Reimagining Soviet Georgia

Reimagining Soviet Georgia


Latest Episodes

Episode 18: Anastas Mikoyan and Soviet Armenia with Pietro Shakarian
May 03, 2022

Anastas 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

Episode 17: Human Rights are Not Enough with Samuel Moyn
April 01, 2022

On 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

Episode 16: The 2008 Russo-Georgian War with Gerard Toal
March 11, 2022

On 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 even

Episode 15: The Criminalization of Communism in the European Political Space after the Cold War with Laure Neumayer
February 10, 2022

In 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

Episode 14: Managing Epidemics in Post-Soviet Georgia with Erin Koch
January 26, 2022

In 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

Episode 13: Women & Film in Early Soviet Georgia with Salome Tsopurashvili
December 29, 2021

One 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 C

Episode 12: Black Communists and the Soviet Union with Gerald Horne
November 23, 2021

On 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 discu

Episode 11: The Social Consequences of the end of Socialism with Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell Orenstein
November 04, 2021

Kristen 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 proces

Episode 10: Navigating Nationalism, Russia and Research in Georgia with Archil Sikharulidze
October 26, 2021

In 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

Episode 9: Abkhaz Mobilization in the Georgian-Abkhaz War with Anastasia Shesterinina
October 06, 2021

On 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