Podcasts about soviet century

In this special Holocaust Remembrance Day episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and the Heritage Foundation's Jason Bedrick interview Alexandra Popoff, a former Moscow journalist and acclaimed biographer. Ms. Popoff delves into the life and legacy of Vasily Grossman, a 20th-century Jewish Soviet writer and journalist. She explores Grossman's transition from chemical engineering to writing, influenced by his Jewish heritage and the historical context of the time. Popoff discusses Grossman's role as a war correspondent for the Red Army newspaper, covering key WWII battles and providing early reports on Nazi death camps, including Treblinka. She highlights his 1944 piece, "The Hell of Treblinka," which was used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials. Popoff also examines Grossman's major literary works, including Stalingrad and Life and Fate, which were censored and "arrested" by the Soviet government for their anti-totalitarian content. She reflects on Grossman's historic contributions to Holocaust literature and the lessons his writings offer on the political nature of Nazism and Soviet communism. In closing, she reads a passage from her book, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century.

Guest: Karl Schlogel on the lost world of Soviet civilization. The post The Soviet Century appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

We zetten een traditie voort. Elke zomer behandelen Jaap Jansen en PG Kroeger een serie boeiende en interessante boeken die ook voor het komende podcast-seizoen veel inspiratie bieden voor verdieping, inzicht en uitzicht.***Deze aflevering is mede mogelijk gemaakt met donaties van luisteraars die we hiervoor hartelijk danken. Word ook vriend van de show!Heeft u belangstelling om in onze podcast te adverteren of ons te sponsoren? Zend een mailtje naar adverteren@dagennacht.nlOp sommige podcast-apps kun je niet alles lezen. De complete tekst vind je altijd hier***00:03:05Als eerste De Reynaert, leven met een middeleeuws meesterwerk door Frits van Oostrom. Een meesterwerk van de grote kenner van onze middeleeuwse letterkunde. En hóe actueel. Het verhaal van de slimme vos is in het Oekraïne van vandaag warempel een opbeurend kinderboek en kent ook in vele andere talen navolging. Goethe was er zo verrukt van dat hij zijn eigen variant schreef! PG benadrukt het door en door politieke karakter van dit klassieke dierenepos. In de kern is het een verfijnd opgebouwd geheel van intriges in het politieke centrum van het dierenrijk, het hof van de leeuw Koning Nobel. En het schildert een wrede, normloze wereld waarin bedrog, geweld en humor strijden om de aandacht van de luisteraar. De Reynaert is onze poëtische Machiavelli, eeuwen voor de Italiaanse topambtenaar Il Principe schreef.00:24:48Het tweede boek is heel anders. De eerste moderne geschiedenis van de DDR. Katja Hoyer schreef Diesseits der Mauer, eine neue Geschichte der DDR 1949-1990 (ook uitgegeven als Achter de Muur. Oost-Duitsland 1949 – 1990. Een rijk boek vol onverwachte blikken in de binnenwereld van een gruwelijke dictatuur waarin iedereen probeerde toch nog iets te maken van zijn leven. Aandacht daarom ook voor de zeer verschillende reacties op dit boek, want Hoyer kreeg in Duitsland de wind van voren. PG verwacht dat over enkele jaren een boek zal verschijnen over hoe men in 2022-2023 dit boek las en interpreteerde. Want dat is op zichzelf een deel van de geschiedenis van het Duitse zelfbeeld.00:46:37Het derde boek is Who Dares Wins, Britain 1979-1982. Het is het slot van een meeslepende reeks boeken van Dominic Sandbrook over de Britse cultuur en politiek van de Suezcrisis in 1956 tot de Falklandoorlog in 1982. Van de ondergang van een Empire, een culturele revolutie van jongeren en popmuziek tot de eerste vrouw als premier in Number 10. Dit laatste deel gaat over die jaren van Maggie, van het plotselinge succes van Brideshead Revisited en een heftige strijd om de ziel van de natie. 00:58:39Het vierde boek is voor PG een van de belangrijkste die hij in jaren heeft gelezen. Karl Schlögel schreef zijn magnum opus Das Sowjetische Jahrhundert, archäologie einer untergegangener Welt (ook uitgegeven als The Soviet Century, Archaeology of a Lost World). Hij schildert daarin de cultuur, politiek en samenleving van die verdwenen supermacht. Van Stalins kookboek tot het crematoruim van Moskou. Hoe de Goelagarchipel in wezen een groot sociaal en educatief experiment was met 'de Nieuwe Mens', dat door kunstenaars gevierd moest worden als groot cultureel fenomeen.01:15:40Het vijfde boek behandelt maar liefst tien eeuwen van Europa: Dan Jones, Powers and Thrones, a new history of the Middle Ages (ook uitgegeven als Van Rome tot Rome, een nieuwe geschiedenis van de middeleeuwen). Zijn Middeleeuwen zijn geen duister en barbaarse tijd, maar eeuwen van globalisering en culturele connecties en conflicten. Met de Islam, met de Mongoolse imperia, met pandemieën en de grootse cultuur van een Europa dat met het Latijn een taal had waarin over heel het continent gecommuniceerd werd. We ontmoeten Herman de Lamme, een ernstig gehandicapte jongen, die op het eiland Reichenau in de Bodensee uitgroeit tot een geleerde met eeuwenlang invloed.01:25:49Tot slot keren we terug bij de Britse historicus Andrew Roberts, al eerder gast in Betrouwbare Bronnen met zijn meesterwerk over Churchill. Ook zijn nieuwste biografie is er een van de buitencategorie: George III, The Life and Reign of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch (ook uitgegeven als George III, het leven van de meest onbegrepen koning van Engeland). Over een tragische man wiens reputatie in bijna elk opzicht onverdiend blijkt.George III zat 60 jaar op de troon, langer dan enig andere vorst in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. En dat was tussen 1760 en 1820 in decennia van ongekende omwentelingen in elk aspect van leven, denken en politiek. Tijdgenoot van Goethe, Napoleon, Washington, Catharina de Grote, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke en de Humboldt broers. Zijn impact op de Britse politiek en samenleving was groot. Als mens was hij beminnelijk, kwetsbaar en verrassend. Zijn muzikaliteit zorgde er voor dat Händel de nationale componist der Britten werd. En zelfs dat had een verfijnd politiek tintje. Hallelujah!01:47:32 Einde***Eerdere boekenspecials:317 - Extra winteraflevering: PG tipt boeken!286 - Extra zomeraflevering: PG tipt boeken!269 - Vijf boeken die je moet lezen om Europa beter te begrijpen259 - Boeken over Rusland - juist nu lezen en begrijpen207 - Zomer 2021: Boekentips van PG! Met oa de biografie van Händel133 - Amerikaanse presidenten: boeken die je volgens PG móet lezen!99 - Zomer 2020: Boekentips van PG!En we verwijzen in deze aflevering ook naar43 - Het Binnenhof, een eeuwenoud ratjetoe***Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

