The Eastern Border

Greetings, Comrades!I wanted to bring you something special this time. Something completely dfferent, but something that will allow you to look into a very special kind of mindset. It’s a motivational speech (of sorts), originally given in Russian, by one of my personal heroes and folks who inspired me to be a journalist, Alexander Nevzorov. See, it’s something that had been sitting on my mind for a long while now, and as everyone currently is all about spreading cheer and optimism and whatnot, I, instead, chose to share with you one of the most interesting takes on the subject about how to actually be good at debates. And seeing as Nevzorov is one of the most widely known Russian opposition journalists, and how he just manages to be on top of things…I kinda wanted to give you this, albeit quite bizzare, speech as a christmas gift.Enjoy. Although the ep is relatively short, it was extremely work intensive. Turns out, transcribing youtube speeches from Russian to English in real time and then editing them to be a scenario is definitely not easy.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This is the episode when millions die. For the first time but not the last one. Also Trotsky leaves the scene here. Have fun.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades. I started this ep as a fun thing, about the weird sex-ed book from the Soviet Union. As it stands now, this episode is raw, brutal, sincere, explicit, ugly, offensive and just the story that needed to be told. Because it ended up being about how the whole regime oppressed people, how they tried to control and “normalize” the most intimate aspects of people’s lives and…how those lives were ruined. Also, this is seriously 18+ – I didn’t sugarcoat anything. I didn’t hide anything. And everything’s brutal and honest. Do NOT listen to this if you’re a minor, or overtly emotional or easily offended. You have been warned.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Once again, insanity happens. So, I bring to you the completely unedited (one take and not my good mic as am not home too) result of working in the middle of the night to inform you about the details of the boat incident in the Kerch strait. This will be followed up, but for now, here’s a gathering of literally everything that there is to know from eastern European media about this whole thing. Enjoy! And if you want to be in the know, join our discord. We talk with everyone there. https://discord.gg/6jnGV5eSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!We got our hands on KGB instructional manuals, about what were their goals, how they were supposed to act and what and why did they do things that they did. But this is not a history episode. Sadly, this is a news episode, Think about it while you listen.And here are all the links that I promise on the show, starting with the awesome Transhumanist folks that we want to support:Paypal of the project: https://www.paypal.me/mindboundBitcoin of the project: 13XBRLQ8pQ89UQSEs6hJHu7cEX43RtV3iXBank acc: Arets PaeglisIBAN: GB96REVO00997090790930BIC: REVOGB21Official Contact: [email protected] mail of their chairman: [email protected] of them being an accepted chapter of World Transhumanist Association/Humanity+: https://humanityplus.org/get-involved-2/chapters-of-humanity/ (look for Latvia)And of course, our own Patreon page:https://www.patreon.com/TheEasternBorderAnd our Discord channel:https://discord.gg/kc433UDSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! In this special episode, dedicated to the Latvian 100th anniversary, I’d like to tell you the adventures of the migthy (and utterly insane) Latvian terrorist Aijo Beness. It makes sense at the end. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This was supposed to be a news episode, but instead I somehow did a whole thing about the GRU instead. It just came naturally. Also, I talk really fast in this one as…well, I didn’t originally intend to make a whole ep about this and it’s pretty long already. Enjoy!Oh, and also join our discord group. Here’s the link: https://discord.gg/ZqPdUdgSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!So, I shipped out to Boston, and went on and had a speech in Harvard, walked the freedom trail in full and did a lot of fun and interesting things in the USA. Also, had a short spot-on interview with Our Lord and Master, Supreme Podcaster, Saint of All who use the Microphone, Dan Carlin. Which is in the end of the episode. Seriously tho, I really liked eagleland, and ths is my story about the experiences there, with the Dan Carlin interview in the end, which I did together with Sam Davis from the Inward Empire podcast. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode is a great discusson with Sebastian Major from https://ourfakehistory.com/ podcast! He’s just done a great three part series on Stalin myths, which you all should go and listen to immediately. We talk about Uncle Joe, about how he’s portrayed, how he’s influenced history and how sometimes, the hardest part is admitting that it’s humans who’re the greatest villain, and not monsters.P.S. If you’re in the area, come to the Sound Education conference in Harvard – https://www.soundeducation.fm/ I’ll be speaking there on 2nd of November, my speech is from 3.30PM to 4PM in the Divinity Hall, Divinity Chapel there!Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Sadly, the events that happen in these parts unfold so quickly, that I can’t really keep up with everything that I want to do, which would be more specials and Stalin series – but not like I can skip over the news either. Because from Riga, it looks like the world is about to fall apart. Also, on the good news: we have new podcast art! Coming soon, to our t-shirt store, and there will be prints as well! Signed prints!Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode is about a “small war”, and you’ll get to know exactly what that means. This episode isn’t fun. It’s horror and war from the first person perspective. This was hard for me to make, and I fully excpect it’ll be hard for you to listen. It should be that way.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!In this episode, which I just had to make, we look back at what happened to Latvian elections, and also at the utter weirdness of Russian politics lately, including something that might cause some real problems – land trade between Chechnya and Ingushetia.Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Latvian elections are coming- and they’re among (if not the) craziest one’s we’ve ever had. So, when else would be a better time, to finally talk our own politics. For this episode, I interviewed one of the best Latvian journalists, Juris Kaža, and we tried to make some sense out of this whole sad mess. Mess that’s actually surprisingly important for the whole region, in these…quite interesting times.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 back to our Stalin series, and you get to hear our new editor’s voice too. This episode serves as a wrap-up and a move to a whole new era. Both for the show, and for Stalin – who, at this point, has destroyed the triumvirate, dealt with Trotsky, and…well has ran a massive campaign against illiteracy, which was amazing for him, because you know, when you’ve learned how to read and write using Stalinist propaganda…yeah, what could possibly go wrong there. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This is a super-extra episode. Because I haven’t seen such weird things in ages, and it complements the last, full ep, nicely. For one, in this episode, I root for a genuine Communist. From the Russian Communist Party. Because he deserves that. I know, right?Anyhow, enjoy. Had to make this one, upon my journalistic honor.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, we look at the ridiculous stuff that has happened in Russia lately. Duelling and tourists, visiting Solisbury spire. Which is 123 meters tall. And has the oldest working clock. Yeah, and they’re also totally NOT GRU agents.Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Due to the death of our favourite separatist, Alexander Zaharchenko in an explosion, I just had to make an episode about it. And then it quite smoothly turned into a gruesome explanation of the “Ponatiya” – the unwritten prison laws, and their harsh inner caste system and things you should and shouldn’t do if you get sentenced in Russia, Belarus or other places in the post-Soviet sphere. But yeah – warning, it does get VERY unsettling.Enjoy. I…hope?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!I was planning a civil defence episode, using that book I recently acquired…but it turned out to be actually very good and competent. Which probably will go into another episode, but it wasn’t fun enough for my birthday episode (turning 29 tomorrow) So, I grabbed the chairman of the Latvian Transhumanist Association, and we had a discussion about what transhumanism is, and a bunch of funny really hard science stories. Because Astronomy can be fun, comrades!Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode is a fundraiser. Because I must visit you guys, and see how amazing the US is. And now I have the chance to do so, which I simply can’t miss. Also, this episode is a special one. About how the art people felt in the Soviet era, purely made from stories that I gathered from people working in the theater and opera. As I hadn’t had a people’s history show for a while, I sincerely hope that you’ll enjoy this one!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Today, you’ll get the promised interview with the chairman of the Latvian Chamber of Trade and Commerce…who also runs the largest private university in the Baltics. He cetainly has a very interesting perspective, especially about how business should be run. Enjoy!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 my colleagues and great journalists – Orhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev and Kirill Radchenko. They were killed in Central African Republic, while investingating the actions of PWC Wagner there, and the reasons why the Russian merc group was there in the first place.Shoutout to Sam Davis from The Inward Empire podcast who edited this.In memoriam.