Podcasts about soviet socialism

This week Chris talks to Jason and Matthew about their new podcast: Unbreakable Union. This ambitious project will span six seasons with one decade being covered per season. Check out our episode then listen to the podcast here or on your preferred podcatcher. It should be showing up everywhere in the next few days. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2462690Also, come join our Patreon and get access to our discord! Click below:Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show

Gabriel Custodiet speaks with economist Peter Boettke about the details surrounding the Soviet economy that Lenin, and then Stalin, attempted to create in their utopian hubris.   GUEST → https://www.peter-boettke.com/ → https://www.amazon.com/stores/Peter-J.-Boettke/author/B001IQWMUQ  → Main book discussed: The Political Economy of Soviet Socialism: the Formative Years, 1918-1928 → https://www.realitiesofsocialism.org/    MENTIONED → https://www.clara-elizabeth.com/ (Fertility gap and economic freedom) → To the Finland Station → Ten Days that Shook the World   WATCHMAN PRIVACY → https://watchmanprivacy.com (Including privacy consulting) → https://twitter.com/watchmanprivacy → https://escapethetechnocracy.com/ CRYPTO DONATIONS →8829DiYwJ344peEM7SzUspMtgUWKAjGJRHmu4Q6R8kEWMpafiXPPNBkeRBhNPK6sw27urqqMYTWWXZrsX6BLRrj7HiooPAy (Monero) →https://btcpay0.voltageapp.io/apps/3JDQDSj2rp56KDffH5sSZL19J1Lh/pos (BTC) TIMELINE 00:00 – Introduction 2:00 – What were the first things Lenin did? 7:00 – Did the Soviet economy work initially? 20:35 – Shortage economies 22:15 – Removing sex roles affects Soviet economy? 27:10 – Did the USSR have its own military-industrial complex? 28:30 – Any interesting statistics come out of USSR? 32:35 – Did Trofim Lysenko kill 55 million people? 35:50 – Did the US fight on the wrong side during WWII? 37:35 – Why is von Mises so important? 44:00 – Is economics itself the problem? 51:45 – Poland and Estonia   Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

We are back with more books Chris read in grad school. This one is written by Rachel Applebaum (no relation to Anne) and discusses the Soviet Friendship programs, their successes, and failures.Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions.Support the showSupport the show

Episode 119:This week we're continuing Russia in Revolution An Empire in Crisis 1890 - 1928 by S. A. Smith[Part 1]Introduction[Part 2-5]1. Roots of Revolution, 1880s–1905[Part 6-8]2. From Reform to War, 1906-1917[Part 9-12]3. From February to October 1917[Part 13 - 17]4. Civil War and Bolshevik Power[Part 18 - 22]5. War Communism[Part 23 - 26]6. The New Economic Policy: Politics and the Economy[Part 27 - 30]7. The New Economic Policy: Society and Culture[Part 31 - This Week]Conclusion (first half) - 0:23[Part 32]ConclusionFootnotes:1) 7:37The phrase was Lenin's. See V. I. Lenin, ‘Our Tasks and the Soviet of Workers' Deputies', 2–4 Nov. 1905, in Lenin Collected Works (Moscow: Progress, 1965), 10. 17–28.2) 22:49Lynne Viola, ‘Collectivization in the Soviet Union: Specificities and Modalities', in Constantin Iordachi and Arnd Bauerkämper (eds), The Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe: Comparison and Entanglements (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2014), 49–78 (64–5).3) 24:17Ronald Suny suggests that empire is ‘a composite state in which the centre dominates the periphery to the latter's disadvantage'. Ronald G. Suny, ‘Ambiguous Categories: States, Empires and Nations', Post-Soviet Affairs, 11:2 (1995), 185–96 (187).4) 25:55Peter Holquist, ‘Violent Russia'.5) 26:45Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Polity, 1989), 13; David L. Hoffmann, Cultivating the Masses: Modern State Practices and Soviet Socialism, 1914–1939 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011).6) 28:57Landis, Bandits.7) 29:16Liudmila G. Novikova, ‘Russia's Red Revolutionary and White Terror: A Provincial Perspective', Europe-Asia Studies, 65:9 (2013), 1755–70.8) 29:40Felix Schnell, Räume des Schreckens: Gewalt und Gruppenmilitanz in der Ukraine, 1905–1933 (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2012); Stefan Plaggenborg, ‘Gewalt und Militanz in Sowjetrußland 1917–1930', Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, 44 (1996), 409–30.9) 30:23Stephen P. Frank, Crime, Cultural Conflict, and Justice in Rural Russia, 1856–1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 245–8.

