Podcasts about soviet

January 27, 1944. Soviet forces defeat the German army outside Leningrad, ending an 872-day siege. This episode originally aired in 2025. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

This January marks the anniversary of the conclusion of Operation Just Cause, which began days before Christmas, on December 20th, 1989, when about 27,000 US troops deployed to Panama. Their mission was to capture Panama's notorious dictator, General Manuel Noriega, whom the US had indicted for drug trafficking. Noriega had also been suppressing unarmed demonstrators, gathering intelligence on the local population, and harassing Americans- wielding weapons from the Soviet bloc. International Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa was an intelligence officer on the ground during the invasion, and he takes us from the first mortar to the moment when Noriega surrendered to US forces. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit:  https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org,  This show is brought to you by Goat Rodeo, N2K Networks, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs. 

On 27 January 1945, prisoners at the Nazis' largest death camp were freed by the Soviet Union's Red Army.General Vasily Petrenko commanded one of the four units that liberated Auschwitz.The Nazis murdered 1.1 million people at Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1941 and 1945. Almost a million were Jews, 70,000 were Polish prisoners, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and an unknown number of gay men.It was one of six death camps the Nazis built in occupied Poland in 1942, and it was by far the biggest.Vicky Farncombe produced this episode using an interview General Vasily Petrenko gave to the BBC's Russian Service in 2001. He died in 2003. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina's Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall' speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler's List; and Jacques Derrida, France's ‘rock star' philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world's oldest languages.(Photo: Auschwitz survivors watch the arrival of Soviet troops come to free them. Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠ In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz delivers an in-depth reaction and breakdown to the official trailer for Netflix's upcoming documentary Miracle: The Boys of '80. The film chronicles the legendary 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's improbable journey as underdogs who defeated the dominant Soviet squad in the historic "Miracle on Ice" semifinal, culminating in a gold medal win amid Cold War tensions. Featuring never-before-seen 16mm footage, firsthand reflections from players, and iconic broadcaster Al Michaels, the trailer captures the audacity, teamwork, and national pride behind this unforgettable upset—previously dramatized in the 2004 film Miracle. Analytic Dreamz explores the trailer's powerful visuals, emotional storytelling, and timely release ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Join Analytic Dreamz for thoughtful analysis on this inspiring chapter in sports history. Premiere date: January 30, 2026 on Netflix. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/analytic-dreamz-notorious-mass-effect/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow's Red Square on 27th January, 1924 - where, astonishingly, he remains viewable to this day.  He'd wanted to be buried next to his mother in Saint Petersburg, but after he suffered a series of strokes, the Soviet government instead secretly planned to build a mausoleum for his body, in part to deify him as a quasi-religious figure. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how pioneering embalming techniques were created by ‘The Lenin Lab' to look after the cadaver; ponder how mausoleum architect Alexey Shchusev contented with the January freeze; and consider whether an embalmed Queen Victoria would be just as popular a tourist attraction… Further Reading: • ‘Death of Lenin' (The Guardian, 1924): ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/death-of-lenin-archive-1924⁠ • ‘Lenin's Body Improves with Age' (Scientific American, 2015): ⁠https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lenin-s-body-improves-with-age1/⁠ • ‘Russia: 100 Years on from Revolution' (BBC News, 2017): ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPmlX4kWgjs⁠ Love the show? Support us!  Join 

It seems as if American society is suffering from a nationwide carbon-monoxide leak. The Department of Homeland Security is implying that possessing "2 magazines" implies intent to commit a massacre; the right suddenly backs an anti-gun stance. Antifa is encouraging liberals, who usually hate guns, to "march with guns" against federal agents. While the right says illegals threaten "democracy" the left says arresting them threatens "democracy." Now the Department of Labor and Department of War have turned into Q-anon. The DOL posted "trust the plan" while the DOW posted "directed energy weapons." There is a plan and there are DEWs, but neither are what you think. This is what next generation psych warfare looks like; a loyalty trap, a Maoist 100 flowers campaign and a Soviet Operation Trust (the plan). The purpose of LARPING resistance groups is more complex than divide and conquer; their goal is to obtain identities and information on all forms of resistance. After blacklisting, censorship, and the like terrifies most to stand down, phase two begins; now the censorship lifts and random people obtain popularity in their driving of vulgar speech and narratives. This both justifies additional censorship in the long run, but also identifies voices to be cataloged that are far more of a threat. Make no mistake, all of it is run by official sources. As in Mao's China and the Soviet Union, certain individuals can post and say whatever they want because they facilitate the agenda of the state to draw out of hiding, or simply silence, those who would resist. If the initial shadow banning and the platforming doesn't scare people into submission, and If the next round of blacklisting and censorship fails to destroy the threat, the final stage is neutralization when the new RedTerror begins. Couple this with the “everything is fake” motif and the revolution against liberty, justice, and reality is complete. For all Ground Zero shows, please visit their website. *The is the FREE archive, which includes advertisements. If you want an ad-free experience, you can subscribe below underneath the show description.WEBSITEFREE ARCHIVE (w. ads)SUBSCRIPTION ARCHIVE-X / TWITTERFACEBOOKINSTAGRAMYOUTUBERUMBLE-BUY ME A COFFEECashApp: $rdgable PAYPAL: rdgable1991@gmail.comRyan's Books: https://thesecretteachings.info- EMAIL: rdgable@yahoo.com / rdgable1991@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-secret-teachings--5328407/support.

Londinium Winter 92AD. The debate shifts to the "Greenland affair," which Germanicus contextualizes as part of a long, often "piratical" tradition of American territorial expansion, comparable to the Louisiana Purchase. Rather than a mere real estate deal, this is portrayed as an attempt to establish a sovereign American sphere of influence over the entire Western Hemisphere, the Pacific, and the "American republic" itself, rejecting post-Soviet globalism. Germanicussuggests this aggressive posture is necessary because the U.S. is governed by "sclerotic" elites and domestic instability.1899 GREENLAND

Soviet anti-aircraft fire takes down an American spy plane over Cuba, as the crisis spirals. The pilot is killed. With nuclear missiles almost ready for launch in Cuba, how can the two superpower leaders pull back from the brink of war? This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

FILE 7. SPHERES OF INFLUENCE AND FAILED NEGOTIATIONS. GUEST AUTHOR SEAN MCMEEKIN. During 1940 negotiations in Berlin, Hitler attempted to align the Soviets with the Axis powers, but talks failed due to Stalin's insistence on expanding influence into Finland and the Balkans. Consequently, Hitler decided to invade Russia to break their economic stranglehold, while Soviet leadership simultaneously began preparing their own military deployments for a future war with Germany,.1931

Guest Author: Paul GregoryHeadline: The Warren Commission: Testimony and ConspiracySummary: Paul Gregory visited Dealey Plaza to verify the feasibility of the shot before testifying to the Warren Commission. The hearings were marked by Margarite Oswald's disruptive demands for subpoena rights and her insistence on conspiracies, while Paul maintained that Lee acted alone despite Soviet suspicions.Article: Before testifying, Paul Gregory inspected Dealey Plaza and concluded that the shot from the depository was relatively easy, reinforcing his belief that Lee acted alone without a complex conspiracy, despite the Soviet Union's own fears of being implicated. The Warren Commission hearings were notably disrupted by Margarite Oswald, who demanded subpoena rights and insisted on her son's innocence, providing the Commission with a clear view of the chaotic psychological environment that shaped Lee.

This special episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Imperial War Museum London, in October 2025. I speak with Colin Ferguson, a veteran from the British Army‘s covert Special Observation Post Troop. This "stay behind" Special OP Troop consisted of selected soldiers in 6-man patrols whose task was to dig in large underground hides known as "mexe" shelters along the inner German border. They would then allow the main Soviet forces to pass over them before deploying to two smaller observation posts (Ops) where they would engage the enemy with the long-range guns and rockets of the British Army. We speak in detail about selection, training and deployment. Do check out Colin's podcast, “The Unconventional Soldier”, which offers first-hand accounts of past conflicts, military history, book and film reviews, plus guests, dits and digressions. Episode extras ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode440 Help me preserve Cold War history and via a simple monthly donation, You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, and get a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank you and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to ⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/⁠⁠ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, We also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠ CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION Follow us on BlueSky ⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social⁠⁠ Follow us on Threads ⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations⁠⁠ Follow us on Twitter ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod⁠⁠ Facebook ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/⁠⁠ Instagram ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/⁠⁠ Youtube ⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. Since October 7, 2023, there has been a focused and intense campaign to paint Zionism as a supremacist, racist, and inherently violent movement that has no place in academia, popular culture, or public life in the West. Jews and supporters of Israel usually label such attacks as antisemitism, since they often take old tropes about Jews and apply them to Israel. Anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein, who emerged from the Colombian jungle on October 9 and found himself under attack from colleagues for his support of Israel, is leading the effort to cast anti-Zionism as a hate movement that seeks to deny Jews a place in the public square on their own terms by portraying Zionism as the root of much of the world's evil and violence. Louis-Klein applies his critical lens to anti-Zionism, examining its roots in Nazism, Islamist ideology, and Soviet propaganda. He unpacks terms like "settler-colonialism," "genocide," and " apartheid," and explains why the anti-Zionists chose those loaded words in their attack on the Jewish state. Lazar Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht. IMAGE: Adam Louis-Klein (courtesy) / Demonstrators gather on the UCLA campus, June 12, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Space Show presents Bob Zimmerman, Tuesday, 1-20-26Quick SummaryWe started this Space Show program with Bob Zimmerman with discussions about space exploration policies, private industry involvement, and the current state of various space companies, including ULA and Blue Origin, along with a brief mention of Robert's book “Conscious Choice.”Detailed SummaryBob and David discussed the potential impact of a space program incident with Artemis, comparing it to past accidents and suggesting it could lead to a significant overhaul of NASA's programs. The conversation touched on the Artemis flight and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Bob opened up referring to his Op-Ed in which he criticized the press coverage of NASA's Artemis II mission, accusing journalists of being overly positive without addressing engineering concerns. He expressed concerns about the mission's safety, particularly regarding the untested life support system and the damaged heat shield, which NASA has only partially addressed by adjusting the flight path. Zimmerman compared the situation to SpaceX's more rigorous testing requirements for its Crew Dragon capsule, highlighting NASA's double standard in demanding multiple uncrewed test flights from commercial partners but not from its own SLS rocket.Bob also expressed concerns about NASA's decision to proceed with the Artemis II mission, citing inadequate testing and a culture that prioritizes schedule over engineering safety. He highlighted that the mission lacks critical testing, such as a heat shield test using Falcon Heavy, and criticized NASA's management for not standing up to political pressure to achieve a lunar landing before the current administration's term ends. Marshall suggested using an alternative method to test the heat shield, but Bob explained that NASA had already lost valuable time and was planning to use a different design for the next mission. Several in the group agreed that the Artemis II mission, while potentially successful, could be counterproductive by allowing NASA to continue misleading the public about the program's readiness.Next, Bob went after the Senate launch system as poorly managed and equipment-poor, noting that Congress created the rocket without a clear mission, which NASA is now struggling to define. He expressed more concerns about the Orion heat shield's untested design and emphasized the importance of fixing problems rather than working around them, especially when human lives are at stake. Phil suggested that sophisticated simulations could reduce the number of flights needed, but Robert argued that ultimately, hardware must be tested in real-world conditions. David pointed out that NASA's statements indicate they plan to use a new heat shield design in a future mission, which Phil initially criticized but Bob defended as a necessary step, albeit one that should have been tested beforehand.The Wisdom Team discussed concerns about NASA's approach to the Orion and SLS mission, with Bob being critical of NASA's management and politicians for prioritizing cost savings over safety by reusing shuttle parts. Dallas and Joe expressed skepticism about the mission's cost-effectiveness and engineering decisions, while David emphasized the need for Congress to question NASA's choices. The discussion highlighted the tension between political pressures and engineering realities in space exploration, with no clear solutions proposed by the end of the meeting.Bob went on expressing skepticism about NASA's Artemis program and the Space Launch System (SLS), arguing that the real space program in the United States is currently led by SpaceX. He criticized the Artemis mission as trivial and not historically significant, advocating instead for fostering a robust American private industry in low Earth orbit and beyond. Dr. Kothari questioned Bob's views, particularly regarding his recent op-ed, and discussed the potential dangers of the Artemis II mission. They also touched on alternative testing methods for the Orion spacecraft and the need for infrastructure development on the Moon.The Wisdom Team discussed the role of government and private enterprise in space exploration, with Bob emphasizing the importance of competition and innovation among various American space companies. Phil argued that NASA's leadership is crucial for guiding private industry and managing risks, while Bob suggested that NASA should set goals and provide a framework for private companies to achieve them without micromanaging the process. Joe noted that the Artemis Accords might be the most enduring legacy of the Artemis program.The tem discussed the Artemis Accords, which Bob explained were initially introduced by the Trump administration as a way to encourage private enterprise in space and potentially lead to changes in the Outer Space Treaty that prohibits property rights. Joe noted that Portugal had recently joined the Accords, bringing the total to 60 nations, with many post-Soviet countries participating. Phil suggested that allowing property rights in space could help redirect expansionist leaders' attention from Earth to space exploration, while Bob agreed with this approach and proposed establishing international rules similar to the Homestead Act to allow nations to claim territory under specific conditions.Bob discussed the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's aging issues, noting an increase in anomalies and color dropouts due to the camera's degradation. Alfred McEwen explained that the problem is being managed by adjusting the camera's temperature, but more funding is needed for calibration. Robert highlighted the orbiter's importance in revealing Mars' icy nature and its potential for future human settlement. The group also discussed private and government missions to Venus, including Rocket Lab's delayed mission, NASA's canceled missions, and India's planned Venus orbiter. Phil mentioned China's proposed Venus Volcano Imaging and Climate Explorer mission, though its launch details remain unclear.The group discussed current and future planetary missions, with Bob noting that NASA's Venus missions are on hold and the U.S. has limited active planetary exploration compared to other countries. They explored Blue Origin's potential to increase competition in space travel, with Bob expressing hope that under new CEO David Limp's leadership, the company could become more competitive with SpaceX. The discussion also covered Blue Origin's orbital reef project, which our guest described as currently inactive, and Marshall inquired about cost reduction goals in space travel, to which Bob and Phil noted that while Blue Origin's David Limp has mentioned reducing costs by two orders of magnitude, no company has yet achieved even a one-order reduction.The group discussed the potential for terrestrial nuclear power plants, noting that while there is growing demand due to AI data centers, there remains significant public resistance. Bob expressed concerns about the “delusional” enthusiasm for AI, particularly in journalism where AI-generated articles are often inaccurate and inappropriate. The conversation shifted to space industry developments, with Ajay discussing small modular reactors (SMRs) and Generation 4 reactors that could serve both propulsion and energy needs. The discussion concluded with Bob emphasizing the need for multiple space companies beyond SpaceX, highlighting the importance of competition and redundancy in the industry.As we were nearing the end of the discussion, we focused on the current state and future of ULA, with Bob noting that while ULA has significant contracts with Amazon and Boeing, its Vulcan rocket lacks reusability and may struggle to compete with emerging reusable rockets like Starship and Neutron. The team discussed the leadership changes at ULA, with an interim leader appointed but no permanent replacement named yet. The conversation concluded with a plug for Bob's book “Conscious Choice” which explores the origins of slavery in Virginia and its relevance to space exploration, with David and Phil confirming they had read the book and found it informative.Special thanks to our sponsors:American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Helix Space in Luxembourg, Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, Astrox Corporation, Dr. Haym Benaroya of Rutgers University, The Space Settlement Progress Blog by John Jossy, The Atlantis Project, and Artless EntertainmentOur Toll Free Line for Live Broadcasts: 1-866-687-7223 (Not in service at this time)For real time program participation, email Dr. Space at: drspace@thespaceshow.com for instructions and access.The Space Show is a non-profit 501C3 through its parent, One Giant Leap Foundation, Inc. To donate via Pay Pal, use:To donate with Zelle, use the email address: david@onegiantleapfoundation.org.If you prefer donating with a check, please make the check payable to One Giant Leap Foundation and mail to:One Giant Leap Foundation, 11035 Lavender Hill Drive Ste. 160-306 Las Vegas, NV 89135Upcoming Programs:Broadcast 4491 Zoom Dr. Antonio Del Popolo | Friday 23 Jan 2026 930AM PTGuests: Dr/. Antonio Del PopoloZoom: Dr. Popolo talks about hs new booik, “Extraterrestrial Life: We are not alone.”Broadcast 4492 Zoom Dr. Ajay Kothari | Sunday 25 Jan 2026 1200PM PTGuests: Dr. Ajay KothariZoom Dr. Kothari on “MUCH NEEDED CARGO TO MOON” Get full access to The Space Show-One Giant Leap Foundation at doctorspace.substack.com/subscribe

