History Sphere Podcast

In August 1991, the brewing political crisis in the USSR brought on by the constitutional reforms of Perestroika came to a head, as members of the security, military, and Communist Party establishment launched an...

The events of 1921 and 1956 that lie at the foundation of modern Georgian nationalism resurfaced amidst the reforms of Perestroika in the 1980's. In 1989, the rising tide of nationalism would collide with tragedy to...

The Caucasus is a region that, though it is not of Russia, is deeply central to the Russian identity. This beautiful and diverse part of the world has also played a central role in the political and military history of...

Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev were both men of remarkable talent and drive. Yet, their inability to work together toward a common goal led to an intense rivalry that weakened, rather than strengthened the efficacy...

Boris Yeltsin, though he was once overwhelmingly popular, is today remembered by most Russians as the corrupt leader responsible for Russia's degradation in the 1990's. His real legacy is actually significantly more...

Throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, Glasnost awakened an irrepressible movement for independence in the Baltic States. In March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to formally declare independence...

The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were the smallest republics of the USSR, yet the international politics concerning them are among the most far-reaching consequences of the USSR's disintegration. An...

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 capped of a year of tumultuous change across Eastern Europe. Its brutal conclusion marked the end of the Communist Era in Eastern Europe.

Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution is often overshadowed by the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place only a few days earlier. However, it was a deeply fascinating chapter, and an important domino in the...

On November 9, 1989, a series of blunders by the East German Communist regime set in motion a chain reaction of events that led to the fall of the most infamous symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall.

In the late summer and fall of 1989, upon receiving news of the reforms there, huge numbers of East Germans made their way to Hungary hoping to escape across the border to Austria and on to West Germany. The ensuing...

The partition of Germany was never meant to be permanent, but materialized by accident as a practical solution to the unbridgeable divide between the Soviets and their erstwhile Western allies on what to do with their...

After 1956, the Communist leaders of Hungary elected to rule with a softer touch than was employed elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Hungary became just the second domino to fall in...

In the summer of 1980, the workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland went on strike to demand the reinstatement of a fired coworker and the recognition of their independent trade union. They were soon joined by...

In addition to the widespread loss of faith in the Soviet system by ordinary citizens as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, by 1987, the Soviet Union also faced a deepening economic crisis. The reforms of Perestroika...