Episode 118:This week we're continuing Russia in Revolution An Empire in Crisis 1890 - 1928 by S. A. Smith[Part 1]Introduction[Part 2-5]1. Roots of Revolution, 1880s–1905[Part 6-8]2. From Reform to War, 1906-1917[Part 9-12]3. From February to October 1917[Part 13 - 17]4. Civil War and Bolshevik Power[Part 18 - 22]5. War Communism[Part 23 - 26]6. The New Economic Policy: Politics and the Economy[Part 27 - 29]7. The New Economic Policy: Society and CultureSocial Order RestoredDesigning a Welfare StateThe Arts and UtopiaFamily and Gender RelationsYouth a Wavering VanguardPropaganda and Popular Culture[Part 30 - This Week]7. The New Economic Policy: Society and CultureCultural Revolution - 0:38The Attack on Religion - 24:51Epilogue - The “Great Break” 1928 - 1931 - 42:38[Part 31 - 32?]ConclusionFigure 7.6 - 6:45Kazakh peasants learn to read.Figure 7.7 - 30:25The seizure of church valuables, 1922.Footnotes:96) 0:54Zenovia A. Sochor, Revolution and Culture: The Bogdanov–Lenin Controversy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988).97) 2:39Oktiabr'skaia revoliutsiia i fabzavkomy (The October Revolution and the Factory Committees), (2 vols), vol. 2, ed. S. A. Smith (Millwood, NY: Kraus International Publications, 1983), 89.98) 4:58Michael David-Fox, ‘What is Cultural Revolution?', Russian Review, 58 (Apr. 1999), 181–201.99) 5:46Ella Winter, Red Virtue: Human Relationships in the New Russia (London: Gollancz, 1933), 35.100) 6:48Charles E. Clark, Uprooting Otherness: The Literacy Campaign in NEP-Era Russia (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2000).101) 7:50Charles E. Clark, ‘Uprooting Otherness: Bolshevik Attempts to Refashion Rural Russia via the Reading Rooms of the 1920s', Canadian Slavonic Papers, 38:3–4 (1996), 305–29 (320).102) 8:51N. Rosnitskii, Litso derevni. Po materialam obsledovaniia 28 volostei i 32,730 krest'ianskikh khoziaistv Penzenskoi gubernii (Leningrad: Gos. Izd-vo, 1926), 103.103) 10:00Régine Robin, ‘Popular Literature of the 1920s: Russian Peasants as Readers', in Fitzpatrick, Rabinowitch, and Stites (eds), Russia in the Era of NEP, 253–67, (256).104) 10:39Robin, ‘Popular Literature', 261.105) 11:26Gorsuch, Youth in Revolutionary Russia, 19.106) 11:50Antireligioznik, 10 (1926), 53.107) 12:28N. B. Lebina, Povsednevnaia zhizn' sovetskogo goroda: normy i anomalii: 1920–1930 gody (St Petersburg: Neva, 1999), ch. 2, part 3.108) 13:24Andy Willimott, Living the Revolution: Urban Communes & Soviet Socialism, 1917–1932 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).109) 13:56Hugh D. Hudson, Blueprints and Blood: The Stalinization of Soviet Architecture, 1917–37 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).110) 14:15Anatole Kopp, Town and Revolution: Soviet Architecture and City Planning, 1917–1935 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1970).111) 15:21Eric Aunoble, Le Communisme tout de suite! Le mouvement des communes en Ukraine soviétique (1919–20) (Paris: Les Nuits rouges, 2008).112) 16:25S. A. Smith, ‘The Social Meanings of Swearing: Workers and Bad Language in Late-Imperial and Early-Soviet Russia', Past and Present, 160 (1998), 167–202.113) 17:58This and the statistics on baptisms and funerals are taken from N. S. Burmistrov, ‘Religioznye obriady pri rozhdeniiakh, smertiakh, brakakh po statistichekim dannym administrativnykh otdelov Mossoveta', Antireligioznik, 6 (1929), 89–94.114) 20:03Golos naroda, 170–2.115) 20:44Catherine Merridale, Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia (London: Granta, 2000).116) 22:53N. N. Kozlova, Gorizonty povsednevnosti sovetskoi epokhi. Golosa iz khora (Moscow: RAN, 1996), 128; Litvak, ‘Zhizn' krest'ianina', 194.117) 25:14V. P. Buldakov, Krasnaia smuta: Priroda I posledstviia revoliutsionnogo nasiliia (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1997).118) 25:42Koenker and Bachman (eds), Revelations from the Russian Archives, 456–8.119) 27:26State Archive of the Russian Federation: ГАРФ, ф.Р-5407, оп.2, д.177, л.22.120) 28:56.121) 31:25N. A. Krivova, ‘The Events in Shuia: A Turning Point in the Assault on the Church', Russian Studies in History, 46:2 (2007), 8–38.122) 31:44Edward E. Roslof, Red Priests: Renovationism, Russian Orthodoxy, and Revolution, 1905–1946 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002).123) 32:41Gregory Freeze, ‘Counter-Reformation in Russian Orthodoxy: Popular Response to Religious Innovation, 1922–1925', Slavic Review, 54:2 (1995), 305–39.124) 34:10A. Iu. Minakov, ‘Sektanty i revoliutsiia', < http://dl.biblion.realin.ru/text/14_Disk_EPDS_-_vse_seminarskie_konspekty/Uchebnye_materialy_1/sekt_novosibirsk/Documents/sekt_revol.html>.125) 35:41Mustafa Tuna, Imperial Russia's Muslims: Islam, Empire, and European Modernity, 1788–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 237.126) 36:55Daniel Peris, Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).127) 39:08Nina Tumarkin, Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983).128) 40:49N. Valentinov, Novaia ekonomicheskaia politika i krizis partii posle smerti Lenina (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1971), 91.129) 49:49Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 224–5.130) 50:05Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 198–237.131) 50:29Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928–1941 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990).