From the frozen balconies of Rēzekne to the digital hallucinations of the Kremlin, the Russian Federation has become a "Republic of Fake."In this episode, I broadcast from Pilda—just 22km from the Russian border—to tear down the "digital wall" Putin has built. We expose the absurdity of a war where soldiers are forced to weld rusty pipes to Soviet vans while the Ministry of Defense spends billions on AI censorship tools. We analyze General Gerasimov's "Potemkin JPEGs"—fake maps of captured villages that exist only in PowerPoint to please the Czar.And most importantly, we look at the fridge. With 35,000 restaurants closing in a year and economists advising Muscovites to buy wood-burning stoves for their skyscrapers, the "War Economy" is finally revealing its true cost: The stability of the grave.Help us send REAL trucks to the front: car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-borderBecome our patron:https://www.patreon.com/theeasternborderMerch store + another option for memberships:https://theeasternborder-shop.fourthwall.com/Follow what's going on here in the very border of Eastern Europe:https://bsky.app/profile/theeasternborder.lvDownload all episodes for free on our website; pictures accompanying certain episodes can be found there as well!http://theeasternborder.lv/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Serbian analyst Nikola Mikovic argues that the contemporary world remains firmly under Western dominance, refuting the popular narrative of an emerging multipolar global order. He posits that the United States and its European allies possess unmatched power, citing recent military actions in Venezuela and the lack of support for Iran as proof of Russian and Chinese weakness. Mikovic characterizes Russia and Iran as an “axis of impotence,” suggesting they are incapable of providing a true alternative to Western systems. The discussion also explores the global shift toward technocracy, noting that rapid digitalization and the elimination of cash are occurring across both East and West. Finally, the source warns of a potential large-scale war in Europe and predicts a “Great Game” in Central Asia where the West and China will ultimately displace Russian influence. Watch on BitChute / Brighteon / Rumble / Substack / YouTube *Support Geopolitics & Empire! Become a Member https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com Donate https://geopoliticsandempire.com/donations Consult https://geopoliticsandempire.com/consultation **Listen Ad-Free for $4.99 a Month or $49.99 a Year! Apple Subscriptions https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/geopolitics-empire/id1003465597 Supercast https://geopoliticsandempire.supercast.com ***Visit Our Affiliates & Sponsors! Above Phone https://abovephone.com/?above=geopolitics American Gold Exchange https://www.amergold.com/geopolitics easyDNS (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://easydns.com Escape The Technocracy (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://escapethetechnocracy.com/geopolitics Outbound Mexico https://outboundmx.com PassVult https://passvult.com Sociatates Civis https://societates-civis.com StartMail https://www.startmail.com/partner/?ref=ngu4nzr Wise Wolf Gold https://www.wolfpack.gold/?ref=geopolitics Websites X https://x.com/nikola_mikovic Telegram https://t.me/Nikola_Mikovic About Nikola Mikovic Nikola Mikovic is a freelance journalist, researcher and analyst based in Serbia. He covers mostly the foreign policies of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, as well as energy-related issues. Nikola primarily focuses on Russia's involvement in post-Soviet space, the Middle East, and the Balkans. He writes for several publications such as Byline Times, CGTN, Lowy Institute, Global Comment, and World Geostratregic Insights, among others. *Podcast intro music used with permission is from the song “The Queens Jig” by the fantastic “Musicke & Mirth” from their album “Music for Two Lyra Viols”: http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

In this episode of She's All Over the Place, I had the wonderful opportunity to sit and chat with the producer, Steven Lawrence, to explore The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026) Michael Apted's long-lost documentary about Soviet underground rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov and his extraordinary 1988 journey from Leningrad to the West during the early days of Glasnost. Filmed at a moment of rare optimism inside the USSR, the documentary follows Grebenshchikov as he records an album with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), alongside Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Ray Cooper, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, becoming one of the first Soviet musicians to collaborate openly with Western rock stars. Remastered in 4K with new 5.1 sound and expanded with a newly created epilogue, the film now brings Boris's story up to the present: his disillusionment with post-Soviet Russia, his outspoken opposition to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, and his eventual exile from his homeland. We discuss the film's disappearance for more than three decades, its rediscovery through MoMA's Film Preservation Festival, and why The Long Way Home now feels less like a period piece  and more like a warning, a memory, and a testament to the enduring power of music to resist censorship and tyranny. MoMA EVENT WEBSITE: https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11134 MoMA SOCIAL MEDIA:o Instagram: @themuseumofmodernarto Facebook: facebook.com/MuseumofModernArt (@museumofmodernart) o LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-museum-of-modern-art/ (@the-museum-of-modern-art) o TikTok: @museumofmodernarto Threads: @themuseumofmodernarto Twitter: @MoMAFilm Stay Connected with ME: https://www.chonacas.com/links/

Author Izabella Tabarovsky—a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism, writer, journalist, and the author of Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student's Survival Guide—joins host Steven Shalowitz from her home in Jerusalem to explore the Soviet origins of modern anti-Zionism and why those ideas echo so loudly on campuses today. Born in 1970 and raised in the USSR, Tabarovsky recounts what it meant to live with state-sponsored "anti-Zionism" that functioned as a sophisticated system of discrimination against Jews, from schoolyard humiliation to university and career barriers.

Based on the popular Tom Clancy novel, this suspenseful movie tracks Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) as he abandons his orders and heads for the east coast of the United States. Equipped with innovative stealth technology, Ramius' submarine, "Red October," is virtually invisible. However, when an American sub briefly detects the Russians' presence, CIA agent Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) sets out to determine Ramius' motives, fearing he may launch an attack on the U.S.

