The Eastern Border

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.

Greetings, Comrades!I currently have no voice, due to illness. So, Alice took over for this episode, and did it her own style. So, what we have here is a very hardcore episode, containing the look in the life of a true Soviet woman in the year of 1960 – because we had ALL the Latvian Soviet Woman magazines from that year, which allows for a very interesting perspective. Both of the good things and bad. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!I've been really ill past week. You'll hear that on the show. And, besides watching Stalin documentaries to fall asleep, and history of Crimea for a future episode, I went full zombie mode...and experienced Russian news. Being unable to think clearly and in massive pain is the only way how a reasonable person could take this on. This episode goes weird, really fast. Enjoy! Also, please visit theeasternborder.lv for all the source links, as that list is too long to publish here.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Our new Stalin ep is here again. By this time, Stalin and Exile have become comedy terms. But there are unfunny things in this episode too. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!We bring you the latest episode of October, the one about InTourist, and the very weird experience of being a foreign tourist in the USSR! Hope you’ll love it! Enjoy! And no, I won't be giving lengthy descriptions of the episode, Not today! :DSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Today’s episode was made out of schedule, but it was so timely, and so urgent, that I just had to do it. Special thanks to Travis J. Dow, my Dark Myths colleague and friend from the Bohemican podcast (and many others) for inspiration here. It’s about radicalism in Russia, about trolls, about how your opinion can easily be swayed and what you should watch out for. I mean, they got me! I was outraged about what turned out to be totally fake news last week. So, instead of being angry at people who’re literally burning cinemas in Russia because of a movie about Nicholas the 2nd, I got worried about…nonsense. Anyhow, very complex episode, hope that you’ll like it, but for the most part – this is supposed to remind everyone that in this modern day, everyone needs to adjust their angry reactions for the likely possibility of trolling. Enjoy. Stalin coming monday or tuesdaSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Today, I want to give you an episode about something completely different. About one of the…strangest..communes out there. I’ve been wanting to make an episode about this sub-denomination of the Orthodox church and their weird destinies for a while now, so now that I had the chance, I did. And It came out as one strange episode. Hope you’ll like it!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! As we've just returned from our vacation to Berlin, it's due time to present this episode on STASI, the dreaded KGB analogue of East Germany, that surpassed the "sword and shield of the communist party" in many different ways. Sorry that the beginning of this episode is so disjointed. The construction company, building an extra floor on my local shashlik bar decided that it was just the perfect day to do more construction, so I had to re-record everything multiple times. Sill, hope you'll like it. Enjoy some German communism, comrades! Also, here's the link for the SUDIO earphones: https://goo.gl/J3wL96Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! Welcome to the one of the most depressive episodes I've ever made. Bonus points for you, if you caught the song reference in the title. This episode is about tragedy. Deep, personal tragedy and how it makes monsters out of men. Don't want to spoil much else here. Also, about how sources and research can be tricky sometimes and why making this stuff isn't easy - I take jab at one of the books I use, because ohboy...we came to a point, where the uncertainties and errors were just too much. And also, to the point where there are people out there who actually attribute things to Stalin which he has never done to make him more evil - most probably, because they didn't know of all the things he actually did, and those, really, are quite enough. Hope you'll like the episode. It's not funny, however. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!I got terribly ill – had tonsilitis in a heavy form. Basically, I was tormented with fever so I couldn’t script as well as I wanted, and then, turns out that with a terribly sore throat, recording is literally impossible to do. But – as I’m almost ok now, recorded this episode, which I admit, isn’t the best one that we’ve ever made – but it’s full with fun statistics, and is all about the communal flats. And why people in modern day Russia still live in those quite often. Basically – enjoy. Tons of comparisons, lots of history and some modern day economics. Hope you’ll like it, despite the flaws. Ooh, and we have pictures this time!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!I had two scripts prepared, one for this and one for Stalin, for this week - and this won out in the social media voting. So here you go. Honestly - I'm normally very, VERY critical of my episodes, but this is what I consider to be one of my top tier shows. A must listen. Because...wow. The work I put in here, in my opinion, really paid off. And the things I discovered, were truly surprising and weird. But I guess, it's how podcasting goes. This is a "fun" episode. And if it isn't - well, how much more in dark comedy and depression should I go to make it fun? Also, if you're from Sweden, please write to us - as we're visiting very soon for a day.Enjoy!KristapsSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode is a "fun" one, and as it contains crime, violence, descriptions of gory events, explicit language, secret marriages and conspiracies, it's not suited for younger listeners. Yes, we've now managed to get into the period, where, as we discovered in the last episode, Stalin's decided to "do practical things" and "take matters further". It's the story leading up to, and all about the grand Tbilisi heist in 1907. Also, it's my birthday tomorrow (and my half brother's too, by the way, he's exactly 3 years younger than I am) so we're going to a party later today, so the book for the patrons is going to be out on the 29th or 30th. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode will be a bit dry. It's mostly about lies...and actually, the differences between Social Democracy and Socialism, and how zealous people can screw things over. But seriously, it's a bit dry, as we're preparing to talk about the true crime stories of Stalin himself - this is how Stalin basically became a terrorist, after almost bankrupting the Bolshevik party. And how that party was made. It's very weird - but pull through, as this is necessary. And in the end - it'll make you think, and we'll get to the more funnier stuff soon enough. But this time...this time it's all about data and facts as they'll be extremely important to understand the context. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Listeners!Firstly, here’s the link to Time Cube. http://timecube.2enp.com/ Don’t know what time cube is? Don’t worry. It comes up in the 2nd hour of this discussion that you should really listen through. This one is all about ideologies. And religions. And how they both get so intertwined, especially in the United States, that they affect modern political decision making. Our guest is the amazing David Sheally, and we make a lot of jokes and a lot of tangents…but…but this episode turned out so good, and so well done – and so important, that I’ve decided to include it in the main feed as well. But really – be sure to listen throught. It all comes to a point in the end.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!In this episode, me and Brandon Newberg from the Dead Ideas podcast discuss Stalin's relationships with Tito. And who was more bad ass. But then, philosophy and analytics get in the way, we get sidetracked and stuff becomes way more awesome. Sorta. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! This PSA is here, to inform you that you should watch our fist ever video episode about our three-day Soviet car festival, which ended in a Latvian tank museum and which I filmed. I'm not very great with a cam, tho. So, like said in this PSA - click here, to watch our first ever video episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP7RW7SyDfYSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Alice is still away, and I feel like a lost puppy. I can’t find where any of my stuff is, and nobody pokes me and everything’s pretty much not nice. For those of you, who’re not yet married – it’s actually a wonderful feeling, when you understand that you function so much as a team with your “other half” that you begin to miss them intensely after a while, and can barely function. But, nonetheless, even though I can’t release Stalin episodes now, as Alice would be super angry at me, I can do other things. Such as, for one, doing the other part of my show, which are the current events that are happening here, in The Eastern Border. And they sometimes get scary and make you think. That was my goal with this episode, so…please, enjoy!Also, super huge thanks to my fellow Dark Myths colleagues, the Secret Transmission podcast, for editing this, without them, this episode would’ve never be released.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Alice is away for three weeks, working in a children's camp. That means I don't have an editor, so regular episodes are taking a small break - but, in this sunny time, this means, you get specials! And some other stuff later on, but we'll see. Anyhow, here's an episode that we wanted to do for a while now, it's about the Bulgarian prophetess Vanga, together with Sam from the Strange Matters podcast. A bit less Soviet stuff, a bit more philosophical discussion on the nature of man and why it's really hard to actually make some concrete statements about this nice, old Bulgarian lady. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!On today’s episode, we answer many important questions. And give out some others. But it doesn’t matter, as Uncle Joe responds to them all, with a) escaping from prison and b) urging more people to a violent uprising. This is how it goes in the USSR. Hope you’ll like the show. And send in your questions!Do svidaniya, tovarischi!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This is our next Stalin episode AND our anniversary episode. And it's not quite awesome, as I'm suffering from a food poisoning now. But it's pretty good still. However, there are a few things I'd like to say.Firstly, thank you for being here. Secondly...well...this is going to get explicit: People send me death threats. People want to beat me up. People used to tell me that I'll never finish college, because I'm obviously too stupid and not "organised enough" - I've been dumped, because they thought I'd never achieve anything and that I'm just "dumb and base" and that I'd never be worthy of them. Well, look at where we are after two years. And if you mistake being rude sometimes for being dumb, that's your own problem. I've never been a conformist, never tried to be liked by anyone just because it looks good, just because it's the popular, nice thing to say. And now...now I'm here. And you're here. And I thank you for that. And together, we can say surely to the Putin's agents and the arrogant stuck-up people, and the people who think I'm weird, because I actually talk with US people - The Eastern Border shall live on. Happiness is Mandatory! I love you all!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!My usual Stalin episode is written down, and all I needed was to record it. But then, as sometimes happens, my dad arrived, and this time, he was carrying some documents and books with him. They turned out to be Soviet reports of various peace conferences - and the collected works of Anna Sakse, a children's writer...and a massive, massive propaganda master and state-paid spreader of lies, bashing the west at every opportunity. And this just turned out to be SO amazing, that I couldn't resist - no, I must give you this! This episode will make you cringe, will make you laugh a bit...but when you think about it, it's actually pretty sad. Anyhow, enjoy - and Stalin and PDRP coming up soon!