Month: February 2020

186: 1919 – Russia IV

Mark Podcast
Lenin, Trotsky, and Voroshilov (standing center, in dark coats) pose with Red Army soldiers in Moscow in 1921.

Beginning in fall 1919, the White movement rapidly collapsed. The Allies began to withdraw their soldiers from Russian soil, and even lift the blockade of Russia.

The Civil War was a natural consequence of the Bolshevik seizure of power. But the White movement was never as well organized as the Reds, and lacked an ideology that could attract a broad base of support.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

In the Steppes of Central Asia
Composed in 1880 by Alexander Borodin. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

185: 1919 – Russia III

Mark Podcast

The Bolsheviks began the year 1919 thinking the White movement was all but defeated. They were wrong.

Anton Denikin’s Armed Forces of South Russia would give them a nasty surprise, advancing hundreds of miles over the summer, until they were only about 200 miles from Moscow.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Mlada
Composed in 1890 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Public domain.
Performed by The University of Chicago Orchestra, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

184: 1919 – Russia II

Mark Podcast
Another White movement propaganda poster, this one depicting the Bolsheviks sacrificing the bound personification of Mother Russia before an altar to Marx and the International. Note Lenin, in center, in red robes, and Trotsky beside him, in bloody apron.

The Allies invested in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia, in the hope of overthrowing Lenin and getting Russia back into the Great War.

Once the armistice was signed, though, the calculus changed. But the West couldn’t just abandon the White movement, could it?

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

The Seasons
Composed in 1876 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.