Shows
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 63: Border Delimitation in the Early Soviet Union with Stephan RindlisbacherOn today’s episode we discuss internal border delimitation in the early Soviet Union. Our discussion covers a wide geography - from Central Asia to the South Caucasus to the Ukrainian-Russia borderlands. How did internal borders get delimited after the establishment of Soviet power in the 1920s and 30s? What role did borders play in nation building? And how do economic factors shape the border delimitation process?Our guest today is Stephan Rindlisbacher author of the book Borders in Red: Managing Diversity in the Early Soviet Unionhttps://www.cornellpress.cornell.ed...
2025-12-231h 05
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 62: Afghanistan, Anti-Imperial Modernity and the Soviet Union with Adam AlimiOn today's episode we discuss Afghan communism and the consequences of the 1978 Saur Revolution in the context of a longer story of Afghan anti-imperial modernity and Soviet-Afghan relations.How and why was the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan different from interventions by other powers in the country? How do analyses of the 1979 Soviet invasion that center the “empire” framework limit our understanding of the history of Afghan anti-imperial modernity, Soviet-Afghan relations and Afghanistan’s place in the world?Our guest is Adam Alimi and we use his article ”Beyond Empire: Why the Soviet invasion (and withdrawal) of Afghanistan was diff...
2025-12-041h 10
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 61: Far-Right Nationalism, Memory Politics and Ukraine with Per RudlingOn today’s episode we explore the role of the historical Ukrainian far-right, specifically the Nazi-collaborationist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, in the development of post-Soviet Ukraine’s national memory regime. In particular we address a paradox - how did these far right political formations and their historical narratives, despite limited and regionally specific popularity, assume disproportionate influence on Ukraine’s post-Soviet national-memory regime since 1991? What role did the far right nationalist diaspora play? And how do the Russia-Ukraine War as well as the broader normalization of ethno-nationalism in politics and academia reinforce far right memory...
2025-11-131h 29
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 60: Soviet Development Assistance to Ghana, Guinea and Mali 1955-1968 with Alessandro IandoloDuring the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union began a new era of political engagement with the global south. One feature was development assistance. The Soviet Union embodied, offered and inspired an alternative approach to development, industrialization and modernization across the global south. Countries such as Ghana, Guinea and Mali in the 1950s-60s were governed by nationalists, not Marxists or Communists, and were newly independent from European imperial-colonial control.Soviet specialists assessed the difficult conditions of these post-colonial countries as opening a path for “non-capitalist” development: state led modernization. As opposed to a Western promoted primacy of mark...
2025-10-3159 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 59: The Soviet Red Cross, Socialist Humanitarianism and India with Severyan DyakonovIn the 1950s, the Soviet Red Cross gained positions in the governing bodies of the International League of the Red Cross, supported by newly established Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in the decolonizing world. Seeking to shape public opinion abroad, it established medical and research facilities in Algeria, Ethiopia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Cambodia. The Soviet Red Cross also had a presence in India, where Soviet doctors practiced medicine, published research in Indian journals, and trained future Indian doctors. Notably, most Soviet doctors were women, an unprecedented phenomenon in the 1950s. The USSR sought to redefine humanitarianism, shifting...
2025-10-171h 01
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 58: Socialist Feminism in Post-WW2 East Central Europe with Adela HîncuWe sit down with Adela Hîncu, historian and editor of the volume Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights East Central Europe, Second Half of the Twentieth Century (2024) to discuss feminist thought in post World War 2 socialist East Central Europe.Book description:A compendium of one hundred sources, preceded by a short author’s bio and an introduction, this volume offers an English language selection of the most representative texts on feminism and women’s rights from East Central Europe between the end of the Second World War and the early 1990s. While...
2025-09-191h 02
Ten-Minute Top TenReforming School Staffing Models to Improve Educator Satisfaction and Well-BeingIn episode 17 of the Georgia Partnership's Ten-Minute Top Ten podcast, Tara Anderson shares how ERS, a Boston-based consulting firm, help state and district leaders rethink how they staff schools. The episode’s focus on school staffing and teacher quality aligns with the content covered in Issue 6 of the Top Ten Issues to Watch in 2025. For more on this topic, download the 2025 edition of the Top Ten Issues to Watch. Check out these additional resources. Reimagining the Teaching Job Teacher Turnover Trends Finding Time for Collaborative Planning
2025-09-1714 min
Catch Ups In My KitchenE.168 Solo Episode: The Biggest Lesson's I've Learned Through Starting A Business In my kitchen this week, I’m sharing a highly requested solo episode all about business — specifically the lessons I’ve learned from starting my very first venture, Greedy Vegan, and how those experiences have shaped my approach to building my second business, Healthy Habits.Starting a business is never a straight line — it’s a journey filled with challenges, reflections, and plenty of learnings. Closing one business and beginning again with another has shifted my perspective in so many ways, and in this episode, I’m opening up about the key takeaways that continue to guide me.
2025-09-0221 min
The ChatterboxEpisode 56: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism with Jessica Whyte Podcast: Reimagining Soviet Georgia (LS 36 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: Episode 56: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism with Jessica WhytePub date: 2025-07-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationWhat is the relationship between "human rights" and neoliberalism? How deeply are contemporary ideas, ideals, and visions of "human rights" influenced by neoliberalism? What can early theorists and ideologues of neoliberalism tell us about Cold War and post-Cold War uses of human rights discourse in international organizations and governance? And what are the implications of...
2025-08-181h 13
The AuthoricastThe Center of It All: Transforming a LandmarkIn this episode of The Authoricast, we take a look across the street from GWCC to explore The Center, the ambitious reimagining of the former CNN Center, now owned and operated by CP Group, who acquired the property in 2021. Guests Amanda Hendricks and Ryan Howard share how the team is honoring the building’s iconic […]
2025-08-1126 minThe AuthoricastThe Center of It All: Transforming a LandmarkIn this episode of The Authoricast, we take a look across the street from GWCC to explore The Center, the ambitious reimagining of the former CNN Center, now owned and operated by CP Group, who acquired the property in 2021. Guests Amanda Hendricks and Ryan Howard share how the team is honoring the building’s iconic […]
2025-08-1126 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 57: A Global History of Greek Communism with Nikos MarantzidisOn today’s episode we discuss how international and regional communist parties and actors influenced the political development of the Greek Communist Party between 1918-1956, with a special focus on the Soviet Union and the Balkans. Our guest Nikos Marantzidis published his book Under Stalin’s Shadow: A Global History of Greek Communism in 2023.Book description:Under Stalin's Shadow examines the history of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1918 to 1956, showing how closely national Communism was related to international developments. The history of the KKE reveals the role of Moscow in the various Communist parties of South...
2025-08-111h 31
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 56: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism with Jessica WhyteWhat is the relationship between "human rights" and neoliberalism? How deeply are contemporary ideas, ideals, and visions of "human rights" influenced by neoliberalism? What can early theorists and ideologues of neoliberalism tell us about Cold War and post-Cold War uses of human rights discourse in international organizations and governance? And what are the implications of it all for a country like Georgia which experienced radical neoliberal reforms and state-economy building in the post-Soviet period? On today's episode we sit down with Jessica Whyte to discuss her 2019 book, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights...
2025-07-161h 13
Her GuideHer Guide to her Child's Financial Prosperity with Simone Mercer-HugginsInspiring mother, investor, educator, and Ms Wealthy founder Simone Mercer-Huggins joins Georgia and Katie on Her Guide to break down how women can start investing, no matter their experience or income level. While many of our episodes focus on the reproductive and maternal journey, we believe true empowerment also means supporting women in all areas of life, including finances. Whether you're planning for a baby, returning to work, or reimagining your future, this episode is filled with practical insights.DisclaimerThis episode discusses finances for informational purposes only and is not intended...
2025-06-2337 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 55: Soviet History, the Left and the Crisis of Liberalism with Alex MarshallIn this wide reaching discussion, we sit down with historian Alex Marshall. Using his own works such as "The Caucasus under Soviet Rule" (2010) and the edited volume "Global Impacts of Russia's Great War and Revolution: The Arc of Revolution, 1917-24" (2019) as jumping off points, we discuss everything from how Soviet history is written and persistent historiographic debates, to why the Soviet past is still relevant to the left and how current political shifts influence how questions about the Soviet Union are asked and why. Framing the whole discussion is liberalism's terminal crisis, and what this means for history writing...
2025-06-181h 23
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 54: The 1936 Stalin Constitution and Participatory Politics in the Soviet Union with Samantha LombOn today's episode we explore the ins and outs of the 1936 Soviet Constitution - also known as the "Stalin Constitution" - how it was written, what it guaranteed, what led to its drafting, how it affected life in the USSR as well as the social, political and economic contexts surrounding its drafting. We pay particular attention to how the tensions between central authority in Moscow, regional actors and popular sovereignty created a unique context for the practice and development of Soviet democracy, federalism and constitutionalism, complicating black and white narratives of Soviet political centralization.
2025-06-111h 00
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 53: Soviet Housing and its Afterlives in Georgia with Levan AsabashviliOn today's episode we welcome architect and researcher Levan Asabashvili to discuss the emergence and development of public housing in the Georgian SSR and what happened to Georgia's housing stock after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We also explore how Soviet-wide architectural trends in different periods (early Soviet, Stalinist, post-World War 2) manifested in the Georgian SSR and how architecture aligned with ideology, economics and nationhood, with special attention to housing in the Georgian case. We also discuss the role housing played in the emergence of the Soviet middle classes in the late Soviet...
2025-05-281h 16
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 52: Global Order, Geopolitics and Neutrality with Georgian Characteristics with Richard SakwaOn today's episode we examine how broader shifts in the global order, globalization and geopolitical trends since the end of the Cold War led to the current European security crisis and political context for the Russo-Ukraine War. We also explore how this context shapes Georgia's geopolitical and security environment, and is sowing the seeds for more open discussions about what geopolitical neutrality and explicit multi-vectorism could mean for Georgia. With guest co-host Beka Natsvlishvili, we welcome Richard Sakwa on to Reimagining Soviet Georgia. ...
2025-05-141h 20
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 51: Reflections on Soviet History with Sheila FitzpatrickSince the 1970s, historian Sheila Fitzpatrick has made invaluable contributions to our understanding of the Soviet Union. As a key figure in the "revisionist school" of Soviet history, Fitzpatrick along with other historians opposed entrenched Cold War era narratives about the USSR including (but not limited to) the "totalitarian thesis". Fitzpatrick in particular added texture and complexity in her studies of the Soviet Union by focusing on social history, perspectives "from below" and daily life as well as social and economic advancement & upward mobility during Stalinism. On today's episode, we welcome Sheila Fitzpatrick on as a guest to reflect...
2025-04-161h 09
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 50: US Labor Unions, Anti-Communism and the Global Cold War with Jeff SchuhrkeOn today's episode we discuss the book Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade with author Jeff Schuhrke. Blue-Collar Empire explores how the CIA used American unions to undermine workers at home and subvert democracy abroad through the shocking story of the AFL-CIO’s global anticommunist crusade—and its devastating consequences for workers around the world.Unions have the power not only to secure pay raises and employee benefits but to bring economies to a screeching halt and overthrow governments. Recognizing this, in the late twentieth centu...
2025-04-011h 30
Talking FashionTalking Designing For The Met Gala and More with Tanner FletcherTanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell of Tanner Fletcher join Georgia on Talking Fashion for a conversation on redefining modern nostalgia through their genderless designs. They dive into the inspirations behind their collections, from vintage interiors to 1950's influences, and share the creative risks that have shaped their brand’s rise in the New York fashion scene. With behind-the-scenes stories, their take on the future of fashion, and a peek at what’s next, this episode is a must-listen for anyone inspired by bold creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and the power of reimagining tradition.
2025-03-2049 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 49: History & Anti-Communism with Stefan GužvicaWriting histories of communism and "really existing socialism" have been fraught with political tension for decades. On the one hand, sectarian debates in the global left too often overlooked the nuances of really existing socialism and cutting edge academic research in order to align with specific ideological orientations. On the other hand, and far more consequential, Cold War-era anti-communism (and the collapse of the Soviet Union that followed) engendered generations of historians - both professional and not - with an implicit hostility to communism as an intellectual starting point. While many historians have directly...
2025-03-191h 07
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 48: Marxism and Academia in Soviet Georgia with Bakar BerekashviliAfter World War 2, during the period of developed socialism, a rich ecosystem of Marxist intellectuals and academics emerged in the Georgian SSR. Universities and scientific institutes in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Telavi, and Batumi were home to sociologists, philosophers, anthropologists, historians and other academics who took part in Soviet wide and international discussions and debates on different aspects of Marxist theory or Marxist inspired academic research.
Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, this "lost pantheon" of Georgian Marxism has been politically undermined, intellectually marginalized and socially forgotten. But who were these Soviet Georgian Marxists? What...
2025-02-071h 24
Guerrilla HistoryPost-Soviet Georgia History, and Today's Events w/ Sopo JaparidzeIn this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Georgian labor union leader and writer Sopo Japaridze to run through post-Soviet Georgia's history to help us understand the events that are unfolding today! This is a critical discussion that hopefully will be of use to many of you who find yourself not knowing as much about Georgia as you wish you did, and will allow you to understand the ongoing events much better. We certainly found quite a bit of value in this episode, and look forward to bringing Sopo back to discuss the history of Soviet Georgia in the fu...
2025-01-172h 06
The Eurasian KnotGeorgia in CrisisGuest: Bryan Gigantino, co-host of the podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia, on the context and causes for the current political crisis in Georgia.The post Georgia in Crisis appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2024-11-181h 00
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 47: EU Referendum and Elections in Moldova with Vitalie SprînceanăOn October 20th 2024, Moldova held a presidential election and a referendum, supposedly on the question of integration into the EU. The referendum passed with a slight majority – 50.35% vs 49.65%. Two rounds of a presidential election were also held in the country, with the EU favored candidate Maia Sandu winning.
While many observers have interpreted the results as indicative of the country being divided between a pro-EU and pro-Russian faction and Russia’s meddling in the elections, the situation is far more complex.
Vitalie Sprînceană is a sociologist, journalist and urban activist based in Chi...
2024-11-071h 12
PLATZFORMAPodcast PLATZFORMA: Episode 4. Sopo Japaridze about the elections in GeorgiaOn Saturday, october 26th, parliamentary elections were held in Georgia. The ruling party, the Georgian Dream, has won the elections, accumulating around 53 -54 % of the vote. The opposition claims that there has been massive fraud of the vote, both before the elections and on the Election day. Tens of thousands of Georgians gathered outside the parliament on Monday night, demanding the annulment of the parliamentary election, which, according to the president of the country was rigged with the help of Russia.
Here to talk about the situation in Georgia is Sopo Japaridze. Sopo is a rese...
2024-11-0456 min
New Books with Miranda MelcherGeorgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Georgia Henley considers how Welsh (and British) history became an enduringly potent instrument of political power in the late Middle Ages.Brought into the broader stream of political consciousness by major baronial families from the March (the borderlands between England and Wales), this inventive history generated a new brand of literature interested in succession, land rights, and the origins of im...
2024-11-0143 min
New Books in Literary StudiesGeorgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Georgia Henley considers how Welsh (and British) history became an enduringly potent instrument of political power in the late Middle Ages.Brought into the broader stream of political consciousness by major baronial families from the March (the borderlands between England and Wales), this inventive history generated a new brand of literature interested in succession, land rights, and the origins of im...
2024-11-0145 min
New Books in British StudiesGeorgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Georgia Henley considers how Welsh (and British) history became an enduringly potent instrument of political power in the late Middle Ages.Brought into the broader stream of political consciousness by major baronial families from the March (the borderlands between England and Wales), this inventive history generated a new brand of literature interested in succession, land rights, and the origins of im...
2024-11-0145 min
New Books in Intellectual HistoryGeorgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Georgia Henley considers how Welsh (and British) history became an enduringly potent instrument of political power in the late Middle Ages.Brought into the broader stream of political consciousness by major baronial families from the March (the borderlands between England and Wales), this inventive history generated a new brand of literature interested in succession, land rights, and the origins of im...
2024-11-0145 min
New Books in Western European StudiesGeorgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Georgia Henley considers how Welsh (and British) history became an enduringly potent instrument of political power in the late Middle Ages.Brought into the broader stream of political consciousness by major baronial families from the March (the borderlands between England and Wales), this inventive history generated a new brand of literature interested in succession, land rights, and the origins of im...
2024-11-0145 min
New Books in Medieval HistoryGeorgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Georgia Henley considers how Welsh (and British) history became an enduringly potent instrument of political power in the late Middle Ages.Brought into the broader stream of political consciousness by major baronial families from the March (the borderlands between England and Wales), this inventive history generated a new brand of literature interested in succession, land rights, and the origins of im...
2024-11-0143 minThe CosmopolitanEpisode 45: Georgia's Neoliberal Lock-in with Tato Khundadze Podcast: Reimagining Soviet Georgia (LS 36 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: Episode 45: Georgia's Neoliberal Lock-in with Tato KhundadzePub date: 2024-10-17Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationGeorgia’s trade dynamics with the EU have not improved, even though it signed a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) in 2014. The Georgian export basket deteriorated qualitatively since that time. Specifically, Georgia’s export basket sophistication has decreased, and the share of low-tech and resource-based products has
increased. Moreover, Georgia’s exports to the EU have become mo...
2024-10-291h 17
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 46: Anti-Soviet Memory Politics in Georgia with Beka NatsvlishviliSince the collapse of the USSR and Georgia's independence in 1991, anti-soviet memory politics have played an intractable role in Georgian politics. On the one hand, they are a rhetorical allegory without limits - nearly anything and everything negative can be associated with the soviet past. Yet on the other hand, they also played a crucial role in nation building, becoming especially institutionalized after the 2003 Rose Revolution. In the lead up to the parliamentary elections on October 26th 2024, politicians still make regular reference to the USSR. But where do anti-soviet memory politics in Georgia come from? Why do they persist...
2024-10-241h 25
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 45: Georgia's Neoliberal Lock-in with Tato KhundadzeGeorgia’s trade dynamics with the EU have not improved, even though it signed a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) in 2014. The Georgian export basket deteriorated qualitatively since that time. Specifically, Georgia’s export basket sophistication has decreased, and the share of low-tech and resource-based products has
increased. Moreover, Georgia’s exports to the EU have become more concentrated.
Georgia's economy is marked by jobless growth, deindustrialization and other unyielding structural weaknesses. How and why did Georgia find itself in this "neoliberal lock in"? And what does the DCFTA have to do with i...
2024-10-171h 17
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 44: War, Class and Economy in Ukraine with Peter KorotaevOn today's episode we discuss how Ukraine's market oriented war economy is affecting the population, war time class divisions, post-Soviet Ukraine's economic development and how History and memory politics fit into the picture. Our guest to discuss all this and more is Peter Korotaev.
Peter Korotaev is a researcher who has worked on class dynamics and war for Jacobin, Arena and The Canada Files. He writes regularly at Events in Ukraine.
https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/
2024-10-091h 32
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 43: Life on the Left with Helena SheehanHelena Sheehan has spent decades involved in working class and Left struggles across the globe. She is an accomplished writer and academic who never lost or loses sight of her Marxist convictions. Her life brought her from America, as a devout Catholic entering the convent, to embracing revolutionary Marxism and participating in the Irish Republican struggle and the global communist movement. She also explains what it was like to visit the Soviet Union as a communist living in Ireland.
In this episode we discuss her life in the global left, the development of her...
2024-09-271h 12
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 42: Soviet Anti-Colonialism & the East with Masha KirasirovaOn today's episode, we discuss The Eastern International: Arabs, Central Asians, and Jews in the Soviet Union's Anticolonial Empire with the book's author, historian Masha Kirasirova
Book description:
"In the first few years after the Russian Revolution, an ideological project coalesced to link the development of what Stalin demarcated as the internal "East"--primarily Central Asia and the Caucasus--with nation-building, the overthrow of colonialism, and progress toward socialism in the "foreign East"--the Third World. Support for anti-colonial movements abroad was part of the Communist Party platform and shaped Soviet foreign policy...
2024-09-031h 25
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 41: Europe, Memory and the Resurgent Right with David BroderThis is a special TWO PART episode with Historian and Jacobin Europe editor David Broder.
In Part I (recorded July 10th 2024), we discuss recent European Parliamentary and French election results, how both the right and left fared in the outcome, and the implications of these results for Europe, EU expansion and more.
In Part II (starts at 50:45), through a discussion of David's 2023 book Mussolini's Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy we explore how the current right wing political imagination in Italy and Europe at large are mobilized through historical memory...
2024-07-122h 22
Then AgainReimagining the Columbus MuseumEpisode Notes
In this episode, Libba chats with Kristen Hudson and Rebecca Bush from The Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia. They engage in a great discussion about the city of Columbus, the starts of their careers in the museum field, the founding of The Columbus Museum in 1953 and the exciting new renovations and exhibits currently on display.
Kristen Hudson is the Director of Marketing and Public Relations at The Columbus Museum.
Rebecca Bush is the Curator of History and Exhibitions Manager at The Columbus Museum.
If you would like to learn...
2024-05-3139 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 40: Baku Oil, Bolsheviks and Sovietization in the South Caucasus with Sara BrinegarOn this episode we discuss how Baku oil shaped Bolshevism, Sovietization, and the structuring of the Soviet state between 1920-1929 in the South Caucasus. Our guest is Sara Brinegar, historian and author of the book Power and the Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus: Periphery Unbound 1920-1929.
Book description and author bio below:
The book shows how the politics of oil intersected with the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus; it reveals how the Soviets cooperated and negotiated with the local elite, rather than merely subsuming...
2024-05-301h 12
Actually Existing SocialismRemembering Soviet Georgia's Healthcare w/ Sopo JaparidzeIn this episode we'll be discussing Sopo's article on Jacobin entitled "How Free-Market Ideologues Dismantled Health Care in Post-Soviet Georgia". In doing so we will be talking about not only her memories of Soviet Georgia, but the memories of her family members and Georgian workers, doctors and nurses. We delve into the origins of the soviet socialist healthcare system, its operations, its historic outcomes, as well as its catastrophic dismantling in the 1990s. Sopiko Japaridze is cofounder of Georgia's Solidarity Network, an independent union. She has been a labor and community organizer in the United States and...
2024-05-2151 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 39: Georgia's Chronic Crisis with Anatol Lieven and Almut RochowanskiThis episode was recorded on May 8th/9th 2024 - the situation is still unfolding.
A political crisis is currently underway in Georgia. Sparked by the ruling Georgian Dream party's proposed law on the "transparency of foreign influence", the stand off between the government, NGOs, protestors - both those of the formal opposition and not - and even some within the European Union, has deeper roots and a far from clear trajectory.
Today's episode begins with an outline of the tensions surrounding the proposed law, some informative aspects of Georgia's...
2024-05-101h 12
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 38: Post-Socialist Mortality Crisis with Gabor ScheiringThe collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union unleashed an unprecedented mortality crisis. In the years following, the region endured upwards of 7.5 million excess (and thus preventable) deaths. This post-socialist mortality crisis was not only the result of the economic devastation and social fracturing caused by socialism's end, but was exacerbated by the political-economic commitment to market orthodoxy and austerity of post-socialist elites, leading to wide spread socio-economic, physical and mental immiseration.
On today's episode we welcome Gábor Scheiring to discuss how this post-socialist mortality crisis emerged, its political implications f...
2024-04-251h 27
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 37: Georgian Film, Emigration and Post Soviet Life with Levan KoguashviliOne of Georgia's most exciting contemporary filmmakers is Levan Koguashvili. His films are as comedic as they are tragic, focusing on the intricacies (both beautiful and heartbreaking) of the day to day struggles Georgians live through today.
In this discussion, we explore Levan's approach to filmmaking, stories behind the scripts, and the way his films reflect economic and social realities both in Georgia and of those Georgians who have emigrated abroad.
Levan is a film director from Tbilisi and his films include Brighton 4th (2021), Gogitas New Life (2016), Blind Dates (2013...
2024-04-121h 09
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 36: Tea Production in Soviet Georgia with Camille NeufvilleOn today's episode we discuss the emergence of the Georgian tea industry and how its development interacted with processes of economic, political and national consolidation in the first decades of the Georgian SSR.
Our guest is Camille Neufville. Camille is a PhD student at Strasbourg university, France. She is interested in the entangled histories of exotic commodities, their production and consumption in northern Eurasia. She's currently writing her PhD on tea consumption and tea production in Imperial and Soviet Georgia. Her main research questions include land and labor issues, the limits of state control...
2024-03-201h 02
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 35: Dollarization in Georgia with Ia EradzeOn today's episode we sit down with political economist Ia Eradze to discuss how extreme rates of dollarization in Georgia emerged after the Soviet Union's demise, why dollarization persists, as well as how the dominance of neoliberal economic policies and exclusion of socio-economic issues from the public and political discourse in post-Soviet Georgia came to be.
Below is a description of Eradze's 2023 book Unraveling Dollarization Persistence: The Case of Georgia followed by a link to an article which summarizes the book's main arguments:
The book engages with the persistence...
2024-02-281h 14
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 34: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution with Vincent BevinsOn today's episode we sit down with journalist and author Vincent Bevins to discuss his recent book If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. This wide reaching conversation reviews the main themes and topics of his book, and the broader political lessons and reflections that the global social movements between 2010-2020, with an emphasis on those outside of the global North, can provide today.
Here's a description of If We Burn
"From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human...
2024-02-141h 56
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 33: Vacations, Sanatoria and the Soviet Dream with Diane P. KoenkerOn today's episode we sit down with historian Diane P. Koenker to discuss the history, development and role of vacations, sanatoria and leisure in the Soviet Union.
Koenker is the author of the 2013 study on the topic, Club Red: Vacation, Travel and the Soviet Dream
2024-02-011h 13
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 32: The Communist Party and the Making of the Soviet System with Yiannis KokosalakisOn today's episode we sit down with historian Yiannis Kokosalakis to discuss his new book Building Socialism: The Communist Party and the Making of the Soviet System 1921-1941
Book description:
"By placing the party grassroots at the centre of its focus, Building Socialism presents an original account of the formative first two decades of the Soviet system. Assembled in a large network of primary party organisations (PPO), the Bolshevik rank-and-file was an army of activists made up of ordinary people. While far removed from the levers of power, they...
2023-12-211h 21
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 31: Socialist & Capitalist Healthcare with Ana Vračar and Matthew ReadOn today's episode we put the specific yet shared experiences of healthcare systems in Socialist Yugoslavia, the German Democratic Republic and the Georgian SSR into conversation. Through the discussion we bring to light both the similarities and differences in three distinct forms of socialism, as well as how the transition to capitalism dramatically changed health and healthcare in each society.
Our guests are:
Ana Vračar is a Zagreb based researcher and activist with the People's Health Movement and the Organization for Worker's Initiative and Democratization. She researches healthcare i...
2023-12-091h 49
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 30: Anti-Colonial Bolshevik Historiography with Alexey GolubevIn the 1920s and 1930s, Bolshevik historians actively took part in building Soviet socialism. As militant scholars, one of their main tasks was (broadly speaking) to reconceptualize and rearticulate the history of the political entity they had just overthrown - the Russian Empire.
The multinational Bolsheviks were not only committed to building a socialist state, but believed this must be done through the dismantling of what Lenin called the Russian "prison house of nations". Writing History was a critical tool in this process. Through the analytical lens of Marxism and a political commitment to...
2023-11-011h 22
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 29: Western Marxism & Anti-Communism with Gabriel RockhillThe history of Marxism in the 20th century, both as a means to interpret the world and as the basis of a politics to transform it, is marked by a profound intellectual and political diversity. Some of this can be attributed to individuals and their specific readings of Marx's thought. Yet other forms of Marxism - such as that which emerged in the global South during the era of decolonization - can trace their origins to particular applications of Marx's ideas and Marxist predecessors (such as Lenin), as well as the historical experience of really existing socialist states to...
2023-10-121h 00
PinPoint: a podcast from the Georgia Council on Developmental DisabilitiesReimagining Accessibility: An Interview w/ WheelChariotIn today’s episode we’re going deep into a new, accessibility-focused company called WheelChariot. Here’s the skinny: it’s a Yelp-style reviewing website built entirely around the accessibility of different businesses, from physical barriers to entry through over-stimulating environments. I am personally fascinated by this idea, and I love the way it engages the disability community in a non-intrusive but still very impactful way. My co-producer Laura and I had a conversation with WheelChariot’s founders, Tori Stopford and Gabriel Jones, who originally conceived their business idea in a business class they were taking at Georgia Tec...
2023-08-241h 02
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 28: Decolonization and Ukraine with Geo Maher and Volodymyr IshchenkoOn this episode we discuss the ins and outs of decolonization - as a set of historical revolutionary politics, intellectual tradition, contemporary framework of analysis as well the limitations and misuses of "decolonization" in the context of Ukraine and Russia today.
To do this we have invited two distinct yet complimentary thinkers to put their ideas into conversation with one another.
Geo Maher is a teacher, political theorist and author of Anti-Colonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of Resistance and Decolonizing Dialectics.
Volodymyr...
2023-07-061h 46
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 27: Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist, Fascism, Genocide, and Cult with Grzegorz Rossoliński-LiebeIn terms of post-Soviet memory politics, arguably no figure is more controversial than interwar Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. Since the Maidan uprising in 2014, his memory along with that of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists have been mobilized by both far right nationalists and the Ukrainian state - to varying degrees of success - to create a counter-memory to that of both the Soviet past and the current memory regime of the Russian Federation.
This process has had a dual effect - simultaneously emboldening a nationalist memory politics through the sanitization and deification of World War...
2023-06-211h 27
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 26: Improbable Nationalists? Social Democracy and National Independence in Georgia 1918-21 with Francis KingThe Democratic Republic of Georgia - also known as the First Republic - existed between 1918-1921.
Under the control of veterans of the decades long social democratic movement both in the South Caucasus and the Russian Empire at large, these Georgian social democrats led by Noe Jordania were allied with the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. While the Georgian social democrats had for years shared a lot in common with Bolsheviks ideologically and in terms of tactics of struggle (known as the "most Bolshevik of the Mensheviks") they found themselves...
2023-05-051h 53
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 25: Workers, Labor and Cars in the Soviet Union with Lewis SiegelbaumFor decades, historian Lewis Siegelbaum has taught and written on the Soviet Union. While many historians of labor and the working class in the USSR narrowly focused on moments of resistance, Siegelbaum investigated other aspects of working class existence such as the meaning of Soviet working class identity, the labor process, factory life and consumption practices. Siegelbaum spent years studying and writing on Donbas miners both during the late Soviet period and through the collapse of the USSR. His most well known work, Cars for Comrades was a study of the Soviet automobile. The automobile functioned as a useful...
2023-03-221h 47
ReImagining Liberty025: Tolerance and Liberalism (w/ Andrew Jason Cohen)A liberal society is a tolerant one. It's a society that allows for pluralism in preferences, lifestyles, religions, and approaches to life. But how far does tolerance go, what are the exceptions, and how can we better cultivate it?To discuss these questions, I'm joined today by Andrew Jason Cohen. He is is Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Georgia State University. He is the author most recently of Toleration and Freedom from Harm: Liberalism Reconceived and is working on a new book on civil d...
2023-03-0151 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 24: Socialist Yugoslavia and Non-Alignment with Gal Kirn and Paul StubbsIn this episode we discuss the histories, complexities and legacies of socialist Yugoslavia and non-alignment with contributor Gal Kirn and editor Paul Stubbs of the recently released book Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: Social, Cultural, Political and Economic Imaginaries.
This discussion is a fascinating deep-dive into socialist Yugoslavia's system of self-management, its unique relationship with the Third World, nationhood, post-communist memory politics and more!
2023-02-242h 07
Rev Left RadioSoviet Georgia: Socialism, Stalin, and the Collapse of the USSR Sopiko Japaridze and Bryan Gigantino from the podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia join Breht to discuss the history of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Together they discuss Georgian-born communist Joseph Stalin, what socialist construction in Georgia was like, daily life for working class people in Soviet Georgia, the collapse of the USSR and the hard times of the 1990's, the politics of Georgia today, the Russia-Ukraine war, and more! Check out the Reimagining Soviet Georgia podcast here: https://anchor.fm/sovietgeorgia Support them on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/reimaginingsovietgeorgia Follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reimaginingg Outro music: "Gaprindi Shavo...
2023-01-232h 25
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 23: Collapse of the Soviet Union with Vladislav ZubokHow the Soviet Union came to an end in 1991, after its nearly seventy year existence, is a process and event still mired in controversy and debate. Historians, politicians, citizens of the post-Soviet world and beyond understand this epochal event in drastically different ways - was it the result of internal contradictions of the Soviet system? Did pressure from the capitalist world force the USSR into an arms race that led to economic ruin? Was the Soviet Union consciously dismembered by elites from the national republics? Did Gorbachev undermine his own political goals or was the rise of Boris Yeltsin t...
2023-01-121h 32The IntellectualEpisode 22: Georgian and Soviet with Claire Kaiser Podcast: Reimagining Soviet Georgia (LS 36 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: Episode 22: Georgian and Soviet with Claire KaiserPub date: 2022-12-08Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this engaging and insightful conversation with Claire Kaiser, we discuss her new book Georgian and Soviet: Entitled Nationhood & the Specter of Stalin in the Caucasus.
Here's a description of the book:
Georgian and Soviet investigates the constitutive capacity of Soviet nationhood and empire. The Soviet republic of Georgia, located in the mountainous Cau...
2022-12-211h 19
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 22: Georgian and Soviet with Claire KaiserIn this engaging and insightful conversation with Claire Kaiser, we discuss her new book Georgian and Soviet: Entitled Nationhood & the Specter of Stalin in the Caucasus.
