by Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Human stories about freedom and security across oceans, political divides, and intellectual traditions hosted by Bakhti Nishanov, senior policy advisor at the U.S. Helsinki Commission. This podcast is produced by the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a U.S. government commission that promotes human rights, military security, and economic cooperation in 57 countries in Europe, Eurasia, and North America.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
6/17/2019
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June 16, 2026
Host Bakhti Nishanov interviews documentarian Nate Mook about Ukraine's evolving needs and rallying international support four years into the full-scale invasion.
May 19, 2026
Host Bakhti Nishanov interviews Adrian Matus, author and scholar, exploring 1968 youth politics, music, and protest behind the Iron Curtain and its enduring legacy.
April 28, 2026
<p>How does the Soviet Union's approach to human rights compare to contemporary Russia? Bakhti is joined by historian Benjamin Nathans to discuss the evolution of the Soviet dissident movement, what Vladimir Putin learned from his time as a KGB agent quashing dissent in the Soviet Union, and the lessons of this period for those resisting authoritarianism today.</p> <p>--</p> <p>Benjamin Nathans teaches and writes about Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, and the history of human rights. Currently, he is the Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book, To The Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the Pushkin House Book Prize, the Vucinich Prize in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and the Zelnik Prize in History. It tells the story of dissent in the USSR from Stalin's death to the collapse of communism, exploring the idea and practice of rights and the rule of law in the setting of "mature socialism."</p> <p>Nathans is also author of Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter With Late Imperial Russia and edited A Research Guide to Materials on the History of Russian Jewry (19th and Early 20th Centuries) in Selected Archives of the Former Soviet Union [in Russian]. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. He is the co-editor and contributor to two scholarly volumes, Culture Front: Representing Jews in Eastern Europe (2014) and From Europe's East to the Middle East: Israel's Russian and Polish Lineages (2021).</p> <p> </p> <p>This podcast is hosted by Bakhti Nishanov and produced by Carly Breland, in conjunction with the Senate Recording Studio.</p>
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Nate Mook
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Adrian Matus
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Nastassia Rouda
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Human stories about freedom and security across oceans, political divides, and intellectual traditions hosted by Bakhti Nishanov, senior policy advisor at the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
This podcast is produced by the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a U.S. government commission that promotes human rights, military security, and economic cooperation in 57 countries in Europe, Eurasia, and North America.
This podcast updates daily.
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