Radio St Petersburg: an appearance on “The History Club”

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Last week one of my “to do” tasks for this trip to Russia was successfully completed: I spent an hour in a recording studio of Radio St Petersburg’s Chanel Five speaking to Professor Andrei Leonidovich Bassoevich about the edition of my Russia in the Roaring 1990s published here in November 2021 and more generally about the cycles of friendship-enmity in Russia’s relations with the United States and Europe over the past half century. 

Bassoevich has been the presenter of this show for the past twenty years. He has a distinctive way of interviewing and of lightening the style of the broadcast by insertions of music and other sound tracks relevant to the subject at hand.

Our conversation was conducted in Russian.

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Published by gilbertdoctorow

Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write. Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975). After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.

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3 thoughts on “Radio St Petersburg: an appearance on “The History Club””

  1. Excellent. A very interesting and enjoyable talk. The songs and speech fragments are a nice touch. Fascinating to hear Brezhnev speaking at Helsinki, although a little sad to notice the slurring. It was a beautiful speech – I love those words: “The outcome of the prolonged negotiations is such that there are neither victors nor vanquished, neither winners nor losers. It has been a victory of reason. Everyone has won: the countries of East and West, the peoples of socialist and capitalist States, whether parties to alliances or neutral, whether large or small. It has been a gain for all who cherish peace and security on our planet.” Of course these are the words we still hear constantly today from that most reasonable of world leaders, President Putin. Your story about the US-USSR Trade Council representatives attending the dinner on the occasion of Brezhnev’s birthday followed by the recording of your singing Happy Birthday was really very moving. Professor Bassoevich has a very pleasant voice and “animated” manner of speaking, and you’re not so harsh on the ears yourself, Doctor Doctorow. Lovely to hear Vasily Gerello at the end there as well. Thank you!

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    1. Excuse me, by “words from President Putin we hear today” of course I mean sentiments. If only they could be reciprocated.

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  2. Very nice podcast. With all the discussions of current events and predictions for the future going on all around us, it is refreshing to take a deep breath and a look back at history.

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