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Between 1928 and 1935, bread rationing in the USSR had been implemented due to the extraction of foodstuffs from the peasantry for export and Stalin’s disastrous collectivisation policy. In 1935 Stalin signalled a shift towards consumerism, but many Soviet citizens saw little improvement in their living conditions. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subsc
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In a two month period Truman’s policy towards the Soviet Union became more entrenched in the face of Soviet advances in eastern Europe and Iran. Truman, with little foreign policy experience was swayed by wartime diplomats such as George Kennan and the former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and sha
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During the Stalin era, the science of genetics came under a sustained attack and was denounced as a bourgeois ideology. This podcast explores the changing thinking of British communist scientist J.B.S. Haldane and the Stalinist fraud Trofim Lysenko Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Pat
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In the mid 1930s a celebration of the achievements of workers, aviators, explorers and peasants accompanied Stalin’s Five Year Plans. This championing of the ‘everyday’ hero was the product of Stalinist thinking and a utopian belief in the creation of a new egalitarian society. The myths, however, rarely corresponded to reality as most Soviet citizens experienced it. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the pas
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In 1945, following the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, a foreign policy novice, was determined to take a tough line with the Soviet Union but was no match for Stalin, despite the detonation of America’s first atomic bombs, ending the war with Japan. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content
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In the 1930s a generation of young Soviet citizens were motivated to work for the development of a socialist society. Massive urban reconstruction projects, an obsession with aviation and the development of a new urban Stalinist aesthetic began to dramatically transform Russia, along with huge increases in literacy and urbanisation. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the s
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The death of Roosevelt in 1945 left Harry Truman a politician with limited foreign policy experience surrounded by Roosevelt’s top aides and ministers. Truman had little knowledge of international affairs and yet was far quicker to take a stand against the USSR than his predecessor Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show &
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This is a special feature length episode of the Explaining History podcast, featuring an interview with Joanna Lillis who brings with her thirteen years of experience in Kazakhstan. We discuss the experience of the communism, free market capitalism, famine and cultural suppression on the Kazakh people and ask what the future holds for the oil rich former soviet republic. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the
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Despite the hunger, hardship and terror, a generation of young Soviet citizens were committed to a bright vision of the future where technology conquered nature and a modern socialist society emerged. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Com
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When Stalin died, Mao felt entitled to lead the world communist movement and looked upon Khrushchev as an insignificant upstart. However, Soviet attitudes towards China only brought about greater resentment between the two powers, with catastrophic consequences in China. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclus