The Eurasian Knot – Details, episodes & analysis

Games have a long history. Several are centuries old. But a new crop of games has emerged over the last century. Elaborate board games, role playing games, and of course, video games. Today, video games are one of the most consumed forms of media entertainment. They inspire communities, live-action role playing, movies and other media. All of these have fostered new identities and ethics. And Eastern Europe has played an outsized role in this culture. Enter Daniil Leiderman, the new Slavicist at the University of Pittsburgh. He says that games are a portal to a whole bunch of issues–identity, moral responsibility, agency, and cultural critique. The Eurasian Knot greeted Daniil with a conversation about gaming and Eastern Europe. How do games give players agency in crafting alternative histories? What role do Soviet and post-Soviet landscapes play? And what are the wider effects do games have on our lives outside the magic circle? 

Guest:

Daniil Leiderman is an art historian. He taught art history and game studies at Texas A&M University before joining University of Pittsburgh’s Slavic Languages and Literatures Department as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2025. As a scholar, Daniil’s research focuses on underground and protest art and culture and video games.

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This week we check-in with frequent EK guest Brian Milakovsky to learn about the destruction of forests in Ukraine. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, and its full-scale assault in 2022, war has destroyed much of the forests of the Seversky Donets Basin. These trees serve as a place of leisure, pride, identity, and economy for nearby residents. But Russian artillery, mines, and other ordnance have repeatedly ignited forest fires. The ecology of the region has been transformed, likely forever. How has the war accelerated the destruction of eastern Ukraine’s ecology? And what does this mean for the future? We also get an update on how Brian sees the war at the present moment, when at the time of recording, Putin and Trump were meeting in Alaska. It’s a dark time. And an even darker horizon approaches us.

Guest:

Brian Milakovsky is a forester who worked on conservation and development programs in Ukraine and Russia from 2009 to 2024. He presently resides in Bath, Maine and works for the New England Forestry Foundation. He is also an associate researcher with the Regional East European Fire Management Center in Kyiv, Ukraine.

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Last week, our friend, mentor, teacher, and comrade, J. Arch Getty, died from his battle with lung cancer. As a way to remember him, here’s an interview I did with Arch in 2017 about his career and scholarship.

Guest:

J. Arch Getty was a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Books discussed in this interview:

• Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered, 1933–1938, Cambridge University Press
• The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939, Yale University Press.
• Yezhov: The Rise of Stalin's 'Iron Fist', Yale University Press.
• Practicing Stalinism: Boyars, Bolsheviks and the Persistence of Tradition, Yale University Press.

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Guests: Drs. Carmen Andreescu and Alex Dombrovski on their work on mental health in Ukraine though the Global Initiative on Psychiatry - USA.

The post Mental Health in Wartime Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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Guest: Christian Raffensperger on the place of Kyivan Rus' in the wider European medieval world.

The post Kyivan Rus’ appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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Guest: Sean Griffin on his prize winning article “Revolution, Raskol, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: The 1,020th Anniversary of the Day of the Baptism of Rus” published in the Russian Review.

The post The Day of the Baptism of Rus appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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Guests: Victoria Smolkina and Georgyi Kasianov on the complexities of memory, history, and politics in narrating Ukrainian history.

The post Between Memory and History in Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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Guest: Artemy Troitsky reflecting on his life in the Soviet and Russian rock scenes.

The post The Soviet Rock Scene appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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Guests: Polly Jones and Zuzanna Bogumil on memory, politics, and trauma of Stalinism.

The post Working Through Stalinism appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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REEES faculty profile on Zoltan Zelemen about his research on neo-medievalism in international relations, law, and democracy.

The post REEES Faculty Spotlight: Zoltan Kelemen appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

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