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 interviewees we talk about the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa as well the ordinary people of the Warsaw Pact countries.

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Back to today’s episode, part 2 of three episodes with Mark and as you will hear we have a lot of fun recording this...

 We welcome Mark Brayne to our Cold War conversation…

There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, which can also be found as a link in your podcast app. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode125/

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Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye.

Radio GDR

If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR.

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0:00 Introduction and overview of Mark Brayne's career

2:30 Discussion on Mark Brayne's Stasi files and experiences in East Berlin

10:18 Examination of Mark's Stasi files, including photos and recorded details

20:21 Mark Brayne shares his experiences with Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov and reflections on his time in Russia

27:30 Conversation about Mark Brayne's time in Romania and his role as BBC Central European correspondent

31:38 Mark Brayne's time in China and interview with the Dalai Lama

43:22 Mark Brayne's ban from Romania and transition to China

51:42 Mark Brayne on covering the Gorbachev visit and the Tiananmen Square incident

53:05 Teaser for Mark Brayne's story about Romania in 1989

53:28 Closing remarks by Ian Sanders and information about the podcast's Facebook discussion group

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