Best The Kgb Podcast Series Podcasts (2025)

1
Scientific Atheism as an Ideological Discipline in Soviet Ukraine 51:35

28d ago51:35

51:35

Scientific Atheism as an Ideological Discipline in Soviet Ukraine by Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin, MadisonBy Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

1
Laurie Anderson, Emigre Culture, the KGB, and the Dream of Connecting: (Soviet) Latvian Artists in (West) Berlin, 1977-1992 44:01

1M ago44:01

44:01

About the Lecture: In this presentation, Karnes will talk about Maija Tabaka, who was the first Soviet citizen to be awarded the DAAD fellowship. Tabaka unwittingly opened doors to over a decade of artistic exchanges between Riga and West Berlin. She also provided an enduring model for arranging such collaborations, with offices of the Latvian KGB …

1
Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-hundred-year Quest to Dominate Ukraine 45:17

1M ago45:17

45:17

About the Lecture: In this book presentation, Finkel uncovers the deep roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Following the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, dominating Ukraine became the cornerstone of Russian policy. The Russian Empire, USSR and Putin’s Russia had long used violence to successfully crush Ukrainian efforts to chart…

1
“If not us, then who?”: Understanding Ukrainian Civilians’ Engagement in the War Effort Since February 2022 52:33

2M ago52:33

52:33

About the Lecture: Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, analysts and observers around the world were shocked and surprised that Ukraine did not fall in a matter of days or weeks. Instead people across the country resisted with both military and civilian means, halting the Russian advance. Surveys indicate that over 80…

1
Power and Possession in the Russian Revolution 56:31

3M ago56:31

56:31

[About the Lecture:] The revolutions of 1917 swept away not only Russia’s governing authority but also the property order on which it stood. The upheaval sparked waves of dispossession that rapidly moved beyond the seizure of factories and farms from industrialists and landowners, envisioned by Bolshevik revolutionaries, to penetrate the bedrock of…

1
Writing the Soviet History of Philosophy in the 1960s–1980s 47:16

4M ago47:16

47:16

About the Lecture: During the 70 years of its existence, the Soviet Union claimed to be a communist state based on the philosophical doctrines of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and, at the later stages, Vladimir Lenin. This made philosophy a mandatory course in every Soviet university and led to the creation of a peculiar version of the history of ph…

1
Mapping Land Use and Habitat Changes in the Caucasus Through Spy Satellite Data 41:48

6M ago41:48

41:48

About the lecture: The legacy of past human activities strongly shapes current landscapes and ecosystems, with today’s actions set to leave similar long-term impacts. Predicting future landscape changes, however, requires a thorough understanding of past ones, yet most land and habitat change studies are limited to recent decades—starting only in t…

1
Post-Protest “Misdemeanorland”: An Ethnography of Legal Repression and Legal Resistance in Russia 46:38

7M ago46:38

46:38

About the Lecture: The legal repression of opposition protests in pre-war Russia is characterized by the deployment of a bifurcated repressive system. This system relies, on the one hand, on “administrative” offenses and, on the other hand, on the criminal justice system to punish protesters. Following the demonstrators from the streets to the poli…

1
Rivers and Society in Late Soviet Georgia: Nation, the Environment and the Everyday 46:20

7M ago46:20

46:20

About the Lecture: Georgia’s 26,000 rivers connect citizens to nature, to their childhood, to their unique regions, each of which has its “mother-river.” The sounds of rushing water as well as the sights and scents of riverside gatherings provoke powerful memories and remain central to Georgian identity. Rivers also form the republic’s economic bac…

1
Estonia’s Nordic Identity: History and the Present 55:45

7M ago55:45

55:45

About the Lecture: The idea of Estonia as a Nordic country gained traction in the late 19th century alongside the rise of Estonian nationalism. As Germany and increasingly also Russia came to be perceived as historical adversaries of the Estonian nation, Sweden’s arguably benevolent influence on Estonia’s history in the 17th century ‘good old Swedi…

