Latvian Soldiers in WWII
World War II casts a long, dark shadow over eastern Europe. Especially in those nations caught between the Wehrmacht and Red Army. Some loca...
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Society & Culture
SRB Podcast
To many, Russia, and the wider Eurasia, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But it doesn’t have to be. The SRB Podcast dispels the stereotypes and myths about the region wit...
Episodes
20 of 379 episodes
Los Rusos
An overlooked destination for thousands immigrating out of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union was Mexico. The reasons were many. Jews fled...
The Origins of the Ukraine War
When did Putin decide to invade Ukraine? Was it shortly after 2012 when he returned as President? In 2014, after the seizure of Crimea and c...
The Soviet Death Penalty
The fact that the USSR executed its citizens with little jurisprudence is well known. The word “troika” is synonymous with Stalinist repress...
Soviet Protestants
We tend to think of the 1990s when it comes to Protestantism in Russia. It was then that evangelicals descended on Russia to shine Jesus’ li...
Thresholds Part 7: Olga
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
Thresholds Part 6: Yelena
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
Thresholds Part 5: Julia
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
Thresholds Part 4: New Immigrants
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
Thresholds Part 3: Russians in San Francisco
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
Thresholds Part 2: Becoming White
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
Thresholds Part 1: Leaving the Old Country
Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, i...
The Rise and Fall of the Georgian Democratic Republic
The Georgian Democratic Republic lasted a mere three years, from 1918-1921. And though it was viewed as an oddity at the time, many European...
The Man Who Knew Russia
Everyone has an opinion about the late Russian historian Richard Pipes. Some loved him. Many hated him. He was a conservative and anti-commu...
Reporting Russia's Descent
Marc Bennets has been reporting from Russia for over two decades. He’s covered Putin’s rise and consolidation of power, assassinations of op...
Boris Nemtsov
On the night of 27 February 2015, assassins gunned down Boris Nemtsov as he crossed the Bolshoi Moskvoretskii Bridge. Shock quickly spread t...
The Last Soviet Artist
I met the graphic artist, Victoria Lomasko, about 10 years ago when she was a resident at the City of Asylum in Pittsburgh. I emceed an even...
Remembering Alexander Rabinowitch
When I opened Facebook this morning, as I do every morning, I learned that Alexander Rabinowitch died at 91 years old. Rabinowitch was argua...
Anastas Mikoyan
How Stalin personally ran the Soviet Union has rightly received much attention. Less discussed is the small group of men that served as his...
Soviet Holocaust Literature
It has long been assumed that there was no Holocaust memory in the Soviet Union. Official Soviet ideology lumped the 1.5 million Soviet Jews...