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CREECA Lecture Series Podcast

by Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

CREECA’s mission is to support research, teaching, and outreach on Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Central Asia. We approach this three-part mission by promoting faculty research across a range of disciplines; by supporting graduate and undergraduate teaching and training related to the region; and by serving as a community resource through outreach activities targeted to K-12 teachers and students, other institutions of higher education, and the general public. As a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center, CREECA hosts a variety of events and lectures which are free and open to the public. You can find recordings of past events here.

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Episodes

  1. "A Voice in the Wilderness: The Vita Nova Publishing House and Its Anti-Nazi Program," a lecture by Michael Wachtel

    This lecture was co-sponsored by European Studies, the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic+, and the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Introduction by Professor Irina Shevelenko (GNS+), CREECA Director. About the Lecture: The talk is based on...

  2. White Film: Tonality and Tone in Soviet Cinema

    This lecture was co-sponsored by the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Distinguished Chair in Russian History and Department of Communication Arts Film Colloquium. Introduction by Professor Jeff Smith, Department of Communication Arts, UW-Madison. About the Lecture: When Soviet films were shown in the...

  3. A ‘Total Revolution?’ The Pugachev Rebellion: Between Indigenous Republicanism and Radical Enlightenment

    This lecture is co-sponsored by the UW–Madison Department of German, Nordic, Slavic+. About the Lecture: This talk will address the Pugachev Rebellion (1773-1775) in the Russian Empire, the most massive popular uprising in eighteenth-century Europe which brought together Cossacks, Russian serfs,...

  4. From Hughes to Baldwin: How Soviet Critics Read Black American Literature

    About the Lecture: This talk examines Soviet engagement with Black American literature by tracing unexpected continuities between Imperial Russian and Soviet approaches to race and cultural diplomacy. Through close analysis of literary criticism published in Soviet journals from the 1930s through...

  5. The Making and Unmaking of the Soviet People

    This lecture is co-sponsored by the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Distinguished Chair of Russian History. About the Lecture: After the October Revolution, Bolshevik leaders inherited a vast geographic expanse that was home to some 200 different ethnicities—some 130 million people who needed to be...

  6. Identity and War: What the Russian War on Ukraine Teaches Us About the Causes of War

    About the Lecture: The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has reinvigorated debates about the causes of war. The question of why Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale war in 2022 does not seem to be answered by many usual explanations, e.g. material interests or threats to…

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  7. A Man Who Changed the World: Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, 1906-1982

    In 1991, as the USSR broke apart and its population became open to the reforming discourse of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reform program of perestroika, Soviet dissident historian Roy Medvedev set the tone for subsequent writing on Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, concluding that he was “a personality so mediocre...

  8. Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War

    In this talk Darya Tsymbalyuk presents her recent book Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War (Polity Press, 2025). The book focuses on the impact of the Russian invasion on the more-than-human worlds of Ukraine, discussing how witnessing and experiencing environmental...

  9. Elite Women on Trial in Post-Reform Russia, 1866-1884

    Russia’s landmark judicial reform of 1864 introduced the public jury trial and turned the courtroom into a protected forum for social and sometimes even political debates. This lecture will explore some of the most prominent criminal cases of the post-reform era that involved elite women accused…

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  10. Scientific Atheism as an Ideological Discipline in Soviet Ukraine

    Scientific Atheism as an Ideological Discipline in Soviet Ukraine by Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

  11. Laurie Anderson, Emigre Culture, the KGB, and the Dream of Connecting: (Soviet) Latvian Artists in (West) Berlin, 1977-1992

    About the Lecture: In this presentation, Karnes will talk about Maija Tabaka, who was the first Soviet citizen to be awarded the DAAD fellowship. Tabaka unwittingly opened doors to over a decade of artistic exchanges between Riga and West Berlin. She also provided an enduring model for arranging...

  12. Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-hundred-year Quest to Dominate Ukraine

    About the Lecture: In this book presentation, Finkel uncovers the deep roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Following the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, dominating Ukraine became the cornerstone of Russian policy. The Russian Empire, USSR and Putin’s Russia had long used...