1
Russia’s War against Ukraine and The February 24th Archive Project 42:33

7M ago42:33

42:33

Solidarity Networking and Ukrainian Mental Maps: Russia’s War against Ukraine and The February 24th Archive ProjectAbout the Lecture: I am an East European intellectual and political historian by training, and a student of map prejudices by practice. For a digitally activist Ukraine, the February 24th Archive is a polyphonic treasure trove of solid…

1
“Reporting from a Lost Country,” a conversation with Elena Kostyuchenko 1:05:13

8M ago1:05:13

1:05:13

About the Lecture: This conversation will be devoted to Elena Kostyuchenko’s book I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country (2023), “a haunting book of rare courage,” as Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent, called it. In March 2022, as a correspondent for Russia’s last independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, Kostyuchenko crossed t…

1
Russian-Speaking Latvians at the Borders of Global History 53:53

8M ago53:53

53:53

About the lecture: In December 1989, in officially recognizing the authenticity of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s secret protocol, the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies evinced the hope that the globally divided historical consciousness of the Cold War would be replaced with a new conception of the past, reflecting “a whole and mutually interd…

1
Secrets of State 54:20

8M ago54:20

54:20

About the Lecture: The National Security Archive, based at George Washington University, has pioneered the use of the Freedom of Information Act to open classified U.S. files, and then to match those American primary sources with newly opened (and often now closed) archives in the former Soviet Union and countries of the Warsaw Pact. This presentat…

1
Writing the Twentieth Century in Post-Stalin Russia 50:07

9M ago50:07

50:07

About the lecture: This talk will offer an overview of Professor Shevelenko’s current book-length project and will focus on a few case studies. The book examines artistic and intellectual tendencies that shaped the thinking about the “age of extremes” (to use Eric Hobsbawm’s appellation for the twentieth century) during the late Soviet and post-Sov…

1
A Colonial Muslim History of China and the World 59:18

10M ago59:18

59:18

A Colonial Muslim History of China and the WorldThe Tarikh-i Ḥamidi of Mullah Musa Sayrami (1836–1917) is celebrated as a monument of Uyghur literature and the preeminent Muslim history of nineteenth-century Xinjiang (East Turkestan). Yet it is more than a chronicle — it is a history of the world as seen from the heart of Eurasia and an argument a…

1
The Formulation and Flow of National Identity from the Late Czarist Times to Today 1:14:10

10M ago1:14:10

1:14:10

From Moldova to Tajikistan, from Belarus to Uzbekistan: The Formulation and Flow of National Identity from the Late Czarist Times to TodayRiordan will explore the formulation of identity over the past 150 years in Moldova, Tajikistan, Belarus and Uzbekistan. Drawing on decades of on-the-ground work and research across all four countries, Riordan wi…

1
Power, Light and Yet Another Transition 48:21

10M ago48:21

48:21

The lecture will provide insight into the particular (and sometimes peculiar) challenges Central Asian states faced in their energy systems during the first 30 years of independence as they struggled to provide reliable energy at home and secure resource markets abroad. It will then turn to examine what the global transition away from fossil fuels …

1
Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond 46:28

1y ago46:28

46:28

Ostap Kin presented and read from his book, “Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond” on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the Lecture: On September 29 and 30, 1941, Nazis executed 33,771 Kyivan Jews in Babyn Yar. By the time the Soviet army recaptured Kyiv, the total number of people exterminated at t…

1
Russian Independent Media Archive Project 49:29

1y ago49:29

49:29

Anna Nemzer and Ilia Venyavkin presented on their work with the Russian Independent Media Archive Project on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the Lecture: In this joint presentation, journalist Anna Nemzer and historian Ilia Venyavkin will discuss the work of the Russian Independent Media Archiv…