Keti Chukhrov is a Russian philosopher, art theorist, Doctor of Philosophy, playwright, author of works on the philosophy of contemporary art, the theory of performativity, Soviet philosophy of Marxism, and criticism of posthumanism. Keti is an Associate Professor at the Department of Сultural Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow), and currently a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at Wolverhampton University (UK). Between 2012–2017 she was head of the Theory and Research department at the National Center of Contemporary Art (Moscow). Her books include To Be – to Perform: “Theatre” in Philosophical Criticism of Art (2011); Pound & £ (1999); and two volumes of dramatic poetry: Just Humans (2010) and War of Quantities (2004); Practicing the Good. Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism (2020). Her research spans performance studies and post-human theory, with a current focus on the impact of the Soviet economy on the ethical epistemes of historical socialism. Keti is the author of the video play Love Machines (2013), shown at the 1st Bergen Assembly and at Specters of Communism, James Gallery (New York); and of Communion (2016), shown at the 15th International Kansk Video Festival (Moscow) and at Beyond the Globe: 8th Triennial of Contemporary Art – U3 (Ljubljana). FIND KETI ON SOCIAL MEDIA LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram ================================ SUPPORT & CONNECT: Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/denofrich Twitter: https://twitter.com/denofrich Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denofrich YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/denofrich Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/den_of_rich/ Hashtag: #denofrich © Copyright 2022 Den of Rich. All rights reserved.

