Today we introduce Joseph Stalin, one of the key figures of the Cold War.   We will briefly go into his background and touch on a few things that made him tick and then discuss his complex legacy.    Long story short, Stalin makes the short list of “most evil people to ever walk the …

One of the defining moments of the Russian Civil War and world history was the execution of the Romanovs, ultimately marking a turning point in history between old and new.   The implications of the execution were more psychological than anything, but it let Russia and the world know that the Bolsheviks did not plan on …

Immediately following the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks begin the dirty work of getting the rest of Russia in line.   Ever hear the phrase “you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet”?   That’s pretty much how they viewed their situation, as they unleashed a reign of terror on their political enemies – …

Things are really heating up in the years following World War I!   The Bolsheviks are taking over Russia and many Americans thought that we had a fifth column of Bolshevik sympathizers amongst our ranks. World War I helped to forge America’s national identity as an Anglo-Saxon Protestant democracy and many people believed that the …

October: Ten Days that Shook the world is a 1927 film by Sergei Eisenstein and Co. that depicts and commemorates the 1917 October Revolution.   While this film doesn’t exactly flow like most films, it’s a great snapshot of how the Bolsheviks viewed themselves and their “glorious” revolution with about a decade of hindsight. It …

Well, the October Revolution of 1917 nominally gave the Bolsheviks power in Russia, but they still had some work to do in order to get the country on the same page.    This led to a bloody civil war in Russia that we will discuss shortly. Coincidentally the 99th anniversary of the revolution will …

Today we’re talking about a shadowy, cloak-and-dagger event that changed the course of world history and certainly cold war history – Lenin arriving back in Russia after years of exile during a turbulent period in Russia.   Germany took a gamble that this guy would go back and help to end Russia’s participation in …

Today we’re talking about the Bolsheviks, the hard-line wing of the socialists that eventually took the reins of the Soviet Union and ultimately shaped the world’s political landscape.   I discuss the ideological differences between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks and how that dictated the first part of the Cold War. My apologies for the poor …

We’ve talked a lot about Russia, it’s time to check in with the United States of America in the early 1900’s.   While we weren’t one of the top-tier global superpowers, we were well on our way there at this point.   In this podcast I briefly outline a few of the factors that helped …

In 1905 when Russia had the “dress rehearsal” for the actual Bolshevik Revolution, one of the most notorious side stories of the whole ordeal was the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin, one of the Russian Navy’s prize vessels.   In 1925 legendary direction Sergei Eisenstein depicted the uprising in one of the most …