The Slavic Connexion

On this first episode of 2024, we reflect on the War in Ukraine and Ukraine's prospects for continued political and military support in 2024 and beyond with Carnegie Endowment's senior fellow and renowned military analyst Michael Kofman. ABOUT THE GUEST Michael Kofman is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on...

On this episode, Eliot Borenstein returns for a fun conversation about the political and historical themes in pop culture and the abundance of Marvel, Harry Potter, LOTR, etc. fan fiction that emerged post-socialism. We hope you enjoy! ABOUT THE GUEST Eliot Borenstein is Professor of Russian & Slavic Studies at New York University. His most recent books include Plots against Russia: Conspiracy...

On this episode, cyber expert Gavin Wilde joined us to talk all things cyberwarfare. He defined the term and its distinction from information warfare; shared the reasons why he believes studying Russia is important for this complex, actively developing, and hard-to-measure battlefront; and touched on the differences between the US and Russian military cyber and information operations and structure...

In this episode, Bartek Gajos discusses his in-depth research into memory politics during the Soviet period and today, specifically the weaponization of history by the Russian regime, the past's influence on present actions taken by great powers, NATO expansion and EU enlargement, the "armageddon option" taken by Western G7 leaders at Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the questio...

On this episode, Taylor and Misha speak with Mikhail Rubin, journalist and co-founder of Proekt Media, the lead investigative media outlet in Russia. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST Mikhail Rubin has covered Russian policy processes for nearly 13 years. During this period, he has had the opportunity to work as a Kremlin pool reporter for the popular print and web-media outlets Izvestia and R...

In this episode, Nick and Eliza talk with widely respected historian and sociologist Marlène Laruelle about the concept of illiberalism and its spread across Europe. Dr. Laruelle explains how she frames the relatively new term as a cluster of ideologies that is challenging liberalism in its various forms, mostly based around two key arguments: (1) the need for sovereignty, and (2) the idea that tr...

On this episode, Adam Klein, director of the Strauss Center for International Security & Law, shares his insights on the concerns around security versus freedom of speech; his work covering the confluence of law, surveillance, and emerging technologies; and his unique perspectives on global affairs. PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on November 6, 2023 at the LBJ School for Public...

On this episode, Dr. Michael Dennis, a leading expert on the Chechen Republic, tells the multifaceted story of the Chechen fight for independence, including the consequences of the Chechen Wars, the rise of the Kadyrov family, lessons learned by the Russian Army, impacts on the Putin regime's decision-making in crises, and Chechnya's role in Ukraine. Dr. Dennis also talks about the future...

On this episode, we talk with Financial Times' Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon who speaks about his personal path to journalism in Putin's Russia, the state of the country's economic system, the political ineffectiveness of Russian oligarchs, and much more. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST Max Seddon has been the FT's Moscow bureau chief since 2021 and leads coverage of Russia&...

On this episode, Slovakian politician and academic Martin Klus talks with us during a trip to Texas about the state of the Slovak Republic following the recent elections favoring a more Moscow-friendly government. Slovakia's move towards the pro-Russia camp in which Victor Orban's Hungary sits will make things difficult for its eastern neighbor Ukraine and easier for Putin in the European...

On this episode, Misha talks with Ruslan Pukhov, a Russian defense analyst and the director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST). Mr. Pukhov shares about the origins of CAST during the late 90s, the state of Russia's defense economy, and his views on the current war in Ukraine. He states that neither the Ukrainian public nor Ukrainian leadership and eli...

On this episode, we had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Paul Edgar, the interim executive director of the Clements Center for National Security at UT Austin. Paul spoke about how he went from the military to academia, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and his goals for the Clements Center as a leading educational institution for discourse around history, strategy, and statecraft. Thanks for listening!...

On this episode, Misha and Taylor speak with Lada Egorova, a Russian filmmaker in Los Angeles who has an ambitious and timely project, creating a TV comedy about Slavic emigres to the US and their culture. The show is titled BLIN, meaning 'pancake' and explores the Russian community and its culture in Los Angeles. As Lada mentions in the episode, one of the inspirations for BLIN is the TV...