Keti Chukhrov is a Russian philosopher, art theorist, Doctor of Philosophy, playwright, author of works on the philosophy of contemporary art, the theory of performativity, Soviet philosophy of Marxism, and criticism of posthumanism. Keti is an Associate Professor at the Department of Сultural Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow), and currently a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at Wolverhampton University (UK). Between 2012–2017 she was head of the Theory and Research department at the National Center of Contemporary Art (Moscow). Her books include To Be – to Perform: “Theatre” in Philosophical Criticism of Art (2011); Pound & £ (1999); and two volumes of dramatic poetry: Just Humans (2010) and War of Quantities (2004); Practicing the Good. Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism (2020). Her research spans performance studies and post-human theory, with a current focus on the impact of the Soviet economy on the ethical epistemes of historical socialism. Keti is the author of the video play Love Machines (2013), shown at the 1st Bergen Assembly and at Specters of Communism, James Gallery (New York); and of Communion (2016), shown at the 15th International Kansk Video Festival (Moscow) and at Beyond the Globe: 8th Triennial of Contemporary Art – U3 (Ljubljana).FIND KETI ON SOCIAL MEDIALinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram================================PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.uhnwidata.com/podcastApple podcast: https://apple.co/3kqOA7QSpotify: https://spoti.fi/2UOtE1AGoogle podcast: https://bit.ly/3jmA7ulSUPPORT & CONNECT:Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/denofrichTwitter: https://www.instagram.com/denofrich/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denofrich/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denofrich

On today's episode, Sopo Japaridze and Beka Natsvlishvili have an engaging discussion with philosopher Keti Chukhrov. Keti was born in Soviet Georgia in the 1970s and since then has gone on to write articles and books touching subjects such as art criticism, philosophy, political theory and more. Sopo, Beka and Keti discuss the premise of her recent book Practicing the Good: Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism. Keti's book is a much needed intervention into anti-capitalist discourse. Her thorough knowledge of both Soviet philosophy and Marxists from the West allow her to grapple directly with the philosophical and political tensions between how those anti-capitalists in the West imagined communism, how their own ideals reproduced capitalism and how those same ideals or ideas functioned (or didn't) within Soviet society. Keti's work is not only refreshing but takes to task common understandings of the USSR from the Left. Her book description is as follows: “This book, a philosophical consideration of Soviet socialism, is not meant simply to revisit the communist past; its aim, rather, is to witness certain zones where capitalism's domination is resisted—the zones of counter-capitalist critique, civil society agencies, and theoretical provisions of emancipation or progress—and to inquire to what extent those zones are in fact permeated by unconscious capitalism and thus unwittingly affirm the capitalist condition. By means of the philosophical and politico-economical consideration of Soviet socialism of the 1960 and 1970s, this book manages to reveal the hidden desire for capitalism in contemporaneous anti-capitalist discourse and theory. The research is marked by a broad cross-disciplinary approach based on political economy, philosophy, art theory, and cultural theory that redefines old Cold War and Slavic studies' views of the post-Stalinist years, as well as challenges the interpretations of this period of historical socialism in Western Marxist thought.”

Charlie sits down with Pastor Rob McCoy and first generation American, Eliza Kravchuk, to discuss the growing infiltration of Soviet-style socialism and Marxism into the American mainstream and even its churches. The three also explore how the seeds for socialism were planted in the American culture decades ago while each expresses their unique love for the country. Kravchuk, whose grandfather, Joesph Bondarenko was imprisoned by the KGB, wrote “The KGB’s Most Wanted,” explains why she has picked up his legacy and is ready to fight for America.

