives of the Democratic Republic and the Recent History of Georgia at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Library. During this period, his research focused on the history of Social Democracy and the Marxist movement in Georgia before, during, and after the Russian Revolution.
His work has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals, including Europe-Asia Studies, TalTech Journal of European Studies, and Revolutionary Russia. He is also the co-author of several books published in Georgian by Tbilisi State University Press, including works on the First Democratic Republic of Georgia, the history of the Marxist movement in Georgia, and the history of youth protest movements at Tbilisi State University.