Actually Existing Socialism

For this long awaited episode on Vietnam - Jen (@HowTheRedWasWon) joins to talk about her recent unique experience of visiting the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a country that her grandparents fled from in the 1960s! Jen guides us through her journey there, what she learned, and some important reflections about revolution in the USA she had as a result.  Listed below are links to Jen's social media pages which are home to her educational projects on socialist theoretical texts and organizing. Check them out! Jen on Twitter: @ho_chi_minnie // @keepaustinnasty // @howtheredwaswon Jen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/how_the_red_was_won/ Jen on Tiktok: @big.nasty08 // @red.won.pod Mutual Aid Organization: @red_help_atx

Since March of this year I have been the co-host of another podcast called Prolespod (my tenure starts on Episode 49). On that show we have been working extensively on producing a special event series known as The Stalin Eras. The key focus of this series is to illuminate the early history of the Soviet Union and the life of its longest lasting leader, Joseph Stalin, using some of the latest scholarship. It features both narrative history and discussion.  This upload is the full introductory episode for the series.  If you wish to listen to 10+ hours of content released thus far in the series I recommend subscribing to Prolespod on your choice of podcast platform and begin diving into this unique presentation of Soviet History that doesn’t exist elsewhere!  To get more episodes of The Stalin Eras - subscribe to Prolespod - wherever you listen to podcasts! Support Actually Existing Socialism at: patreon.com/aesthepodcast Support Prolespod at: patreon.com/prolespod    

In this fascinating episode Andre Schmid joins to discuss his book “North Korea's Mundane Revolution”. As always on this show, we’re covering something new by talking about the early years of the North Korean revolution in the aftermath of the Korean War which "ended" in 1953. Andre Schmid's research and teaching focus on 19th and 20th century Korea and East Asia, as seen in the broader context of global, comparative history. He is interested in historiography and the uses of public memory, the relation between cultural practices and political economy, gendered social history and popular social movements. More about Andre's work Intro/Outro Music: Superman & Lois 4x10: Life Goes by so Fast Theme (Remake)

In this fascinating episode Alexander Herbert joins to discuss his book “What About Tomorrow?: An Oral History of Russian Punk from the Soviet Era to Pussy Riot”. As always on this show, we’re covering something new  by talking about both counterculture music and the late Soviet Era. I myself have virtually no understanding of the punk genre, so don’t think you need to be a Punk Rock enthusiast to enjoy this episode as the topics we broach include: soviet regulation of media, how all of this ties into the end of the soviet union and more!  Alexander Herbert, who holds a Masters in Russian history from Indiana University, and a PHD in Modern Russia from Brendeis University, is an expert in the history of the Soviet Union and Global Environmental History. His research examines the interrelations of science, technology, and environmental change in the late USSR. Alexander is additionally interested in the intersection of popular culture and education and has published two books: the first on the history of punk rock in the Soviet Union and Russia, and another that uses horror films in the late USSR to examine the anxieties and fears of late Soviet society. He has also taught classes on the history of capitalism, radical politics in Europe, film history, and underground culture.  Support the podcast at patreon.com/aesthepodcast Alex's Substack "Nothing lasts forever: Russian Punks in Georgia" (Alex's documentary mentioned in the episode) Lenin in 45 Volumes Intro Music Outro Music

In this episode, Samantha Lomb returns as a guest to talk about a recent book she edited entitled:  Win or Else: Soviet Football in Moscow and Beyond, 1921-1985. In Win or Else, the late soviet historian Larry E. Holmes shows us how Soviet football culture regularly disregarded official ideological and political imperatives and skirted the boundaries between socialism and capitalism. Drawing on rich archival materials as well as newspapers and interviews with former players, Win or Else reveals the foundations of Soviet sports culture and the hazards that teams faced both in victory and in loss. This is a fun conversation even if you aren't interested in the sports. We cover the early history of the Soviet conception of sports to the intriguing connection Soviet soccer had to the NKVD, the state security organization that would later become known as the KGB - and everything in between! You can support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Get the Book here - Win or Else: Soviet Football in Moscow and Beyond, 1921-1985 Intro/Closing Music Isaiah Rashad x Aaron May Type Beat  