Here's a description of the book:
Georgian and Soviet investigates the constitutive capacity of Soviet nationhood and empire. The Soviet republic of Georgia, located in the mountainous Caucasus region, received the same nation-building template as other national republics of the USSR. Yet Stalin's Georgian heritage, intimate knowledge of Caucasian affairs, and personal involvement in local matters as he ascended to prominence left his homeland to confront a distinct...
2022-12-081h 19
Red Lens podcastRed Lens 10: Documenting socialist history with Sopo Japaridze of Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaOn episode 10 of Red Lens, I talk with Sopo Japaridze.
Sopo is a union leader in the country of Georgia, and a co-founder of the Reimagining Soviet Georgia documentation project & podcast, looking at the history of Georgia when it was a socialist republic that was part of the Soviet Union.
On Twitter you can find Sopo at https://twitter.com/sopjap
She posts frequent engaging content so give her a follow!
Follow Reimagining Soviet Georgia on Twitter at https://twitter.com/reimaginingg
Listen to the podcast on major podcast...
2022-12-011h 15
People Places PlanetReimagining the Role of Biogas for Environmental JusticeThe renewable fuel standard program seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, grow the United States’ renewable fuels sector, and lessen our reliance on imported oil. At its most basic, the program requires a certain volume of renewable fuel to replace or reduce petroleum-based transportation fuel, heating oil, or jet fuel. Yet, the program fails to confer benefits to all Americans, and in some respects, it may even disproportionally burden disenfranchised communities. How can we leverage renewable energy standards to better aid vulnerable communities so that energy systems advance rather than thwart environmental justice? In this episode, ELI’s Georgia Ray...
2022-11-1638 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 21: Building Socialism in the Third World with Jeremy FriedmanThis episode explores how, through the process of developing a model of socialism applicable in the Third World, local actors interacted with the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact countries, China and the West. These political and economic interactions shaped not only the trajectory of these specific countries but of socialism globally. Our guest is Jeremy Friedman to discuss all of this and more with his new and excellent book Ripe for Revolution: Building Socialism in the Third World (2022).
2022-10-271h 08
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 20: Lado Meskhishvili and Architecture in Soviet Georgia with Nini PalavandishviliHighly lauded and acclaimed architect Vladimir (Lado) Alexi-Meskhishvili (1915-1978) worked on the designs of some of Soviet Georgia's most iconic buildings.
A partial list includes:
Sanatorium “Imereti”, Tskaltubo (1957),
Tbilisi Sports Palace, Tbilisi (1961),
Restaurant “Iori”, Tbilisi (1962),
Lower floor of Freedom Square metro station, (then “Lenin Square”), Tbilisi, (1967)
Agricultural Institute of Georgia, Tbilisi (1970)
The Victory Memorial of Vake-Park, Tbilisi (1970)
Chess Palace and Alpine Club, Tbilisi (1973)
The Central Postal Service and Telegraph, Tbilisi (1980)
On this episode, we discuss life and legacy of Meskhishvili as...
2022-09-3056 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 19: Soviet Georgia, Turkey and the South Caucasus Borderlands with Candan BademOn this episode we have a wide ranging conversation with the illustrious historian Candan Badem who his an expert on the South Caucasus and in particular the borderlands between the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries prior to the Russian Revolution. He has written on The Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War of the 1850s, Russian imperial administration in the city of Kars (present day Turkey) and much more.
We discuss Candan's scholarship, the complex history of the Turkish-South Caucasus borderlands through the pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet eras, historiography and archives...
2022-06-021h 23
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaTRAILER FOR "Teddy Goes to the USSR" - out on MAY 30thComing MAY 30th is a new six part audio documentary by Sean Guillory a friend and comrade of the show, and host of the SRB Podcast "Americans believed the Soviet Union was cut off from the West. Nothing went in. And very little came out. Yet, tens of thousands of Americans visited their Cold War rival annually. What did they find behind the Iron Curtain? Teddy Goes to the USSR, a new six-part podcast series follows one such American, Teddy Roe, to shine light on Soviet tourism, police surveillance, consumerism, race, and everyday life through his...
2022-05-1701 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 18: Anastas Mikoyan and Soviet Armenia with Pietro ShakarianAnastas Mikoyan was an incredible figure. An Armenian old Bolshevik whose career spanned decades all the way from active involvement in the Baku Commune of 1918 to playing a central role in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Mikoyan's role as First Deputy Premier under Khrushchev and architect of de-Stalinization and thaw-era nationality policies meant his career of policy making influenced the trajectory of the entire Soviet Union. He also maintained close political and personal ties to the goings on in his native Armenia.
Our guest to discuss Mikoyan, Soviet Armenia and much more is Dr. Pietro A...
2022-05-0359 min
The LeadDaniella Zalcman on reimagining documentary photographyDaniella Zalcman is an award-winning documentary photographer with work in National Geographic Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and in The New York Times — just to name a few places. She joins The Lead to discuss how photojournalists can reimagine documentary photography to tell compelling stories, the inspiration behind her award-winning project "Signs of Your Identity" which tells the story of survivors who were forced to attend assimilation boarding schools for indigenous children, and how she became interested in journalism.
Guest: Daniella Zalcman, documentary photographer.
Host: Kyra Posey.
2022-04-1319 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 17: Human Rights are Not Enough with Samuel MoynOn today's episode we welcome Samuel Moyn, professor of Law and History at Yale, to discuss the political history of human rights and in particular how this relates to the Cold War, Soviet collapse, and neoliberalism as a politics in the post-Cold War era.
Here's an article by Samuel Moyn based on his book Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/human-rights-are-not-enough/
And here is a description of his book Not Enough :
The age of human rights has been kindest to the rich...
2022-04-0159 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 16: The 2008 Russo-Georgian War with Gerard ToalOn this episode, we have a discussion with political geographer Dr. Gerard Toal about the 2008 August War that embroiled Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia in conflict, along with the contingencies and background that led to the fighting and what this event can tell us or not tell us about Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Dr. Toal wrote a book in 2016 entitled "Near Abroad: Putin, The West and the Contest Over Ukraine and The Caucasus" - here's a description of the book below:
"Before Russia invaded Ukraine, it invaded Georgia. Both states are part of Russia's "near...
2022-03-111h 28
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 15: The Criminalization of Communism in the European Political Space after the Cold War with Laure NeumayerIn this interview with French political scientist Laure Neumayer, we discuss how a particular form of anti-communist memory politics were mobilized and utilized by "memory entrepreneurs" in Europe following the Cold War. A particular interpretation of the socialist past was put up against official European memory of the 20th century as the EU enlarged into Eastern Europe. A mixture of anti-communist nationalists, former dissidents and liberals wanted a pan-European identity to be rewritten in a way that criminalized communism as it had after World War II criminalized Nazism.
