Summary
Rana Mitter considers fearing Russia past and present with Mark B Smith, and the way Russia controlled fears over Chernobyl. Plus Tamar Koplatadze from the University of Oxford on her research into contemporary post-Soviet/colonial women writers’ responses to the fall of the Soviet Union, Victoria Donovan from the University of St Andrews outlines her project in the Donbass region of Ukraine that attempts to reconcile an industrial, Soviet past with an uncertain future and Yu Jie, Research Fellow at Chatham House, gives an account of the Chinese view of Russia.
Mark B Smith teaches at the University of Cambridge and is the author of The Russia Anxiety.
Chernobyl the TV miniseries was created and written by Craig Mazin, directed by Johan Renck and produced by HBO in association with Sky UK
You can hear a Free Thinking discussion of Soviet history featuring the authors Svetlana Alexievich and Stephen Kotkin https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09d3q93
This discussion of Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker hears research into tourism in Chernobyl https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0775023
Cundill Prize winning historian Daniel Beer, Masha Gessen and Mary Dejevsky consider Totalitarianism and Punishment https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09h659t
Producer: Torquil MacLeod
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
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| 0:36.9 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter, and thanks for downloading the Arts and Ideas podcast. |
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| 1:25.5 | Hello and now on Freethinking, some bad news from the East. |
| 1:30.7 | It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury. |
| 1:35.6 | We have responded to that. |
| 1:38.1 | Frankly, Russia should go away, it should shut up. |
| 1:41.5 | But if they do respond to what we, the action that we've taken, |
| 1:45.6 | will consider it carefully and we'll look at our options, but it would be wrong to prejudge their |
| 1:51.3 | response. Former Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson there. But when it comes to Russia, |
| 1:57.2 | should it be less go away and shut up? And more, come in old mate, have a shot of three of vodka, |
| 2:02.5 | or a couple of blinis. Well, historian Mark Smith is here to help us anesthetize what he calls |
... |
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