EPISODE 1397: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the distinguished German historian and author of THE SOVIET HISTORY Karl Schlogel about his new encyclopedic and richly detailed history of everyday life in the Soviet Union Karl Schlögel is a historian, essayist, and professor emeritus at Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. His many books include histories of Moscow, Berlin, and Petersburg, and he won the European Charles Veillon essay prize in 1990 and the prize of the Historisches Kolleg Munich in 2016. His latest book is THE SOVIET CENTURY: Archeology of a Lost World (2023) Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexandra Popoff is a former Moscow journalist and Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow. She is an expert on Russian literature and cultural history and the author of five literary biographies, including the award-winning Sophia Tolstoy and Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century. Her book The Wives became a Wall Street Journal best non-fiction title for 2012. Popoff's biography of Vasily Grossman won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for biography, Saskatchewan Nonfiction Award, became a finalist in the 2019 National Jewish Book Awards, and was long-listed for the 2019 Cundill History Prize. Her new book, a biography of Ayn Rand, will be published by Yale University Press (Jewish Lives) in 2024. Popoff has written articles and reviews for The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Literary Hub, The Globe and Mail, National Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Tablet Magazine. You can find out more at http://russianliteratureandbiography.com/. Immigration as an opportunity for a new beginning https://hbr.org/2021/08/research-why-immigrants-are-more-likely-to-become-entrepreneurs Moving to Saskatoon https://www.britannica.com/place/Saskatoon-Saskatchewan Biographies of lesser-known people https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alexandra-popoff/wives/ The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Nonfiction-review-Tzouliadis-The-Forsaken-3197333.php The idea of outlawing war https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/07/hidden-success-kellogg-briand-peace-pact/ The Parable of Talents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_talents_or_minas This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron finish out Part 2 of Stalingrad, learning more about the emotional aftermath of the Shaposhnikov family and friends' losses - and, naturally, are introduced to an entirely new character. It's time to learn about coal mining, babey. Grab your helmet-mounted flashlight, a boring tool, and get ready to get deep into some soot. Major themes: Tank Corps time babey, Legendary pettiness, Grossman's Cement, 06:24 *sister for being bad at art 10:45 - Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff 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!

