Podcast

Collapse of the USSR

"And all of a sudden the door is kicked open in the classroom; this student runs in and he basically says in Ukrainian, 'University has been taken over, classes are suspended, revolution is coming.'"

The fall of the USSR was, for some, a win for independence and self-determination. For others, it meant the loss of power and a guiding ideology. In this episode, former Soviet citizens and American scholars discuss why the Soviet Union collapsed, and the impact it had on the everyday lives of people in Russia, the Baltics, and Central Asia.

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Director, Cold War Studies Project

Mark Kramer directs the Davis Center's Cold War Studies Project.

Professor of the Practice, Global Studies and International Relations, Northeastern University

Ambassador Bakyt Beshimov is a faculty member in the Global Studies and International Relations program and professor of the Practice at Northeastern University.

Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University

Oxana Shevel is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University.

Head, Social Sciences and Visualization, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Fung Library