Reporting the 1989 Romanian Revolution

    Mark Brayne worked as a Reuters & BBC journalist during the Cold War. This time we are in Romania in December 1989 where riots, street violence and murder in several cities over the course of roughly a week led the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu to flee the capital city on 22 December with … Read more

A British Journalist under Stasi Surveillance

    In this episode we talk to Mark Brayne again in a wide ranging chat about his career as a Reuters & BBC journalist including details of his Stasi file, his time in the Soviet Union, Hungary & Poland as well as the perils of editing analogue tape in a non-digital age. Among his … Read more

A UK Journalist in the Soviet Union & the GDR

  Mark Brayne studied in Moscow 71-72, travelling the country with fellow UK students and spending silly amounts of time in the bathhouses with salted fish and very poor quality beer. He returned in 1974-75 as Reuters trainee journalist where he became very close to Andrei Sakharov, the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and … Read more

Alan – Working in the GDR & The USSR

  Welcome to Cold War Conversations – if you’re new here, you’ve come the right place to listen to firsthand Cold War history accounts. Do make sure you subscribe in your podcast app so you don’t miss out on future episodes. Alan Baker worked and studied in the GDR and the USSR from the 1970s … Read more

Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine 1981-83

Richard Hornik was the Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine from 1981-1983. He carried out numerous interviews with Solidarity Free Trade Union leader Lech Wałęsa including his last interview before martial law was declared in December 1981. He shares the stories of 1980s Poland as well as the interviews he carried out with the Solidarity … Read more

Bridget Kendall – Cold War BBC Moscow Correspondent 1989 – 1995

  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

Red Reporter – Covert journalist for Cold War East Germany – Part 1

  In this episode we speak to John Green. John Green grew up in Coventry. After abandoning a zoology degree course after his second year at Bristol University, he switched to Drama. In 1964 he made the adventurous move to the German Democratic Republic to study film at the National Film School in Babelsberg, near … Read more

A British Journalist in Cold War East Berlin

    Today we have a joint operation where myself and Shane Whaley from the GDR Radio Podcast and Spybrary podcast speak with Peter Millar. Peter is an award winning journalist who was named Foreign Correspondent of the Year for his reporting on the dying days of the Cold War.   Now, I’m sure you’d like … Read more

Cloak & Dagger in Cold War Prague

Welcome to Episode 9 of Cold War Conversations. Mark Baker is an independent journalist and travel writer who’s lived in Central Europe for more than two decades. I heartily recommend his travel website www.markbakerprague.com which is an eclectic mix of stories about his adopted hometown of Prague and stories from when Central Europe was the “Eastern … Read more