Gabriel Rockhill joins to talk about a controversial concept for Western socialists: “siege socialism”. A term coined by the great Michael Parenti. Unlike most episodes of this show we won’t be focusing on a specific country but examining the variety of past and present socialist countries through the lens of historical materialism and dialectics, two concepts Gabriel explains for us.  Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, and the author or editor of over nine books, as well as numerous scholarly and general public articles. He is the editor of the upcoming translation of Domenico Losurdo’s magisterial Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn. It is is a paradigm-shifting book that provides a trenchant critique of the Western left intelligentsia. It reveals how its dominant ideological orientation—characterized by defeatism, utopianism, and anti-communism—is rooted in the political economy of imperialism. You can support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast To learn more about Gabriel's work check out the following links:  https://x.com/GabrielRockhill https://monthlyreview.org/product/western-marxism/ https://gabrielrockhill.com/ https://criticaltheoryworkshop.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@criticaltheoryworkshop5299 https://monthlyreview.org/product/western-marxism/ Intro/Closing Music  Lil Baby Type Beat - "God's Work" Carl Doy - Bella's Lullaby (Twilight Theme)      

Sardana returns to finish our discussion on her recent study published through Ziibiing Lab "Indigenous Diamonds : Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia."  In our discussion we delve into the impacts extractivism has had on the people of the Sakha Republic before, during, and after the Soviet Union (USSR). Sardana, who is Sakha, also gives her own personal and community experiences of growing up both Indigenous and Soviet.  Sardana Nikolaeva is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Ziibiing Lab (Global Indigenous Politics Collaboratory) at the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto. Her work broadly centers on Indigenous politics, Indigenous classed and gendered experiences, geopolitical 'economy, economic sanctions, and extractivism. The Indigenous Peoples of the Soviet Union (Part 1) w/ Alice and Dennis Bartels  Support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast Sardana's study Indigenous Diamonds :Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia. Sardana's appearances on other podcasts  Indigenous diamonds w/ Sardana Nikolaeva Indigenous People and the Soviet Union: a Sakha perspective w/ Sardana Nikolaeva (pt.1) An Other's view of Russia w/ Sardana Nikolaeva

Sardana Nikolaeava joins this episode to discuss her recent study published through Ziibiing Lab "Indigenous Diamonds : Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia." In our discussion we delve into the impacts extractivism has had on the people of the Sakha Republic before, during, and after the Soviet Union (USSR). Sardana, who is Sakha, also gives her own personal and community experiences of growing up both Indigenous and Soviet.  Sardana Nikolaeva is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Ziibiing Lab (Global Indigenous Politics Collaboratory) at the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto. Her work broadly centers on Indigenous politics, Indigenous classed and gendered experiences, geopolitical 'economy, economic sanctions, and extractivism. The Indigenous Peoples of the Soviet Union (Part 1) w/ Alice and Dennis Bartels  Support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast Sardana's study Indigenous Diamonds :Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia. Sardana's appearances on other podcasts  Indigenous diamonds w/ Sardana Nikolaeva Indigenous People and the Soviet Union: a Sakha perspective w/ Sardana Nikolaeva (pt.1) An Other's view of Russia w/ Sardana Nikolaeva  

In this episode we’ll be discussing Sopo's article on Jacobin entitled "How Free-Market Ideologues Dismantled Health Care in Post-Soviet Georgia". In doing so we will be talking about not only her memories of Soviet Georgia, but the memories of her family members and Georgian workers, doctors and nurses. We delve into the origins of the soviet socialist healthcare system, its operations, its historic outcomes, as well as its catastrophic dismantling in the 1990s. Sopiko Japaridze is cofounder of Georgia’s Solidarity Network, an independent union. She has been a labor and community organizer in the United States and the post soviet Easten European nation of Georgia. I highly recommend you follow her work on twitter at @sopjap - to get excellent analysis on modern Georgian events from a communist perspective. I also recommend giving Sopo’s podcast Reimagining Soviet Georgia a listen!  Support the show at patreon.com/aesthepodcast.  Find me on twitter @AESThePodcast

