Through this season of Matryoshka of Lies, our goal was to introduce you to the phenomena of Russian colonialism and explain why it stayed hidden in plain sight for this long. For many years, I believed that just presenting you with the facts, which the Russian empire worked hard to erase or cover up, is good enough. However, more and more of you come to my book shows and say that learning this dark history is just a first step. And then you also want to figure out how to end this. One podcast episode won’t do the job. But let me introduce you to my favorite voices who can imagine the path toward a world without Russian colonialism.
In this episode, we feature the work of:
Casey Michel, an American journalist who covers Russian imperialism and global kleptocratic networks connected to it. Check out his latest book ‘Foreign Agents,’ an exposé on the United States’ foreign lobbying industry and the threat it poses to democracy. Also, a must-read Michel’s essay on the Russian little-known history of Northern American colonization.
Oleksiy Radynski, a Ukrainian filmmaker and my favorite Ukrainian anti-colonial voice. He has just released an excellent short film, ‘Where Russia Ends,’ which, among other things, highlights the role of Ukrainians in helping the Russian empire expand. Radynski’s legendary essay ‘The Case Against the Russian Federation’ is one of my top five must-reads on Russian colonialism of all times.
Dr. Marci Shore, a Yale historian of modern European intellectual history. We met with Professor Shore when she was documenting the Ukrainian pro-democracy Maidan Revolution for her brilliant book The Ukrainian Night. Years before Ukraine became everyone’s hottest topic, Dr. Shore was convinced the Ukrainian anti-tyranny resistance could inspire progressive change worldwide. Dr. Shore spent decades of her career investigating what launches a domino effect for radical positive change within a society. Unfortunately, she doesn’t see anything close to that happening within Russian society yet. Maybe that’s why she is passionately advocating for arming Ukraine. The most unlikely advocate for armed resistance I have ever met, to be honest.
This is Matryoshka of Lies — the Ending the Empire episode.
Additionally, here are some notable stories we also feature in this episode:
'My grandmother had been crying out of hunger for many days.' There are hundreds of millions of stories of colonized families that Russian colonialism tried to erase. A Qazakh scholar Madi Kapparov shares a powerful family story of survival through Asharshylyk, the Moscow-made famine in Qazaqstan.
Controlled famine is one of Russian colonialism's favorite tools of subjugation. Madi Kapparov, a Qazaq scholar, provides an important history lesson about Asharshylyk, a Russian-made genocide by famine in Qazaqstan in the 1930s.
You can listen to the show on all major podcast platforms, too.
Thanks for being with us on this journey through the entire first season of Matryoshka of Lies. If you want it to continue, please let us know and support the legacy Ukrainian journalism of Ukrainska Pravda. You can learn how at www.pravda.com.ua
If you liked this show, please spare a minute to rate, comment and share it. The Ukrainian production team creates every new episode against all odds, amid bombings and blackouts. So this show has to trend and you can make it happen.
The empire will fall.
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