The Eurasian Knot

Guest:

Eileen Kane is an Associate Professor of History at Connecticut College where she specializes in empires, migrations, religion and historical connections between the Russian and Ottoman empires. She’s the author of Russian Hajj: Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca.

Music:

The Roots, “Adrenaline!” Things Fall Apart, 1999.

Guest:

Barbara Allen is an associate professor of history at La Salle University where she specializes in the Russian revolutionary movement and the early Soviet regime. Her research interests include the history of working-class opposition to the Soviet Communist Party’s dictatorship. Her most recent book is Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885-1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik which was just released in paperback.

Music:

John Lennon, “Working Class Hero,” John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, 1970.

Guest:

Andrei Tsygankov is a Professor in the departments of Political Science and International Relations at San Francisco State University where he teaches Russian/post-Soviet, comparative and international politics. His most recent book is Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity.

Music:

The Heptones, “Message from a Black Man,” Studio One Soul, 2001.

Guest:

Ryan McCarrel is a Ph.D. Candidate at University College Dublin’s School of Geography where he focuses on geopolitics, borders and world (dis)order. He’s written articles for Foreign Affairs, The Diplomat, Eurasia.net and blogs at the Accidental Geographer. His most recent article in Foreign Affairs is “The United Nations and Sexual Abuse: Why Peacekeeping Reform Has Failed.”

Music:

Midnight Movies, “Persimmon Tree,” Midnight Movies, 2004.

For good information on Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Ryan McCarrel recommends the following:

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Onnik James Krikorian

Open Democracy RU

Global Voices

Safe Soldiers Project

Black Garden by Thomas de Waal

Meydan.tv

Guest:

Mark Schrad is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Villanova University. He’s the author of Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State, which was just released in paperback.

Music:

Beastie Boys, “Brass Monkey,” Licensed to Ill, 1986.

Guest:

Mark Schrad is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Villanova University. He’s the author of Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State, which was just released in paperback.

Music:

Beastie Boys, “Brass Monkey,” Licensed to Ill, 1986.

Guest:

Svetlana Stephenson is a Reader in Sociology at London Metropolitan University. Her research has involved studying informal and criminal social networks in Russia as well as perceptions of social justice and human rights in a comparative context. She is the author of Gangs of Russia, From the Streets to the Corridors of Power  published by Cornell University Press in 2015.

Music:

N.W.A, “Straight Outta Compton,” Straight Outta Compton, 1988 (clean version, unfortunately).

Guest:

Doug Rogers is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Yale University where he specializes in sociocultural anthropology of socialist societies and their postsocialist trajectories. He’s the author of The Depths of Russia: Oil, Power, and Culture After Socialism.

Music:

Newtown Neurotics, “When the Oil Runs Out,” 1980.

Guest:

Kiril Tomoff is a professor of history at the University of California Riverside where he specializes in the history of Soviet music and its place in Soviet culture and society. His first book Creative Union: The Professional Organization of Soviet Composers, 1939-1953 provides the first ever in-depth analysis of the professional organization of Soviet composers during the Stalin period. His new book is Virtuosi Abroad: Soviet Music and Imperial Competition During the Early Cold War, 1945-1958.

Music:

David Oistrakh, Dvorak Violin Concerto with Kirill Kondrashin and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, 1949.

David  Oistrakh, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Eugene Ormandy’s Philadelphia Orchestra in 1959.

Gidon Kremer, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Strings in D minor with Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Philharmonic in 1976.

Sviatoslav Richter, Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.1 in F sharp minor, Op.1, 1955.

Guest:

Balazs Jarabik is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where his research focuses on Ukraine and Eastern Europe. His most recent article is “Reform and Resistance: Ukraine’s Selective State.”

Music:

Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean,” Thriller, 1982.