In this episode, Charles Xu of the Qiao Collective (a diaspora Chinese media collective challenging U.S. aggression) joins to walk us through the long history of solidarity between China and Palestine. We do this through discussing "The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity’s Future" which is Charles' recent article published on the Qiao Collective website. We’re going to be talking about the origins and basis of this revolutionary solidarity between the people of China and Palestine, how this relationship has changed over the years, China’s stance today on Palestinian resistance and how this revolutionary history manifests in the present. If you found this episode useful - Charles and I had an extended discussion on the state of China’s support for other global south countries in general which is accessible via Patreon.  www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast www.twitter.com/aesthepodcast The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity’s Future Qiao Collective Twitter

This episode features Dominique Petit-Wagner discussing her masters thesis entitled: "Briefing the Ambassador: Joseph Davies and the U.S. Press Corps in Moscow, 1936-1938."  Our discussion focuses on American Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and a few American journalists who bought into the socialist realist presentation of the Soviet Union during the tumoulotus 1930s. We talk about what socialist realism was, why and how these eminent Americans supported the Soviet Union, and what this tells us about modernization during the Stalin period. Dominique Petit-Wagner is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Soviet, Canadian, and intellectual history. Whereas her MA thesis explored American perceptions of the Soviet Union and their controversial immersion in socialist realist culture in the late 1930s, her doctoral research seeks to contrast and compare these findings against the experiences of Canadians touring the USSR in the interwar period. Link to Dominique's paper: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/175e024b-31d4-478f-8453-39578212230e/content To support the show you can join the patreon at patreon.com/aesthepodcast You can follow the show on twitter @aesthepodcast  

This episode features Zoe Stephens (@Zoediscoversnk), an experienced tour guide to North Korea (DPRK). Using her own experience, knowledge, footage and education - Zoe’s goal is to present a image of North Korea that aims to humanize the people of the DPRK in ways that are rarely seen in the West. She tells us what is required to visit on a guided tour, what to expect, what are some common misconceptions, and even the fascinating opportunity to stay for a few days with a North Korean family outside of Pyongyang. This episode was recorded in 2023 - before the re-opening of the border for tourism - so while we speak to the expectation of re-opening it has now happened as of early 2024.  Link to all of Zoe's social media/project pages: https://linktr.ee/zoediscovers

Iskolat, a Latvian communist, returns to teach us more about the shrouded history of Latvia, which was a part of the Soviet Union, officially known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic continuously from 1944 to 1990. In this second and final part we’ll be discussing the post-World War II era of building socialism in Latvia and the Baltics at large. We cover the successes of socialist construction, its weaknesses, and ultimately the downfall of soviet system in Latvia in the early 1990s and how that played out. Iskolat also delves into present day realities of Latvia that don’t always make international news. www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Isoklat twitter: twitter.com/iskolat Workers' Struggle (English/Latvian/multilang): https://t.me/StradniekuCina BalticSSRs (Reddit): https://reddit.com/r/BalticSSRs/ Riga History Group (Russian): https://t.me/RigaHistoryGroup… School of Scientific Communism/Ruslan Dzugov Channel (Russian section): https://t.me/rusdzugov Dictatorship of the Proletariat (YT channel of the Russian section of the Political School): https://youtube.com/@user-xk6xj4xm4n Anna Louise Strong's The New Lithuania: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89017381948&seq=5  The Baltic Riddle by Greg Meiksins: https://archive.org/details/TheBalticRiddle   

Iskolat, a Latvian communist, joins to show to teach us about the shrouded history of Latvia, which was a part of the Soviet Union (officially known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic) continuously from 1944 to 1990. In this first part we’ll be discussing the pre-history of the socialist republic by delving into the conditions of what would become Latvia in the early 20th century to the eventual socialist revolution of the early 1940s. When I say the history covered here from the Communist POV is almost impossible to find in English, I am not exaggerating, I hope you find this discussion as informative and enlightening as I have. Isoklat twitter: twitter.com/Iskolat BalticSSRs (Reddit): https://reddit.com/r/BalticSSRs/  Telegram: Workers' Struggle (English/Latvian/multilang): https://t.me/StradniekuCina  Telegram: Riga History Group (Russian): https://t.me/RigaHistoryGroup…  Telegram: School of Scientific Communism/Ruslan Dzugov Channel (Russian section): https://t.me/rusdzugov  Telegram: Dictatorship of the Proletariat (YT channel of the Russian section of the Political School): https://youtube.com/@user-xk6xj4xm4n

Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century". In this final part of a three part discussion we’ll be discussing the propaganda war against China and the socialist developments all leftists should be following.  Carlos Martinez is an author and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse, was published in 2019 by LeftWord Books. He is a co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, a co-founder of No Cold War, and a coordinating committee member of the International Manifesto Group. He writes regularly in the Morning Star, Global Times, China Daily and CGTN. Carlos' website: https://invent-the-future.org/ Carlos' youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inventthefuture Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Podcast twitter @aesthepodcast Intro/Outro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPx2jKjkwE    

Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century". In this second part of a three part discussion we’ll be delving into how China operates as a socialist democracy. We'll be answering what that means, talk about some accomplishments as well how it differs from Western liberal democracies.  Carlos Martinez is an author and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse, was published in 2019 by LeftWord Books. He is a co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, a co-founder of No Cold War, and a coordinating committee member of the International Manifesto Group. He writes regularly in the Morning Star, Global Times, China Daily and CGTN. Carlos' website: https://invent-the-future.org/ Carlos' youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inventthefuture Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Podcast twitter @aesthepodcast Intro/Outro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbBBnNW6EMA  

Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) joins the show to talk about his excellent book "The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century". In this first part of this three part discussion on China we’ll be delving into why socialist China remains but the USSR doesnt. We'll be tackling this question through the lens of how these two communist juggernauts approached the necessity of controversial political and economic reforms in the 1970s in China under Deng Xiaoping and in the USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. Next episodes in this series will look at Chinese socialist democracy, and the propaganda war against it!  Carlos Martinez is an author and political activist from London, Britain. His first book, The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse, was published in 2019 by LeftWord Books. He is a co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, a co-founder of No Cold War, and a coordinating committee member of the International Manifesto Group. He writes regularly in the Morning Star, Global Times, China Daily and CGTN. Carlos' website: https://invent-the-future.org/ Carlos' youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inventthefuture Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast Podcast twitter @aesthepodcast Intro/Outro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jP5r2b7hew          

Monica Macias joins the show to discuss her book "Black Girl From Pyongyang: In Search of My Identity" which covers the harrowing tale of her life journey from post-colonial Equatorial Guinea ,where she was born, to finding herself under the guardianship of Kim Il Sung - the revolutionary founding father of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) also known as North Korea.  This is a preview of a patreon-only exclusive. Listen to the full episode by supporting the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast              

In this episode we’ll be discussing the subject of Julia Mead's (@JuliaKMead) PHD research on an often forgotten socialist nation: the nation formerly known as the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Julia covers for us the pre-history, emergence of the communist state, political struggles as well as socialist successes and failures. She also gives us some insight as to why this socialist nation often falls to the wayside in popular Western imagination.  Julia Mead is an environmental historian of modern Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on energy, gender, and labor. Her dissertation, “Socialist Rust Belt: Energy, Masculinity, and the End of Czechoslovak Socialism,” traces the rise and fall of the Czechoslovak coal economy from 1948 to 2004, and its relationship to changing norms of masculinity. She shows how coal miners in socialist Czechoslovakia achieved an elite social status, and how they lost it almost overnight during the transition to capitalism. Follow Julia at https://twitter.com/JuliaKMead and https://juliamead.squarespace.com/ Support the show at www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast        

Henry Hakamäki (@huck1995), host of Guerrilla History podcast (@guerrilla_pod) and Professor Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro join the show to talk about their recent english translation of historian Domenico Losurdo's "Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend". This episode is the second and final part of a longer discussion. In this part  we move into the specifics of the often airbrushed history of anti-racist and anti-colonial policies under Stalin’s Soviet Union and even ponder whether Stalin’s impact on these material objectives was more substantive than that of civil rights figure and fellow socialist - Martin Luther King Jr. We also discuss the equally airbrushed links between liberal democracies and nazi fascism. In the spirit of Domenico Lusurdo we continue to deconstruct, evaluate, and critique the black legends attributed to Stalin. You can access a free (yes, free!) copy of the PDF and/or order a physical copy at https://www.iskrabooks.org/stalin-history-and-critique Henry and Salvatore have talked at length about the process of translation and who Domeinco Lusurdo is in the discussion linked below. https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/stalin-history-critique-of-a-black-legend-w-salvatore-engel-di-mauro-david-peat https://www.patreon.com/aesthepodcast