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Hare Krishna, Russian Jesus and the End of the World - Cultural Chaos during the COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union, with Prof. Joseph Kellner

Joseph Kellner is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union at the University of Georgia. He's also the author of the recently released book The Spirit of Socialism - Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse.

Contrary to Western narratives, culture within the USSR wasn't an eternally grey monolith that we used to see in James Bond movies. Quite the opposite - it was a diverse, often flourishing organism. But what happened to it during the brutal dissolution of the Soviet Union?

In this conversation, Prof. Kellner and I discuss the decline and the indescribable shock that accompanied the…

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