On this episode, Mark McNamee, political, economic, and intelligence analyst, talks with host Nick about a range of topics pertaining to Russia's War in Ukraine: from the late Prizoghin's mutiny to China's and Russia's relationship rooted largely in an anti-Western agenda and what this means for the continuing conflict. Thanks for listening! PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was re...

On this episode, Cullan is joined by Dr. David Cooper, the department head and associate professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois, to speak about his recent book on two Czech Manuscripts and the story of their successful forgery and dramatic discovery in the early 19th century. Dr. Cooper elaborates on the manuscripts' importance to the Czec...

On this episode, Lera and Cullan chat with Tatiana Tkacheva, a research fellow at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, about the strategies of the autocrat in dealing with regional governors. In her paper, she and her co-authors attempt to answer this question by using the example of premature withdrawals and dismissals of Russia’s regional governors from office. Tatiana also talks ab...

On this episode, Lera sits down with Anastasiya Osipova, a scholar of Soviet and contemporary Russian and Ukrainian cultures, who shares about her research on DOXA, a student journal on political harassment in academia that emerged from Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2017. DOXA was stripped of its status as a university organization in 2019 and since then exists as an independent magazine...

On this episode, Lera and Misha sit down with Dr. Alexander Chertenko, a professor of Ukrainian literature at the University of Giessen in Germany. Dr. Chertenko is uniquely positioned to trace the wartime development of Ukrainian literature in the country since 2014. He also illuminates the usually underdiscussed topic of literature in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts from 2014 until Russia's full...

On this episode, Elise Herrala takes us on a tour of the evolution of art and artists in Soviet Russia and post-Soviet Russia. Elise also gives us some insight into what is going on today in Putin's Russia in terms of state repression and renewed restriction on creative freedoms. You can check out her book here: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Transition-Field-Post-Soviet-Russia/dp/0367086867 Thank...

On this special episode, Sergio and Misha get the opportunity to speak with Sasha Zaritska, the lead singer of U-pop band KAZKA, and Andriy Urenov, producer and manager of the band. Their new single "Bez Kohannya" (Without Love) is out this Friday! Listen to the end of the episode for a sneak preview. Learn more about KAZKA and check out their music on their official site https://kazka.b...

On this episode, Valentina Glajar and Alison Lewis share their personal stories and research on the history of East Germany's STASI and Romania's Securitate and the dismantling of these secret police forces. Thank you for listening! You can listen to Douglas Selvage's episode here: https://www.slavx.org/listen/episode/b54c0fff/operation-denver-and-russias-disinformation-playbook-with-d...

On this episode, Cullan talks with Professor Michal Kšiňan about his monograph on the Slovak national hero and co-founder of Czechoslovakia, Milan Rastislav Štefánik. Michal talks about Štefánik's military career and meteoric rise and the place he continues to hold in Czechoslovakia history and memory. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE BOOK https://www.routledge.com/authors/i21001-michal-kian Th...

On this episode, Cullan sits down with lauded historian Ulf Brunnbauer, managing director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg, Germany, whose research on the social history and anthropology of Southeast Europe reveals that the Balkan region is in many ways more globalized than the rest of Europe. ABOUT THE GUEST: Ulf Brunnbauer, Academic Director of the L...

On this episode, historian Dr. Ivan Kurilla from European University in St. Petersburg shares about his research on the rich and little-known history of US-Russia relations since the 18th century. Dr. Kurilla explains how the US and Russia are "constitutive others" that have developed historically within the same political language, were both projections of the Greater Europe, and at tim...

On this episode, venerated political scientist Dr. Robert Freedman joins us to expound on the various wars and conflicts that Russia has gotten into, not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria, Libya, Mali, and more. Dr. Freedman articulates Putin's current goals as he sees them, touches on the liberal use of the Wagner Group by Russia, and prognosticates on the future of the war in Ukraine and Uk...