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An intricate portrait of secret Soviet operations in Ukraine during Joseph Stalin's rule, from Canadian historian Lynne Viola. She speaks to Nahlah Ayed about the legacy of Stalin's “Great Terror,” Russian suppression of Ukrainian nationalist sentiment, Vladimir Putin's new war on history, and that time when the KGB came knocking on her door... and asked her out on a date.
Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron take on the second half of Zuleika by Guzel Yakhina, wherein our eponymous heroine fully sheds her old identity as the “pitiful hen,” and—deep in the woods of Siberia—becomes a hunter, mother, cook, medical assistant, lover, and everything you might have imagined to be impossible in such exile. As with the first half, Zuleikha continues to be an absolute joy to read and talk about so get your 100-proof vodka and enjoy! 07:23 - Much of the information in this section is pulled from Lynne Viola’s paper “The Campaign to Eliminate the Kulak as a Class, Winter 1929-1930: A Reevaluation of the Legislation”. 10:40 - “The Soviet War Against ‘Fifth Columnists’: The Case Against Chechnya, 1942-4” by Jeffrey Burds. See especially the section “Germany and Japan: Intelligence and Sabotage Networks, 1935-41.” 13:20 - Again pulled from Burds’s article, these are the characteristics of “bandit nations”: borderland elements, with close kinship or ethnic ties to foreign-based emigration Foreign use of those elements for espionage and other seditious acts within the USSR strong religious traditions sustained by ‘heroic’ historical movement of insurrectionary elements operates on hostile terrain that facilitates concealment Major themes: Call your mom, Bad man as interesting characters, Russian phonetics. The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon!
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017),... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017),... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017), Dr. Lynne Viola dives into the previously secret records of the Ukrainian SSR NKVD (Stalinist-era secret police). She gives readers an intimate look at the arrest, interrogation and trial records of NKVD members purged following the zenith of the Great Terror. Viola’s work deepens our understanding of the victim-perpetrator paradigm within Soviet history. The men she discusses were True Believers firm in their devotion to Soviet power. They pursued any means necessary, including the use of torture to obtain false confessions, to reach their increasingly unrealistic arrest and confession quotas. Each man’s story reveals how low- and mid-ranking cadres executed the mechanisms of the Great Terror. From a sadistic interrogator to an execution squad leader who robbed graves, Viola’s work allows readers to understand the motivation and thought processes of individuals who are often absent in scholarship on the Terror. Viola argues that multiple factors shaped the behavior of these perpetrators: orders from above, the extraordinary pressures placed on cadres to find enemies, situational factors, and individual decision-making. Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon is a History Instructor at Lee College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017),... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017), Dr. Lynne Viola dives into the previously secret records of the Ukrainian SSR NKVD (Stalinist-era secret police). She gives readers an intimate look at the arrest, interrogation and trial records of NKVD members purged following the zenith of the Great Terror. Viola’s work deepens our understanding of the victim-perpetrator paradigm within Soviet history. The men she discusses were True Believers firm in their devotion to Soviet power. They pursued any means necessary, including the use of torture to obtain false confessions, to reach their increasingly unrealistic arrest and confession quotas. Each man’s story reveals how low- and mid-ranking cadres executed the mechanisms of the Great Terror. From a sadistic interrogator to an execution squad leader who robbed graves, Viola’s work allows readers to understand the motivation and thought processes of individuals who are often absent in scholarship on the Terror. Viola argues that multiple factors shaped the behavior of these perpetrators: orders from above, the extraordinary pressures placed on cadres to find enemies, situational factors, and individual decision-making. Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon is a History Instructor at Lee College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017), Dr. Lynne Viola dives into the previously secret records of the Ukrainian SSR NKVD (Stalinist-era secret police). She gives readers an intimate look at the arrest, interrogation and trial records of NKVD members purged following the zenith of the Great Terror. Viola’s work deepens our understanding of the victim-perpetrator paradigm within Soviet history. The men she discusses were True Believers firm in their devotion to Soviet power. They pursued any means necessary, including the use of torture to obtain false confessions, to reach their increasingly unrealistic arrest and confession quotas. Each man’s story reveals how low- and mid-ranking cadres executed the mechanisms of the Great Terror. From a sadistic interrogator to an execution squad leader who robbed graves, Viola’s work allows readers to understand the motivation and thought processes of individuals who are often absent in scholarship on the Terror. Viola argues that multiple factors shaped the behavior of these perpetrators: orders from above, the extraordinary pressures placed on cadres to find enemies, situational factors, and individual decision-making. Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon is a History Instructor at Lee College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet state turned on them in 1938 during “the purge of the purgers?” In her newest book, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (Oxford University Press, 2017), Dr. Lynne Viola dives into the previously secret records of the Ukrainian SSR NKVD (Stalinist-era secret police). She gives readers an intimate look at the arrest, interrogation and trial records of NKVD members purged following the zenith of the Great Terror. Viola's work deepens our understanding of the victim-perpetrator paradigm within Soviet history. The men she discusses were True Believers firm in their devotion to Soviet power. They pursued any means necessary, including the use of torture to obtain false confessions, to reach their increasingly unrealistic arrest and confession quotas. Each man's story reveals how low- and mid-ranking cadres executed the mechanisms of the Great Terror. From a sadistic interrogator to an execution squad leader who robbed graves, Viola's work allows readers to understand the motivation and thought processes of individuals who are often absent in scholarship on the Terror. Viola argues that multiple factors shaped the behavior of these perpetrators: orders from above, the extraordinary pressures placed on cadres to find enemies, situational factors, and individual decision-making. Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon is a History Instructor at Lee College.
Guest: Lynne Viola on the Soviet collectivization of agriculture, resistance, and Stalinist perpetrators. [spp-player] The post Collectivization and Stalinist Perpetrators appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.
Guest: Lynne Viola on the Soviet collectivization of agriculture, resistance, and Stalinist perpetrators. [spp-player] The post Collectivization and Stalinist Perpetrators appeared first on SRB Podcast.
Shownotes: Note: This is a re-run of Zuleikha (parts 1 and 2) by Guzel Yakhina.It's week 1 of Matt and Cameron's June break. So this week, we're looking back at one of our favorite books from this podcast, originally put out in April of 2021. Major themes: Forest spirits, Vestigial pagan folklore, and Dekulakization.03:51 - Here's a link to the article that I heavily cited in this episode: Fear and Belief in the USSR's “Great Terror”: Response to Arrest, 1935-1939.51:20 - Much of the information in this section is pulled from Lynne Viola's paper “The Campaign to Eliminate the Kulak as a Class, Winter 1929-1930: A Reevaluation of the Legislation”.53:30 - “The Soviet War Against ‘Fifth Columnists': The Case Against Chechnya, 1942-4” by Jeffrey Burds. See especially the section “Germany and Japan: Intelligence and Sabotage Networks, 1935-41.” 13:20 - Again pulled from Burds's article, these are the characteristics of “bandit nations”:borderland elements, with close kinship or ethnic ties to foreign-based emigrationForeign use of those elements for espionage and other seditious acts within the USSRstrong religious traditionssustained by ‘heroic' historical movement of insurrectionary elementsoperates on hostile terrain that facilitates concealmentThe music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you're so inclined, check out our Patreon!