Last time we spoke about the climax of the battle of Lake Khasan. In August, the Lake Khasan region became a tense theater of combat as Soviet and Japanese forces clashed around Changkufeng and Hill 52. The Soviets pushed a multi-front offensive, bolstered by artillery, tanks, and air power, yet the Japanese defenders held firm, aided by engineers, machine guns, and heavy guns. By the ninth and tenth, a stubborn Japanese resilience kept Hill 52 and Changkufeng in Japanese hands, though the price was steep and the field was littered with the costs of battle. Diplomatically, both sides aimed to confine the fighting and avoid a larger war. Negotiations trudged on, culminating in a tentative cease-fire draft for August eleventh: a halt to hostilities, positions to be held as of midnight on the tenth, and the creation of a border-demarcation commission. Moscow pressed for a neutral umpire; Tokyo resisted, accepting a Japanese participant but rejecting a neutral referee. The cease-fire was imperfect, with miscommunications and differing interpretations persisting.    #185 Operation Hainan Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. After what seemed like a lifetime over in the northern border between the USSR and Japan, today we are returning to the Second Sino-Japanese War. Now I thought it might be a bit jarring to dive into it, so let me do a brief summary of where we are at, in the year of 1939. As the calendar turned to 1939, the Second Sino-Japanese War, which had erupted in July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and escalated into full-scale conflict, had evolved into a protracted quagmire for the Empire of Japan. What began as a swift campaign to subjugate the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek had, by the close of 1938, transformed into a war of attrition. Japanese forces, under the command of generals like Shunroku Hata and Yasuji Okamura, had achieved stunning territorial gains: the fall of Shanghai in November 1937 after a brutal three-month battle that cost over 200,000 Chinese lives; the infamous capture of Nanjing in December 1937, marked by the Nanjing Massacre where an estimated 300,000 civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed in a six-week orgy of violence; and the sequential occupations of Xuzhou in May 1938, Wuhan in October 1938, and Guangzhou that same month.  These victories secured Japan's control over China's eastern seaboard, major riverine arteries like the Yangtze, and key industrial centers, effectively stripping the Nationalists of much of their economic base. Yet, despite these advances, China refused to capitulate. Chiang's government had retreated inland to the mountainous stronghold of Chongqing in Sichuan province, where it regrouped amid the fog-laden gorges, drawing on the vast human reserves of China's interior and the resilient spirit of its people. By late 1938, Japanese casualties had mounted to approximately 50,000 killed and 200,000 wounded annually, straining the Imperial Japanese Army's resources and exposing the vulnerabilities of overextended supply lines deep into hostile territory. In Tokyo, the corridors of the Imperial General Headquarters and the Army Ministry buzzed with urgent deliberations during the winter of 1938-1939. The initial doctrine of "quick victory" through decisive battles, epitomized by the massive offensives of 1937 and 1938, had proven illusory. Japan's military planners, influenced by the Kwantung Army's experiences in Manchuria and the ongoing stalemate, recognized that China's sheer size, with its 4 million square miles and over 400 million inhabitants, rendered total conquest unfeasible without unacceptable costs. Intelligence reports highlighted the persistence of Chinese guerrilla warfare, particularly in the north where Communist forces under Mao Zedong's Eighth Route Army conducted hit-and-run operations from bases in Shanxi and Shaanxi, sabotaging railways and ambushing convoys. The Japanese response included brutal pacification campaigns, such as the early iterations of what would later formalize as the "Three Alls Policy" (kill all, burn all, loot all), aimed at devastating rural economies and isolating resistance pockets. But these measures only fueled further defiance. By early 1939, a strategic pivot was formalized: away from direct annihilation of Chinese armies toward a policy of economic strangulation. This "blockade and interdiction" approach sought to sever China's lifelines to external aid, choking off the flow of weapons, fuel, and materiel that sustained the Nationalist war effort. As one Japanese staff officer noted in internal memos, the goal was to "starve the dragon in its lair," acknowledging the limits of Japanese manpower, total forces in China numbered around 1 million by 1939, against China's inexhaustible reserves. Central to this new strategy were the three primary overland supply corridors that had emerged as China's backdoors to the world, compensating for the Japanese naval blockade that had sealed off most coastal ports since late 1937. The first and most iconic was the Burma Road, a 717-mile engineering marvel hastily constructed between 1937 and 1938 by over 200,000 Chinese and Burmese laborers under the direction of engineers like Chih-Ping Chen. Stretching from the railhead at Lashio in British Burma (modern Myanmar) through treacherous mountain passes and dense jungles to Kunming in Yunnan province, the road navigated elevations up to 7,000 feet with hundreds of hairpin turns and precarious bridges. By early 1939, it was operational, albeit plagued by monsoonal mudslides, banditry, and mechanical breakdowns of the imported trucks, many Ford and Chevrolet models supplied via British Rangoon. Despite these challenges, it funneled an increasing volume of aid: in 1939 alone, estimates suggest up to 10,000 tons per month of munitions, gasoline, and aircraft parts from Allied sources, including early Lend-Lease precursors from the United States. The road's completion in 1938 had been a direct response to the loss of southern ports, and its vulnerability to aerial interdiction made it a prime target in Japanese planning documents. The second lifeline was the Indochina route, centered on the French-built Yunnan-Vietnam Railway (also known as the Hanoi-Kunming Railway), a 465-mile narrow-gauge line completed in 1910 that linked the port of Haiphong in French Indochina to Kunming via Hanoi and Lao Cai. This colonial artery, supplemented by parallel roads and river transport along the Red River, became China's most efficient supply conduit in 1938-1939, exploiting France's uneasy neutrality. French authorities, under Governor-General Pierre Pasquier and later Georges Catroux, turned a blind eye to transshipments, allowing an average of 15,000 to 20,000 tons monthly in early 1939, far surpassing the Burma Road's initial capacity. Cargoes included Soviet arms rerouted via Vladivostok and American oil, with French complicity driven by anti-Japanese sentiment and profitable tolls. However, Japanese reconnaissance flights from bases in Guangdong noted the vulnerability of bridges and rail yards, leading to initial bombing raids by mid-1939. Diplomatic pressure mounted, with Tokyo issuing protests to Paris, foreshadowing the 1940 closure under Vichy France after the fall of France in Europe. The route's proximity to the South China Sea made it a focal point for Japanese naval strategists, who viewed it as a "leak in the blockade." The third corridor, often overlooked but critical, was the Northwest Highway through Soviet Central Asia and Xinjiang province. This overland network, upgraded between 1937 and 1941 with Soviet assistance, connected the Turkestan-Siberian Railway at Almaty (then Alma-Ata) to Lanzhou in Gansu via Urumqi, utilizing a mix of trucks, camel caravans, and rudimentary roads across the Gobi Desert and Tian Shan mountains. Under the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August 1937 and subsequent aid agreements, Moscow supplied China with over 900 aircraft, 82 tanks, 1,300 artillery pieces, and vast quantities of ammunition and fuel between 1937 and 1941—much of it traversing this route. In 1938-1939, volumes peaked, with Soviet pilots and advisors even establishing air bases in Lanzhou. The highway's construction involved tens of thousands of Chinese laborers, facing harsh winters and logistical hurdles, but it delivered up to 2,000 tons monthly, including entire fighter squadrons like the Polikarpov I-16. Japanese intelligence, aware of this "Red lifeline," planned disruptions but were constrained by the ongoing Nomonhan Incident on the Manchurian-Soviet border in 1939, which diverted resources and highlighted the risks of provoking Moscow. These routes collectively sustained China's resistance, prompting Japan's high command to prioritize their severance. In March 1939, the South China Area Army was established under General Rikichi Andō (later succeeded by Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi), headquartered in Guangzhou, with explicit orders to disrupt southern communications. Aerial campaigns intensified, with Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" bombers from Wuhan and Guangzhou targeting Kunming's airfields and the Red River bridges, while diplomatic maneuvers pressured colonial powers: Britain faced demands during the June 1939 Tientsin Crisis to close the Burma Road, and France received ultimatums that culminated in the 1940 occupation of northern Indochina. Yet, direct assaults on Yunnan or Guangxi were deemed too arduous due to rugged terrain and disease risks. Instead, planners eyed peripheral objectives to encircle these arteries. This strategic calculus set the stage for the invasion of Hainan Island, a 13,000-square-mile landmass off Guangdong's southern coast, rich in iron and copper but strategically priceless for its position astride the Indochina route and proximity to Hong Kong. By February 1939, Japanese admirals like Nobutake Kondō of the 5th Fleet advocated seizure to establish air and naval bases, plugging blockade gaps and enabling raids on Haiphong and Kunming, a prelude to broader southern expansion that would echo into the Pacific War. Now after the fall campaign around Canton in autumn 1938, the Japanese 21st Army found itself embedded in a relentless effort to sever the enemy's lifelines. Its primary objective shifted from mere battlefield engagements to tightening the choke points of enemy supply, especially along the Canton–Hankou railway. Recognizing that war materiel continued to flow into the enemy's hands, the Imperial General Headquarters ordered the 21st Army to strike at every other supply route, one by one, until the arteries of logistics were stifled. The 21st Army undertook a series of decisive occupations to disrupt transport and provisioning from multiple directions. To sustain these difficult campaigns, Imperial General Headquarters reinforced the south China command, enabling greater operational depth and endurance. The 21st Army benefited from a series of reinforcements during 1939, which allowed a reorganization of assignments and missions: In late January, the Iida Detachment was reorganized into the Formosa Mixed Brigade and took part in the invasion of Hainan Island.  Hainan, just 15 miles across the Qiongzhou Strait from the mainland, represented a critical "loophole": it lay astride the Gulf of Tonkin, enabling smuggling of arms and materiel from Haiphong to Kunming, and offered potential airfields for bombing raids deep into Yunnan. Japanese interest in Hainan dated to the 1920s, driven by the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, which eyed the island's tropical resources (rubber, iron, copper) and naval potential at ports like Sanya (Samah). Prewar surveys by Japanese firms, such as those documented in Ide Kiwata's Minami Shina no Sangyō to Keizai (1939), highlighted mineral wealth and strategic harbors. The fall of Guangzhou in October 1938 provided the perfect launchpad, but direct invasion was delayed until early 1939 amid debates between the IJA (favoring mainland advances) and IJN (prioritizing naval encirclement). The operation would also heavily align with broader "southward advance" (Nanshin-ron) doctrine foreshadowing invasions of French Indochina (1940) and the Pacific War. On the Chinese side, Hainan was lightly defended as part of Guangdong's "peace preservation" under General Yu Hanmou. Two security regiments, six guard battalions, and a self-defense corps, totaling around 7,000–10,000 poorly equipped troops guarded the island, supplemented by roughly 300 Communist guerrillas under Feng Baiju, who operated independently in the interior. The indigenous Li (Hlai) people in the mountainous south, alienated by Nationalist taxes, provided uneven support but later allied with Communists. The Imperial General Headquarters ordered the 21st Army, in cooperation with the Navy, to occupy and hold strategic points on the island near Haikou-Shih. The 21st Army commander assigned the Formosa Mixed Brigade to carry out this mission. Planning began in late 1938 under the IJN's Fifth Fleet, with IJA support from the 21st Army. The objective: secure northern and southern landing sites to bisect the island, establish air/naval bases, and exploit resources. Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō, commanding the fleet, emphasized surprise and air superiority. The invasion began under the cover of darkness on February 9, 1939, when Kondō's convoy entered Tsinghai Bay on the northern shore of Hainan and anchored at midnight. Japanese troops swiftly disembarked, encountering minimal initial resistance from the surprised Chinese defenders, and secured a beachhead in the northern zone. At 0300 hours on 10 February, the Formosa Mixed Brigade, operating in close cooperation with naval units, executed a surprise landing at the northeastern point of Tengmai Bay in north Hainan. By 04:30, the right flank reached the main road leading to Fengyingshih, while the left flank reached a position two kilometers south of Tienwei. By 07:00, the right flank unit had overcome light enemy resistance near Yehli and occupied Chiungshan. At that moment there were approximately 1,000 elements of the enemy's 5th Infantry Brigade (militia) at Chiungshan; about half of these troops were destroyed, and the remainder fled into the hills south of Tengmai in a state of disarray. Around 08:30 that same day, the left flank unit advanced to the vicinity of Shuchang and seized Hsiuying Heights. By 12:00, it occupied Haikou, the island's northern port city and administrative center, beginning around noon. Army and navy forces coordinated to mop up remaining pockets of resistance in the northern areas, overwhelming the scattered Chinese security units through superior firepower and organization. No large-scale battles are recorded in primary accounts; instead, the engagements were characterized by rapid advances and localized skirmishes, as the Chinese forces, lacking heavy artillery or air support, could not mount a sustained defense. By the end of the day, Japanese control over the north was consolidating, with Haikou falling under their occupation.Also on 10 February, the Brigade pushed forward to seize Cingang. Wenchang would be taken on the 22nd, followed by Chinglan Port on the 23rd. On February 11, the operation expanded southward when land combat units amphibiously assaulted Samah (now Sanya) at the island's southern tip. This landing allowed them to quickly seize key positions, including the port of Yulin (Yulinkang) and the town of Yai-Hsien (Yaxian, now part of Sanya). With these southern footholds secured, Japanese forces fanned out to subjugate the rest of the island, capturing inland areas and infrastructure with little organized opposition. Meanwhile, the landing party of the South China Navy Expeditionary Force, which had joined with the Army to secure Haikou, began landing on the island's southern shore at dawn on 14 February. They operated under the protection of naval and air units. By the same morning, the landing force had advanced to Sa-Riya and, by 12:00 hours, had captured Yulin Port. Chinese casualties were significant in the brief fighting; from January to May 1939, reports indicate the 11th security regiment alone suffered 8 officers and 162 soldiers killed, 3 officers and 16 wounded, and 5 officers and 68 missing, though figures for other units are unclear. Japanese losses were not publicly detailed but appear to have been light.  When crisis pressed upon them, Nationalist forces withdrew from coastal Haikou, shepherding the last civilians toward the sheltering embrace of the Wuzhi mountain range that bands the central spine of Hainan. From that high ground they sought to endure the storm, praying that the rugged hills might shield their families from the reach of war. Yet the Li country's mountains did not deliver a sanctuary free of conflict. Later in August of 1943, an uprising erupted among the Li,Wang Guoxing, a figure of local authority and stubborn resolve. His rebellion was swiftly crushed; in reprisal, the Nationalists executed a seizure of vengeance that extended far beyond the moment of defeat, claiming seven thousand members of Wang Guoxing's kin in his village. The episode was grim testimony to the brutal calculus of war, where retaliation and fear indelibly etched the landscape of family histories. Against this backdrop, the Communists under Feng Baiju and the native Li communities forged a vigorous guerrilla war against the occupiers. The struggle was not confined to partisan skirmishes alone; it unfolded as a broader contest of survival and resistance. The Japanese response was relentless and punitive, and it fell upon Li communities in western Hainan with particular ferocity, Sanya and Danzhou bore the brunt of violence, as did the many foreign laborers conscripted into service by the occupying power. The toll of these reprisals was stark: among hundreds of thousands of slave laborers pressed into service, tens of thousands perished. Of the 100,000 laborers drawn from Hong Kong, only about 20,000 survived the war's trials, a haunting reminder of the human cost embedded in the occupation. Strategically, the island of Hainan took on a new if coercive purpose. Portions of the island were designated as a naval administrative district, with the Hainan Guard District Headquarters established at Samah, signaling its role as a forward air base and as an operational flank for broader anti-Chiang Kai-shek efforts. In parallel, the island's rich iron and copper resources were exploited to sustain the war economy of the occupiers. The control of certain areas on Hainan provided a base of operations for incursions into Guangdong and French Indochina, while the airbases that dotted the island enabled long-range air raids that threaded routes from French Indochina and Burma into the heart of China. The island thus assumed a grim dual character: a frontier fortress for the occupiers and a ground for the prolonged suffering of its inhabitants. Hainan then served as a launchpad for later incursions into Guangdong and Indochina. Meanwhile after Wuhan's collapse, the Nationalist government's frontline strength remained formidable, even as attrition gnawed at its edges. By the winter of 1938–1939, the front line had swelled to 261 divisions of infantry and cavalry, complemented by 50 independent brigades. Yet the political and military fissures within the Kuomintang suggested fragility beneath the apparent depth of manpower. The most conspicuous rupture came with Wang Jingwei's defection, the vice president and chairman of the National Political Council, who fled to Hanoi on December 18, 1938, leading a procession of more than ten other KMT officials, including Chen Gongbo, Zhou Fohai, Chu Minqi, and Zeng Zhongming. In the harsh arithmetic of war, defections could not erase the country's common resolve to resist Japanese aggression, and the anti-Japanese national united front still served as a powerful instrument, rallying the Chinese populace to "face the national crisis together." Amid this political drama, Japan's strategy moved into a phase that sought to convert battlefield endurance into political consolidation. As early as January 11, 1938, Tokyo had convened an Imperial Conference and issued a framework for handling the China Incident that would shape the theater for years. The "Outline of Army Operations Guidance" and "Continental Order No. 241" designated the occupied territories as strategic assets to be held with minimal expansion beyond essential needs. The instruction mapped an operational zone that compressed action to a corridor between Anqing, Xinyang, Yuezhou, and Nanchang, while the broader line of occupation east of a line tracing West Sunit, Baotou, and the major river basins would be treated as pacified space. This was a doctrine of attrition, patience, and selective pressure—enough to hold ground, deny resources to the Chinese, and await a more opportune political rupture. Yet even as Japan sought political attrition, the war's tactical center of gravity drifted toward consolidation around Wuhan and the pathways that fed the Yangtze. In October 1938, after reducing Wuhan to a fortressed crescent of contested ground, the Japanese General Headquarters acknowledged the imperative to adapt to a protracted war. The new calculus prioritized political strategy alongside military operations: "We should attach importance to the offensive of political strategy, cultivate and strengthen the new regime, and make the National Government decline, which will be effective." If the National Government trembled under coercive pressure, it risked collapse, and if not immediately, then gradually through a staged series of operations. In practice, this meant reinforcing a centralized center while allowing peripheral fronts to be leveraged against Chongqing's grip on the war's moral economy. In the immediate post-Wuhan period, Japan divided its responsibilities and aimed at a standoff that would enable future offensives. The 11th Army Group, stationed in the Wuhan theater, became the spearhead of field attacks on China's interior, occupying a strategic triangle that included Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi, and protecting the rear of southwest China's line of defense. The central objective was not merely to seize territory, but to deny Chinese forces the capacity to maneuver along the critical rail and river corridors that fed the Nanjing–Jiujiang line and the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway. Central to this plan was Wuhan's security and the ability to constrain Jiujiang's access to the Yangtze, preserving a corridor for air power and logistics. The pre-war arrangement in early 1939 was a tableau of layered defenses and multiple war zones, designed to anticipate and blunt Japanese maneuver. By February 1939, the Ninth War Zone under Xue Yue stood in a tense standoff with the Japanese 11th Army along the Jiangxi and Hubei front south of the Yangtze. The Ninth War Zone's order of battle, Luo Zhuoying's 19th Army Group defending the northern Nanchang front, Wang Lingji's 30th Army Group near Wuning, Fan Songfu's 8th and 73rd Armies along Henglu, Tang Enbo's 31st Army Group guarding southern Hubei and northern Hunan, and Lu Han's 1st Army Group in reserve near Changsha and Liuyang, was a carefully calibrated attempt to absorb, delay, and disrupt any Xiushui major Japanese thrust toward Nanchang, a city whose strategic significance stretched beyond its own bounds. In the spring of 1939, Nanchang was the one city in southern China that Tokyo could not leave in Chinese hands. It was not simply another provincial capital; it was the beating heart of whatever remained of China's war effort south of the Yangtze, and the Japanese knew it. High above the Gan River, on the flat plains west of Poyang Lake, lay three of the finest airfields China had ever built: Qingyunpu, Daxiaochang, and Xiangtang. Constructed only a few years earlier with Soviet engineers and American loans, they were long, hard-surfaced, and ringed with hangars and fuel dumps. Here the Chinese Air Force had pulled back after the fall of Wuhan, and here the red-starred fighters and bombers of the Soviet volunteer groups still flew. From Nanchang's runways a determined pilot could reach Japanese-held Wuhan in twenty minutes, Guangzhou in less than an hour, and even strike the docks at Hong Kong if he pushed his range. Every week Japanese reconnaissance planes returned with photographs of fresh craters patched, new aircraft parked wing-to-wing, and Soviet pilots sunning themselves beside their I-16s. As long as those fields remained Chinese, Japan could never claim the sky. The city was more than airfields. It sat exactly where the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway met the line running north to Jiujiang and the Yangtze, a knot that tied together three provinces. Barges crowded Poyang Lake's western shore, unloading crates of Soviet ammunition and aviation fuel that had come up the river from the Indochina railway. Warehouses along the tracks bulged with shells and rice. To the Japanese staff officers plotting in Wuhan and Guangzhou, Nanchang looked less like a city and more like a loaded spring: if Chiang Kai-shek ever found the strength for a counteroffensive to retake the middle Yangtze, this would be the place from which it would leap. And so, in the cold March of 1939, the Imperial General Headquarters marked Nanchang in red on every map and gave General Okamura the order he had been waiting for: take it, whatever the cost. Capturing the city would do three things at once. It would blind the Chinese Air Force in the south by seizing or destroying the only bases from which it could still seriously operate. It would tear a hole in the last east–west rail line still feeding Free China. And it would shove the Nationalist armies another two hundred kilometers farther into the interior, buying Japan precious time to digest its earlier conquests and tighten the blockade. Above all, Nanchang was the final piece in a great aerial ring Japan was closing around southern China. Hainan had fallen in February, giving the navy its southern airfields. Wuhan and Guangzhou already belonged to the army. Once Nanchang was taken, Japanese aircraft would sit on a continuous arc of bases from the tropical beaches of the South China Sea to the banks of the Yangtze, and nothing (neither the Burma Road convoys nor the French railway from Hanoi) would move without their permission. Chiang Kai-shek's decision to strike first in the Nanchang region in March 1939 reflected both urgency and a desire to seize initiative before Japanese modernization of the battlefield could fully consolidate. On March 8, Chiang directed Xue Yue to prepare a preemptive attack intended to seize the offensive by March 15, focusing the Ninth War Zone's efforts on preventing a river-crossing assault and pinning Japanese forces in place. The plan called for a sequence of coordinated actions: the 19th Army Group to hold the northern front of Nanchang; the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Advance Army (the 8th and 73rd Armies) to strike the enemy's left flank from Wuning toward De'an and Ruichang; the 30th and 27th Army Groups to consolidate near Wuning; and the 1st Army Group to push toward Xiushui and Sandu, opening routes for subsequent operations. Yet even as Xue Yue pressed for action, the weather of logistics and training reminded observers that no victory could be taken for granted. By March 9–10, Xue Yue warned Chiang that troops were not adequately trained, supplies were scarce, and preparations were insufficient, requesting a postponement to March 24. Chiang's reply was resolute: the attack must commence no later than the 24th, for the aim was preemption and the desire to tether the enemy's forces before they could consolidate. When the moment of decision arrived, the Chinese army began to tense, and the Japanese, no strangers to rapid shifts in tempo—moved to exploit any hesitation or fog of mobilization. The Ninth War Zone's response crystallized into a defensive posture as the Japanese pressed forward, marking a transition from preemption to standoff as both sides tested the limits of resilience. The Japanese plan for what would become known as Operation Ren, aimed at severing the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway, breaking the enemy's line of communication, and isolating Nanchang, reflected a calculated synthesis of air power, armored mobility, and canalized ground offensives. On February 6, 1939, the Central China Expeditionary Army issued a set of precise directives: capture Nanchang to cut the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway and disrupt the southern reach of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces; seize Nanchang along the Nanchang–Xunyi axis to split enemy lines and "crush" Chinese resistance south of that zone; secure rear lines immediately after the city's fall; coordinate with naval air support to threaten Chinese logistics and airfields beyond the rear lines. The plan anticipated contingencies by pre-positioning heavy artillery and tanks in formations that could strike with speed and depth, a tactical evolution from previous frontal assaults. Okamura Yasuji, commander of the 11th Army, undertook a comprehensive program of reconnaissance, refining the assault plan with a renewed emphasis on speed and surprise. Aerial reconnaissance underlined the terrain, fortifications, and the disposition of Chinese forces, informing the selection of the Xiushui River crossing and the route of the main axis of attack. Okamura's decision to reorganize artillery and armor into concentrated tank groups, flanked by air support and advanced by long-range maneuver, marked a departure from the earlier method of distributing heavy weapons along the infantry front. Sumita Laishiro commanded the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, with more than 300 artillery pieces, while Hirokichi Ishii directed a force of 135 tanks and armored vehicles. This blended arms approach promised a breakthrough that would outpace the Chinese defenders and open routes for the main force. By mid-February 1939, Japanese preparations had taken on a high tempo. The 101st and 106th Divisions, along with attached artillery, assembled south of De'an, while tank contingents gathered north of De'an. The 6th Division began moving toward Ruoxi and Wuning, the Inoue Detachment took aim at the waterways of Poyang Lake, and the 16th and 9th Divisions conducted feints on the Han River's left bank. The orchestration of these movements—feints, riverine actions, and armored flanking, was designed to reduce the Chinese capacity to concentrate forces around Nanchang and to force the defenders into a less secure posture along the Nanchang–Jiujiang axis. Japan's southward strategy reframed the war: no longer a sprint to reduce Chinese forces in open fields, but a patient siege of lifelines, railways, and airbases. Hainan's seizure, the control of Nanchang's airfields, and the disruption of the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway exemplified a shift from large-scale battles to coercive pressure that sought to cripple Nationalist mobilization and erode Chongqing's capacity to sustain resistance. For China, the spring of 1939 underscored resilience amid mounting attrition. Chiang Kai-shek's insistence on offensive means to seize the initiative demonstrated strategic audacity, even as shortages and uneven training slowed tempo. The Ninth War Zone's defense, bolstered by makeshift airpower from Soviet and Allied lendings, kept open critical corridors and delayed Japan's consolidation. The war's human cost—massive casualties, forced labor, and the Li uprising on Hainan—illuminates the brutality that fueled both sides' resolve. In retrospect, the period around Canton, Wuhan, and Nanchang crystallizes a grim truth: the Sino-Japanese war was less a single crescendo of battles than a protracted contest of endurance, logistics, and political stamina. The early 1940s would widen these fault lines, but the groundwork laid in 1939, competition over supply routes, air control, and strategic rail nodes, would shape the war's pace and, ultimately, its outcome. The conflict's memory lies not only in the clashes' flash but in the stubborn persistence of a nation fighting to outlast a formidable adversary. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Japanese invasion of Hainan and proceeding operations to stop logistical leaks into Nationalist China, showcased the complexity and scale of the growing Second Sino-Japanese War. It would not merely be a war of territorial conquest, Japan would have to strangle the colossus using every means necessary.  

Born in Tustin, California, James Nestor spent his teens surfing and playing in a straight-edge punk band called Care Unit. After graduating high school, he moved to the Bay Area, where he studied art and literature and earned an MFA.  Nestor's professional life began as a copywriter. Soon he moved into magazine journalism. His essays and features have appeared in Outside, Scientific American, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Dwell, The Surfer's Journal, and many others. His 2014 book, DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves, follows clans of extreme athletes, adventurers, and scientists as they plumb the ocean's depths and uncover surprising new discoveries. But his big book is, of course, 2020's Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, which explores the million-year-long history of how we humans have lost the ability to breathe properly, and why we're suffering from various maladies because of it. Along with drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Nestor also found answers in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. In sum, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. Nestor has been a guest speaker at Stanford Medical School, Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, and the United Nations. He currently lives in Portugal.  In this episode of Soundings, Nestor talks with Jamie Brisick about the fundamentals of breathwork, Ocean Beach, growing up in Orange County, his early days as a reporter, the values of freediving, and writing books. Produced by Jonathan Shifflett. Music by PazKa (Aska Matsumiya & Paz Lenchantin).

John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate  On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Mr. Chavez & I sit down to discuss a classic of Cold War, Political Cinema, John Frankenheimer's groundbreaking 1962 The Manchurian Candidate. Based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon, Frankenheimer's film would captivate audiences with a paranoid and chilling story of American soldiers brain-washed by Soviet and North Korean intelligence agencies to act as hypnotized robots. There are aspects of the film that are certainly far-fetched, however the core of the story is very real and a credible warning in its depiction of national and international struggles for power. As always, Mr. Chavez & I look at the film in the broader context of the world it depicts. There is a great deal to discuss here as well as the comparison/contrast that we will undertake when we discuss Jonathan Demme's 2004 re-interpreation in our next episode. It's a fun and exciting talk concerning one of our favorite topics. Take a listen and let us know what you think. As always, we can be reached at gondoramos@yahoo.com - Our Continued Thanks.  For those of you who would like to donate to this undying labor of love, you can do so with a contribution at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/watchrickramos - Anything and Everything is appreciated, You Cheap Bastards.

Today I spoke with Anna Fishzon about her new book The Impossible Return - Psychoanalytic Reflections on Breast Cancer, Loss, and Mourning (Routledge, 2025). The Impossible Return is a hybrid work of cancer memoir, psychoanalytic theory, and Soviet history that explores the author's experience with breast cancer through the lens of mourning, loss, and identity. Fishzon weaves together her personal narrative of mastectomy and reconstruction with psychoanalytic concepts—particularly the uncanny, shame, and the impossibility of fully mourning what has been lost—while drawing connections to her late Soviet Ukrainian childhood and her deep engagement with opera. The book examines how the reconstructed breast becomes an uncanny double, how the prosthetic oscillates between absence and presence, and how cancer survivorship involves living with "scanxiety" and perpetual waiting. Through this autotheoretical approach, Fishzon explores broader questions about memory as scar tissue, the relationship between voice and embodiment, and what she calls the "terribly obscure utopian" work of psychoanalysis—asking the impossible of both analyst and patient, much like perestroika's call for reconstruction. The work treats cancer survival not as a triumph narrative but as an ongoing, repetitive process of attempting to mourn something that remains fundamentally unmournable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis

Today I spoke with Anna Fishzon about her new book The Impossible Return - Psychoanalytic Reflections on Breast Cancer, Loss, and Mourning (Routledge, 2025). The Impossible Return is a hybrid work of cancer memoir, psychoanalytic theory, and Soviet history that explores the author's experience with breast cancer through the lens of mourning, loss, and identity. Fishzon weaves together her personal narrative of mastectomy and reconstruction with psychoanalytic concepts—particularly the uncanny, shame, and the impossibility of fully mourning what has been lost—while drawing connections to her late Soviet Ukrainian childhood and her deep engagement with opera. The book examines how the reconstructed breast becomes an uncanny double, how the prosthetic oscillates between absence and presence, and how cancer survivorship involves living with "scanxiety" and perpetual waiting. Through this autotheoretical approach, Fishzon explores broader questions about memory as scar tissue, the relationship between voice and embodiment, and what she calls the "terribly obscure utopian" work of psychoanalysis—asking the impossible of both analyst and patient, much like perestroika's call for reconstruction. The work treats cancer survival not as a triumph narrative but as an ongoing, repetitive process of attempting to mourn something that remains fundamentally unmournable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This month, Nat, Cody, and Robert explore comedy in the Soviet world with 1986's KIN-DZA-DZA!. If that's not enough, we also take a look back at 2025 in movies. Our highs, our lows, trends, things we missed, and more. Time tracks: 0:00:00 - KIN-DZA-DZA! Discussion 0:43:26 - 2025 in Movies Discussion 1:07:29- Next Movie and Outro

