The Podcast Browser

The Soviets' Bid for Global Power


Listen Later

Podcast: ChinaTalk (LS 39 · TOP 2% what is this?)
Episode: The Soviets' Bid for Global Power
Pub date: 2025-03-24

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization



Sergey Radchenko’s book, To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Bid for Global Power, is a masterwork! In my mind, it’s in pole position for best book of 2025. Sergey takes you into the mind of Soviet and Chinese leaders as they wrestle for global power and recognition, leaving you amused, inspired, and horrified by the small-mindedness of the people who had the power to start World War III.

We get amazing vignettes like Liu Shaoqi making fun of the Americans for eating ice cream in trenches, Khrushchev pinning red stars on Eisenhower’s grandkids, and Brezhnev and Andropov offering to dig up dirt on senators to help save Nixon from Watergate.

Sergey earns your trust in this book, acknowledging what we can and can’t know. He leaves you with a new lens to understand the Cold War and the new US-China rivalry — namely, the overwhelming preoccupation with global prestige by Cold War leaders.

In this interview, we discuss…

  • Why legitimacy matters in international politics,
  • Stalin’s colonial ambitions and Truman’s strategy of containment,
  • Sino-Soviet relations during the Stalin era and beyond,
  • The history of nuclear blackmail, starting with the 1956 Suez crisis,
  • Why Khrushchev couldn’t save the Soviet economy.
  • Co-hosting today is Jon Sine of the Cogitations substack.


    Outro music: Виталий Марков "Главное, ребята, сердцем не стареть" (YouTube Link)

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices



    The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jordan Schneider, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    The Podcast BrowserBy Paul Barnes / Listen Notes