8 March 2020 Second Sunday of Lent Matthew 17:1-9 + Homily 19 Minutes 12 Seconds Link to the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030820.cfm (New American Bible, Revised Edition) From the parish bulletin:    Materialism, fantasy and false worship were the temptations Satan thrust at Christ, and he is tempting our nation the same way. These seductions are a formula for Socialism, which Winston Churchill in 1948 defined as “The philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.”    A poorly educated generation succumbs to adolescent idealism, bereft of history, unaware that a cult of the state has been a consistent failure, costing countless millions of lives in modern times.    State worship was resisted by the earliest Christians, who refused to offer incense to Caesar. Socialism is simply Communism not yet in power, and its smiling face in the guise of “Democratic Socialism” quickly scowls once it has control. As the economist Ludwig von Mises showed in various ways, the essence of Socialism is coercion and manipulation. Pope John XXIII, quoting Pope Pius XI, taught in 1961: “No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism.”    Socialism in the guise of benevolence exploits the naïve. As a corollary, Yeats said: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Lack of conviction moved appeasers to sign the Munich Agreement, and in present times it has ceded the Church’s integrity to the Chinese government. Naïve people were scandalized by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Stalin and Hitler were simply Socialists in different uniforms. Just as the National Socialist manifesto of 1920 tried to replace the Church with a pastiche of “Positive Christianity,” which was Christianity without Christ, so has the Chinese government ordered that images of Christ be replaced with images of Party leader Xi Jinping.    In 1931, Pope Pius XI denounced the exaltation of the state as “Idolatry.” He insisted that “Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.” From a conviction born of suffering under National Socialism and Soviet Socialism, Pope John Paul II maintained that “the fundamental error of Socialism is anthropological . . . [because it] considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism… .”    As the Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization in the world, Catholics should note what a present candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, who calls himself a Democratic Socialist, said years ago: “I don’t believe in charities . . .government, rather than charity organizations, should take over responsibility for social programs.” But Pope Benedict VI has said: “We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces . . .”    The prophet Samuel warned the Israelites who wanted a king in charge of everything: “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves” (1 Samuel 8:17). That voice is louder now. 

TODAY'S TOPICS: 30th anniversary of President Reagan's Farewell Address Francis Vatican Celebrates 60 Years of Socialism in Cuba Interview with Tatyana Mazza, survivor Soviet Socialism

Guest: Andy Willimott on  Living the Revolution: Urban Communes & Soviet Socialism, 1917-1931 published Oxford University Press. [spp-player] The post Early Soviet Urban Communes appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Guest: Andy Willimott on  Living the Revolution: Urban Communes & Soviet Socialism, 1917-1931 published Oxford University Press. [spp-player] The post Early Soviet Urban Communes appeared first on SRB Podcast.

Wasn't the collapse of the Soviet Union supposed to herald the dawn of a new era of unfettered freedom, liberal democracy, and the end of history? Instead Russia moved rapidly from Autocratic Socialism to Autocratic Oligarchy. Masha Gessen talks with co-hosts Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher about why she chose to investigate this world-historical disappointment by talking to young people who witnessed this calamitous transition first-hand. The result is Gessen's National Book Award-nominated The Future of History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, a work of literary journalism rife with the unique insights this novel approach revealed(to which our own Soviet-born Medaya adds her memories). Gessen also reflects on what Russia's re-embracing of repression may teach us in our suddenly benighted land with an unstable leader who reveres strongmen like Putin. Also, Essayist Garnette Cadogan returns to recommend two works by the contemporary British Author Robert MacFarlane: one for children: The Lost Words; one for adults: Landmarks - both of which exhibit how language can re-enchant our relationship to the world.

Inspired by idealist proposals for a new way of life after the Russian Revolution, the panel interrogate the feasibility of co-living that is accessible to all, and suggest what other aspects of our everyday life could benefit from being more communal. Is there room for shared spaces in an individualistic society? Can a more communal attitude help tackle the issues of contemporary society, or does it make them more acute? Does shared responsibility lead to no responsibility? Speakers: Helen Jarvis – Reader in Social Geography at Newcastle University, whose research interests include the “social architectures” of shared space and self-governance in collaborative living arrangements. Anna Puigjaner – Co-founder of Barcelona-based MAIO studio, winner of the 2016 Wheelwright Prize for her proposal to study collective housing models across the world and their approaches to organising domestic spaces. Andy Willimott – Lecturer in Modern Russian/Soviet History at the University of Reading, author of 'Living the Revolution: Urban Communes & Soviet Socialism, 1917 – 1932'. Clem Cecil (chair) – Executive Director of Pushkin House, co-founder of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society, Trustee of SAVE Europe’s Heritage, former director of SAVE Britain’s Heritage and SAVE Europe’s Heritage