1
Queer(ing) Art of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Emigration, 1890s—1940s 1:06:34

1y ago1:06:34

1:06:34

Pavel Golubev gave a lecture on, “Queer(ing) Art of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Emigration, 1890s—1940s” on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the Lecture:The Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia invites you to a lecture about the queer imagery in the art of Russia, and its co…

1
Do you suffer from urbanitis? Gender, cybernetics, and environmental concerns in 1970s Estonian SSR 50:10

1y ago50:10

50:10

Epp Annus gave a lecture on, “Do you suffer from urbanitis? Gender, cybernetics, and environmental concerns in the 1970s Estonian SSR” on Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the Lecture: On the cover of Aimée Beekman’s novel Valikuvõimalus (The Possibility of Choice, 1978) stands the figure of a…

1
Cryptotheology, Psychobiography: Transgression in Polish 20th-Century Theatre 44:02

1y ago44:02

44:02

Tamara Trojanowska gave a lecture on “Cryptotheology, Psychobiography: Transgression in Polish 20th-Century Theatre” on Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the Lecture: Tamara Trojanowska will present on her current research, which focuses on the intersections of 20th and 21st-century drama and t…

1
Between Horror and Hope 1:07:35

1y ago1:07:35

1:07:35

Natalia Kovyliaeva (Ph.D Candidate, University of Tartu) gave a lecture on "Between Horror and Hope: Feminist Anti-War Resistance and Opportunities for Mobilization in and Outside of Putin’s Russia" on Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the lecture: Since the start of the Russian full-scale inv…

1
Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society 43:14

1y ago43:14

43:14

Ann Komaromi (Professor in the Centre for Comparative Literature and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto) presented on her book, “Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society,” on Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the lecture: Komaromi will talk about the research …

1
Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World 45:41

1y ago45:41

45:41

Erik R. Scott (Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas) gave a lecture on "Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World" on Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the lecture: Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world’s attention…

1
Sonic Inscription, Soviet Writing, and Mikhail Romm’s Oral Stories with Matthew Kendall 47:07

1+ y ago47:07

47:07

Matthew Kendall (Assistant Professor in the Department of Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian Studies, University of Illinois-Chicago) will give a lecture on “Revolutions per Minute: Sonic Inscription, Soviet Writing, and Mikhail Romm’s Oral Stories” on Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.About the lecture…

1
After Violence: Russia’s Beslan School Massacre And The Peace That Followed 45:47

1+ y ago45:47

45:47

Debra Javeline (Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame) will present on her book, After Violence: Russia’s Beslan School Massacre and the Peace that Followed (Oxford University Press, 2023). Free and open to the public.About the lecture: Starting on September 1, 2004, and ending 53 hours later, Ru…

1
Intermarriage And The Friendship Of Peoples 52:52

1+ y ago52:52

52:52

Historian Adrienne Edgar (Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara) will present on her recent book, Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples: Ethnic Mixing in Soviet Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2022). Free and open to the public.About the lecture: In marked contrast to its Cold War rivals…

1
The Story Of Memorial And The Country's Failed Transition To The Rule Of Law 41:37

1+ y ago41:37

41:37

Lecture with Grigory Vaypan.Grigory traces the root causes of Russia’s war against Ukraine to the failure of the post-Soviet transitional justice project in the early 1990s. When the Soviet totalitarian regime collapsed, very little was done to confront its past crimes. Impunity for Soviet-era atrocities set the ground for persecution and abuse of …

1
Dungan Folktales & Legends: The Sino-Muslim Folkloric Narrative Tradition of Central Asia 42:30

2y ago42:30

42:30

Lecture with Professor Kenneth J. Yin.First migrating from northwest China to Russian Central Asia after the suppression of the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) under the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, the Dungan people boast a rich oral tradition, which served as an important breeding ground for the development of Dungan written literature in the Soviet period…

1
The Great Game and Migration of the 1950-60s from China to Kazakhstan with Dr. Ablet Kamalov 1:07:43

2y ago1:07:43

1:07:43

This presentation will focus on the migration of Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Russians and some other ethnic groups from Xinjiang province of China to Soviet Kazakhstan in the 1950-60s. Discussion of the migration based on analysis of the Soviet archival materials as well as oral histories of migrants will be put into the context of the Great Game paradigm, t…

1
Resilience in Ukraine: What We Know and What Can Be Done with Tymofii Brik 38:59

2y ago38:59

38:59

The talk focuses on the socio-economic consequences of the war and the factors contributing to the resilience of the Ukrainian people. Russia’s war against Ukraine has been ongoing for many years, and despite the challenges, the Ukrainian people have shown remarkable resilience in the face of adversity. The talk will highlight the factors that have…

1
A Spiritual Revolution: Reform and Reaction in Orthodox Russia with Andrey Ivanov 49:22

2y ago49:22

49:22

The ideas of the Protestant Reformation, followed by the European Enlightenment, had a profound and long-lasting impact on Russia’s church and society in the long eighteenth century. Though the Orthodox Church was often assumed to have been hostile toward outside influence, Ivanov’s recent book argues that the institution in fact embraced many West…

1
Political Participation of Women in the USSR and Russia with Valeria Umanets 48:31

2y ago48:31

48:31

What happens when women’s political quotas are implemented in non-democracies? Valeria Umanets focuses on understanding the political and social meaning and manipulation of gender in the Soviet Union, which held informal women’s political quotas for almost 75 years. Specifically, this talk focuses on the political engagement of women in the Soviet …

1
Shifting Rationality: How Identity Decay Led Russia to Invade Ukraine with Mikhail Troitskiy 40:35

2y ago40:35

40:35

The great puzzle of Russia-West relations throughout the three post-Cold War decades has been the apparent reluctance of the Kremlin to reap significant and evident benefits from collaboration with the United States and its allies. At many junctures, Moscow consistently chose confrontation over reassurance of its western counterparts and other key …

1
War, Revolution, and the Expansion of Women's Political Citizenship in Finland with Aili Tripp 40:32

2y ago40:32

40:32

Finland was the first country in Europe to allow for suffrage for both men and women and the first in the world where women were elected to national legislative office. Using turn of the 20th century Finland as an example, Professor Tripp will demonstrate how war and the end of empire are linked to the expansion of women's citizenship. (The lecture…

1
A War Vocabulary: Traumatic Experience and the Search for a New Language in Ukrainian Literature 59:43

2y ago59:43

59:43

The literature of the war against Ukraine testified to the profound changes that took place in the nature of Ukrainian artistic expression: from the loss of the very ability to speak, through the development of a new poetics of the voice and body, through literalism as the restoration of the connection between the word and reality and the rejection…

1
Power And Powerlessness In Wartime Russia with Sam Greene 48:08

2y ago48:08

48:08

Russia's war against Ukraine has brought about a radical restructuring of the Russian political economy, placing transformative ideology and outright coercion firmly at the heart of power. Despite this, the war and its consequences have produced remarkably little resistance. This discussion delves beyond the dynamics of coercion and ideology, to in…

1
Ukraine's Unnamed War - Jesse Driscoll (2.9.23) 52:44

2+ y ago52:44

52:44

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has its roots in the events of 2013–2014. Russia cynically termed the seditionist conflict in Crimea and Eastern Donbas a ‘civil war’ in order to claim non-involvement. This flies in the face of evidence, but the authors argue that the social science literature on civil wars can be used help understand why no…

1
The Russian Labor Market Story: Deciphering the Puzzles with Vladimir Gimpelson 1:02:22

2+ y ago1:02:22

1:02:22

How can the Russian economy, moving from one crisis to another one, avoid significant hikes in unemployment? How does human capital evolve when workers’ wages peak so early and then decline so steeply? How does a country so rich in human capital exhibit such low productivity? Vladimir Gimpelson suggests some explanations and proposes how examining …

