Art & ideology
Who gets to create and who decides what can be seen, heard, or said?
A HISTORY PODCASTIN DEVELOPMENT · FALL 2026
Creativity in
Dictatorship.
Culture & Power.
The stories that live between them.
Does dictatorship always restrict creativity? Conversations with historians about art, everyday life, and the choices people make under authoritarian rule.
Discover the project01 / THE PROJECTHISTORY, IN CONVERSATION
Power sets the limits.
People find a voice.
A song. A film. A way of dressing. Under dictatorship, even everyday acts of expression can become political.
Creativity in Dictatorship explores how artists, writers, musicians, designers and ordinary people navigate life under authoritarian rule. Creativity can challenge power, accommodate it, or help sustain it. This series stays with those tensions.
Through conversations with historians and cultural scholars, host Yuliya Barycheuskaya brings carefully researched history to a wider audience. The video edition draws on archival images, documents, and film to connect expert insight with the people and worlds behind the stories.
Everyday expression
Music, fashion, youth culture, and the search for a life of one’s own.
Choices & contradictions
Beyond simple stories of resistance: ambition, compromise, belief, and survival.
02 / YOUR HOSTRESEARCH MEETS STORYTELLING
CREATOR & HOSTNEW YORK CITY
THE PERSON ASKING THE QUESTIONSYuliya
Yuliya
Barycheuskaya
Historian. Researcher. Curious listener.
Yuliya Barycheuskaya is a Ph.D. candidate in History at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research explores popular culture, gender, love, and sexuality in late-Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, bringing film, music, media, and everyday life into the study of historical change.
Through Creativity in Dictatorship, she brings scholarly conversations beyond university walls, making complex histories accessible to a wider audience without sacrificing intellectual depth or academic rigor.
Get in touch03 / THE VOICESHISTORIANS & CULTURAL SCHOLARS
Meet the minds
behind the conversations.
Different histories. Shared questions.
More guests will join as the series develops.
THE FIRST SERIESComing this fall.
Coming this fall.
Stay tuned.
Currently in development. Launching fall 2026 with audio conversations and a documentary-inspired video series.
Episode links will appear here when the series launches.
ACADEMIC & PRODUCTION AFFILIATIONS
04 / KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOINGCREATIVITY IN DICTATORSHIP
History is better
in conversation.
For questions about the series, collaboration, or media inquiries, contact host Yuliya Barycheuskaya.