Episode 68: The Soviet Struggle for Collective Security 1930-1941 with Michael Jabara Carley

Episode 69: From the Maidan to the Ukraine War with Ivan Katchanovski

On today's podcast we welcome Ivan Katchanovski to discuss his most recent book The Russia-Ukraine War and its Origins: From the Maidan to the Ukraine War (2025) . Ivan Katchanovski specializes in researching comparative politics, conflicts, political communication, and policy in Ukraine, the US, and Canada. He teaches at the School of Political Studies and the Conflict Studies and Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He previously held academic positions at Harvard University, the State University of New York at Potsdam, the University of Toronto, and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Open access to the book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-98724-3 [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-98724-3] Book description: This open access book examines the Russia-Ukraine war and its origins. Based on analysis of a large number of primary and secondary sources, it provides a systematic analysis of this crucial war, its nature, outcome, possibility of peaceful settlement, violence against civilians, and origins. The book examines the role of such factors as the NATO accession of Ukraine, Russian imperialism, democracy, genocide, and the far-right in the start of the war and traces the conflict escalation ladder, which culminated in this war, to preceding violent conflicts in Ukraine, in particular, the Euromaidan, the Maidan massacre, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the war in Donbas. The Russia-Ukraine war is the most significant armed conflict of the 21st century in the entire world and in Europe since World War Two in terms of countries involved, casualties inflicted, and actual and potential impact in the world. This book analyzes the involvement of different conflict parties, such as the Ukrainian, Russian, and Western governments, Donbas separatists, and the far right, in this crucial war and in the Euromaidan, the Maidan massacre, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the war in Donbas, and the nature of these conflicts. This book also examines support for pro-Western/pro-nationalist and pro-Russian/pro-communist political parties and presidential candidates and attitudes towards separatism and joining the European Union, NATO, and the union with Russia in regions of Ukraine in parliamentary and presidential elections and surveys since the Euromaidan.

Episode 68: The Soviet Struggle for Collective Security 1930-1941 with Michael Jabara Carley

After spending decades in Soviet and Western archives, historian Michael Jabara Carley has released a magnum opus three part trilogy on the Soviet diplomatic struggle - and ultimate failure - to create a defensive alliance and collective security arrangement against Nazi Germany in Europe in the years prior to the outbreak of World War 2. On today’s episode we are joined by Michael Jabara Carley to discuss how Soviet diplomatic efforts for an anti-Nazi alliance failed, the intransigence of Western powers, what led to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact, the ultimate causes of World War 2, the uses and abuses of History today and much more. Michael Jabara Carley is a professor of History at the Université de Montréal. His research and writing focuses on the history of the relations of the USSR with the western powers especially in the period from 1917 to 1945. His work has made wide reaching use of Soviet and European archives. His books include: Stalin’s Great Game: War and Neutrality, 1939-1941 (2025), Stalin’s Failed Alliance: The Struggle for Collective Security, 1936-1939 (2024), Stalin’s Gamble: The Search for Allies against Hitler, 1930-1936 (2023), Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations (2014).

Episode 67: Palestine, Communism and the National Question 1920-1955 with Mohamad Kadan

On today’s episode, historian Mohamad Kadan takes us on a deep dive into the emergence of Marxism and Communist politics in Palestine in the early 20th century and immediately following the Nakba - the mass ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel. Mohamad explores how questions of Palestinian anti-colonial struggle and self-determination, class, Marxist internationalism, nationalism, Zionism and imperialism shaped articulations of Marxism and on the ground Communist political organizing in Palestine. Mohamad Kadan is a PhD student in History at Rice University, focusing on global histories of Palestinians, the communist movement, and settler colonialism. His writing can be found here: https://rice.academia.edu/MohamadKadan For more reading on Communism in Palestine: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/328-the-palestine-communist-party-1919-1948 [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/328-the-palestine-communist-party-1919-1948] https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/hls.2010.0103 [https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/hls.2010.0103] https://www.jstor.org/stable/43997993 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43997993] Episode image: Palestinians raise their arms during an outdoor rally in Abou Ghosh in 1936, likely to vote to endorse the general strike that would become the longest in modern history. (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

Episode 66: Youth and Bolshevik Power in Georgia with Giorgi Beridze

On today’s episode we explore the emergence and development of Bolshevism in Georgia, from the Russian Empire-wide revolutionary moments of 1905 and 1917, through the era of Menshevik rule in the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921), to the establishment and first decade of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic 1921-1931. In the discussion, we examine the local roots of Bolshevism in Georgia in the years prior to Sovietization in 1921, as well as the role of youth and youth organizations in pre-Soviet revolutionary processes and mobilizations as well as in early Soviet state and nation building in the Georgian SSR. Our guest is Giorgi Beridze Giorgi Beridze is a Doctor of Political Science and an invited lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. His doctoral research examined labour policy-making and the role of business elites in Georgia, with particular attention to transformations in policymaking following the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union in 2014. His research interests include the history of the Marxist movement in Georgia, labour history, labour rights, Europeanization theory, biopolitics, and security studies. From 2023 to 2024, he served as Head of the Department for the Study of the Archives of the Democratic Republic and the Recent History of Georgia at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Library. During this period, his research focused on the history of Social Democracy and the Marxist movement in Georgia before, during, and after the Russian Revolution. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals, including Europe-Asia Studies, TalTech Journal of European Studies, and Revolutionary Russia. He is also the co-author of several books published in Georgian by Tbilisi State University Press, including works on the First Democratic Republic of Georgia, the history of the Marxist movement in Georgia, and the history of youth protest movements at Tbilisi State University.

Episode 65: Poverty Alleviation and Socialist Construction in China with Tings Chak

This weeks discussion thematically compliments and follows on our previous episode on Marxism and China (episode 64 - give it a listen [https://reimaginesovietgeorgia.substack.com/p/episode-64-marxism-and-china-with]!). Sitting down with Tings Chak, we examine China’s radical transformations from 1949 until today by centering a few questions: how was the mass alleviation of poverty accomplished in China? Is it an ongoing process? What does “socialist construction” have to do with it? Is China socialist? What kinds of contradictions has Chinese economic development faced? And how has China’s rapid and radical improvement in living standards shaped it’s place in the world? And what does this all mean for the global south in 2026? Tings Chak is the Asia co-coordinator and art director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. She is an editor of Wenhua Zongheng: A Journal of Chinese Contemporary Thought and is currently pursuing her doctorate at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Find Tings on social media at: X: @t_ings @tri_continental instagram: @tingschak @thetricontinental Some links: * Poverty alleviation: https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-socialist-construction/ [https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-socialist-construction/] * Chinese Revolution historical overview: https://mronline.org/2024/10/01/seventy-five-years-of-the-chinese-revolution/ [https://mronline.org/2024/10/01/seventy-five-years-of-the-chinese-revolution/] * Wenhua Zongheng latest on Trump: https://thetricontinental.org/wenhua-zongheng-2025-2-trump-2-0-global-order/ [https://thetricontinental.org/wenhua-zongheng-2025-2-trump-2-0-global-order/] * Go To Yan’an: Culture and National Liberation: https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-yanan-forum/ [https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-yanan-forum/]