Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 295, an interview with Maya Vinicor, the author of Workflows, Stalinist Liquids, and Russian labor cultures.

Today we're talking to Maya Vinicor, assistant professor in the Department of Russian and Slavic studies at New York University,

and author of the upcoming book, Work, Stalinist, liquids, and Russian labor culture.

Welcome to the podcast Professor Vinicore. Thank you so much for having me.

I'd like to start off with, can you define to my listeners what you mean by workflows? Sure.

It started out as a play on words, but then became kind of a representation of what the entire book is about, which is the a certain kind of conceptualization of working and of the

human body and of really the universe at large.

As this, you know, that's where the liquidity and the flow come in.

So, yeah, something that began as a pun that was shorthand for me as I was working on the book then kind of came to stand in for its central idea.

Yeah, you know in the beginning of your introduction, there was a telling quote about your book, how, you know, in academia, the acceptance or non-acceptance of works.

But you talked about a famous toast of late Soviet dissidents.

Yeah. And it was quote to the success of our hopeless cause.

Yes. I love that because I think it has a much deeper meaning and you care to share your thoughts on that one.

Yeah, I mean again this is something, I think you're drawing on something that I mentioned in my

acknowledgments, like at the very beginning. And it's just when you, when you, for me, and like when you write a book it's obviously very long process with

many pitfalls a lot of potential for the book just not coming into being and at the risk of stealing valor from

late Soviet dissidents I in a tongue in sheep way quoted one of their dicta, which I don't know, like it just feels like something that is very typical of that

milieu it's ironic it's self-deprecating it while avoiding making any predictions about the future, it nonetheless affirms that the undertaking in question is a worthwhile one, right?

And yeah, it's also mainly it's humorous, which I appreciate.

Yeah, the last author I spoke to was like, what did Sylvia say, cuisine and it's like what did Sylvie say cuisine and it's like tired of celebrations.

We found, you know, bread, celebration.

...