Here's a description of Laure Neumayer's 2019 book The Criminalisation of...
2022-02-101h 34
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 14: Managing Epidemics in Post-Soviet Georgia with Erin KochIn this episode we sit down with anthropologist Erin Koch to have a conversation about the shifts in medical practices, treatments as well as epidemic management from the Soviet period to Post-Soviet period in Georgia through a discussion of her 2013 book Free Market Tuberculosis: Managing Epidemics in Post-Soviet Georgia. The shift to a market economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union radically transformed health care and epidemic management in Georgia resulting in drastic consequences for patient care and public health.
Here's a description of Erin Koch's book Free Market Tuberculosis: Managing Epidemics in Post-Soviet Georgia:
2022-01-261h 51
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 13: Women & Film in Early Soviet Georgia with Salome TsopurashviliOne of the Soviet Union's most well known directors Mikhail Kalatozov was born as Mikhail Kalatoziashvili in Tiflis in 1903. Before releasing his more famous works such as Soy Cuba (1964) and The Cranes Are Flying (1957), or winning an award at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, he along with Nutsa Gogoberidze (Soviet Georgia's first female director) co-directed their first film together - a documentary called Their Kingdom (1928). For decades Their Kingdom was lost in Moscow archives and was only recently rediscovered. The film is an early Soviet critique of the Menshevik controlled Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-21) (also known as the First...
2021-12-301h 28
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 12: Black Communists and the Soviet Union with Gerald HorneOn today's episode we sit down with prolific historian Dr. Gerald Horne to discuss the intimate political relationship in the 20th century between the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of the USA and Black political struggle in the United States. We discuss a number of topics including African American Marxists such as Paul Robeson - who Dr. Horne has written a biography on - as well as the role the Soviet Union's political support of Civil Rights in the United States had in strengthening the movement for black civil rights.
Dr. Horne holds the Moores Professorship of...
2021-11-231h 14
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 11: The Social Consequences of the end of Socialism with Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell OrensteinKristen Ghodsee and Mitchell Orenstein have recently released a new book entitled "Taking Stock of Shock: The Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions" - this week we have both authors on as guests to discuss their new book, their methodological process, how to make sense of the social consequences of socialist collapse and how it relates to Georgia.
You can check out their new book's website here;
https://www.takingstockofshock.com/
And here's the book's description:
"After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, more than 400 million people suddenly found themselves in...
2021-11-041h 36
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 10: Navigating Nationalism, Russia and Research in Georgia with Archil SikharulidzeIn this episode we sit down with Tbilisi-based researcher and lecturer Archil Sikharulidze, who specializes in securitization, Georgia-Russia relations and more, to discuss the hurdles that dominant forms of nationalism pose to doing research on critical yet politically sensitive topics in Georgia.
His most recent article here on Georgian identity and the West is available here:
https://www.commonspace.eu/opinion/opinion-alternative-view-georgias-european-identity-and-past-history
2021-10-261h 16
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 9: Abkhaz Mobilization in the Georgian-Abkhaz War with Anastasia ShesterininaOn today’s show we welcome Anastasia Shesterinina to discuss her excellent new book Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia which, using hundreds interviews and extensive field research, explains how and why Abkhaz did or did not mobilize to fight in the war with Georgia in the early 1990s, and how to many Abkhaz as the war was beginning it came as an unexpected surprise leading to the uncertain and uneven mobilization of a collective identity both immediately preceding and during the 1992-1993 war with Georgia.
2021-10-061h 33
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 8: Soviet Internationalism, Third World Marxism and World Literature with Vijay Prashad & Ian AlmondOur guests for today's episode are author, educator and journalist Vijay Prashad as well as world literature professor and author Ian Almond.
With Vijay Prashad, we discuss the basic idea of one of his recent books Red Star Over the Third World (2019, Pluto Press) - how the 1917 Russian Revolution and then the seventy year existence of the Soviet Union directly inspired Third World Marxism and anti-colonial struggles during the 20th century, as well as what this century of Soviet internationalism and the collapse of the socialist world mean today.
With Ian Almond we explore h...
2021-09-281h 34
Red Star Over AsiaReimagining Soviet Georgia w/ Sopo Japardize Pt. 2This is part two of a two-part episode with Sofia Japardize, a labor activist based in Tblisi, Georgia. Before preceding, we highly recommend hitting the pause button and starting with part 1!
Georgia is in some ways ‘a land between’. Red Star tends to focus on East Asian topics, but we had the opportunity to have on a good friend of the show, Sopo Japardize. She's a labor organizer based in Tblisi, Georiga, a fascinating country located at the nexus of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Most listeners will probably know Georgia as the former USSR republic. Sopo and her comr...
2021-09-2159 minRed Star Over AsiaReimagining Soviet Georgia w/ Sopo Japardize Pt. 1For this episode, we go to the far Western edges of ‘Asia’, the Republic of Georgia.
Georgia is in some ways ‘a land between’. Red Star tends to focus on East Asian topics, but we had the opportunity to have on a good friend of the show, Sopo Japardize. She's a labor organizer based in Tblisi, Georiga, a fascinating country located at the nexus of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Most listeners will probably know Georgia as the former USSR republic. Sopo and her comrades host a great podcast focused on this legacy called ‘Reimagining Soviet Georgia’, links to which are be...
2021-09-1449 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 7: The Soviet World of Soviet Georgians with Erik ScottWe discuss the book Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora and the Evolution of Soviet Empire with the author Erik Scott and much more.
In the book, Scott discusses the unique opportunities Soviet Georgians were afforded due to their position within Soviet society as a coherent, institutionalized nationality. Unlike other histories that touch on Georgia, or nationality within the USSR, Scott's book tries and complicates the narrative by focusing on Soviet Georgians as a diaspora within the Soviet Union and participated in a dynamic of domestic internationalism - a multinational cultural-political connectedness within the USSR. In particular, Scott...
2021-08-241h 10
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 6: National Narratives and Implications of Independence with Katie SartaniaOn today’s episode, we sat down with Georgia based writer and researcher Katie Sartania. In April of this year, Katie wrote an excellent article entitled “Struggle and Sacrifice: Narratives of Georgia’s Modern History” which critically interrogates the role of Georgian nationalism and independence in the post-Soviet period, and how narratives of independence politically overshadow pressing social concerns in the country. We discuss not only her article and the legacies of Georgian nationalism, but also what it means to do historical research in Georgia today and the ways that the pressures of nationalism can come into conflict with critical...
2021-08-0259 min
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 5: Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism with Keti ChukhrovOn today’s episode, Sopo Japaridze and Beka Natsvlishvili have an engaging discussion with philosopher Keti Chukhrov. Keti was born in Soviet Georgia in the 1970s and since then has gone on to write articles and books touching subjects such as art criticism, philosophy, political theory and more.
Sopo, Beka and Keti discuss the premise of her recent book Practicing the Good: Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism. Keti’s book is a much needed intervention into anti-capitalist discourse. Her thorough knowledge of both Soviet philosophy and Marxists from the West allow her to grapple directly with the...
2021-07-021h 29
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 4: The First Republic with Stephen F. JonesDuring the Russian Civil War, between May 1918 and February 1921, the Democratic Republic of Georgia – known as the First Republic - was a nominally independent state controlled by social democrats. These Georgian social democrats were Mensheviks. Formally, Menshevism and Bolshevism were two distinct wings of the empire wide Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. In the decades leading up to 1918, Menshevism and Bolshevism in Georgia had more politically in common than not.
Over time strategic and political differences set them apart. Georgian Menshevism, led by Noe Zhordania and others, blended a particular vision of Georgian nationhood and national liberation wit...
2021-06-081h 13
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 3: Stalin, Social Democracy and Georgia with Ronald Grigor SunyRonald Grigor Suny’s decades long career as a historian transformed historiography of the Soviet Union by centering the nation and nationality. He did this with special attention to the nations of the South Caucasus - Armenia, Azerbaijan and of course, Georgia. Suny’s analysis focused on how nationhood is a constructed product of history, and imagined, not a primordial, essential, ethnic community.
Suny’s newest book Stalin: Passage To Revolution is a look at the early part of Josef Stalin’s life in the years leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution. The book interrogates the world that mad...
2021-05-241h 07
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 2: Soviet Georgian Migrants, Memory and Rivers with Jeff SahadeoDuring the late USSR, thousands of people from Soviet Georgia relocated to both Leningrad and the all-Soviet capital, Moscow. Many left Soviet Georgia to study in universities, for job placements or other career opportunities. Some of these people stayed, while others returned. Some went to Leningrad and Moscow as traders of fruits or flowers, using trade networks and access to desirable goods in Georgia to forge out comfortable livings for themselves.
We spoke with Jeff Sahadeo about his book “Voices From the Soviet Edge” which uses oral histories to explore the experiences and memories of these Soviet migr...
2021-05-071h 15
Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 1, Part II - Academic and Political Freedom in Georgia with Beka NatsvlishviliIn Episode 1, Part II we interview Beka Natsvlishvili, professor and former MP in Georgia to discuss the use of anti-Soviet memory politics in Georgia and the implications this has on political development and debate in the country. Beka shares his own experiences in both the university setting and as a politician in Georgia to shed light on the real uses and misuses of Georgia's Soviet experience and why a reconsideration of Georgia's Soviet past is important for developing a coherent left wing politics today.
2021-04-271h 01Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 1, Part I - The State of Soviet History in Georgia with Timothy BlauveltEpisode 1 - The State of Soviet History in Georgia
In this episode we explore how Soviet History and its legacies in Georgia are generally understood and approached today in academia, politics, the NGO sector and society at large.
In Part I we interview Timothy Blauvelt - professor of History at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. Teaching in Georgia for almost 19 years he has produced a range of varied scholarship relating to both Soviet history and in particular Georgia and the South Caucasus on patronage networks in Abkhazia, the 1956 protests in Tbilisi against...
2021-04-2258 minReimagining Soviet GeorgiaEpisode 0: Introduction to Reimagining Soviet GeorgiaWelcome to the first, introductory podcast of Reimagining Soviet Georgia!
We are a new, multigenerational, multilingual, Tbilisi based collective. Our goal is to reexamine and rearticulate the history of Soviet Georgia by producing and supporting critical research, including oral and written histories, and a podcast for both Georgian and English speaking audiences.
By documenting the perspectives and stories of Georgia’s aging Soviet generation, exploring underused archives and working with a new generation of historians untainted by Cold War anti-communism, it will be possible to tell the story of Soviet Georgia on an array of pl...
2021-02-2655 min
Strange CountryGeorgia GuidestonesIf you could leave instructions for the survivors of the apocalypse, what would you say? If you need some suggestions, you could always look to the Georgia Guidestones, a monument built in 1980 by a group of unidentified "loyal Americans who love God." They share their tips in the style of a David Letterman Top 10 list. Some like the stones for their tourist draw, others think it's the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist. Join Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly as they examine these stones and discuss what they would do to guide those who survive the inevitable zombie hordes.
2021-02-1152 min
The Figure45: Greta Thunberg, #MeToo and Venus de MiloPlease support us for the half marathon in support of The Young Women's Trust: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=the-figure-and-friends&pageUrl=1
We will be running in the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday, 13th October and we really appreciate your support!
This week, we discuss Greta Thunberg's incredibly brave and inspiring climate activism and the criticism that she received, that 19 million people used the hashtag #MeToo in the year following the Harvey Weinstein scandal bringing thousands of years of suffering and silence to the surface on the world stage, and finally we have another sculpture, the Venus de...
2019-10-0441 min
New Books in French StudiesErin-Marie Legacey, "Making Space for the Dead: Catacombs, Cemeteries, and the Reimagining of Paris, 1780-1830" (Cornell UP, 2019)In Making Space for the Dead: Catacombs, Cemeteries, and the Reimagining of Paris, 1780-1830 (Cornell University Press, 2019), Dr. Erin-Marie Legacey, Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University, explores the transformation of burial practices in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Public health concerns under the Old Regime prompted reforms in how the French buried their dead, with millions of bones carted away from church graveyards to the deserted mining tunnels underneath the city. After the Revolution, the Catacombs, as well as newly established cemeteries such as Père Lachaise, became more than simply places for the disposal of t...
2019-08-0752 min
New Books in ArchitectureErin-Marie Legacey, "Making Space for the Dead: Catacombs, Cemeteries, and the Reimagining of Paris, 1780-1830" (Cornell UP, 2019)In Making Space for the Dead: Catacombs, Cemeteries, and the Reimagining of Paris, 1780-1830 (Cornell University Press, 2019), Dr. Erin-Marie Legacey, Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University, explores the transformation of burial practices in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Public health concerns under the Old Regime prompted reforms in how the French buried their dead, with millions of bones carted away from church graveyards to the deserted mining tunnels underneath the city. After the Revolution, the Catacombs, as well as newly established cemeteries such as Père Lachaise, became more than simply places for the disposal of t...
2019-08-0752 min
New Books in African StudiesJeannette Eileen Jones, "Search of Brightest Africa: Reimagining the Dark Continent in American Culture, 1884-1936" (U Georgia Press, 2011)When President Trump talked of Africa as a continent of “shithole countries” where people lived in huts, he was drawing on a set of ideas made popular in the 19th century. “Darkest Africa” became a favorite trope of explorers like Henry Morton Stanley who promoted his books and lectures by pushing the idea of Africa as a dark place – a phrase that had all kinds of meanings – racial, intellectual, geographical.Today I speak with Jeannette Eileen Jones, author of In Search of Brightest Africa, Reimagining the Dark Continent in American Culture, 1884-1936 (University of Georgia Press, 2011). Jones talks about...
2019-06-1727 min