The Eurasian Knot

25/03/2026

In the winter of 2013-14, protests erupted in Kyiv, Ukraine. Their goal was to oppose President Viktor Yanukovich’s rejection of the EU Association Agreement. Many protesters saw the Agreement as a meaningful step for Ukraine to enter the European orbit. And the protests might have fizzled. But the massacre of over 120 people by police snipers on 20 February, 2014, inspired hundreds of thousands more to enter the streets, seize government buildings, and occupy city centers. The protests quickly spread throughout Ukraine. The Euromaidan proved a historical turning point. The Yanukovich regime fell, Russia seized Crimea, and pro-Russian forces seized Donbas city centers. What were the short and long term causes of this revolution? Was it a revolution? What were its participants' aspirations? And how did the euphoric desire for a democratic, European Ukraine devolve into a mad spiral short of civil war? Longtime friend of the pod, William Risch was in Kyiv in those initial days. Now he’s combined his experiences with research to produce a new critical history of the Euromaidan. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Bill about the maidan, the chaos of those days, and its legacies in Ukraine and the region at large.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ukraines-153739558?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

12/03/2026

I've mentioned the dire state of Title VI and funding for international studies on the Eurasian Knot repeatedly over the last year. The Eurasian Knot's existence depends on this funding.

Zsuzsa Magdo, the Associate Director of Pitt REEES, has just published an article about Title VI and the Trump Administration's assault on international education and languages.

So, if you want the skinny on the situation, check out Zsuzsa's article in ASEEEES' NewsNet.

In 2025, universities with decades-long investment in international and area studies learned that Title VI funding and the nearly 70-year-old partnership with the federal government were unreliable. This development also raised critical questions about the mission, infrastructure, and future sustain...

10/03/2026

Yiannis Kokosalakis is a historian of war, revolution, and its effects on social and political institutions. Come listen to his thoughts on the Bolshevik party system on this week's episode, and check out his book below ⬇️
cambridge.org/core/books/building-socialism/BA534FA75AF1586B27DA71837C3147A3

09/03/2026

In 1917, the Bolshevik Party had roughly 24,000 members. A decade later, it boasted about 1.2 million. Recruitment came in waves and so did the purges. Still, Party members were found at the top and bottom of the system. In the Kremlin and in the factories. The Party rank and file were vital to the establishment of the Soviet system, its day-to-day functioning, and the human material for campaigns whether they be for literary, industrialization, collectivization or terror. But who were these people? How engaged were they in politics? Were they a constituency for Party leaders to appeal to or was the rank and file mere material to be mobilized and directed without its own agency? There are few studies looking at the Party at the shop floor and its place in shaping Soviet socialism. Yiannis Kokosalakis’ book Building Socialism does just that. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Kokosalakis to learn more about the role of the Bolshevik rank and file in the early Soviet system.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/bolshevik-rank-152614433?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

05/03/2026

73 years ago today, Joseph Stalin died.
What did he focus on in the final years of his life? How did Soviet leadership and society react to his death?Let’s revisit what Joshua Rubenstein had to tell us from his book, The Last Days of Stalin.
patreon.com/posts/stalins-last-152319761

03/03/2026

This week's guest is Joseph Kellner, historian of Russian culture. His recent book, linked below, details the uptick in radical spiritualism following the collapse of the USSR. Check out this week's episode for more about Joseph and his work!
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501781513/the-spirit-of-socialism/

02/03/2026

When societies are in crisis, people tend to seek alternative belief systems to give them comfort, explain a complex world, or fill a space left vacant by discredited ideologies and faiths. Like the embrace of spiritualism after the mass death during the American Civil War. The growth of millenarian movements and cults for fear of the end times. Or even the embrace of conspiracy theories to explain the unimaginable. The Soviet Union was no exception. As the system broke apart and Marxism-Leninism was tossed aside, a questioning of dominant narratives took root. Soviet citizens began to seek new belief systems–astrology, gurus, alternative medicines, sects and cults, and fantastical historical narratives. Joseph Kellner was struck by this explosion of belief seeking and wanted to understand it. Why did Russian citizens gravitate to new forms of belief? What was lost with the collapse of the Soviet system and what opportunities did a new society offer? And what does this all say about the need for humans to believe in, well, something? The Eurasian Knot spoke to Joseph about his book, The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse, to get a sense of this urge to embrace new beliefs and how they shaped experience during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/searching-for-152063154?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

24/02/2026

24/02/2026

It's that time of year where we at Pitt REEES seek to raise some money as part of Pitt's Day of Giving.

The untimeliness of this day is not lost on us. We're asking for money on the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And more or less twelve years since Russia seized Crimea.

That said, it's more important than ever to support Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Pitt. Trump took our NRC Title VI, FLAS, and other federal monies in his war on knowledge. And all of us, especially students, who rely on National Research Centers to learn about world regions and languages desperately need your support.

26/01/2026

A decade ago, Vladimir Alexandrov published an excellent biography, The Black Russian, about an unknown historical figure–Fredrick Bruce Thomas. Thomas was a Black Mississippian who moved to Imperial Russia and became a successful Moscow nightclub owner until Revolution forced him to flee. Thomas’ life is a window into post-emancipation Black American aspiration, struggle and cosmopolitanism. Alexandrov found Thomas such an intriguing character, he couldn’t let him go. So now, Thomas is the principle in a suspense novel set in Russia’s Silver Age. The Eurasian Knot spoke to Alexandrov about Thomas’ new adventure, the challenges of writing a novel, and where can we expect Fredrick Bruce Thomas to go from here.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/further-of-black-149168289?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

20/01/2026

Alexander II’s Great Reforms were sweeping. They freed over 22 million serfs, overhauled the judicial, university, and municipal systems, and loosened censorship, among others. It was one of those pivot points in Russian history. If successful, Russia would have charted a more liberal path or stay on the autocratic road if a failure. Most historians have ruled them a failure. But what were the reforms trying to accomplish? What kind of Empire did it seek to create? Could they turn subjects of an autocracy into citizens of a nation? To discuss such a “big topic,” the Eurasian Knot spoke to Tatiana Borisova about her research into Alexander’s judicial reforms and their historical consequences. Can Russia’s attempt at reform in the mid-19th century provide some hope for a different Russia in the future?
https://www.patreon.com/posts/great-reforms-148686766

08/01/2026

And we have a winner!
As voting on our jokes contest comes to a close, make sure to revisit this comedic classic- courtesy of our loyal listener Kristof from Hungary.