The Eastern Border

Greetings, Comrades! We’re busy, recording episodes about Soviet everyday life, however this time, we bring you Michael from the amazing The Red Line podcast to discuss the peculiarities of post-soviet politics. It’s complicated, messy and leaves you slightly depressed with more questions than answers. Just the way we enjoy it here. We dragged out Michael and threatened him with KGB so that he’d get a bit of relaxed conversation, instead of the very technical expertise he usually does on his show, and I think it ended up really well. Oh, and a quote from him that I promised to put in the show notes:“First law of journalism: The more bullet holes in your hotel, the better and cheaper the food!” /MichaelLink to The Red Line podcast:https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!As the possibility of another war with Ukraine looms over us again, I dug through the weird parts of the Russian media that usually don't get covered that much in the west, especially Igor Girkin's (the ex-leader of Donbass separatists who started this whole mess back in 2014) takes on the matter, together with other, in my opinion, overlooked people and made it in a digest form. Obviously, a few things have happened since friday when this was recorded, but this should give you some understanding about the warmongering side of Russian society. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! To round up this month, I wanted to speak about something not as terrible as I have in the past few episodes, so to continue our military tech series, here's THE most famous Soviet WW2 plane of all time. Enjoy! (I'm very happy to be able to say "enjoy" again, at the end of the episode)Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! We welcome the return of the Stalin series with an episode about Holodomor, one of the first and lesser known mass acts of tyranny that Uncle Joe committed. This one...this one's dark. Extra dark. It's about the man-made famine of 1932-1933, a genocide of the Ukrainian nation. But I couldn't speak about anything else, as this...this is Holodomor rememberance month. Вічна пам'ять!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one isn't pretty and I already know that a lot of people won't like it. It's a bit of a harsh take, from a very realpolitik perspective on this matter. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!It's been a while since we've had a proper guest on my show - and this time, it's Roberto from History of Saquartvelo Georgia! I'm always happy to introduce You to others who care about our glorious side of the world, and his show's amazing. We spoke about the most bad-ass Georgian poet of all time, Galaktioni and his shenanigans with the Soviets and also had a lot of fun discussing Georgian culture in general. Oh, and I had a migraine in the middle. Enjoy! And check out History of Saquartvelo Georgia! (all the links are below)https://historyofsaqartvelo.com/https://twitter.com/History_Georgiahttps://www.facebook.com/TheHistoryOfSaqartveloGeorgiahttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmdK0d7XlcKe_gX2ZcjmF3Qhttps://www.instagram.com/thehistoryofsaqartvelogeorgia/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This episode is all about Soviet urban legends, straight from the USSR army! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This ep is all about how and why Navalny wasn't avarded the Nobel peace prize, but was instead awarded the Sakharov prize. And Sakharov, who actually was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Look...it's complicated! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This time, it's Soviet Schools and how to survive them. Managed to grab some interviews just before the crazy lockdowns started! Enjoy! T-Shirt market on the page, incoming!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heyhey, Comrades!We interviewed the creators of ATOM RPG two years ago, when their original Post-Soviet oldschool RPG game came out. And...now there's a sequel, named Trudograd! And we're IN IT! DJ Kristaps lives! It's like a dream come true!Anyways, I've got some free Steam keys for this amazing game, so if you want a copy, do let me know! And if you're not among the lucky few, please do support the devs! The game is good and really cheap.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Ohboy. After this utterly bizzare Eastern European team from literally the weirdest country in Europe managed to beat Real Madrid at home…yeah, had to provide some explanation of why you should absolutely care about Sheriff! Soviet Schools next. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1908, a huge ball of flame struck Siberian countryside. For the eyewitnesses, it was as if the world was ending, for scientists of the day, a magnificent astronomical event and for the conspiracy theorists a splendid source of weirdness. Seriously tho, it was aslo quite lucky that it fell there, in the middle of nowhere and not, say, on Paris or London or somewhere like that. It’s a cool little story, and I hope you’ll enjoy this one!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, over the weekend there was a three day event in Russia, concerning gosduma where they went to the ballots, threw in some papers and then some of those papers were pulled out and shredded and some more were stuffed in and the remaining papers were counted with people doing so, pretending that it matters. It was a bit of a comedy, bit of a mess, United Russia's still in power. This ep's all about it. Also, hi, I'm back from being hit by a car and have a lot of catching up to do. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Today we continue our story about the weird and innovative flying boat plane things! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! In this episode, we look at the weirdest and most amazing Soviet achievement in transportation technology, the Ekranoplan! Notably, the caspian sea monster. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode turned out weird. I mean…EXTRA weird. What was meant to be about just how Belarus is using poor souls as their political weapon turned into somehting else when the migrants just…dissappeared. Not even kidding.Also, yeah, there will be only 3 eps this month, due to how insanely difficult it was to make this one and Kristaps’s birthday is on the 28th. So if you can, please do click that PayPal button. Thank You!Audio PlayerSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Today, we’re looking at the weird and interesting history of computers and cybernetics as it were in the Soviet Union. Because now and then, I’d like to cover topics that are actually, you know, NOT terribly depressing. Also, don’t forget to check out Advent of Computing podcast, and enjoy!Happiness is Mandatory!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Part 2 of the Peter the Painter is here. Sorry about the weird way how I speak, I’ve understood that I should NEVER rely on translations made by other people, because this…this was so weird that it got me a massive headache and confusion. Sydney Street Siege, Churchill and ever evasive Peter in this one! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This time, we take a look at a thing that I’ve wanted to make an ep for a long while. Latvian bomb throwing anarchists that came into being right after 1905. And Peter the Painter is the most famous of them all, literally being the reason why British cops walk everywhere armed. Involved with a firefight with Churchill himself, it’s an amazing story. Part 2 coming soon! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This week, we return to the tank series once again, and we look at the…well…REALLY WEIRD ONE’S. With very little information to go about, I coulnd’t make an episode on each of them individually, so this is what you get. Enjoy! Oh, and visit our homepage Theeasternborder.lv for pics!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! As we skipped political episodes completely last month, it’s just fair that we start with something nice and positive in this one. I had a blast while making this, and in comparison, despite the title, this is a much more lighthearted episode than the previous one’s! Enjoy! Oh, and also listen to the very end please, we have a new outro now!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This is Part 2 of Chechen wars, Part 1 is out too, and they're split for story reasons. This one’s STRICTLY 18+ and not recommended to people who’re squeamish or who get offended easily, and has literally every trigger warning related to violence ever.This…is for your consideration. For fairness, for those who fought. For you to understand how much true, animalistic, mad, pure hate shaped this conflict. And it is not nice.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This is a subject that I had wanted to cover for a while now. And once I starterd working on this, I understood that this time, people’s stories and actual history would definitely need to be separated. This part, although about war, is what I’d recommend everyone should listen. The people’s stories part….yeah, not so much. Also, our webpage is back, so go visit Theeasternborder.lv we've missed you!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! In this episode you'll hear the story of the greatest pyramid scheme in the Post-Soviet sphere, and possibly globally even. This is the story of Sergey Mavrodi, one of the most wicked, crazy men who've ever lived! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! While we're dealing with technical issues, have this...VERY dark episode about the ingenuity of post-Soviet prisoners. I'm glad I keep back up's. Man, this was hard to translate tho.Paypal: [email protected]: https://www.patreon.com/theeasternborderSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! So, our new ep on the whole "stealing the plane" affair is here! Enjoy! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And, as promised, Part 2 is here too.Hope you'll like this, and if you didn't hear this before there is a part 1, just look at it in your podcast player, listen to it before this one!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings Comrades! Part 1 of our Mayak episode, P2 coming tomorrow. You'll hear everything yourselves, basically. But we had to split this in two, it got too long and too weird. Then again, it's Mayak - the WORST place to work on the planet! Enjoy, this one's weird!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Sorry, we launched the wrong version yesterday. That's due to us, using dates as internal naming, so we accidentally published the 07-04-2021 ep instead of the 07-05-2021 one. This is the proper episode, with fixed audio. Been wanting to do this for a while, and after talking with folks on Twitter, decided to finally talk about my favourite sport - football. The European variety of, as it's lately seen a lot of issues, but for that to be interesting I had to explain how the leagues work and all that. So, I do that here. This is a bit unorthodox ep, but I sincerely hope you'll like it. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Roman von Ungern-Sternberg was a completely classy guy. If by classy, you mean mad as a hatter and completely murderous! Enjoy his story! Also - thank You everyone who's supporting the show, at this point, it looks like we could get the webpage back in about two weeks or so. You're the best!