  13. “If not us, then who?”: Understanding Ukrainian Civilians’ Engagement in the War Effort Since February 2022

    About the Lecture: Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, analysts and observers around the world were shocked and surprised that Ukraine did not fall in a matter of days or weeks. Instead people across the country resisted with both military and civilian means…

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  14. Power and Possession in the Russian Revolution

    [About the Lecture:] The revolutions of 1917 swept away not only Russia’s governing authority but also the property order on which it stood. The upheaval sparked waves of dispossession that rapidly moved beyond the seizure of factories and farms from industrialists and landowners, envisioned by...

  15. Writing the Soviet History of Philosophy in the 1960s–1980s

    About the Lecture: During the 70 years of its existence, the Soviet Union claimed to be a communist state based on the philosophical doctrines of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and, at the later stages, Vladimir Lenin. This made philosophy a mandatory course in every Soviet university and led to…

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  16. Mapping Land Use and Habitat Changes in the Caucasus Through Spy Satellite Data

    About the lecture: The legacy of past human activities strongly shapes current landscapes and ecosystems, with today’s actions set to leave similar long-term impacts. Predicting future landscape changes, however, requires a thorough understanding of past ones, yet most land and habitat change...

  17. Rivers and Society in Late Soviet Georgia: Nation, the Environment and the Everyday

    About the Lecture: Georgia’s 26,000 rivers connect citizens to nature, to their childhood, to their unique regions, each of which has its “mother-river.” The sounds of rushing water as well as the sights and scents of riverside gatherings provoke powerful memories and remain central to Georgian...

  18. Estonia’s Nordic Identity: History and the Present

    About the Lecture: The idea of Estonia as a Nordic country gained traction in the late 19th century alongside the rise of Estonian nationalism. As Germany and increasingly also Russia came to be perceived as historical adversaries of the Estonian nation, Sweden’s arguably benevolent influence on...

  19. Russia’s War against Ukraine and The February 24th Archive Project

    Solidarity Networking and Ukrainian Mental Maps: Russia’s War against Ukraine and The February 24th Archive Project About the Lecture: I am an East European intellectual and political historian by training, and a student of map prejudices by practice. For a digitally activist Ukraine, the…

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  20. “Reporting from a Lost Country,” a conversation with Elena Kostyuchenko

    About the Lecture: This conversation will be devoted to Elena Kostyuchenko’s book I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country (2023), “a haunting book of rare courage,” as Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent, called it. In March 2022, as a correspondent for Russia’s last...

  21. Russian-Speaking Latvians at the Borders of Global History

    About the lecture: In December 1989, in officially recognizing the authenticity of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s secret protocol, the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies evinced the hope that the globally divided historical consciousness of the Cold War would be replaced with a new conception...

  22. Secrets of State

    About the Lecture: The National Security Archive, based at George Washington University, has pioneered the use of the Freedom of Information Act to open classified U.S. files, and then to match those American primary sources with newly opened (and often now closed) archives in the former Soviet...

  23. Writing the Twentieth Century in Post-Stalin Russia

    About the lecture: This talk will offer an overview of Professor Shevelenko’s current book-length project and will focus on a few case studies. The book examines artistic and intellectual tendencies that shaped the thinking about the “age of extremes” (to use Eric Hobsbawm’s appellation for the...

  24. A Colonial Muslim History of China and the World

    A Colonial Muslim History of China and the World The Tarikh-i Ḥamidi of Mullah Musa Sayrami (1836–1917) is celebrated as a monument of Uyghur literature and the preeminent Muslim history of nineteenth-century Xinjiang (East Turkestan). Yet it is more than a chronicle — it is a history of the…

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  25. The Formulation and Flow of National Identity from the Late Czarist Times to Today

    From Moldova to Tajikistan, from Belarus to Uzbekistan: The Formulation and Flow of National Identity from the Late Czarist Times to Today Riordan will explore the formulation of identity over the past 150 years in Moldova, Tajikistan, Belarus and Uzbekistan. Drawing on decades of on-the-ground...