Comrade Sayakane Sisouvong, Laos’ Ambassador to the UK, spoke movingly of the electrifying role that the October Revolution and Soviet Socialism - the first durable workers' republic - had on the colonised peoples of southeast Asia, including the people of Laos. Join us in building a bright future for humanity! Subscribe to LALKAR and Proletarian and visit the CPGB-ML bookstore: www.proletarianonline.org/ More information about Red Youth and the CPGB-ML: www.cpgb-ml.org www.redyouth.org www.youtube.com/ProletarianCPGBML www.lalkar.org Join the struggle! www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=join Donate: www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=donate

At the Seventeenth Komsomol Congress in 1974, Leonid Brezhnev announced the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway, or BAM. This “Path to the Future” would prove to be the Soviet Union’s last flirt with socialist gigantism. The cost, poor planning, waste, and environmental damage associated with the construction BAM’s 2,687 miles of track served as an allegory for the Soviet system as a whole. To say that the BAM, which was to serve as an alternative to the strategically vulnerable and aging Trans-Siberian Railway, was a colossal failure is a colossal understatement. It’s troubles linger even today. But BAM’s story is not merely tragic. As Christopher Ward‘s book Brezhnev’s Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism demonstrates, the tale of BAM is also a window into the complexities of the Brezhnev era. Historians commonly view this period as one of “zastoi,” or stagnation. The BAM project, however, suggests a rather different interpretation. As Ward shows, we find a lot of things in the BAM initiative that are not captured by the “zastoi” interpretation, for example: a nascent Soviet environmental movement at loggerheads with the ecological destructiveness of Soviet Prometheanism; a flood of young volunteers driven by enthusiasm, opportunity, and a desire for freedom in the more libertine Soviet Far East; and, finally, a lot of crime, corruption, and sex (together with futile attempts to regulate and punish all of them). Ward’s study of BAM suggests that the Soviet Union under Brezhnev wasn’t so much stagnating as it was running about without any real idea of where it was going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the Seventeenth Komsomol Congress in 1974, Leonid Brezhnev announced the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway, or BAM. This “Path to the Future” would prove to be the Soviet Union’s last flirt with socialist gigantism. The cost, poor planning, waste, and environmental damage associated with the construction BAM’s 2,687 miles of track served as an allegory for the Soviet system as a whole. To say that the BAM, which was to serve as an alternative to the strategically vulnerable and aging Trans-Siberian Railway, was a colossal failure is a colossal understatement. It’s troubles linger even today. But BAM’s story is not merely tragic. As Christopher Ward‘s book Brezhnev’s Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism demonstrates, the tale of BAM is also a window into the complexities of the Brezhnev era. Historians commonly view this period as one of “zastoi,” or stagnation. The BAM project, however, suggests a rather different interpretation. As Ward shows, we find a lot of things in the BAM initiative that are not captured by the “zastoi” interpretation, for example: a nascent Soviet environmental movement at loggerheads with the ecological destructiveness of Soviet Prometheanism; a flood of young volunteers driven by enthusiasm, opportunity, and a desire for freedom in the more libertine Soviet Far East; and, finally, a lot of crime, corruption, and sex (together with futile attempts to regulate and punish all of them). Ward’s study of BAM suggests that the Soviet Union under Brezhnev wasn’t so much stagnating as it was running about without any real idea of where it was going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the Seventeenth Komsomol Congress in 1974, Leonid Brezhnev announced the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway, or BAM. This “Path to the Future” would prove to be the Soviet Union’s last flirt with socialist gigantism. The cost, poor planning, waste, and environmental damage associated with the construction BAM’s 2,687... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices