Ep. 0105: Peeking Behind the Iron Curtain with Kristaps Andrejsons

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Kristaps Andrejsons is a Latvian podcaster who hosts the Eastern Border podcast, a show about the history of the Soviet Union with an emphasis on what life was like for regular people who lived in it.

Join CJ & Kristaps as they discuss a wide range of topics, including:

Kristaps’ background and why he started his show
An description of what life was like for an average, non-elite Soviet citizen, and some discussion of wide variances in experience between different groups depending on status and regional differences
The ways in which the Soviet system sought to keep people in a state of dependence, and parallels to this in other realms of history
Civic religion in the USSR and USA
Soviet humor
How totalitarian states seek to eliminate or takeover all intermediate social institutions and eliminate any real private life
Food (or lack thereof) in the Soviet Union
The impact of Communism on creativity
What life is like as a Latvian podcaster today
Why some Latvians fought on the side of the Nazis in WWII
Some of the human tragedies of Soviet history, such as the Chernobyl meltdown and Afghan war
Stalin’s Five Year Plans & starving of the Ukraine to fund them
Free speech vs. censorship, and making a conscious effort to read controversial material & read things outside your own comfort zone