1. Role of Popular Uprising Millions of Iranians are described as actively protesting against the ruling clerical regime. The movement is portrayed as organic, domestic, and secular, not Islamist or anti‑Western. Economic collapse is identified as the primary catalyst rather than a single political trigger. Protesters are framed as the legitimate engine of change, with the U.S. positioned as a supporter rather than the instigator. 2. Economic Collapse as a Destabilizer Hyperinflation and currency collapse (rial exceeding 1,000,000 to the dollar) have crippled daily life. Bazaar closures, labor strikes (notably in energy), and widespread shortages are presented as systemic stressors. Low global oil prices weaken Iran’s primary revenue source, limiting the regime’s ability to fund repression and foreign proxies. 3. U.S. Policy Contrast: Trump vs. Obama/Biden There is a sharp contrast between: Obama/Biden: Characterized as conciliatory, passive, and supportive of engagement (e.g., Iran nuclear deal). Trump: Portrayed as deterrence‑focused, confrontational, and openly supportive of regime change. Trump’s public endorsement of a “new government” in Iran is framed as unprecedented and strategically consequential. 4. Deterrence Without Occupation We reject a large‑scale military invasion. Instead, we support: Targeted military strikes (e.g., nuclear facilities, IRGC leadership) Covert operations Clear deterrent threats against mass repression The killing of Qasem Soleimani is highlighted as a key inflection point that shattered regime confidence. 5. Iran’s Strategic Weakness Iran’s air defenses and regional influence are described as severely degraded. Hezbollah, Hamas, and other proxies have been decapitated or weakened. The regime is increasingly isolated as allies (Venezuela, Syria, Russia) face their own crises. 6. Internal Regime Fractures The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is portrayed as a potential kingmaker or coup actor. The text suggests the IRGC: Controls vast economic assets Is deeply unpopular with the public May abandon the clerical leadership to preserve its own power A coup becomes likely if U.S. pressure and labor strikes converge. 7. Information Control and Fear Internet shutdowns and communication blackouts are signs of regime panic. Supreme Leader Khamenei fears internal reform more than outright confrontation, drawing parallels to Soviet collapse. 9. Broader Geopolitical Context Iran’s situation is linked to potential domino effects in Venezuela and Cuba. Energy independence and low oil prices are framed as key U.S. national security tools. The moment is compared to the fall of the Berlin Wall, suggesting a possible systemic collapse of authoritarian regimes without U.S. ground wars. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Troops in Cuba fear an attack is imminent, as alarm grows around the world. Fidel Castro urges Khrushchev to strike first. The Soviet premier warns President Kennedy, in a long and emotional letter, that “the knot of war” has been tied - soon "even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it”. This is the personal and political story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

Over his career as a journalist, reporting from mainly Afghanistan and Pakistan, Jere Van Dyk has worked for the New York Times and CBS News and has appeared widely as a commentator on international affairs. His also the author of several books. In 2008 Jere was captured and held by the Taliban, an experience that he wrote about in his fascinating book Captive, which received a Foreign Press Award in 2022. He is with us today to talk about his long experience in Afghanistan that began with  a trip he made as a young man. He recounts the friendship he developed with both Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, leaders of the famed Haqqani network; (allies of the United States during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan of the 1980s and later some of our fiercest enemies) the significance of the Durand line drawn by the British in 1893; and how all this relates to the current rise of Muslim nationalism. Heroes Behind HeadlinesExecutive Producer Ralph PezzulloProduced & Engineered by Mike DawsonMusic provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Trump & Putin - the despots at war with our worldIn this week's Lowdown, Nick Cohen talks to Professor Sam Greene - the Director of the Russia Institute at King's College London about Vladamir Putin and Donald Trump, and how about how much longer Russia can endure the continuing carnage and humiliation of its seemingly never ending aggression against Ukraine.What Putin intended to be a few days of Blitzkrieg in February 2022 will soon enter its fifth gruesome year and has already lasted longer than the so-called "Great Patriotic War" - which is how the Russians describe World War 2. That war led to more than 20 million Soviet Union deaths. The current slaughter is sending 1,000 Russian soldiers a week to the cemetery or the casualty ward.How much longer can Putin last? Sam Greene and Nick Cohen examine the resilience of Putin's corrupt authoritarian regime despite current challenges, analysing how the system maintains stability through widespread compliance and fear among citizens while retaining imperial assumptions about Russian dominance. They also discuss Russia's political future after Putin, considering the potential for authoritarian systems to evolve while maintaining control, and compare this to similar dynamics in the United States. Sam reveals that Putin has now equalled the number of political prisoners incarcerated by Cold War era Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.Putin and Trump - Parallels in Russia and USSam and Nick discuss the parallels between authoritarianism in Russia and the United States, focusing on how both regimes exert control through fear and compliance rather than direct force. Sam highlights the complacency of elites and institutions in the US noting how they accommodate the current administration's demands, similar to the Russian system where power is concentrated and opposition is silenced. They also touch on the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Russian oligarchs, which initially aimed to encourage a shift towards rule of law but ultimately failed as the oligarchs prioritised profit over safety. Their chat concludes with a reflection on the potential for political change, emphasising that authoritarian systems often change only after they have already begun to unravel.Read all about it!Professor Sam Greene @samagreene is Director of the Russia Institute @KingsRussia of King's College London. Sam has authored or co-authored two main books: "Moscow in Movement: Power & Opposition in Putin's Russia" (2014) and "Putin v. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia" (2019, co-authored with Graeme Robertson). Sam's Substack - TL;DRussia - is a must read for anyone wanting to keep up with events in Putin's Russia.Nick Cohen's @NichCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would you risk to escape a totalitarian state—and how long would you be willing to wait? In this gripping episode, Peter Kasl, author of Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism, tells the extraordinary true story of his family's escape from behind the Iron Curtain. Born into a country transformed by repression after the 1968 Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion, Peter grew up in a world of fear, surveillance, and whispered conversations. He recounts how his uncle's defection marked the entire family as enemies of the state, triggering interrogations, lost opportunities, and constant pressure to conform. As a child, Peter learned early what could—and could not—be said, even at school. Over 13 long years, his parents quietly and meticulously planned their escape, knowing that a single mistake could mean prison, separation, or worse. Peter describes the deception, the danger, and the emotional cost of leaving everything behind—family, home, and country—in a desperate bid for freedom. This is a powerful firsthand account of life under communism, the courage it takes to resist it, and the life-changing journey from oppression to opportunity. A story of fear, faith, resilience, and the pursuit of freedom—this is Cold War history told by someone who lived it Episode extras ⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode439 The fight to preserve Cold War history continues and via a simple monthly donation, you will give me the ammunition to continue to preserve Cold War history. You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, and get a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank you and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to ⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/⁠ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, We also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠ CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION Follow us on BlueSky ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social⁠ Follow us on Threads ⁠https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations⁠ Follow us on Twitter ⁠https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod⁠ Facebook ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/⁠ Instagram ⁠https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/⁠ Youtube ⁠https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=tindogpodcast&_pgn=1&isRefine=true&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l49496 Stranger Things Season 3 is set in the summer of 1985, focusing on the new Starcourt Mall in Hawkins, which becomes a hub for teens but hides a secret Soviet plot to reopen a gate to the Upside Down, with the Mind Flayer returning to possess townspeople, leading to massive battles, character shifts like Billy's transformation, Steve and Robin's new partnership, and ultimately Hopper's apparent sacrifice and the Byers family's departure with Eleven.

Video version on YouTube (with actual video this time - I fixed the lights)https://youtu.be/ArDauZSpDT8In this episode of The Eastern Border, we strip away the propaganda and look directly into the terminal necrosis of the Z-Empire. The "Geopolitical Greatness" has peeled off like cheap wallpaper, revealing the rot underneath.The Economic Suicide Note We start with the panic in the Kremlin's wallet. The US has seized a sixth Russian tanker, and the "Z-Patriots" are finally realizing that Donald Trump isn't their savior—he is their repo man. We read the latest dispatch from oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has penned what amounts to a suicide note for the Russian economy. He calls it "Perestroika-2." He warns of mass bankruptcy by June. He confirms that the "Sovereignty" they fought for is just a clearance sale for China.The Phantom Airforce We listen to Vladimir Baglaev, a Cherepovets factory director who sounds less like a captain of industry and more like a nihilist philosopher. He breaks down the Kremlin's plan to build "1,000 airplanes" by 2030 and reveals the funding gap is 99%. There are no planes. There are no machines. And, thanks to the war, there is no one left to build them.The Asylum of Lost Souls But if you think the economy is broken, wait until you see the minds. We tour the ideological asylum with Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, the retired GRU officer who wants to combine the Gulag with the Monastery into a "Russian Christian Socialist State."And finally, we witness the ultimate collapse of meaning. Alexander Dugin—the "Brain of the State"—has identified the true metaphysical enemy of Russia. It is not NATO. It is not the West. It is Cheburashka. Dugin has declared a holy war against the Soviet cartoon character, identifying him as a "Demon of the Moon" and a symbol of liberal post-humanism.The pipes are bursting. The factories are silent. And the philosophers are hunting cartoons. This isn't strategy. It is entropy. And entropy is undefeated.Stay warm, stay hard, and keep your powder dry.Links mentioned in this episode:❄️ Support the Show: Patreon

I have been selling direct to the consumer in the wine trade for over 35 years. The industry certainly is not what it was; in some ways, better, in other ways,  not so much. I've seen it all...well, at least most of it.  The month and year I started with the Original Wine of the Month Club, my father was featuring a Romanian wine; mind you, Romania was still under Soviet rule. In this episode, I speak with Dr. Marinella Ardelean, expert on Romanian wine. I have to tell you, having Marinella Ardelian on the show took me back, and not just because she reminded me that the first Romanian wine I ever sold—way back in 1989—was a $2.50 Sauvignon Blanc from a winery called Premiat. There's something poetic about opening an episode by unearthing an old newsletter my late father wrote about that wine, especially since it was the same month I joined the family business. Wine really does have a way of sharpening your memory. The nose, the flavor, even the price tag—they stick with you. The conversation started with that kind of serendipity, but Marinella Ardelian quickly brought us to the present. She's based in Venice, waves the flag for Romanian wine, and has this bright, unfussy way of making big topics feel accessible. I love guests like that—insightful without being pedantic, and uncannily good at weaving personal experience into global perspectives. Right off the bat, she fine-tuned the narrative: Romanian wine doesn't need to come "back" to the world stage, it needs to stand in the spotlight it deserves, shoulder to shoulder with France and Italy. I'll admit, I never would've guessed Romania is now in the top six worldwide for vineyard acreage—and domestically, folks there are still drinking 30 liters a year! Sure, the numbers dance around a bit, but the underlying story is about a country with real wine culture. We spent a little time reminiscing about the communist days, when the government controlled everything and Vinexport was king. But the part that struck me most was her clear-eyed take on why Romanian wine isn't chasing the bottom shelf in America. "Romanian wines are not cheap," Marinella Ardelian declared, and she meant it. With high domestic demand and only a sliver of production exported, those who do ship overseas bring quality, not just volume. She's keen on stories and education—Romanian wine, she said, needs context, not just curiosity. This segued beautifully into the broader question of how a wine region markets itself. Marinella Ardelian made a compelling case: you can't just sell the wine, you have to sell the country. Romanian wine, for her, is inseparable from Transylvanian castles, farm-to-table food, and the dramatic scenery. I found that refreshing. Too often, we get obsessed with varietals and forget there's a living culture behind every label. She also explained that since the fall of communism in 1989, a whole generation of winemakers has embraced indigenous grapes like Fetească Neagră—known as the "Black Maiden"—with all the finesse of Pinot Noir and the spice of Syrah. That's the kind of local color I live for. And with the second generation now taking the reins and forming actual cooperatives (something even Armenia, my ancestral homeland, struggles with), you can sense something big is building. Wine tourism, she told me, is finally taking off in Romania. Visitors can ride horses, hunt mushrooms, and sip estate wines in places that wouldn't be out of place in Bordeaux or Barolo. That's the future—experience, narrative, and authenticity. If there's a takeaway, it's that Romanian wine is at a crossroads, one foot in ancient soil, the other in the modern world. Marinella Ardelian has a vision for both—and I left our conversation convinced it's only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on. I can't wait to revisit this story in a few years and see how far it's come.   Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wine-in-romania-meet-the-expert-and-wine/id1462215436?i=1000647229708 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2kiWrgS5fH8p85I6iS6Gnp?si=McZCVWPEQ6W9T-3jfGGMCQ Wine Talks: https://www.winetalkspodcast.com/wine-in-romania-meet-the-expert-and-wine-comtessse-marinela-ardelean/  

A slow start, a full heart, and a clear plan. We kick off 2026 by resetting our modeling habits, sharpening the skills that matter most, and putting dates on the calendar to turn ideas into finished work. HeritageCon is pulling us forward, but it's the day-to-day that will make the difference: tighter bench time, better canopies, and bases that finish strong instead of phoning it in.One photo sent us down a rabbit hole—captured Soviet armor at Kummersdorf with mysterious inventory rectangles. We trace similar markings across other vehicles and share why the rectangle's color might be yellow, then ask armor specialists for hard provenance rather than AI guesses. That curiosity fuels the whole episode. The dojo keeps paying dividends, from canopy wax tips and stencil-cutter know-how to encouragement from modelers solving the same problems. We celebrate KitMask extending mojo30 for 30% off through HeritageCon and spotlight how small breaks in cost and friction can nudge more projects across the line.We lay out our goals for the year. Aircraft need spotless canopies—polished clear parts, confident masking, and frames that sit sharp and true. Speed is focus: fewer distractions, more finishes without losing joy. Armor projects get a base upgrade with cleaner edges, smarter terrain transitions, and groundwork that complements the model instead of competing with it. On the adjacent front, we commit to mastering a Cameo stencil cutter for crisp markings and layered paint effects, and we push to launch phase two of our website so the community can learn and share even more.On the bench, the Hellcat weathers the tiny-stencil storm, the Moosaroo rally build earns custom decals and a clever mixed-material interior, and the KV-85 stacks sub-assemblies toward primer. Our 2026 wish list is ambitious but grounded: MiniArt T-34/76 variants, a modern JSU-152, an early D3A1 Val, a 1/72 Privateer, and a 14-meter Daihatsu for Pacific dioramas. If you've got insight on Kummersdorf markings or a kit rumor we should track, jump in. Subscribe, share the show with a modeling friend, and leave a quick review—then tell us your top skill goal for 2026.SQUADRON Adding to the stash since 1968Model Paint SolutionsYour source for Harder & Steenbeck Airbrushes and David Union Power ToolsModel PodcastsPlease check out the other pods in the modelsphere!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Give us your Feedback!Rate the Show!Support the Show!PatreonBuy Me a BeerPaypalBump Riffs Graciously Provided by Ed BarothAd Reads Generously Provided by Bob "The Voice of Bob" BairMike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.

