{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Russian and Eurasian Studies","slug":"new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies-313261","podcast_index_feed_id":313261,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/HQyUzOY_","website_url":"https://new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies.simplecast.com","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/42fb3a55-d4d5-4eaa-8ea0-bce212a58de2/d82e765b-1852-4d2c-b563-78ae131041b9/3000x3000/a801439f626e716355b8fec9d4e33336.png?aid=rss_feed","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":600,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies","last_synced_at":"2026-10-02T08:22:53.141272+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies-313261"},"episode":{"title":"Victoria Donovan, \"Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East\" (Daunt Books, 2025)","slug":"victoria-donovan-life-in-spite-of-everything-tales-from-the-ukrainian-east-daunt-books-2025","published_at":"2026-07-26T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies-313261/victoria-donovan-life-in-spite-of-everything-tales-from-the-ukrainian-east-daunt-books-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies-313261","url":"https://new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies.simplecast.com/episodes/victoria-donovan-life-in-spite-of-everything-tales-from-the-ukrainian-east-daunt-books-2025-fIWW355h","audio_url":"https://injector.simplecastaudio.com/42fb3a55-d4d5-4eaa-8ea0-bce212a58de2/episodes/503a0ed7-af18-4f17-bfca-760e624f589a/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=42fb3a55-d4d5-4eaa-8ea0-bce212a58de2&awEpisodeId=503a0ed7-af18-4f17-bfca-760e624f589a&feed=HQyUzOY_","summary":"Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (Daunt Books Publishing, 2025) is a unique reflection on the much-mythologised Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the Ukrainian east, the old and recent history of the region as seen by an esteemed academic multi-disciplinary scholar Victoria Donovan in her numerous travels to the region prior to the full-scale invasion. Seen through a deeply empathetic lens of conversations with local curators, historians, museum workers, and artists, the region is shown in its complexity, with the uniqueness of its landscapes, endangered biodiversity, entangled colonialisms of its past and a threatened future. Since start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014, its eastern region—Donbas—has been synonymous with conflict. With the escalation of that war in 2022, its, cities such as Bakhmut and Lysychansk have become familiar to us through the images and reports of brutal devastation. Victoria Donovan excavates a rich, multicultural history of this area, and paints a radically different picture. Travelling from the dramatic, jagged peaks of Bilokuzmynivka to the marshland of Mariupol, from a warehouse rave to an abandoned gypsum mine, the physical world and its importance to this region’s identity is brought to vivid life. But above all else, by speaking to those whose lives are embedded there now—curators, artists, railway workers, young people who have grown up amidst instability and destruction—Donovan amplifies local voices and reveals the intensely personal lived reality of Putin’s war. Victoria Donovan is Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies and Director of the Centre for Global (Post)socialisms, Southeast, Central and East European Studies at the University of St Andrews. Viktoriia Grivina is an independent…","meta_description":"Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East (Daunt Books Publishing, 2025) is a unique reflection on the much-mythologised Donetsk and Luha…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3985,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies-313261/episodes/victoria-donovan-life-in-spite-of-everything-tales-from-the-ukrainian-east-daunt-books-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-russian-and-eurasian-studies-313261/victoria-donovan-life-in-spite-of-everything-tales-from-the-ukrainian-east-daunt-books-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}