In the late 1930s, the Soviet Union took in about nearly 3,000 child refugees of the Spanish Civil War. These kids, aged roughly from 5 to 12 years old, were placed in boarding schools in Leningrad, Moscow and elsewhere in the USSR. Their stay in this strange new land was supposed to be temporary. But fascist victory in the Spanish Civil War and the outbreak of WWII made them exiles for the foreseeable future. Now responsible to their rearing and education, Soviet officials and their Spanish minders transformed these children into hybrid Hispano-Soviets. They were steeped in patriotism for their two homelands and taught to emulate Spanish and Soviet heroes, scientists, soldiers, and artists. How did these Spanish children fare in the Soviet Union and live through the multiple traumas of their childhood? What did it mean to Hispano-Soviet? What was their fate and memory of growing up as a refugee? Here’s Karl Qualls with this little known story.

Guest:

Karl Qualls is the John B. Parsons Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of History at Dickinson College. He’s the author of From Ruins to Reconstruction: Urban Identity in Soviet Sevastopol after World War II. His new book is Stalin’s Niños: Educating Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the Soviet Union, 1937-51 published by the University of Toronto Press.


Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the USSR

Chris and Molly read Infinite Jest, part 36. Pages 277-283. Don Gately farts at Ennet House. Tennis boys ride home from Port Jeff. Discussion starts at 29:20.

Infinite Cast

Part 36 RedKahina Interview #002

Chris and Molly read Infinite Jest, part 3. Pages 20-27: Ken Erdedy continues to anticipate his marijuana delivery. Discussion starts at 21:17.

Part 3

Chris and Molly read Infinite Jest, part 5. Pages 37-42: Wardine's momma aint treat her right, and Hal and Mario have a late-night chat. Discussion starts at 15:40.

Part 5

Chris and Molly read Infinite Jest, Part 9. Pages 61-65: Hal has a dream; we learn of the filmography of James. O Incandenza. Discussion starts at 1:11:55.

Part 9

Chris and Molly read Infinite Jest, pages 74-81. The psych ward doc gets a little more info out of Kate Gompert. We meet Coach Gerhard Schtitt. Discussion starts at 23:10.

Part 11

After 45 Senate Republicans voted to declare his impeachment trial unconstitutional, Donald Trump is almost assured an acquittal. It marks a stunning turnaround for a man who just a few weeks ago was completely isolated and facing the prospect of jail time for seditious conspiracy. How did the Democratic Party fail so spectacularly? Will impeachment ironically be the thing that paves the way for Trump’s reentry into the political spotlight? What does this mean for the rising danger of fascism?

The Real Story: Why Impeachment Helps Trump

Writer Erald Kolasi on his article "The Ecological State" for Monthly Review and in a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen celebrates Fat History Month.

1300: Ecology, energy and the state / Erald Kolasi

Imperial expansion is as much about conquering nature as it is about subjugating people. The Russian state’s expansion to the edges of the Eurasian continent exemplifies the challenge of turning frozen and inhospitable land into livable space or converting lush landscapes into profit and prosperity. To get a better understanding of this process in some of the far reaches of Russia, I turned to two people Sharyl Corrado and Paul Josephson to talk about Sakhalin and the Arctic respectively and relationship between Russian imperial expansion and nature, and how environment was imagined and shaped in the process.



Guests:



Paul Josephson, the author of 13 books, is professor of history at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, and visiting, part-time professor at Tomsk State University.  A historian of big science and technology, he conducted archival research in Arctic regions while working on his monograph, The Conquest of the Russian Arctic.  His most recent book, with Polity Press, is called Chicken: A History from Farmyard to Factory.  He is working now on a global nuclear environmental history.



Sharyl Corrado is Associate Professor of History and History Program Director at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.  She has published articles on the environmental history and historical geography of the imperial Russian Far East in a variety of academic journals in English and Russian. She is also known within Russian Baptist circles for her research on Russian Baptist and Evangelical history, including a monograph published in Russian and an edited volume on East European Baptist History.  She is currently working on an annotated collection of letters written by a Red Cross sister serving in the Sakhalin Penal colony.

Conquering Nature in Sakhalin and the Arctic

As stalwart supporters of Keir Starmer since the creation of Adam & Eve 6000 years ago, it gives us no pleasure to have to do this, but our hand was forced into getting together with our friends Nikita (@jeremywhorebyn) and Aarjan (@aarjanistan) of the LeftOver podcast to call for the resignation of "Sir "Keir" in the strongest terms, as his troubled leadership hits its lowest ebb yet. The fabled twenty-point lead has not materialised, and so the time has come to ask "should Starmer go?" and to answer "yes", which we do here.

Reel Politik

Episode 190 - On The Basis Of Equality (Part 1 ft. jeremywhorebyn & aarjanistan)

a podcast about a book called Infinite Jest. 

By Molly O'Brien (@missmollymary on twitter)
And Chris Wade (@saywhatagain on twitter)