The Eurasian Knot

Who are those “experts” who sit in Washington DC and come up with policy toward China and Russia? You know, those academics, journalists, and think-tankers who generate the knowledge US officials rely on? David McCourt’s new book, The End of Engagement, takes a stab by examining American foreign policy expertise on China and Russia since 1989. His main focus is on the divide within the Russia and China watching community. For Russia, it’s between "Russia we havers" versus "Russia we wanters,” and for China, the "engagement" against the "strategic competition" partisans. Curious to hear more, The Eurasian Knot spoke to McCourt to get a social profile of these expert communities, including how personal cliques, academic cred, and resumes influence how we understand Russia and China.Guest:David McCourt is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. His new book is The End of Engagement: America's China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989 published by Oxford University Press.Send us your sounds! PatreonKnotty News

In 2020, Russian-American filmmaker Michael Lockshin and his co-writer, Roman Kantor, were offered an impossible task: to adapt Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita for the big screen. It was a daunting task to rewrite such a beloved novel, with its complicated and overlapping narratives. Lockshin and Kantor hoped to succeed where others failed. After a period of touch-and-go, the film was released in Russia in January 2024 to critical and viewer acclaim. It also received fierce scorn, particularly from Russian state propagandists. To date, the film remains unreleased internationally due to complex rights issues following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How has Lockshin dealt with all this personally and professionally? What does he make of the controversy surrounding the movie essentially cosplaying its plot. Lockshin recently visited Pittsburgh to screen the film. The Eurasian Knot jumped at the opportunity to interview him about it and its fallout.Guest:Michael Lockshin grew up in Russia and the United States. He began working in film while studying for a Masters in psychology at Moscow State University. He moved to London after graduating and directed several award-winning commercials and his first Russian language feature film, Silver Skates in 2020. Most recently, he co-wrote and directed an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita.Send us your sounds! https://euraknot.org/contact/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/euraknot Knotty News: https://eurasianknot.substack.com/

Guest: Bryan Gigantino, co-host of the podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia, on the context and causes for the current political crisis in Georgia. The post Georgia in Crisis appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Soviet dissidents have long been objects of fascination. Who were they? What made them dissent? What did they believe? And what did they endure at the hands of a repressive Soviet state? We now have a clearer picture thanks to Benjamin Nathans’ new book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement. Soviet dissidents, or as they preferred to be called “rights defenders,” navigated a complicated choreography between the movement, the police, and its supporters abroad. Their approach was a strategy of “civil obedience,” that is pressuring the Soviet government to follow its own laws. Though amounting to around a thousand active participants, their influence grew, especially as they were lionized in the Western media. In this conversation with the Eurasian Knot, Nathans recounts this history, highlighting the often-overlooked role of women, dissidents’ complex relationship with Soviet society, and what their experience can teach us today.Guest:Benjamin Nathans is the Alan Charles Kors Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of the multiple award-winning book, Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia. His latest book is To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement published by Princeton University Press.Send us your sounds!Become a patron!

Guest: Ian Lanzillotti guides through the history of Kabardino-Balkaria in his book Land, Community, and the State in the Caucasus published by Bloomsbury. The post A Deep Dive into Kabardino-Balkaria appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Erin Hutchinson on her award-winning article, “Gathering the Nation in the Village: Intellectuals and the Cultural Politics of Nationality in the Late Soviet Period” in the January 2023 issue of the Russian Review. The post Soviet DIY Folk Museums appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Maurice Casey on the “lost world” of international communism in his book, Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals published by Footnote Press. The post Intimate Lives of International Communism appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Tyler Kirk on After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia's Far North published by Indiana University Press. The post Gulag Memory in Russia’s Far North appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.