  26. Power, Light and Yet Another Transition

    The lecture will provide insight into the particular (and sometimes peculiar) challenges Central Asian states faced in their energy systems during the first 30 years of independence as they struggled to provide reliable energy at home and secure resource markets abroad. It will then turn to…

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  27. Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond

    Ostap Kin presented and read from his book, “Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond” on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the Lecture: On September 29 and 30, 1941, Nazis executed 33,771 Kyivan Jews in Babyn Yar. By the time the Soviet army...

  28. Russian Independent Media Archive Project

    Anna Nemzer and Ilia Venyavkin presented on their work with the Russian Independent Media Archive Project on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the Lecture: In this joint presentation, journalist Anna Nemzer and historian Ilia Venyavkin will...

  29. Queer(ing) Art of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Emigration, 1890s—1940s

    Pavel Golubev gave a lecture on, “Queer(ing) Art of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Emigration, 1890s—1940s” on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the Lecture: The Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia invites you to a lecture...

  30. Do you suffer from urbanitis? Gender, cybernetics, and environmental concerns in 1970s Estonian SSR

    Epp Annus gave a lecture on, “Do you suffer from urbanitis? Gender, cybernetics, and environmental concerns in the 1970s Estonian SSR” on Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the Lecture: On the cover of Aimée Beekman’s novel Valikuvõimalus…

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  31. Cryptotheology, Psychobiography: Transgression in Polish 20th-Century Theatre

    Tamara Trojanowska gave a lecture on “Cryptotheology, Psychobiography: Transgression in Polish 20th-Century Theatre” on Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the Lecture: Tamara Trojanowska will present on her current research, which focuses on...

  32. Between Horror and Hope

    Natalia Kovyliaeva (Ph.D Candidate, University of Tartu) gave a lecture on "Between Horror and Hope: Feminist Anti-War Resistance and Opportunities for Mobilization in and Outside of Putin’s Russia" on Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the...

  33. Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society

    Ann Komaromi (Professor in the Centre for Comparative Literature and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto) presented on her book, “Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society,” on Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive.…

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  34. Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World

    Erik R. Scott (Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas) gave a lecture on "Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World" on Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the lecture: Defectors...

  35. Sonic Inscription, Soviet Writing, and Mikhail Romm’s Oral Stories with Matthew Kendall

    Matthew Kendall (Assistant Professor in the Department of Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian Studies, University of Illinois-Chicago) will give a lecture on “Revolutions per Minute: Sonic Inscription, Soviet Writing, and Mikhail Romm’s Oral Stories” on Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206...

  36. After Violence: Russia’s Beslan School Massacre And The Peace That Followed

    Debra Javeline (Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame) will present on her book, After Violence: Russia’s Beslan School Massacre and the Peace that Followed (Oxford University Press, 2023). Free and open to the public. About the lecture…

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  37. Intermarriage And The Friendship Of Peoples

    Historian Adrienne Edgar (Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara) will present on her recent book, Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples: Ethnic Mixing in Soviet Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2022). Free and open to the public. About...

  38. The Story Of Memorial And The Country's Failed Transition To The Rule Of Law

    Lecture with Grigory Vaypan. Grigory traces the root causes of Russia’s war against Ukraine to the failure of the post-Soviet transitional justice project in the early 1990s. When the Soviet totalitarian regime collapsed, very little was done to confront its past crimes. Impunity for Soviet-era...

  39. Dungan Folktales & Legends: The Sino-Muslim Folkloric Narrative Tradition of Central Asia

    Lecture with Professor Kenneth J. Yin. First migrating from northwest China to Russian Central Asia after the suppression of the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) under the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, the Dungan people boast a rich oral tradition, which served as an important breeding ground for the...