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron finally arrive to the subject of the book Stalingrad - which is, of course, the actual battle of Stalingrad. It only took us a breezy 500 pages to get here. Oh! But I forgot - we have about 50 more pages of the war from the German perspective first. Grossman doesn't let you have anything easily. Get your drink, find shelter from the bombs, and tune in! My apologies about the lack of context in this section! I've been traveling out-of-country for the last week and seem to have lost the cable that connects my audio interface to my computer! We'll pick up the tale of Grossman's life in our next episode! Major themes: Sponsored by water, Perspectives on Nazi-era Germany, 08:57 - Some examples from our much maligned friend (by which I mean, website we malign a lot), Reddit. 20:26 - For any German-speakers out there, I apologize for my pronunciation. 38:29 - If you have the time, you should give Hunter S. Thompson's eulogy for Richard Nixon a read. 39:47 - The work is called “Discourse on Colonialism” by Aime Cesaire, linked here. Although I have my quibbles with some particulars, on the whole I think the work is an important read for those who study history. 40:35 - Adam Hochschild as a whole is worth reading, but one of his most notable works is King Leopold's Ghost. This book covers the events I mention. By the way - the number of dead Congolese people I gave is extremely low. Hochchild's book estimates the number to be around 10 million dead. Grossman's point about Hitlers should perhaps be extended to the colonialist powers that have trod tens of millions of people in the Global South underfoot. 01:12:38 - I am as of yet unable to locate this information, so I'm combing Popoff's book Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century when I have time! Once I have the information, I'll update this shownote. 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!

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron continue to dig their trench and get ready for the oncoming siege of Stalingrad in Part 2 of their 10 Part series on Stalingrad. We'll be learning a little more about Grossman's life and will follow Grossman's masterful depiction of the first years of World War 2 on Soviet territory. Get the hidden moonshine out of the cellar, fry up the last of the Doktorskaya kalbasa, and tune in! Major themes: Erasure of civilians in war, Call of Duty, Ideology and science Like last time, the list is too long, but follow this link to see the book recommendations. 22:49 - Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff 42:52 - My mistake! Stepan Spiridonov is not Seryozha's father - Seryozha's father is Alexandra's son Dmitri, who has so far not appeared in this book. 58:03 - The title is actually Novel with Cocaine, not Man with Cocaine 58:44 - “Brutal Games: Call of Duty and Cultural Narratives of World War 2” by Debra Ramsay 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!

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron kick off their biggest podcast series ever with one of the most obscure choices possible for such a venture: Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman. Stalingrad is the first book in a dilogy, followed by the much more famous Life and Fate, which covers the siege of the city of Stalingrad by the German Wehrmacht in World War 2. We're going to be dealing with a whole cast of characters here and their varied experiences of the war so get a pencil and paper, get ready to start diagramming family trees, and tune in! Major themes: Getting off-topic, Ways of looking at truth, Polyphony Quick note: this week, I had too many shownotes and the word count exceeded the maximum allowed in the description. To see the full shownotes as well as the recommended reading list, please check out this google document. 03:17 - Not even five minutes in and my first blunder. Professor Rauchway also taught his course on WW2 alongside Professor Ari Kelman. 04:58 - I hate to come for Matt, but my brief reading seems to imply that they mean it in the latter sense. 11:38 - Mea culpa, I got the year wrong here. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7th, 1941, and the US would be involved in the war militarily from 1942 to 1945. 12:49 - Listen to “Politely and Calmly Discussing 1984” here or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts. 13:01 - Guernica 13:24 - Hochschild here is in reference to Adam Hochschild and his book “Spain in our Hearts” about the Spanish Civil War 13:50 - His name was Torkild Reiber, not Torvald. If you'd like to read more notes (or also my notes for all context sections thus far, you can check out this document. 17:53 - Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff. The entire book can be found on JSTOR. If you don't have an institutional affiliation, you can - and you didn't hear this from me - go to your nearest university and log on using their Wi-Fi. That seems to give JSTOR the impression that you're affiliated with that university and will let you access and download more stuff. Big ups to University of the Pacific for helping me do a great deal of research for this podcast. 18:40 - “The Battle of Stalingrad, July 1942 - February 1943” by P.M.H. Bell The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

