NEFARIOUS RUSSIANS

Capitalism — save us and forgive us! Russia, 1991 For this ep of The Russians Evgenia and I talk to Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov about his thoughts on the war and what led to it. We wanted to talk to Andrei because of a great essay he wrote about the collapse of the Soviet Union, “ The Long Shadow of the Anti-communist Russian Revolution .” Andrei identifies with being a Russian liberal, whil...

Today on The Russians, Evgenia and I talk to Alexei Yurchak about his work on Lenin and the history and politics of the ongoing preservation of Lenin’s body and the secretive lab that carries out the job. He is currently finishing a book about the topic, which he expects to be out in time for the 100-year anniversary of Lenin’s embalmment. Alexei is a professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley. He i...

This war’s been going on for a month now. Evgenia and I sit down to talk about it. Some of the things we discuss: the ridiculous online discourse around this war and the championing of Putin as some sort of anti-imperialist defender of the global south, how formerly privileged Russian liberals are having a sudden moment of clarity about their role in whitewashing Putin’s feudal rule, sanctions…and...

Thousands and maybe even tens of thousands of Russians have fled the country in a panic following Putin’s regime change invasion of Ukraine — going to wherever they can: Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, Dubai, the EU. To get a sense of what’s going on and who is fleeing and what people are thinking, we talk to Anna, an old friend of Evgenia’s from her school days, who is currently in Istanbul and among R...

A week into Putin’s regime change war, Evgenia and I sit down to talk about our thoughts on what’s happening and about what we’re hearing from friends and family in Russia. On one side, it’s clear there are a lot of people totally backing Putin’s “humanitarian intervention” — for instance, my mom’s childhood friend in St. Petersburg screamed at her that “Putin is God” and that “he’s saving the Rus...

Putin shocked and surprised pretty much everyone in Russia by launching a regime change war on Ukraine. Two days before that, he went on Russian TV and gave a menacing grievance speech — in which he attacked America but also went after the Bolsheviks, blaming the disintegration of the Soviet Union and today’s crisis in Ukraine squarely on Lenin. Evgenia and I discuss his speech and talk about how...

In this ep Evgenia and I talk about Inventing Anna, the new show that just landed on Netflix based on the story of Anna Sorokin — a young Russian immigrant from Germany who tried scamming her way into New York’s global elite a few years back. —Yasha Levine PS: Towards the end of the show we mention Mark Ames’ great piece about the tragic story of a different ambitious Anna — an Anna Loginova — who...

In this ep Evgenia and I are joined by Carl Zha to talk about the insane reaction — including accusations of treason and betrayal — coming out of U.S. media after American skier Eileen Gu decided to compete for China. We then transition to talking about Carl’s experience as a Chinese immigrant growing up in America. This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To get...

A new “Navalny” documentary was all the rage a few days ago, when it won several awards at the Sundance Film Festival. We review this shallow, predictable film and talk about the larger political situation in Russia — something that’s completely missing from the doc. —Yasha Levine This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To get the rest, sign up and listen here ....

For this ep we have something special for you: Evgenia and I talk about a trip we took a few years ago to the jungles of Peru for an ayahuasca retreat. We thought we were going to commune with an ancient spirit. Instead we got plunged right back into something very familiar: our own sad, atomized society. This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To get the rest, ...

We got a Christmas Eve Special for you. Evgenia and I talk about the Epstein case and the reaction to it here in America. The starting point of our discussion is a comment Evgenia made a while ago: “One thing confuses me. I’m not American so I don’t fully know the culture. Do people really expect...and are people outraged that the people in power are not upright citizens? If we roll back history,...

Welcome back for another episode of The Russians. Today we talk about Paul Verhoeven’s latest movie, Benedetta, and what unites Verhoeven and Todd Solondz. We also get into Philip K. Dick and how starting a religious cult is the only answer to the problems plaguing society right now. —Evgenia and Yasha Listen to our previous episodes: * Episode #17: Immigrant Deprogramming with Nika Dubrovsky * Ep...

For this installment of our ongoing Immigrant Deprogramming series, we talk with a truly special and impressive guest: Nika Dubrovsky — artist, author, and partner of the late David Graeber. This is a preview. To listen to the entire episode , please subscribe. Listen to our previous episodes: * Episode #16: Imaginary Futures with Richard Barbrook * Episode #15: Behind the Silicon Curtain * Episod...