In the winter of 1959, nine experienced Soviet hikers vanished in the Ural Mountains—and what rescuers later found defied logic. Their tent had been cut open from the inside, their bodies lay scattered barefoot across the snow, and several suffered catastrophic injuries with no clear cause. In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, Carter Roy explores the chilling discovery at Dyatlov Pass, the Soviet investigation that blamed an “insurmountable force of nature,” and the decades of theories that followed—from secret military tests and UFO sightings to avalanches and infrasound-induced panic. More than 60 years later, the question remains: what really drove these hikers into the frozen night? If you're new here, don't forget to follow Murder True Crime Stories to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios

Throwback Files: Dyatlov Pass Incident | Paranormal Podcast It's time for another throwback Thursday! On this month's Throwback Files, we revisit the very mysterious Dyatlov Pass Incident. About the Dyatlov Pass Incident In February 1959, nine experienced Soviet hikers died under mysterious circumstances in the Ural Mountains after cutting their way out of their tent and fleeing into extreme cold. Six died from hypothermia while three suffered severe traumatic injuries including skull damage and chest fractures, with some bodies found months later showing unusual soft tissue damage. The original Soviet investigation concluded a "compelling natural force" caused the deaths, leading to decades of speculation about causes ranging from avalanches to military tests to paranormal phenomena. Russian authorities reopened the case in 2019 and concluded in 2020 that a slab avalanche likely forced the group to evacuate their tent in panic, leading to their deaths from hypothermia and injuries sustained during their desperate attempt to survive. Recent scientific studies have supported the avalanche theory, though the incident remains one of the most enduring mysteries in mountaineering history.

When two friends step into “Eighties World” for a day of hairspray and synth-pop, they discover that behind the colorful facade of their favorite decade lies a brutal historical reality—and a rogue army of Soviet robots determined to ensure they never reach the Nineties.If you have a story you'd like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They want you to be passive and quiet. But history tells a different story. We're joined by award-winning comic creator Ben Passmore, author of Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance, to dig into the stories that history books, and Hollywood, whitewash: De-sanitizing Resistance: We discuss how films and media often strip away the political intellect of figures like the Black Liberation Army, reducing revolutionary struggle to nihilism. Community as Armor: Ben puts the focus on true resistance as mutual aid. From the Jane Collective organizing healthcare, to prisoners organizing even from solitary confinement, the most radical act is building a culture of care. The Trap of Online Activism: In an age of surveillance capitalism, Ben warns that we must move beyond the "power fantasy" of social media. Real solidarity happens offline, face-to-face, building trust that algorithms can't suppress. As MAGA's Supreme Leader expands the surveillance state through Peter Thiel's Big Brother Palantir and unleashes a KKK gestapo through ICE, we must learn from unfiltered history and understand what it actually takes to survive. January 15th is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Civil Rights movement ushered in the Third American Revolution, defeating the authoritarianism of Jim Crow, which John Roberts' Supreme Court is bringing back. Listen to our episode on Stride Toward Freedom, the memoir by a young MLK Jr. after he captured the world's attention leading the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. For more on resistance strategies, listen to our episode on Gene Sharp, author of From Dictatorship to Democracy, and our interview with his protege Jamila Raqib, the executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution: Fire in Our Peace: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance.   Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Discounted annual memberships are available. Become a Democracy Defender at Patreon.com/Gaslit Show Notes:  Watch: A sobbing mother calls 911 as federal agents force their way into her home to chase down a DoorDash driver who was just trying to deliver food. https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/1q8vvwa/st_paul_mn_a_sobbing_resident_calls_911_as/?sort=old Trump Taps Palantir to Build a "Big Brother": How the administration is partnering with Peter Thiel's tech giant to monitor Americans. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html ACLU Investigates Police Use of Flock License Plate Surveillance: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/flock-roundup Project 2025 Tracker: Monitoring the conservative policy blueprint and authoritarian roadmap. https://www.project2025.observer/en Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators: A guide on how to target the businesses fueling the deportation machine. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/ice-businesses-boycott-campaign/?fbclid=IwY2xjawPR1kdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEezKLIFd9EZUL6g5uRoGAhj6cAItrut7MjpF8RislyssfXbo-V_-dZNqW2Fw4_aem_f4IvbocKBVROoBGqO-V_Kg Prairieland Defendants: Legal support and mutual aid for protesters. https://prairielanddefendants.com/ Police Accountability and Reform: An activist checklist for demanding transparency. https://activistchecklist.org/police/ The Singing Revolution: How music helped liberate the Baltic States from Soviet occupation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Revolution Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776): The full text of the pamphlet that sparked a revolution. https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1776ThomasPaine.pdf "The Voice of Dust and Ash": A documentary film on resistance and silence. https://vimeo.com/753111135?fl=pl&fe=cm Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism. https://share.google/t85l3THA4XfvEEbNo Whistleblower drops 'largest ever' ICE leak to unmask agents: 'The last straw' https://www.rawstory.com/ice-agents-data-leak/ Review: 'One Battle After Another,' What Black Women Call Life https://blacknerdproblems.com/review-one-battle-after-another/ EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: The Gaslit Nation Outreach Committee discusses how to talk to the MAGA cult: join on Patreon.  Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other:join on Patreon.  Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other:join on Patreon.  Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, join on Patreon.  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join,join on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, join on Patreon.  Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community

The official 2025 Claims Conference report claims that 220,800 survivors of the "Jewish-Holocaust" are still alive today, with 50% living in Israel and 16% living in the U.S. This number is a massive increase from years previous where it was reported to have been 100,000 in 2016 before jumping to 245,000 in 2020. Yad Vashem also published their findings of 5 million murdered Jews in late 2025, noting that AI and algorithms can help discover the remaining million. They state that 2.8 million are recorded by Pages of Testimony, which require no evidence or even documentation, and can include people not even murdered. Likewise, the increasing number of victims is a result of similar adjustments to assumed facts, i.e., anyone can be a "survivor," including people born after the war according to the Claims Conference. Yad Vashem also admits, "there is no document in our possession that indicates specifically by whom, at what time, and in what way it was decided to embark on the total extermination of the Jews," and provides a transcript of the Wannsee Conference where the Germans discuss the Final Solution as being an emigration plan involving work and transit facilities.  *The is the FREE archive, which includes advertisements. If you want an ad-free experience, you can subscribe below underneath the show description.WEBSITEFREE ARCHIVE (w. ads)SUBSCRIPTION ARCHIVE-X / TWITTERFACEBOOKINSTAGRAMYOUTUBERUMBLE-BUY ME A COFFEECashApp: $rdgable PAYPAL: rdgable1991@gmail.comRyan's Books: https://thesecretteachings.info- EMAIL: rdgable@yahoo.com / rdgable1991@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-secret-teachings--5328407/support.

On Sunday night, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell took the extraordinary step of issuing a video saying he is being threatened with a criminal indictment because the Fed failed to follow "the preferences of the President." Today on the show, Katie Martin and Rob Armstrong ask if the Fed can survive a Soviet-style smear campaign and legal attack. Also they go long print and long Are You Dead?, an app for checking if you're dead or not.For a free 30-day trial to the Unhedged newsletter go to: https://www.ft.com/unhedgedoffer.You can email Robert Armstrong and Katie Martin at unhedged@ft.com.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:In the second part of our deep dive into the origins of the Soviet famine, Nick continues his exploration of 1928-1929, the critical years that sealed the fate of the Russian peasantry.Drawing again on Robert Conquest's The Harvest of Sorrow, we examine how Stalin's "emergency measures"—intended to be temporary—became a permanent war on the countryside. Why did the Bolsheviks believe that the "middle peasant" was a capitalist hoarder? How did the regime's reliance on bad data lead to a spiral of confiscation and violence that destroyed the incentives to produce food?We uncover the tragic logic of a state that viewed market mechanisms as a threat and chose instead to loot its own people, setting the stage for the catastrophic famine of the early 1930s.Plus: A reminder for history students! Tickets are selling fast for our Russian Revolution Masterclass on Sunday, January 25th. Book your spot now to master exam technique and essay structure.Key Topics:The Emergency Measures of 1928: How temporary requisitioning became permanent policy.The Destruction of the Market: Why peasants stopped producing grain once the state began seizing it.Stalin's "Breathtaking Frankness": Admitting that the "tribute" levied on peasants was necessary for industrialization.The Myth of Hoarding: How the regime chased a phantom surplus that didn't exist.Books Mentioned:The Harvest of Sorrow by Robert ConquestBloodlands by Timothy SnyderExplaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In The Price of Truth: The Journalist Who Defied Military Censors to Report the Fall of Nazi Germany (Cornell, 2023), Richard Fine recounts the intense drama surrounding the German surrender at the end of World War II and the veteran Associated Press journalist Edward Kennedy's controversial scoop. On May 7, 1945, Kennedy bypassed military censorship to be the first to break the news of the Nazi surrender executed in Reims, France. Both the practice and the public perception of wartime reporting would never be the same. While, at the behest of Soviet leaders, Allied authorities prohibited release of the story, Kennedy stuck to his journalistic principles and refused to manage information he believed the world had a right to know. No action by an American correspondent during the war proved more controversial. The Paris press corps was furious at what it took to be Kennedy's unethical betrayal; military authorities threatened court-martial before expelling him from Europe. Kennedy defended himself, insisting the news was being withheld for suspect political reasons unrelated to military security. After prolonged national debate, when the dust settled, Kennedy's career was in ruins. This story of Kennedy's surrender dispatch and the meddling by Allied Command, which was already being called a fiasco in May 1945, revises what we know about media-military relations. Discarding “Good War” nostalgia, Fine challenges the accepted view that relations between the media and the military were amicable during World War II and only later ran off the rails during the Vietnam War. The Price of Truth reveals one of the earliest chapters of tension between reporters committed to informing the public and generals tasked with managing a war. Dr. Andrew O. Pace is a historian of the US in the world who specializes in the fog of war. He is currently a DPAA Research Partner Fellow at the University of Southern Mississippi and a co-host of the Diplomatic History Channel on the New Books Network. He is also working on his first book manuscript which explains why the United States pursued victory at practically all costs in World War II. He can be reached at andrew.pace@usm.edu or here. Andrew is not an employee of DPAA, he supports DPAA through a partnership. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DPAA, DoD or its components.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In The Price of Truth: The Journalist Who Defied Military Censors to Report the Fall of Nazi Germany (Cornell, 2023), Richard Fine recounts the intense drama surrounding the German surrender at the end of World War II and the veteran Associated Press journalist Edward Kennedy's controversial scoop. On May 7, 1945, Kennedy bypassed military censorship to be the first to break the news of the Nazi surrender executed in Reims, France. Both the practice and the public perception of wartime reporting would never be the same. While, at the behest of Soviet leaders, Allied authorities prohibited release of the story, Kennedy stuck to his journalistic principles and refused to manage information he believed the world had a right to know. No action by an American correspondent during the war proved more controversial. The Paris press corps was furious at what it took to be Kennedy's unethical betrayal; military authorities threatened court-martial before expelling him from Europe. Kennedy defended himself, insisting the news was being withheld for suspect political reasons unrelated to military security. After prolonged national debate, when the dust settled, Kennedy's career was in ruins. This story of Kennedy's surrender dispatch and the meddling by Allied Command, which was already being called a fiasco in May 1945, revises what we know about media-military relations. Discarding “Good War” nostalgia, Fine challenges the accepted view that relations between the media and the military were amicable during World War II and only later ran off the rails during the Vietnam War. The Price of Truth reveals one of the earliest chapters of tension between reporters committed to informing the public and generals tasked with managing a war. Dr. Andrew O. Pace is a historian of the US in the world who specializes in the fog of war. He is currently a DPAA Research Partner Fellow at the University of Southern Mississippi and a co-host of the Diplomatic History Channel on the New Books Network. He is also working on his first book manuscript which explains why the United States pursued victory at practically all costs in World War II. He can be reached at andrew.pace@usm.edu or here. Andrew is not an employee of DPAA, he supports DPAA through a partnership. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DPAA, DoD or its components.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Thirty-six years after he was arrested and convicted, the most successful double-agent to ever work inside the Central Intelligence Agency died this week at the Federal Correctional Institution at Cumberland, Maryland. From 1985, when he began selling secrets to the Soviet Union, Aldrich Hazen Ames compromised over 100 CIA operations, enabled the execution of ten high-level sources, and helped plant disinformation which made its way to three United States presidents. An official investigation concluded he “caused more damage to the national security of the United States than any spy in the history of the CIA.” watch @praveenswami explains in @theprintindia #Explorer the most important lesson of the Ames case—which is how easy it was for him to get away with it. Like all bureaucracies, intelligence services—even the best ones—tend to be mired in process and procedure.