A man variously known as the “Iron Hedgehog” and a “malignant Dwarf”, but also as charming, courteous, and, most importantly “a good party man,” a man who held the position of the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - the head of the NKVD during Stalin’s Great Purge - Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov. ----more---- Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/ Deutscher, Isaac. The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929-1940. London: Verso, 2003.   "Gay in the Gulag." Libcom. https://libcom.org/history/gay-gulag   Getty, J. Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov. The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.   Getty, John Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov. Yezhov: The Rise of Stalin’s “Iron Fist.” New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.   Lewin, Moshe. The Soviet Century. London: Verso, 2005.   Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. London: Hachette UK, 2010.    Weston, Fred. "From Emancipation to Criminalization: Stalinist Persecution of Homosexuals from 1934." https://www.marxist.com/from-emancipation-to-criminalisation-stalinist-persecution-of-homosexuals-from-1934.htm   Whyte, Harry. Letter to Joseph Stalin, May 1934. https://www.marxist.com/letter-to-stalin-can-a-homosexual-be-in-the-communist-party.htm Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

Christian and Donald sit down for a discussion on Moshe Lewin's 1974 tome Political Undercurrents in Soviet Economic Debates. They discuss Bukharin, the Left Opposition, Stalin, Soviet reformers, cybernetic planning, and more. Unfortunately, Lewin's book is out of print but we recommend getting your hands on a used copy if possible. If you can't, his book The Soviet Century is still in print from Verso Books. We hope to continue this to be a continuous reading series on the problems of building socialism. 

A celebrated Russian journalist and author during WWII, after Vasily Grossman completed his masterpiece “Life and Fate” which sharply criticized the Soviet system, the KGB confiscated his manuscript. The book was eventually smuggled out of Russia and published, but not until long after Grossman’s death in 1964. The prequel to that book, “Stalingrad,” has just been republished with a new English translation. In the July issue of Harper’s Magazine, Aaron Lake Smith reviews three of Grossman’s books currently in print in English and a new biography called “Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century” by Alexandra Popoff. Aaron Lake Smith on Vasily Grossman, in this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