1
The Biggest War Since 1945: Why and How Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Matters for European Security 48:22

2+ y ago48:22

48:22

Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine reverberates beyond Ukraine in a major way. The international order and law are blatantly violated. Energy corridors have been affected and food supply chains have been disrupted around the world. The very notion of the international community and its ability to react to aggression is being tested. Volodymyr Dub…

1
Pastoralism in Kazakhstan as Cultural Heritage or Sustainable Culture? - Russell Zanca 1:18:45

2+ y ago1:18:45

1:18:45

Humans have harnessed and selectively bred livestock in Kazakhstan for over 5,000 years. This lecture discusses the history and current practices of pastoralism in Kazakhstan, exploring the contemporary interaction shared among people, animals, and ecosystems and the advantages of incorporating ancient lifeways among those who herd livestock in Kaz…

1
Ukraine Now and Tomorrow - Yoshiko Herrera, Sara Karpukhin, and Oksana Stoychuk 59:50

2+ y ago59:50

59:50

Emerged from several courses taught by UW-Madison faculty this semester focusing on Ukraine, the panel addresses questions submitted by the students in these courses relating to the histories and cultures in the region, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. - SPEAKERS: Oksana Stoychuk (German, Nordic, and Slavic+), Sara Karpukhin (German, Nordic, an…

1
How Russia Joined the Council of Europe: The Role of Values, Politics, and Law - Jeff Kahn 43:45

2+ y ago43:45

43:45

The story of Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe now has a beginning, a middle, and an end. What can we learn about the values of this international organization from Russia’s participation in it? Was Russia’s membership “worth it”? Any attempted answer must produce more questions: from which perspective – Russia’s, the Council’s, other Me…

1
Re-colonization? Kyrgyzstani Labor Migrant Experiences in Russia and Geopolitical Remittances 56:17

2+ y ago56:17

56:17

with Ted Gerber (UW-Madison Professor of Sociology) - After Russia recovered from the economic woes of the 1990s, its government sought to maintain and expand its influence over former Soviet republics of Central Asia by opening the doors to large numbers of labor migrants from them. However, many accounts of the experiences of Central Asian labor …

1
Law and Visual Culture in Three Vignettes - Agata Fijalkowski 53:00

2+ y ago53:00

53:00

Dr. Fijalkowski explores the relationship between law and visual culture by looking at photographs of individuals (a dissident, a judge, and a prosecutor who were involved in high-profile trials during the Stalinist period. An image can hide and expose questions of legitimation and authority pertaining to Stalinist rule and how we view defendants, …

1
Making a Difference: Helping Ukrainian Refugees on the Ukraine-Poland Border 51:52

2+ y ago51:52

51:52

NOTE: This is a partial recording of a complete panel. The beginning of the panel was not recorded. - Panelists share their experiences volunteering to help Ukrainian refugees in border regions of Poland and Ukraine. This panel features Kari Anderson (University of Wisconsin-Madison alumna, Head of Operations for Operation SafeDrop of the Make a Di…

1
The Russian 1990s and Soviet Writers: Market, Marginalization, and Decay in Peredelkino 49:49

2+ y ago49:49

49:49

Russians today often remember the “Wild 1990s” as a time of chaos, impoverishment and disorientation. Through the lens of the privileged Writers’ Town, which had been built under Stalin and once been home to Isaac Babel, Boris Pasternak and Kornei Chukovskii among others, we can see how marketization and the collapse of socialist support systems le…

1
Sovereign Fiction: The Poetics and Politics of Russian Realism 53:04

2+ y ago53:04

53:04

Dr. Ilya Kliger outlines an approach to the study of “sociotopes” in narrative fiction and beyond. Defining sociotopes as specific configurations of sociality, presupposing and projecting diverse scenarios and normative principles of affiliation and detachment, Professor Kliger takes as his case study the emblematic and consequential moment in the …

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