  40. The Great Game and Migration of the 1950-60s from China to Kazakhstan with Dr. Ablet Kamalov

    This presentation will focus on the migration of Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Russians and some other ethnic groups from Xinjiang province of China to Soviet Kazakhstan in the 1950-60s. Discussion of the migration based on analysis of the Soviet archival materials as well as oral histories of migrants will…

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  41. Resilience in Ukraine: What We Know and What Can Be Done with Tymofii Brik

    The talk focuses on the socio-economic consequences of the war and the factors contributing to the resilience of the Ukrainian people. Russia’s war against Ukraine has been ongoing for many years, and despite the challenges, the Ukrainian people have shown remarkable resilience in the face of...

  42. A Spiritual Revolution: Reform and Reaction in Orthodox Russia with Andrey Ivanov

    The ideas of the Protestant Reformation, followed by the European Enlightenment, had a profound and long-lasting impact on Russia’s church and society in the long eighteenth century. Though the Orthodox Church was often assumed to have been hostile toward outside influence, Ivanov’s recent book...

  43. Political Participation of Women in the USSR and Russia with Valeria Umanets

    What happens when women’s political quotas are implemented in non-democracies? Valeria Umanets focuses on understanding the political and social meaning and manipulation of gender in the Soviet Union, which held informal women’s political quotas for almost 75 years. Specifically, this talk…

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  44. Shifting Rationality: How Identity Decay Led Russia to Invade Ukraine with Mikhail Troitskiy

    The great puzzle of Russia-West relations throughout the three post-Cold War decades has been the apparent reluctance of the Kremlin to reap significant and evident benefits from collaboration with the United States and its allies. At many junctures, Moscow consistently chose confrontation over...

  45. War, Revolution, and the Expansion of Women's Political Citizenship in Finland with Aili Tripp

    Finland was the first country in Europe to allow for suffrage for both men and women and the first in the world where women were elected to national legislative office. Using turn of the 20th century Finland as an example, Professor Tripp will demonstrate how war and the end of empire are linked…

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  46. A War Vocabulary: Traumatic Experience and the Search for a New Language in Ukrainian Literature

    The literature of the war against Ukraine testified to the profound changes that took place in the nature of Ukrainian artistic expression: from the loss of the very ability to speak, through the development of a new poetics of the voice and body, through literalism as the restoration of the...

  47. Power And Powerlessness In Wartime Russia with Sam Greene

    Russia's war against Ukraine has brought about a radical restructuring of the Russian political economy, placing transformative ideology and outright coercion firmly at the heart of power. Despite this, the war and its consequences have produced remarkably little resistance. This discussion…

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  48. Ukraine's Unnamed War - Jesse Driscoll (2.9.23)

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has its roots in the events of 2013–2014. Russia cynically termed the seditionist conflict in Crimea and Eastern Donbas a ‘civil war’ in order to claim non-involvement. This flies in the face of evidence, but the authors argue that the social science...

  49. The Russian Labor Market Story: Deciphering the Puzzles with Vladimir Gimpelson

    How can the Russian economy, moving from one crisis to another one, avoid significant hikes in unemployment? How does human capital evolve when workers’ wages peak so early and then decline so steeply? How does a country so rich in human capital exhibit such low productivity? Vladimir Gimpelson...

  50. The Biggest War Since 1945: Why and How Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Matters for European Security

    Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine reverberates beyond Ukraine in a major way. The international order and law are blatantly violated. Energy corridors have been affected and food supply chains have been disrupted around the world. The very notion of the international community and its ability…

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

CREECA’s mission is to support research, teaching, and outreach on Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Central Asia. We approach this three-part mission by promoting faculty research across a range of disciplines; by supporting graduate and undergraduate teaching and training related to the region; and by serving as a community resource through outreach activities targeted to K-12 teachers and students, other institutions of higher education, and the general public. As a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center, CREECA hosts a variety of events and lectures which are free and open to the public. You can find recordings of past events here.

HOSTED BY

Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

Produced by CREECA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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CREECA Lecture Series Podcast currently has 179 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

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CREECA’s mission is to support research, teaching, and outreach on Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Central Asia. We approach this three-part mission by promoting faculty research across a range of disciplines; by supporting graduate and undergraduate teaching and training related to the...

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CREECA Lecture Series Podcast is created and hosted by Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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