1. Current Situation in Iran Over one million Iranians are protesting against the regime in major cities. The Iranian leadership has shut down the internet, phones, and media to suppress information and maintain control. Protesters are risking their lives; acts of defiance include burning hijabs and removing religious coverings in public. 2. Historical Context References to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the U.S. hostage crisis (444 days). Comparison of Jimmy Carter’s weak foreign policy to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, arguing that weakness emboldens adversaries. Contrast with Ronald Reagan’s strong stance, which led to the release of hostages and eventual Soviet collapse. 3. Iran’s Role in Global Terrorism Iran funds over 90% of Hamas and Hezbollah budgets. Responsible for IED attacks and the deaths of 593+ American service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran manufactures drones used by Russia in Ukraine. Allegations that Iran plotted to assassinate Donald Trump. 4. U.S. Foreign Policy and Leadership Strong emphasis on “Peace through Strength” as advocated by Reagan and Trump. Trump’s recent actions (e.g., military strikes, bunker-buster bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities) portrayed as decisive. Trump’s public message: “Iran is looking at freedom… USA stands ready to help.” 5. Why Regime Change Matters The fall of Iran’s regime would be transformational for Middle East stability and U.S. security. Advocates for regime change without boots on the ground, using diplomatic, economic, and informational support. Compares potential Iranian revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. 6. Role of Media and Messaging Iranian state TV is allegedly broadcasting Tucker Carlson interviews in Persian as propaganda. Criticism of voices opposing U.S. involvement or promoting isolationism. Emphasis on using platforms like podcasts and Starlink internet access to reach Iranians and encourage freedom. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SOVIET SUBJUGATION, FAMINE, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF INDEPENDENCE Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. Following the empire's collapse, Ukrainians attempted to form independent states (UNR and ZUNR), but these failed due to internal weakness and external aggression from Bolsheviks and Poles. Finkel describes the subsequent Soviet era, highlighting the Holodomor—a purposeful famine engineered by Stalin in the early 1930s to break Ukrainian resistance and extract grain for industrialization, killing millions. This brutality left Ukraine decimated before World War II, where it became a battleground for Hitler and Stalin. The Soviet victory reinforced the myth that controlling Ukraine was essential for Moscow's security and economy. NUMBER 31913 UKRAINE

KHRUSHCHEV, CRIMEA, AND THE MYTH OF THE SOVIET FLORIDA Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. The discussion turns to Nikita Khrushchev, who transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 for practical logistical reasons, a decision Putin now contests. Finkel explains that during the 1960s, Ukraine became a manufacturing hub for Sovietmissiles and a "Soviet Florida" for vacations, cementing a romanticized Russian attachment to the region. For Putin'sgeneration, Ukraine is viewed not as a separate state but as an extension of Russia—a place of summer holidays and shared history. This deep-seated perception fuels the refusal to accept Ukrainian independence and the belief that the territory belongs to Moscow. NUMBER 41927 KYIV

