Russian and American Internal Colonization

Russian and American Internal Colonization

From The Eurasian Knot by The Eurasian Knot

April 14, 2026 · 54 min

About this episode

The episode revisits a conversation about the internal colonization efforts of the US and Russia, focusing on their treatment of indigenous populations.

About eight years ago, I interviewed Steven Sabol about his book, The Touch of Civilization . It was the first book I was aware of that compared the US’ and Russia’s efforts to civilize its colonized people, specifically the Sioux and Kazakhs. Here were two continental empires with two vastly different political systems that spread across a vast landmass to encounter, subjugate, remove, or outright kill indigenous populations along the way. Longtime listeners know that the overlapping trajectories of the United States and Russia have been of particular interest to the Eurasian Knot. How did a republic and an autocracy approach its indigenous subjects? How did Sioux and Kazakhs resist and accommodate colonization? And what does it all say about the American and Russian imperialism at the heart of each’s historical DNA? Given current events, we figured it was a good time to revisit our conversation with Steven. Guest: Steven Sabol is a Professor of History at North Carolina University in Charlotte. He’s the author of “The Touch of Civilization” Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization published by University Press of Colorado. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for…

People in this episode

Host: The Eurasian Knot

Guest: Steven Sabol

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: North Carolina University, University Press of Colorado

Books & works: The Touch of Civilization

Places: United States, Russia, Sioux, Kazakhs

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