On the last episode we talked about the Californian Ideology , for this ep we have on the man himself: Richard Barbrook, who co-coined the term and co-wrote the infamous essay back in 1995 . He’s still alive and he’s still got all sorts of things to say — about the origins of the Internet, the Cold War Left, Bolshevism, cybernetic communism, YouTube documentaries, China, etc. Check it out… and sub...

We’re back! And we have a new episode from San Francisco, where it looks like we’ll be living for a while. Evgenia and I talk about the enduring power of The Californian Ideology, despite the obvious cracks in it. And I talk about about how it feels to back in here — the place where I spent my formative immigrant years — after moving away for twenty years. We’ll be back on a regular schedule from...

Evgenia and I talk about my decision to serialize my new book —  The Soviet Jew: A Weaponized Immigrant’s Tale — and the difficulty of writing and thinking about what is essentially a taboo topic in this country: a “saved” immigrant who is not content with the American way of life. —Yasha Levine PS: We briefly discuss a special agitprop Passover prayer booklet — a Haggadah — that I discovered whil...

In this ep Evgenia and I interview Anna/Аня, a fellow member of California’s Soviet immigrant community. We talk about why her parents left Leningrad and Baku, what it was like to grow up immersed in schizoid Soviet immigrant culture, and why she ultimately turned against Zionism and much of the politics of that world. Check it out, and follow Anna/Аня on Twitter at @bademjanbitch . This is a prev...

This week Evgenia Kovda and I talk to my dad Boris about American movies he watched in Leningrad and the effect they had on him. What’s funny is that many of the films he remembers were clearly picked and shown for ideological reasons — they showed the dark underbelly of American capitalism: poverty, political corruption, criminal syndicates. But the Soviet propaganda managers in charge of picking...

Andrei Tarkovsky on the set of Stalker. In this ep Evgenia and I talk about Jewish nationalism and other identities that started cropping up in the Soviet Union in 1960s and 1970s, when disillusionment began to set in with the boomer generation. While some discovered Zionism and Judaism, others got baptized — like Evgenia’s dad and uncle did. —Yasha Levine PS: Evgenia mentioned an essay on sociali...

This is a low energy episode,  befitting our new lowly status . We return to the  topic of having a baby . We talk about ayahuasca trips, the anti-climactic nature of having a child, and America’s schizophrenic baby culture, where one of the first things Evgenia heard in the hospital after giving birth was: “Congratulations on your bundle of joy!!!! H’mmmm, just a few questions. Are you thinking o...

Evgenia at the LA River. We’re about to become parents so this ep has serious breeder energy. We start off by talking about Evgenia’s recent great essay on “ procreation horror ” and then we move on, riffing on things like fertility under neoliberalism, Soviet bourgeois family life, dogs as baby replacements, and having children as a consumer choice. —Yasha Levine Notes: Evgenia mentioned Natalya...

In this ep we talk about Adam Curtis and our lack of excitement about his latest doc series, and how it’s gotten to the point that the promotional interviews he does are better than the films he’s promoting. Has Curtis gotten boring and repetitive, or are we so overwhelmed with information that his hypnotic propaganda style has lost its potency? Towards the end Evgenia introduces the concept of “s...

Separated at birth — a young Navalny and a young Yeltsin. Alexei Navalny — returned from the novichok-dead — is back in Russia, back in jail, and back in the news. Protests have been taking place in cities all across the country with people calling for his release, and it’s pretty clear that the poisoning and the new jail term have only increased Navalny’s cult political status. He’s become an alm...

In this episode, Evgenia and I talk about the newest Russian film sensation: Serf — a comedy of the Russian oligarchy, by the Russian oligarchy. It’s a truly funny film and it says a lot more about Russian politics and culture today than its director and screenwriters realize. Russia truly has regressed to the 19th century. Its liberated serfs have become the lords. —Yasha Levine PS: The show note...

Eating knafeh in Nablus. In this episode Evgenia and I talk about a short trip we took to Palestine last year and get into all sorts of related topics — Zionism, the occupation, nationalism, Israel’s weaponization of Soviet and Russian Jewish immigrants, Jews vs. Jew hatred . We also talk about our unexpected and surprising stay at Banksy’s hotel in occupied Bethelham — surprising because we accid...