Sofia Petrova by Lydia Chukovskaya
from The Slavic Literature Pod Hosted by The Slavic Literature Pod
Show Notes: This week, Cameron (finally) dives into Lydia Chukovskaya's Sofia Petrovna. A novel about the Great Terror written during the Great Terror, Chukovskaya's eponymous character lives a fairly comfortable Soviet life -- until her son is arrested for an unspecified crime. Splitting its time between prison lines and a workplace growing rife with denunciations and arrests, Sofia Petrovna memorializes a moment most people would rather forget. It turns a mirror on the people who lived through the Great Terror and asks, too, "Who were you?" Some works referenced in this episode: Stalin, Vol. II, Waiting for Hitler, 1928-1941 by Stephen Kotkin "Did Stalin Kill Kirov and Does It Matter?" by Matt Lenoe: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/343411 On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics by Sheila Fitzpatrick Fear and Belief in the USSR's 'Great Terror': Response to Arrest, 1935-1939 by Robert W. Thurston: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2499175 The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | Discord Socials: Instagram | BlueSky | Twitter | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected].
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This week, Cameron (finally) dives into Lydia Chukovskaya's Sofia Petrovna. A novel about the Great Terror written during the Great Terror, Chukovskaya's eponymous character lives a fairly comfortable Soviet life -- until her son is arrested for an unspecified crime. Splitting its time between prison lines and a workplace growing rife with denunciations and arrests, Sofia Petrovna memorializes a moment most people would rather forget. It turns a mirror on the people who lived through the Great Terror and asks, too, "Who were you?"
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