Show Notes:

This week, Cameron dives into the final entry into Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Silent Trilogy, “Earth” (1930). The film’s deceptively simple plot—of a tractor delivery to a collectivizing village in Ukraine is followed by the murder of a local Bolshevik organizer—doesn’t hinder its avant-garde stylings, employing a montage of loose logical associations better described as dream logic, moving from people to fruit to threshing in a way that demands your attention.

Yeah, that’s right — I’m arguing that a socialist realist work about tractors is super interesting. A novel concept for the podcast, I know.

You can watch Earth (1930) in excellent quality here: “Earth” (1930) x biju

Offscreen Dreams and Collective Synthesis in Dovzhenko’s Earth by Elizabeth A. Papazian

All in the Foreground: A Study of Dovzhenko’s Earth by Gilberto Perez

Dovzhenko: Folk Tale and Revolution by Gilberto Perez

Death and life on Alexander Dovzhenko by Jonathan Rosenbaum

The Dovzhenko Papers by Marco Carynnyk

Who is Hidden behind the Figure of a Genius? The Context of Dovzhenko’s Work by Anna Tsymbal

Subversions in Dovzhenko’s Earth by Romana M. Bahry

“Ukranian masterpieces: Earth (1930) - Dovzhenko”

Earth: Analysis of Film Form, Auteur Characteristics and Context

The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠

Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook

Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com.

Show Notes:

This week, Ally Pitts — host of A Russian & Soviet Movie Podcast — joins Cameron to talk about the book Not Russian by Mikhail Shevelev. The book follows veteran journalist Pavel Vladimirovich as an old friend’s sudden reappearance at the head of a terror attack forces him to reflect on his history as a Russian journalist and how things turned out this way.

You can find Ally on his Twitter @Alistair_Pitts and on Instagram under @ally_pitts_movies_etc. You can find A Russian & Soviet Movie podcast anywhere you listen to your audio.

Our prior episode with Ally on Anna Karenina film adaptations.

The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠

Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook

Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com.

Show Notes:

This week, Cameron dives into Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur, covering chapters 1 through 25. Through the late Russian Empire into the early Soviet Union, Sasha Dvanov is finally orphaned when his fisherman father drowns in an attempt to understand his all-knowing, deathless fish. Growing up in the shuffling shadow of the new world, he joins the Bolshevik party and seeks to spread communism.

This episode covers his adventures trying to find out if the peasants have, after the abdication of the Tsar, suddenly begun to embrace communist lives. From anarchist militias to a Bolshevik Fyodor Dostoevsky, he finds little to approve of in the countryside.

Check out our old episode covering The Cow and the Third Son.

A Companion to Andrei Platonov’s “The Foundation Pit” by Thomas Seyfrid.

Time out of line: Sequence and plot in Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur by by Hallie A. White

The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠

Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook

Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com.