For centuries, Russia has held cultural and economic pull for people across Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe. In the 2020s this seems to be changing, ot just due to the war in Ukraine. Geopolitical winds are changing, and even as the US is arguably in decline the Russian language too faces an uncertain situation. Many countries once occupied/governed by Moscow are turning to English or Mandarin education, while the Baltic States do everything they can to distance themselves in an effort to revitalize local languages.

Host James orban gives an overview of the situation in 3 regions once governed directly from Moscow. WIll Russian ever truly go away as a lingua franca? It depends.

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In the Soviet Union, having a metro system in your city was a real status symbol. In most cities this would be good news, a sign their city was on the rise. Latvia's capital Riga was scheduled to have a metro built in the late 1980s as the population swelled to over 900,000. Early plans called for murals and marble ceilings, new rolling stock to rival that of Moscow and St. Petersburg, but this opulence masked the concerns of local residents. Many thought the metro would displace more local Latvians, making them a minority population in their own SSR, many worried about the ecological and environmental impact of such a project.

In today's episode host James Orban examines the history and impact of this project, its rise and fall in the span of less than a decade.

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All cultures have some form of "second world fiction", where a character enters another world. Japan's "isrkai" light novel industry and web fiction are what most people think of, but the post-Soviet sphere and particularly Russian speaking world has its own formof these stories. On this episode I discuss the origins of this genre, how it differs from Japanese light novels, and the unique sub-genre that centers on the experiences of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

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