Baku is an oil town. In the early 20th century, it attracted workers, foreign investors, criminals, and revolutionaries. Some key Bolsheviks cut their revolutionary teeth in Baku, Stalin among them. And after the Revolution, Soviet control of the South Caucasus came with a special prize: oil. In the 1920s, Baku oil was integral to Bolshevik control and state building. And to get that oil industry back up and churning, Moscow had to walk a fine line between national interests, local elites, and fragile institutions. How did the Bolsheviks understand and harness Baku’s black gold? How did political aspirations and economic realities shape Bolshevik policy? The Eurasian Knot sat down with Sara Brinegar to discuss her book Power and the Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus to find out. Guest: Sara Brinegar is an independent scholar based in the Washington, DC area. She was previously Digital Pedagogy Fellow and Freelance Researcher at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She’s the author of The Power and Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus: Periphery Unbound, 1920-29 published by Bloomsbury. Send us your sounds! euraknot.org/contact/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/euraknot Knotty News: eurasianknot.substack.com/ The Knot’s Nest: eurasian-knot.sellfy.store/ Website: euraknot.org/