The award-winning podcast preserving the stories of the Cold War before they are lost…subscribe for free. Produced by Ian Sanders FRHistS
In 1986 GDR student Antje met a British guy who was installing sewing machines in of the hosiery companies in East Germany. Unusually he was given quite a bit of freedom to socialise locally and he eventually asked Antje to marry him. However, with her prospective husband being a citizen of the capitalist … Read more
As a 24 year old Kieran Williams was in Moscow staying with Soviet friends when the 1991 Moscow Coup occurred. He is a Professor at Drake University in the United States and previously he taught for nine years at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where he was an associate professor … Read more
Today we have James taking the helm again with a fascinating chat with Bridget Kendall, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent from 1989 to 1995 when she was witness to the power struggles in the Soviet Communist party as Mikhail Gorbachev tried to introduce reform. However…before we start I have to thank our fans who are … Read more
Watching Socialism: The Television Revolution in Eastern Europe is an exhibition co-curated by the Wende Museum and British scholars Sabina Mihelj and Susan Reid. Both the capitalist West and the communist East attempted to leverage TV as a medium that represented modernity and progress during the Cold War. While television was indeed a tool that … Read more
We speak today with Alistair Coleman who joined BBC Monitoring as a technician in 1989, just in time for the Berlin Wall. He was on a console night shift at Caversham, on the night of the coup against Soviet Leader Gorbachev in 1991 and describes that night as the highlight of his career at the … Read more
Todays episode is different, the interviewer is not me, but one of our listeners who contacted me to help produce content for the podcast. This gave me the idea for a new area of the podcast called “Cold War Contributions” where listeners can send in audio interviews for broadcast on the show. Email me … Read more
In this episode we speak with Professor Alison Lewis is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Australia. She is the a co-author of Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe which is published in August 2019. Now several of our fans are the proud owners of … Read more
Todd Anton was arrested by the Stasi while on a day trip to East Berlin and gives a raw and powerful account of his arrest, interrogation and eventual release. If you’d like to support us then from the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us cover our increasing costs and … Read more
In this episode we speak with Colin Munro who has had an extensive career with the British Diplomatic Service. Today we speak about his time as Head of Chancery in Bucharest, Romania between 1981 to 1982. He provides a vivid view of a country initiating a policy of total repayment of the foreign debt … Read more
In this episode we speak with Mark Wiegers who travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway in the late 1980s. His story tells of trouble with officialdom, the unexpected kindness of strangers and the beauty of a Soviet Union on the cusp of major change. Mark has taken a stunning set of photos on his journey … Read more