Memory and truth are malleable and nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union. To be a writer in that country was to face an ongoing dilemma: conform to State-mandated topics and themes, or consign oneself to obscurity, writing only for “the desk drawer” or “without permission.” Vasily Grossman challenged that binary choice, creating some of the most compelling and uncompromising fiction and journalism of the century, but also enduring heartbreaking censorship. Her excellent new biography, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019) brings the life and work of this often-overlooked writer into brilliant focus. Biography of a writer — particularly one with Grossman's output — can be tricky to pull off, but Popoff's extensive research is elegantly arranged into a very readable narrative, in which we follow Grossman through the harrowing experiences of witnessing first hand, famine in the 1920s, the Terror of the 1930s, the carnage of World War II, and the dull ache of censorship in the post-war Soviet Union. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who divides her time between Riga, Latvia, and New England. Jennifer writes about travel, food, lifestyle, and Russian history and culture with bylines in Reuters, Fodor's, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life. She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts, and the award-winning author of Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow. Follow Jennifer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit jennifereremeeva.com for more information.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memory and truth are malleable and nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union.  To be a writer in that country was to face an ongoing dilemma: conform to State-mandated topics and themes, or consign oneself to obscurity, writing only for “the desk drawer” or “without permission.” Vasily Grossman challenged that binary choice, creating some of the most compelling and uncompromising fiction and journalism of the century, but also enduring heartbreaking censorship. Her excellent new biography, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019) brings the life and work of this often-overlooked writer into brilliant focus. Biography of a writer — particularly one with Grossman’s output — can be tricky to pull off, but Popoff’s extensive research is elegantly arranged into a very readable narrative, in which we follow Grossman through the harrowing experiences of witnessing first hand, famine in the 1920s, the Terror of the 1930s, the carnage of World War II, and the dull ache of censorship in the post-war Soviet Union. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who divides her time between Riga, Latvia, and New England.  Jennifer writes about travel, food, lifestyle, and Russian history and culture with bylines in Reuters, Fodor’s, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life.  She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts, and the award-winning author of  Lenin Lives Next Door:  Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow.  Follow Jennifer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit jennifereremeeva.com for more information.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memory and truth are malleable and nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union.  To be a writer in that country was to face an ongoing dilemma: conform to State-mandated topics and themes, or consign oneself to obscurity, writing only for “the desk drawer” or “without permission.” Vasily Grossman challenged that binary choice, creating some of the most compelling and uncompromising fiction and journalism of the century, but also enduring heartbreaking censorship. Her excellent new biography, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019) brings the life and work of this often-overlooked writer into brilliant focus. Biography of a writer — particularly one with Grossman’s output — can be tricky to pull off, but Popoff’s extensive research is elegantly arranged into a very readable narrative, in which we follow Grossman through the harrowing experiences of witnessing first hand, famine in the 1920s, the Terror of the 1930s, the carnage of World War II, and the dull ache of censorship in the post-war Soviet Union. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who divides her time between Riga, Latvia, and New England.  Jennifer writes about travel, food, lifestyle, and Russian history and culture with bylines in Reuters, Fodor’s, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life.  She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts, and the award-winning author of  Lenin Lives Next Door:  Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow.  Follow Jennifer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit jennifereremeeva.com for more information.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memory and truth are malleable and nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union.  To be a writer in that country was to face an ongoing dilemma: conform to State-mandated topics and themes, or consign oneself to obscurity, writing only for “the desk drawer” or “without permission.” Vasily Grossman challenged that binary choice, creating some of the most compelling and uncompromising fiction and journalism of the century, but also enduring heartbreaking censorship. Her excellent new biography, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019) brings the life and work of this often-overlooked writer into brilliant focus. Biography of a writer — particularly one with Grossman’s output — can be tricky to pull off, but Popoff’s extensive research is elegantly arranged into a very readable narrative, in which we follow Grossman through the harrowing experiences of witnessing first hand, famine in the 1920s, the Terror of the 1930s, the carnage of World War II, and the dull ache of censorship in the post-war Soviet Union. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who divides her time between Riga, Latvia, and New England.  Jennifer writes about travel, food, lifestyle, and Russian history and culture with bylines in Reuters, Fodor’s, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life.  She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts, and the award-winning author of  Lenin Lives Next Door:  Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow.  Follow Jennifer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit jennifereremeeva.com for more information.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memory and truth are malleable and nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union.  To be a writer in that country was to face an ongoing dilemma: conform to State-mandated topics and themes, or consign oneself to obscurity, writing only for “the desk drawer” or “without permission.” Vasily Grossman challenged that binary choice, creating some of the most compelling and uncompromising fiction and journalism of the century, but also enduring heartbreaking censorship. Her excellent new biography, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019) brings the life and work of this often-overlooked writer into brilliant focus. Biography of a writer — particularly one with Grossman’s output — can be tricky to pull off, but Popoff’s extensive research is elegantly arranged into a very readable narrative, in which we follow Grossman through the harrowing experiences of witnessing first hand, famine in the 1920s, the Terror of the 1930s, the carnage of World War II, and the dull ache of censorship in the post-war Soviet Union. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who divides her time between Riga, Latvia, and New England.  Jennifer writes about travel, food, lifestyle, and Russian history and culture with bylines in Reuters, Fodor’s, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life.  She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts, and the award-winning author of  Lenin Lives Next Door:  Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow.  Follow Jennifer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit jennifereremeeva.com for more information.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memory and truth are malleable and nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union.  To be a writer in that country was to face an ongoing dilemma: conform to State-mandated topics and themes, or consign oneself to obscurity, writing only for “the desk drawer” or “without permission.” Vasily Grossman challenged that binary choice, creating some of the most compelling and uncompromising fiction and journalism of the century, but also enduring heartbreaking censorship. Her excellent new biography, Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century (Yale University Press, 2019) brings the life and work of this often-overlooked writer into brilliant focus. Biography of a writer — particularly one with Grossman’s output — can be tricky to pull off, but Popoff’s extensive research is elegantly arranged into a very readable narrative, in which we follow Grossman through the harrowing experiences of witnessing first hand, famine in the 1920s, the Terror of the 1930s, the carnage of World War II, and the dull ache of censorship in the post-war Soviet Union. Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who divides her time between Riga, Latvia, and New England.  Jennifer writes about travel, food, lifestyle, and Russian history and culture with bylines in Reuters, Fodor’s, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life.  She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts, and the award-winning author of  Lenin Lives Next Door:  Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow.  Follow Jennifer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit jennifereremeeva.com for more information.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A "new" ending to a Nabokov novel and the unregarded first volume of Vasily Grossman's epic, the "Soviet War and Peace"; Rebecca Reich guides us through these and the question of whether the West is paranoid about Russia or vice versa; Laura Freeman joins us to talk about dinner with the Durrells and pond life sandwiches.BooksStalingrad: A novel by Vasily GrossmanVasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra PopoffPlots against Russia by Eliot BorensteinThe Russia Anxiety by Mark B. SmithDining with the Durrells by David Shimwell See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.