President Kennedy sends shockwaves around the world with a televised speech to the nation. He imposes a blockade on all ships bound for Cuba - Premier Khrushchev brands it “an act of piracy”. But he knows that hidden in a tiny Cuban port, there's a Soviet ship laden with unimaginable destructive power. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Last time we spoke about the climax of the battle of Changkufeng. A 7–10 August clash near Changkufeng and Hill 52 saw a brutal, multi-front Soviet push against Japanese positions in the Changkufeng–Hill 52 complex and adjacent areas. The Korea Army and Imperial forces rapidly reinforced with artillery, long-range 15 cm and other pieces, to relieve pressure. By 7–8 August, Soviet assault waves, supported by tanks and aircraft, intensified but Japanese defenses, including engineers, machine-gun fire, and concentrated artillery, prevented a decisive breakthrough at key positions like Noguchi Hill and the Changkufeng spine.  By 9–10 August, continued Japanese counterfire, improved artillery neutralization, and renewed defenses kept Hill 52 and Changkufeng in Japanese control, though at heavy cost. The frontline exhaustion and looming strategic concerns prompted calls for intensified replacements and potential diplomatic considerations. It seemed like the battle was coming to an end.   #184 The Lake Khasan Truce Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The casualties were atrocious for both sides, yet they continued to mobilize more forces to the conflict area. While the Russians appeared uninterested in all-out war, they were not rushing to settle the crisis through diplomacy and, at the front, were launching "reckless" counterattacks at inconvenient locations, presumably to occupy positions useful for bargaining. The local Soviet military, having ceded the hills at the outset, must also have been anxious about its prestige. The Kwantung Army's potential threat to the flank undoubtedly made the Russians nervous. Although the leading echelon of the 104th Division did not reach Hunchun until the evening of 13 August, Japanese intelligence heard that the Red Army Headquarters staff at Khabarovsk had detected movements of Kwantung Army elements around 10 August and had been compelled to take countermeasures: they reinforced positions along the eastern and northern Manchurian frontiers, concentrated the air force, ordered move-up preparations by ground forces in the Blagoveshchensk district, and commandeered most of the motor vehicles in the Amur Province. By shifting its main strength to the eastern front, the Kwantung Army exerted, as intended, a silent pressure. The covert objective was to restrain and divert the Russians and to assist Japanese diplomacy, not to provoke war. Nevertheless, an American correspondent who visited the Changkufeng area in mid-August privately reported that the Kwantung Army was massing large numbers of troops near the border and expected further trouble.  Toward its weak neighbor in Korea the Kwantung Army rendered every support. Apart from its major demonstration in eastern Manchuria, the Kwantung Army promptly sent whatever reinforcements of artillery, engineers, and other units that Seoul had desired. Being also intimately involved in anti-Soviet military preparations, the Kwantung Army understandably wanted the latest and most authentic information on Russian Army theory and practice. The Changkufeng Incident furnished such a firsthand opportunity, and the professional observers sent from Hsinking were well received at the front. Military classmate ties contributed to the working relationships between the armies. As one division officer put it, the teams from the Kwantung Army came as "friends," not only to study the battlefield by their respective branches of service but also to assist the front-line forces; "the Kwantung Army was increasingly helpful to us in settling the incident." Foreign Minister Ugaki felt that the pressure of troop movements in Manchuria played a major part in the Russians' eventual decision to conclude a cease-fire. From Inada's viewpoint, it had been a "fine and useful demonstration against the Soviet Union." Pinned at Changkufeng, the Russians did not or could not choose to react elsewhere, too. Army General Staff officers believed that clear and consistent operational guidance furnished by Tokyo produced good results, although the fighting had been very hard for the front-line Japanese troops because of the insistence on exclusive defense, the curbs on interference by the Kwantung Army, and the prohibition on the use of aircraft. It had been close, however. Only by conscious efforts at restraint had the small war at Changkufeng been kept from spilling over into neighboring areas. Escalation of combat in early August had caused the Japanese government to try to break the diplomatic impasse while localizing the conflict. On 2 August Premier Konoe assured the Emperor that he intended to leave matters for diplomacy and to suspend military operations as soon as possible, an approach with which the government concurred. The Changkufeng dispute had been accorded priority, preceding overall settlements and the creation of joint commissions to redefine the borders. On the 3rd, after coordinating with the military, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised Shigemitsu that the front-line situation had become "extremely critical" and that a quick suspension of fighting action should be proposed. Soviet and Japanese troops should be pulled back to the setup as of 30 July.  In the midst of the Changkufeng Incident, the USSR intensified harassing tactics against the last Japanese consulates located within the Soviet Union. Forty-eight hour ultimatums to quit the country were delivered to the consuls at Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk on 3 and 4 August, respectively. Although the Japanese government warned that it might retaliate, the Russians were unyielding. The foreign ambassadors, Mamoru Shigemitsu and Maxim Litvinov met on August 4th, whereupon Shigemitsu argued, the best procedure would be to suspend military operations on both sides and to restore the status quo. Litvinov in a long manner explained the stance of the USSR as Shigemitsu put it "the Soviet side had a disposition to cease fighting, provided that conditions were satisfactory."  The Russians were stalling at the very time the Red Army was bending every effort to retake Changkufeng. Coordination between the Army, Navy, and Foreign Ministers produced cease-fire conditions which were rushed to the Japanese ambassador on 6 August. Two alternate lines were proposed, to which both armies would pull back. After the creation of a buffer zone, discussions could begin concerning delineation of boundaries in the region of the incident. The Hunchun pact could be the basis for deliberations, demarcation to be effected by joint investigations on the spot in consultation with documents in the possession of Manchukuo and the USSR; the Japanese would serve only as observers. Shigemitsu conferred once more with Litvinov for three and a half hours on 7 August, but no progress was made. Litvinov insisted that a clash could be averted only if Japanese forces pulled However Litvinov's positive reaction to the idea of a demarcation commission was seen as a good sign.  On August the 10th, both sides seemed to have reached a similar conclusion that a cease-fire needed to rapidly be implemented. At 11pm that night Litvinov called the embassy, asking for Shigemitus to see him as fast as possible. Shigemitsu arrived around midnight whereupon Litvinov showed him a draft of a final accord: 1. Japanese and Soviet forces shall cease all military activities on 11 August at noon local time. Instructions to that effect are to be issued immediately by the governments of the USSR and Japan.  2. Japanese as well as Soviet troops shall remain on those lines which they occupied at midnight local time on 10 August.  3. For redemarcation of the portion of frontier in dispute, there shall be created a mixed commission of two representatives from the USSR and two representatives from the Japanese-Manchurian side, with an umpire selected by agreement of both parties from among citizens of a third state.  4. The commission for redemarcation shall work on the basis of agreements and maps bearing the signatures of plenipotentiary representatives of Russia and China. Shigemitsu agreed to the inclusion of a Japanese commissioner on the Manchukuoan delegation, but he could not assent to the addition of a neutral umpire. Moscow received the news of the truce with gratification mingled with surprise. Few realized that the USSR had taken the step of appeasing or at least saving face for the Japanese even after Shigemitsu had pleaded for and won a cease-fire. The world was told by the Russians only that specific overtures for cessation of hostilities had originated with the Soviet authorities. In general, it was not difficult to guess why the Russian government, distracted by the European political scene and apprehensive about a two-front war, agreed to a cease-fire at Changkufeng.  The slowness of communication across the many miles between Moscow and Tokyo did nothing to alleviate nervousness in the Japanese capital during the night of 10–11 August. Ugaki wrote in his diary that, "after ten days of tension, the struggle between the Japanese and Soviet armies on the USSR–Manchukuo border had reached the decisive brink". Complicating the situation was the fact that, late on 10 August, the president of Domei News Agency conveyed to Konoe a message from one of his Moscow correspondents. Purporting to sum up Shigemitsu's latest outlook, the report stated that success in the negotiations seemed unlikely. The contents of the message were transmitted to Ugaki and Itagaki. Consequently, Konoe and his associates spent a fearful and depressed night. Shigemitsu's own report, sent by telegram, arrived frustratingly slowly.  After definite information had been received from Shigemitsu, Harada happily called Kazami Akira, the prime minister's chief secretary, and Konoe himself. "Until the accord was implemented," Kazami had said, "we would have to be on the alert all day today." Konoe and Kazami seemed "a little relaxed anyhow." Inada had finally retired past midnight on 10–11 August, "agreement or no agreement. I must have been dozing from fatigue when the jangle of the phone got me up. It was a message saying that a truce had been concluded the preceding midnight. Just as I had been expecting, I said to myself, but I felt empty inside, as if it were an anticlimax." The call had to have been an unofficial communication, perhaps the latest Domei news, since the records showed that definitive word from the embassy in Moscow did not reach Tokyo until after 10:00. Attache Doi's report to the Army General Staff came at about 11:00. This was extremely late in terms of getting Japanese troops to cease operations at 13:00 Tokyo time (or noon on the spot); a tardy imperial order might undo the Moscow accord. Complicating this matter of split-second timing was the fact that the first official telegram from Shigemitsu referred to unilateral Japanese withdrawal by one kilometer. At the Japanese high command level, there was agitated discussion when initial word of these arrangements arrived. Inada speculated that on 10 August the Russians had staged persistent close-quarter assaults against Changkufeng and seized the southern edge eventually, although repulsed at all other points. Moscow may have agreed to a truce at that midnight because they expected that the crest of Changkufeng would be in their hands by then and that a fait accompli would have been achieved. Some officers argued that the Russian forces were suffering "quite badly and this caused the authorities' agreeability to a cease-fire." Most exasperating, however, was the provision stipulating a one-sided military withdrawal. Admittedly, such action had been under discussion by the Army General Staff itself, particularly after Terada's sobering appeal of 10 August. It was another matter to have a Japanese withdrawal dictated by the USSR while Russian troops did not have to budge. Initial puzzlement and chagrin began to yield to rationalization. The Japanese side seemed to have made a concession in the negotiations, but there must have been significance to the phrase which said, "the line occupied by Japanese forces has been taken into due consideration." Japanese troops had presumably advanced to the edge of the frontier, while Russian soldiers had not come even close. Thus, it must have been necessary to have the Japanese units withdraw first, to fix the boundaries, since it had been the Japanese who had done the greater advancing. One Japanese office remarked "A pull-back was a pull-back, no matter how you looked at things—and we were the ones who had to do it. But the atmosphere in the command had been far from optimistic on 10 August; so we decided that it was unnecessary to complain about this issue and we approved the agreement in general. Both the senior and junior staff levels seemed to be quite relieved." The 11th of August had been an awkward day to conduct liaison between the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the Throne, since the Emperor was leaving Hayama to visit naval installations in the Yokosuka area and the navy air unit in Chiba from morning. By the time a conclusive report on the cease-fire could be conveyed to the monarch, he was aboard the destroyer Natsugumo at Kisarazu. Naval wireless facilities in Tokyo had to be used to transmit coded messages to Admiral Yonai, the Navy Minister, for delivery to the Emperor. This was done shortly before 14:45 According to Yonai, the Emperor "was very pleased and relieved when I reported to him… about the conclusion of the truce accord." The appropriate Imperial order was approved promptly. But not until 15:00, two hours after cease-fire time at Changkufeng, did word of Imperial sanction reach the high command.  Japanese soldiers in the lines recalled nothing special on 11 August. "We didn't hear about the truce till the last minute," said one, "and we had become so inured to enemy artillery we hardly noticed any 'last salute.' From Tokyo, on 11 August, it was reported that the Japanese side had suspended operations promptly at noon, as agreed, but that sporadic bursts of fire had continued to come from the Soviet side. Colonel Grebennik, when asked after the war whether the combat did end at noon, replied petulantly: "Yes, but not quite so. The fighting actually ceased at 12:05." According to him, the tardiness was the Japanese side's fault.  The Japanese press told readers that "the cease-fire bugle has sounded—the frontier is cheerful now, 14 days after the shooting began." All was quiet in the area of Changkufeng, where the sounds of firing ceased at noon "as if erased." The most intense period of stillness lasted only a few minutes and was followed by the excited chattering of soldiers, audible on both sides. Korea Army Headquarters spoke of the "lifting of dark clouds [and] return of the rays of peace." In Hongui, a Japanese combat officer told a Japanese correspondent: "Suddenly we noticed the insects making noise; the soldiers were delighted. Once the fighting stopped, Japanese national flags were hoisted here and there along our front. … After the Russians observed what we had done, they broke out red flags also, at various points in their trenches." Some Japanese soldiers were given cookies by Soviet medical corpsmen. At Hill 52, an infantryman remembered, the Japanese and the Russians were facing each other, 50 meters apart, that afternoon. "We just lay there and stared at each other for two hours, waiting grimly. But it was well past cease-fire now, and those same Russians finally started to wave at us. Later that day, when Soviet troops came to salvage their KO'd tanks, we 'chatted' in sign language." After the cease-fire, Ichimoto, whose battalion had seen the most difficult fighting, stuck his head above the trench and waved hello to some Soviet officers. "They waved back. It gave me an odd sensation, for during the furious struggle I had considered them to be barbarians. Now I was surprised to see that they were civilized after all!" A rifleman at Changkufeng remembered swapping watches with an unarmed Russian across the peak. The Japanese front-line troops stayed in their positions confronting the Russians and conducted preparations for further combat while cleaning up the battlefield. Soviet troops also remained deployed as of the time of the cease-fire and vigorously carried out their own construction. The day after the cease-fire went into effect, Suetaka escorted an American reporter to the front. At Changkufeng:  "carpenters were making wooden receptacles for the ashes of the Japanese dead. Funeral pyres still were smoldering. . . . From our vantage point the lieutenant general pointed out long lines of Soviet trucks coming up in clouds of dust [which] apparently were made deliberately in an effort to conceal the trucks' movements, [probably designed] to haul supplies from the front. Soviet boats were pushing across [Khasan] . . . and Soviet soldiers were towing smashed tanks back from no-man'sland. On the Japanese side there was a pronounced holiday spirit. Soldiers, emerging from dugouts, were drying white undershirts on near-by brush and bathing in the Tumen River. The soldiers were laughing heartily. A few were trying to ride a Korean donkey near Changkufeng's scarred slope. The general pointed out three Soviet tanks behind the Japanese advance lines east of Changkufeng. He said the Russians had hauled back seventy others [on the night of 11 August]. . . . The writer was shown a barbed wire fence immediately behind a wrecked village on the west slope of Changkufeng which the general said the Soviet troops built at the beginning of the fighting. Possiet Bay also was pointed out, clearly visible across the swamp." Soviet losses for what became known as the battle of Lake Khasan for the Russians and the Changkufeng incident for the Japanese, totaled 792 killed or missing and 3,279 wounded or sick, according to Soviet records. The Japanese claimed to have destroyed or immobilized 96 enemy tanks and 30 guns. Soviet armored losses were significant, with dozens of tanks knocked out or destroyed and hundreds of "tank troops" becoming casualties. Japanese casualties, as revealed by secret Army General Staff statistics, were 1,439 casualties, 526 killed or missing, 913 wounded; the Soviets claimed Japanese losses of 3,100, with 600 killed and 2,500 wounded. The Soviets concluded that these losses were due in part to poor communications infrastructure and roads, as well as the loss of unit coherence caused by weak organization, headquarters, commanders, and a lack of combat-support units. The faults in the Soviet army and leadership at Khasan were blamed on the incompetence of Blyukher. In addition to leading the troops into action at Khasan, Blyukher was also supposed to oversee the trans-Baikal Military District's and the Far Eastern fronts' move to combat readiness, using an administrative apparatus that delivered army group, army, and corps-level instructions to the 40th Rifle Division by accident. On 22 October, he was arrested by the NKVD and is thought to have been tortured to death. At 15:35 on 11 August, in the Hill 52 sector, high-ranking military delegates bearing a white flag emerged from the Soviet lines and proceeded to Akahage Hill, about 100 meters from the Japanese positions. Cho, as right sector chief, was notified. He sent three lieutenants to converse with the Russians; they learned that the Soviets wanted the Japanese to designate a time and place for a conference. This word was conveyed to Suetaka, who had already dispatched Lieutenant Kozuki to the heights east of Shachaofeng to contact the Russians. Around 4:20, the commander canceled Kozuki's mission and instructed Cho to reply that the delegation ought to convene near the peak of Changkufeng at 18:00 Cho set out promptly with several subordinates; they reached the Changkufeng crest a little before 6. The Russians then said they wanted to meet the Japanese near the Crestline southeast of Changkufeng, the excuse being that the peak was too far for them to go and that they could not arrive by the designated time. Cho took his team to the location requested by the Russians. There, the Japanese found 13 Soviet soldiers and a heavy machine gun on guard, but the Russian delegates had not arrived, although it was 6:18. The irked Japanese clocked a further delay of two minutes before the Russian truce chief, Gen. Grigory M. Shtern, rode up on horseback with a party of eight. Both delegations saluted, the chiefs and team members identified themselves, and all shook hands. The Soviet team was made up of Corps General 3rd rank Shtern, 38, chief of staff, Far East area army; Brigade Commissar Semenovsky political major general, 37 or 38; Colonel Fedotev, 42; and Major Wabilev, about 30. Interpreting for the Russians was Alexei Kim. In Colonel Cho's opinion, "It was always necessary to take the initiative in dealing with the Soviets. So, even in such matters as shaking hands or conversing, he always did things first." During the exchange of greetings, Cho teased Shtern about his bandaged forehead. "A Japanese artillery shell got you, didn't it?" he asked. But Cho began formal discussions on a more dignified note: "Cho: It is very much to be regretted that the Japanese and Soviet armies had to get involved in combat around Changkufeng. Nevertheless, I laud the consummation of the Mos­cow accord on the part of both governments. And, I must say, your forces were quite brave and patriotic. Shtern: I agree with you. The Japanese Army, too, was courageous and strong." Negotiations would go on at the local level and diplomatic level for many days. In Tokyo, on the morning of 13 August, Ugaki had gone to the Meiji shrine to "report" on the cease-fire and to express his gratitude. At 10:00, when received in Imperial audience, he discussed the Changkufeng Incident. "I humbly regret to have troubled Your Majesty so unduly in connection with an unimportant affair on the Soviet-Manchurian frontier" at a time when the monarch was confronted by grave national problems. A long and winding road lay ahead before the incident as a whole was settled, but a good start had been made and "we are going to be even more careful in handling matters, although the Soviet regime  consists of devious, vicious scoundrels." Recognition of the Japanese Army's performance was accorded by the highest authorities in the homeland. As soon as the fighting ceased, Kan'in transmitted a message of appreciation. The day after the cease-fire, the command in North Korea issued a generous communique: "We pay homage to the Japanese for defending themselves against 100 planes, 200 tanks, and 60 pieces of heavy artillery. Our admiration for the bravery of both armies is of the highest." At 14:00 on the 15th, Kan'in was received in audience and reported on the settlement of the crisis. Said the Emperor: "We are gratified by the fact that, during this incident at Changkufeng, Our officers and men achieved their mission fully and manifested prudence and forbearance while confronting difficult circumstances with small forces. Our profound condolences to the casualties. Convey this message to the officers and men." A wire was dispatched promptly to Nakamura. With Imperial use of the wording "Changkufeng Incident," the nomenclature for the affair was fixed in Japan. When the cabinet met on 16 August, the decision was reached officially. After the Changkufeng affair, Japanese officers claimed that the Soviets had dispatched tactical experts "to ascertain why their elite Far Eastern forces had not been able to achieve satisfactory results. They realize the urgency of this investigation in preparation for any great war." Specifically, the AGS heard that on the day of the cease-fire, Blyukher had sent an investigative team of commissars under Romanovsky to the scene. Japanese experts on the USSR speculated that the experience at Changkufeng ought indeed to have impressed the Red Army: "Our forces did seize the hill and hold it. After comparing the strengths involved ... the Russians may well have had to modify their estimates." According to one Japanese commentator, improvements in political leadership were judged imperative by the USSR, gainsaying claims that the Soviet Army had been strengthened through the purge of alleged Japanese tools. Soviet authorities would conclude "As a test of doctrine, the fighting had confirmed the correctness of the basic principles embodied in the 1936 Field Service Regulations." The Soviet infantry had paid dearly for this, as well as for the deficiencies in tactical training. Defense Commissar Voroshilov admitted, "We were not sufficiently quick in our tactics, and particularly in joint operations in dealing the enemy a concentrated blow." In the view of historian Mackintosh: "The Soviet success at Lake Khasan was bought at the cost of heavy casualties and exposed serious defects in the mobilization machinery and the training of troops. There can be little doubt that these factors checked to some extent the Soviet Government's overoptimistic estimate of its own military strength and cast doubt on the effectiveness of its policy of expansion in all fields of military organization". Writing a year and a half after Changkufeng, an Mainichi reporter observed that the greatest harvest from the incident was tangible Japanese experience in determining the fighting strength of the Russians. Purchased with blood, this knowledge could provide valuable evidence for future combat operations. It was a question whether Changkufeng really possessed such strategic significance as was claimed for it, but the Soviet policy of bluff could be interpreted as substantiating the weakness of the defenses of Vladivostok. "The Russians used all kinds of new weapons at Changkufeng and tipped their whole hand. But although mechanization of the Red Army had attained high levels with respect to quantity, their weaknesses in technique and quality were laid bare." Imaoka observed that since the Changkufeng Incident marked the first time that the Japanese and Soviet armies engaged each other in combat involving large strategic elements, divisional and above, Russian fighting strength was studied with keen interest. The Japanese did not rate the capacity of the officers or Soviet quality, in general, as especially high. Still, the Russians did possess quantitative abundance, and Japanese losses had been heavy because the enemy had fired masses of ammunition against fixed targets. Suetaka seemed to have comprehended the scope of tangible Soviet strength in equipment and materiel, as shown by his comment: "I felt deeply that if the gap in manpower went beyond limits, it would be inevitable for our casualties to increase tremendously; this might even cause us danger in specific local areas." Few Japanese officers saw anything new in Soviet tactical methods, although considerations of mass were ever-present. Not only intelligence experts but the whole army worked on ways of coping with Soviet forces that would have the numerical advantage by 3:1. Most awesome was the "fantastic abundance" of hostile materiel, although the Russians could not deploy to surround the Japanese because of the geography. An AGS expert on the USSR summed it up: "We learned that Soviet strength was up to expectations, whereas Japanese arms and equipment had to be improved and reinforced." Worded in a multiplicity of ways, the Japanese conclusion was that patient imperial forces had won a great victory by defending the contested border with flesh vs. steel and by limiting the Changkufeng Incident, till the end, against enemy hordes supported exclusively by planes and tanks. Japanese infantrymen admit that the combat soldiers did not savor their disadvantages. "All our materiel was inferior in quality and particularly in quantity. We had the impression that whereas we relied on muscle power, the enemy used engines. This rendered our fighting particularly hard, but we had full confidence in our spiritual strength [i.e., superiority]."  Nevertheless, the Japanese mode of tactical operation, asserted Iwasaki, the Korea Army senior staff officer, was "the worst possible: fighting with hands tied." This meant that the Russians could fight "to their hearts' content," committing tanks and planes, and striking from all directions. A front-line infantry commander commented: "One's troops ought to be provided meaningful reasons for fighting and for dying happily. It is cruel to ask officers and men to meet masses of steel and to shed their blood without visible cause, and apparently because of inadequate combat preparations." The cease-fire agreement was concluded "at just the right time," General Morimoto admitted. A secret report prepared by AGS analysts sheds light on the larger question of what the army thought it had learned about itself and the Soviet enemy: "In studying Changkufeng, one ought to bear a number of cautions in mind: (1) The incident broke out when we were concentrating on the holy war against China; severe limitations on combat operations were imposed by the necessity to adhere to a policy of nonenlargement. (2) Apparently, the enemy also adopted a policy of localization while continuously attempting to recapture the high ground in the Changkufeng area. (3) Our forces employed units which were on Phase-1 alert from beginning to end; in terms of quality, the personnel were excellent—mainly active-duty types, from key men down. But our numbers were far inferior, and our organization and equipment were not of the best. In addition, we committed no planes or tanks, whereas the enemy used plenty. (4) The 19th Division was thorough, rigorous, and realistic in its combat training prior to the engagement. (5) Battlefield terrain seriously limited the enemy's attacks, especially tank action. But while the Tumen restricted assaults against our flanks and rear, it hampered our own services of supply, notably the provision of position construction materials." The Japanese learned few or erroneous lessons from the Changkufeng affair; the Kwantung Army, for example, was convinced that everything had been handled badly in 1938 by the Korea Army and the high command. When a dispute arose in 1939 at Nomonhan on another border lying between Outer Mongolia and Manchukuo, the staff in Hsinking fostered escalating measures. The USSR, however, learned in 1937 and 1938 that the Japanese Army seemed to respect only force.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Changkufeng incident or battle of Lake Khasan clash saw a fierce Soviet push against Japanese positions around Changkufeng and Hill 52. The cease-fire ended the incident, but not the conflict. Despite the brutal lessons learned by both sides, a much larger conflict would explode the next year that would alter both nations throughout WW2.   

Greetings, Comrades! Today we are joined by our good friend Michael Hillard of The Red Line podcast to get updates about what's going on in the other periphery of the post-Soviet sphere – central asia and transnistria. There's also a bit about Australia, because the temperature differences at the time of recording between Michael and me couldn't be more stark.Please, also donate for cars to the Ukrainian army:https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-borderSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Taliban's return to power in August 2021 shocked the world. But, it was not an abrupt collapse — it was decades in the making. Lyse Doucet has spent her career reporting from the world's war zones and at the key moments in modern history as the BBC's Chief International Correspondent. She's followed the events in Afghanistan for decades and joins Dan to explain the rise of the Taliban from the chaos of the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, through their brutal rule in the 1990s, the impact of American and British intervention after 9/11 and explains how they returned to Kabul in 2021, plunging Afghanistan into another era under their grip. Her new book, which explores this history through the lens of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, where both international journalists and the Taliban stay, depending on who is running the country. It's called 'The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan'Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal PatmoreDan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcastSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.