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!In this episode, we discuss Stalin. ALL that is Stalin. Superman can take a rest...if he was real, and Stalin were the head of the USSR, Supes would end up in a GULAG. We're talking about a man, who almost killed his father, when he was 7. Intentionally. Also, he's endured almost everything. And yeah...this is the happiest episode of the series that I have to make about the person who's responsible for the genocide of my people. About one of the greatest men in history...and one of the most evil, bloodthirstiest men in history. Enjoy. Or not. It's more about me, telling the story this time.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Today is a special day – we bring you the final episode of the Red Dawn series, about Lenin’s death…and eternal life in mausoleum, people’s memory, anecdotes and culture. It…was amazing in the beginning, but turned out to be a laughing stock in the end. Next time, we’re moving to the Man of Steel – Stalin. But for now, remember: Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin – Eternally Alive! Enjoy, comrades! And…I actually apologize, because after ww2, it does get kinda boring for a while.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades! I'll be honest with you - the previous week has been a living hell for me, I'm dealing with a dying grandfather, for whom I have to do all the paperwork while he's still here with us. And it's hard. And Alice has exam season. And Alice spilled water on her laptop, so I had to re-record the whole episode. And then, we had to fix some factual errors in our episode, as it turns out, some of the documentaries that we watched were literally based in nothing. But...we pulled through. We did our best, and clenched our teeth and did amazing things. Like the Soviet people, during the NEP era, when they finally got some opportunities to do some private enterprises. Or, like Stalin, who, even though, curbed all of those private business activities, nonetheless kind of represents the stereotypical NEP-man in the political world. He was shrewd, cunning, tough, witty and...indescribably selfish, evil and with no sense of honor or loyalty to his allies. But...in a way, that's how the businessmen in the NEP were, and Stalin probably has more in common with Ostap Bender and Voland than he probably had imagined. And I'll leave this long description at that, comrades. Enjoy the show!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!We are honored to bring you The Greatest episode. Our humble show was visited by the Grandmaster of podcasting himself - Dan Carlin. We talked about Russian and Eastern European politics, role of new media in modern society, a bit about podcasting and then some Soviet history. It was a lot of fun, and I have to say that Dan's also a really kind and nice person. (Besides having the wisdom of ages, and reaching almost divine status in podcaster circles.) For an independent, Latvian podcast that started out in Hardcore History forums, it was very awesome to get his approval on what we're doing. And humbling. I truly hope you'll appreciate this interview, but even more so - that it'll make you reflect a bit.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, comrades! Today, we have an episode, discussing the tribes. Both of Native Americans and ancient Balts. Why? Because sometimes I feel like I have to explain why I feel closer to them rather than the colonial people. We are joined by Andrew James Cotter from Iroquois History and Legends Podcast http://www.longhousepodcast.com/ and discuss reservations, oppression, culture, tribal customs and myths that sometimes are there when you mention tribes to someone. Hope you'll enjoy this.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!Today’s episode had a very troubled production. Basically, we had to re-do the script completely, when in the fact-checking segment of the production, we were forced to throw out huge chunks of the material, because it just couldn’t be verified and turned out to be published in some very shady news sites. And it’s no wonder, really, seeing how history is used these days to advance political agendas. For that, we also advance the timeline in Russia a bit, and you get to listen about the gruesome murders of the Romanovs. And the reasons why all of us, in the Baltics, were actually able to beat Bolsheviks in 1918 – 1920. Because “war communism” encapsulates many meanings. Enjoy. If you can.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!This episode, quite probably, is the closest we’ll ever get to being a true crime podcast. You see, we acquired the Soviet criminal code. With comments. Educational edition. So, to have a break from doing our narrative episodes, we decided to do this. But, you see, comrades, reading this book is like staring into the eye of madness itself. There might be laws in these books, but there is no order. Oh, and everyone’s a criminal. And corruption is, essentially, de facto supported, encouraged and, if you think about how things are, simply inevitable. So, we threw out what script we had prepared, called my little brother – otherwise, he was very lonely this Easter, as his wife and kid is in the countryside, opened a beer and tried to make some sense of all of this. This is a chill episode, as…well, going easy, and with dark humour was literally the only way how to cover this actually very dark and serious subject. Enjoy!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings, Comrades!In this episode of our Russian Revolution series, we look at the events that led to the independence of Latvia and Estonia! That’s because Lithuania shall get paired with Poland in the next episode. Sorry for the delays, but this has proven to be one of the most research intensive episodes to date. 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.