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, we’re back to history, And we’re looking at the final conflict of Lenin and Stalin, and how the whole system slowly turned into the pyramid of power that we’ve learned to know and love. Love in quotation marks, of course. Together with the constitution of 1924. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This week was a very busy one in the political sense, with the Trump and Putin meeting in Helsinki, and many of you on Facebook and Twiter had asked me to give my insights and opinions about the current events because of that. So…obviously, I complied. Now, this one might sound a bit rambly again, and goes off topic – but the sheer chaos of everything that has been going on, and the fact that we now, truly, do live in very interesting times, means that I had to condense a lot of information. Not particulary proud of this episode, frankly…but I hope it’ll provide you with a fresh look and maybe make you think about the recent events a bit deeper. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This week, we’re going to post our interview with our ex-finance minister, and a member of the higher council, Edmunds Krastiņš, about how stuff really went down in the “atmoda” era. Also, we’re posting the winners of our anecdote contest tomorrow! Have fun!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Due to editing issues, we lagged behind with this episode, but here it is. A semi-serious interview with Jonathan Waterlow PhD, author of the newly-published book “It’s only a joke, comrade!” – a book about Soviet political jokes during Stalin’s era in the 30’s. Semi-serious, because we talked about the cultural impact of jokes and…well, Stalin himself, this episode consists of the largest quantity of jokes of all of our episodes. I also managed to look like a worried amateur at times, but as I do that now and then, it should be ok. We also have a contest in the end.Jon’s podcast is here: https://voicesinthedark.worldAnd you’re welcome to find him directly here:– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jon.waterlow– Instagram: @jwaterlow– Twitter: @JonWaterlowOr via the podcast:– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VintheD/– Instagram: @vinthed.pod– Twitter: @vinthedSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades. It’s been about two years since my grandmother died. She was an amazing – rough, a bit xenophobic, but an amazing nonetheless, person who taught me that I should be more stoic, be a warrior and do my best. This is her story. A story on how a devout Lutheran managed to do crazy things in the USSR – a collection of anecdotes from her life that I wrote down when she was alive, and sort of a living memory of one of my closest people ever. I hope you’ll be happy that I share them with you. Warning: graphic content. Not in the rude way but still.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, we’re back to Stalin. Stalin’s assuming total control, and we’re looking and why, how and what parallels can we draw with today. Because the more Stalin actually gets to do things, the more similarities we can actually draw. Including how things get done. This ep’s to be listened with a thinking cap on. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! And happy birthday. To us!Can’t really believe that we’ve been here for all this time. Hey IN the episode, I mention that we’ve hit two years, but it’s been three by now. THREE. It’s crazy. And as great as it is, to talk about the podcast and the plans and what’s been going on, we’ve grown now. And Putin just held his 4.5 hour livestream, so called “tele-bridge”. Obviously, we tied that in, or more precisely tied our birthday in. With some historical stuff, some philosophy and the usual “hey, these things happened, but I couldn’t put them in an episode” segment. Oh, and I do have a Stalin ep ready for you next week, and then more history stuff incoming. Unless really interesting things happen again.Happiness is Mandatory! Enjoy.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!In this episode, by popular demand, we look into the whole faked murder thing, concerning Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. It also gets crazy, raises more questions than answers, and as I received more news, some of them being completely untested, amidst writing the script and then – recording, it’ll also allow to test my sources. All in all, complex. Yet-I hope you’ll like it!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, Comrades! This is a special episode, all about how we treated the computer gaming in the past, and how it’s now. Specifically dedicated to Ian Bodreau, but I hope you’ll all enjoy it!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Hello from Sweden, where I’m currently visiting PDXCon. But I just couldn’t leave you without an episode, now could I? So, this is why I recorded one before leaving the town. It’s all about Soviet Cinema – but, as it turns out, as there is just a ridiculous amount of stuff to talk about in this subject, I turned this into a Stalin series episode. It’s about the early, really really good movies of Eizenstein, what they meant, and how Stalin made things a lot worse with micromanagement. Serious micromanagement. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Newest episode in our political themed series, this one focuses on the Telegram app in Russia, its owner and strange details surrounding them. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Sorry for the delays – we lost a recorded 3-hour interview, AND this episode was very research-intensive. But nonetheless, welcome to the true beginning of Stalin’s era in the Soviet Union. This episode is about the Soviet-Turkic subjugation of Georgia, in the background of which, Stalin had finally assembled his power base. And his machine had finally started running. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Simo had to wait and be contextualized. The ep I just recorded is about people here who believe that Khazar Jew Nazi KGB Satanists from Israel are secretly controlling Putin, to eliminate native people’s all over the world, and especially in Latvia, because we’re the spiritual center of the planet. Dead serious. Latvian conspiracy sites for our first ep in April, because I wanted to make it light-hearted. Anyhow, this is pure crazy. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode started with one of our oldest fans, Dave, sending us a book, “Setting the East Ablaze” by Peter Hopkirk. It was about the struggle between Lenin and Bolsheviks and Great Britain about the influence in the east, especially in India. Then, while doing this month’s episodes about Putin and everything, I decided that the book had only English and Russian perspectives, but no Indian ones, and then I googled and researched, and…oh boy, it grew and grew and now I have a whole new aspect of the Eastern Border show that I’ll try to cover. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode was made by the request of our listener, Oliver. It explains the statement I made in the last episode, where I said that the bombings were Putin’s work. Well, now you’ll know why I think so. Also, more history episodes incoming, I’m getting REALLY tired of Putin.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This is my account on the events in the Russian elections, together with some analysis. Normally, I don't insist on it, but, please, if you can, share it and recommend to people, who want to know how things actually went down. One thing, that really matters tho, is that while this episode was being edited, Zhirinovsky already managed to declare, that United Russia plans to abolish elections, and create some sort of a grand council, which would hold all the power, and where the membership would be for life. And yes, it is Zhirinovsky, but hey...like I said, he's an over the top mouthpiece. But a mouthpiece still.Enjoy. We live in very interesting times.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Sorry for being…well, let’s just say, not-as-much in time with our episodes. We’re plagued with deep personal issues at this time, and to be frank, making the show is the thing that keeps me sane. This episode covers the recent news about Russia, and is intended to be a follow-up to the PWC Wagner episode. Covering the nuclear threats, new weapons Putin presented in his “state of the union” speech and what were the political reasons of him doing so. Also, any and all paypal donations/patreon support very much appreciated. Thank you, everyone, and I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. I’m just gathering strength to continue right now, but…we’ll march on. Happiness is Mandatory after all.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This is a special episode, that I have to publish now, because I’ll have to give the source book away. But it’s a glorious book – “Tales from the great congress”, which is a review of the all-communist party congress in 1939. It’s full with tasty propaganda and excellent stuff. Hope you’ll enjoy this episode – and I apologize for my deep sarcasm in places. It was a natural reaction to blatant lies, and frankly – being honestly stunned by this book.Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Today, we look at Stalin’s personal life, his views on capitalism (which weren’t very pleasant) and how the bolsheviks experienced minor issues with the whole “war communism” thing. You know…destitute poverty, misery, cannibalism, crime, famine…nothing that death camps can’t solve!Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode covers the events on the 7th to 8th of February in Syria, where American-led coalition forces, in a counterattack, while defending their base, basically annihilated a large number of Russian soldiers from the Private Warfare Company “Wagner”. Now, there already have been news about the “what” part, but I delve into the “why” and deeper reasons of the whole thing, on the Russian side. Both, why would people go and fight, who owns the “Wagner” and all the other, quite deeply philosophical stuff. Ugh. This is a hard one.Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!We’re in the middle of a move now. And working hard. And our PC died. Nonetheless, this week, we have an interview with the She’s In Russia podcast girls, who invited me to their show, and I think it went really nice, so so check them out!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Turns out, doing dubbed-over interviews, that are translated as-is from Russian to English, like we set out to do with mr. Potapenko’s interview, takes a lot more time than expected. So, this time, have another Stalin episode, while we deal with the dubbing and everything. Also, there’s always time for more Stalin! Especially since this episode covers his rivalry with Trotsky, what Stalin and his gang did during the civil war, and in the end, we also talk about Latvian Red Riflemen a bit. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This time, after all the previous super serious episodes (and the serious interview with Dmitry Potapenko and more Stalin, both incoming) we decided to do some laid-back, chill discussion about one of our favourite subjects: The Cossacks. And Daniel, is, as you all know, a foremost expert of the subject from his history podcasting days. We had a nice discussion, and it felt good, not to talk about tremendous tragedies or personal suffering or translating formal regulations of the secret police…you get the idea. This is just a fun, laid-back episode, where we finally have some fun ourselves. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!With the help of our academical friends in the Latvian KGB research center, we acquired a very interesting document: “Regulations of the USSR KGB “On the agency apparatus and trustworthy persons in the USSR State Security Committee”, from 1983. Yes, it’s authentic, and as, I couldn’t find a full, widely available English translation on the internet. So…I translated the whole thing. If anyone is interested in reading it themselves, I’ll be glad to share. I hope you’ll find this interesting, as this is a bit more dry episode – I wanted the text to speak for itself, explaining only the very necessary things. But…making jokes about this text felt a bit wrong. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings Comrades! As you can see, this part’s name, together with the last part’s name makes a pun. Yeah, it’s a brick joke. It’s blunt, same as what I’ll do now. With the “reality shifts” made by Stalin later in place, and with this period being covered in the Lenin series, this episode got stuck in development hell, and ended up a bit…awkward, by the end. But we’ll make it up, and it’s necessary. Hope you’ll like it, despite it’s flaws. This period in time is a bit weird. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This is a re-upload because acast went haywire last year.This year, Grandfather Frost brings you a whole new episode, very work-intensive, about how it’s like to be an opposition journalist in Russia…and how it’s like to be in the Eastern European media, talking about Russia in general. Together with analytics, and reports on the latest events. And some jokes. Because why not. Enjoy!In addition, links, promised in the episode:Medusa.io English site: https://meduza.io/enReal Russian News youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChpUzS-wzKjaT-2HPoQeLiQVata.TV, special greetings to those guys: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa2DyezQaSMK81FbYkHZM_gSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Today’s episode has it all! Sneaky deception, warfare, guns, riots, police violence, drama, philosophy, a theory that Rosewell incident was caused by Stalin and Mengele working together… I hope you enjoy it. If someone guesses the name of the next ep, they get an extra souvenir in mail! Great day for you, Comrades!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This time, thanks to the KGB research commitee, we can enjoy some very real criminal cases about smuggling in the USSR. It's pretty great, as we found out that a Latvian/Swedish teacher can just swindle a smuggling gang, and that smuggling gang should be called "Nylon Mafia" anyways. Also, according to theme, here's a link to our card game - made by a listener John - about smuggling. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/kontrabanda We hope to work more with the KGB research guys in the future, and while you're waiting for the next Stalin - enjoy this weird episode!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!My voice’s not perfect already, but by jingo, we really need to get through World War One, so that we can finally do the revolution again in the next episode. And…well, as it turns out, the revolution was possible, because the Bolsheviks were the only guys against the war in the Russian empire…and so, they weren’t sent to die in the front lines against the German and Austrian machine guns, but instead were sent to exile in Siberia, which was really, really far from machine guns. Including Stalin, who, by now used to this, enjoyed the whole process. Again. And sent many letters. It’s a complex issue, but kind of fun, as there actually were people who could stop him then and there, but then they all died.Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.