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
- internal colonization
- indigenous populations
- American imperialism
- Russian imperialism
- historical comparison
- resistance and accommodation
Keywords
- colonization
- Sioux
- Kazakhs
- imperialism
- history
- civilization
- resistance
- accommodation
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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