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This is a bit shorter than usual, but everything gets explained in the show. Well...except what Putin meant in his "state of the union" address, as that was just weird this year.Please, consider supporting the show, so we can get our website back asap! This farm experience has hurt us quite a bit. Our paypal is [email protected] and our patreon is patreon.com/theeasternborder - and if you don't enjoy either option, you can email us - [email protected]. Thank You very much beforehand.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This time we’re discussing the wholesome, family friendly subject of taking your 8 year old, giving him guns and combat training and mental preparedness to sacrifice his life in the struggle against Putin’s enemies! YunArmiya, or ‘The Youth Army’ of Russia. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! I honestly didn’t want to make an episode like this, but the recent escalation hit me hard. As you know, I reported from Donbass at one point, so it’s quite hard imagining everything going up in flames again. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen. But…for now, I’m forced to tell you why it just might.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This episode is a current events digest about the weirdest events that happened in relation to Russia in the past month. And hey, this time, we even got a theme – it’s all about lies, criminal activities and censorship, all tied together in a story resembling a psychological struggle anime like Kaiji or Liar Game. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Today’s episode is all about the BT tanks and the insane, neo-pagan, kind-of-a-bolshevik madman, Red Army Marshall who was behind their introduction in the USSR military forces. Spoilers: He was shot by Stalin in a show trial, but not because of Perun. Perun plays a huge part in this. Enjoy this surprisingly weird story, Comrades! Happiness is Mandatory!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! As I’m still on the farm, I decided to make an animal-related episode. And it turned very dark, very quickly. This is among the darkest ep’s I’ve made, and I hope it’ll be a bit thought provoking too.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This time, from a cow farm. But that doesn’t stop me, so have another tank episode, this time about the Iosif Stalin tank series, the first “shot” of the cold war!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! We dediced to end the month on a lithger note, so here’s our interview with Allistair Pitts from the wonderful Soviet movie analysis podcast “Russophiles Unite” which I’ve plugged here many, many times before. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This is a short special about the Defender of the Fatherland day…and what Stalin did to Chechens and Ingushs that day.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode is dedicated to the Kursk Submarine catastrophe that happened in 2000, and served as a catalyst for the things to come. It’s…not a happy one.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, we talk about the heavy fist of the early WW2, the KV tank, whose mistakes were then later fixed by the T-34. Enjoy! And don’t forget to visit rusandsov.com and use Easternborder at checkout for a 10% discount!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, I bring you an update on Navalny. It’s…looking pretty grim out here. Also, don’t forget to visit Rusandsov.com and use the code “Easternborder” at checkout for your 10% discout, they really have awesone stuff!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This time, we talk about THE most famous tank, this side of the iron curtain. The thing that won the battle of Kursk. The tank that everyone in this part of the planet instinctively thinks of, when someone asks them to think about the default “tank”.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!As per request, a neat timeline of various weird stuff concerning Navalny and his return to Russia. And wouldn’t you know it, mass protests happening right now as I post it! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Welcome to the episode that shows Stalin’s Anti-Semitism, and all the bullshit that he did to harm the Jews. It’s…a sad and a terrible thing, and yeah…I can’t say enjoy this time. Learn.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is part 2 of our recap. Please, check out part 1, otherwise this will make no sense. Also, lots of love to our Patrons, artists, and everyone who supports the show. Happy New Year to you and yours! (This is basically insane Russian news, just in case you missed part 1)Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This is a VERY aptly named Russian 2020 news recap…and the recent updates too. They make it…pure insanity. Love Y’all, especially my editor, Anete!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Just before Christmas, boy, do I have a present for You! I haven’t laughed this hard while making an episode in a long, long while. And it’s about Navalny’s poisoning investigation and Putin’s press conference. It’s…a farce. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Welcome to December. And what better way to enjoy this lovely month than with a story about Russia’s first real revolutionaries – the Decembrists. Surrounded by a ton of myths, these guys definitely left an impact. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, we’re looking at the news again. We have two serious subjects and one about…well, Hitler. No, seriously. Also, my computer is fixed, HMC Byzantium LIVES! Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.