Guest: Nicholas Bujalski on his prize-winning Russian Review article, Tuk, tuk, tuk! A History of Russias Prison Knocking Language.

Guest: Brian Milakovsky with a grim update on Ukraine, the war, and the shrinking prospects of even a lousy peace.

Guest: Christopher Read on Vladimir Lenin's legacy 100 years since his death.

Guest: Maria Lotsmanova on her genealogical journey to find information about her repressed great-grandfather, Jacob Jansen.

Guest: Vladimir Alexandrov onThe Black Russian published by Grove Press.

Guest: Gabriella Safran on Recording Russia: Trying to Listen in the Nineteenth Century published by Cornell University Press.

Guest: Sasha Senderovich on How the Soviet Jew Was Made published by Harvard University Press.

Guest: Erik Scott on defection, the Cold War, and the regulation of borders and movement in a globalizing world.

Roma Shatrov is the founder of the Silent Cape Nature Park in Sakhalin. Irina Grudova is Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin. Roma is obsessed with Ainu history and culture and has dedicated

Guest: Ilya Vinitsky on the persistence of fakes, forgeries, and frauds in Russian literary culture.