Episodes

  • Stalin's Secret Speech That Shook the Soviet Union

    Stalin's Secret Speech That Shook the Soviet Union
    Jul 2 2026
    In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev delivered a secret speech to the 20th Party Congress that denounced Stalin's cult of personality, his purges, and wartime failures. This episode explores how the speech was prepared, the shocking revelations about the Great Terror and the Leningrad Affair, and the immediate aftermath as the text leaked to the West and sparked unrest across Eastern Europe. We discuss the role of Anastas Mikoyan in pushing for de-Stalinization, the cover-up of Stalin's own crimes during the Congress, and how the speech led to the Hungarian Revolution months later. Drawing on transcripts from the Congress, memoirs of attendees, and KGB archives, we trace the limits of this 'thaw' and why Khrushchev chose to expose Stalin rather than the system itself. #Khrushchev #SecretSpeech #DeStalinization #20thPartyCongress #SovietHistory #ColdWar #GreatTerror #HungarianRevolution #AnastasMikoyan #NikolaiBukharin #LeningradAffair #CultOfPersonality #Pravda #KGB #Moscow #1956 #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    12 mins
  • Stalin's Poison Genius: The Mairanovsky Lab

    Stalin's Poison Genius: The Mairanovsky Lab
    Jul 2 2026
    In this episode of The Soviet Union: The Rise of a New Empire, Lucas and Luna delve into the secret world of Stalin's Laboratory No. 1, the top-secret NKVD facility where poison was weaponized for state assassinations. Learn about the enigmatic figure of Grigory Mairanovsky, the toxicologist who headed the lab, and his notorious work with poisons like ricin, curare, and digitoxin. Discover how the lab operated within the NKVD's 12th Department, testing substances on prisoners in the Gulag and developing invisible methods of killing for use against defectors, spies, and enemies of the state. The episode also covers the lab's involvement in the assassination of Ukrainian nationalist leaders, the mysterious death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's first wife, and the eventual fall and imprisonment of Mairanovsky himself. A chilling look at the intersection of science, terror, and power in Stalin's Soviet Union. #Stalin #NKVD #Mairanovsky #PoisonLab #SovietTerror #Gulag #Beria #PoliticalAssassination #Toxicology #Lubyanka #StalinEra #SovietUnion #SecretPolice #History #FexingoHistory #EasternEurope #20thCentury #TrueCrime Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    6 mins
  • Stalin's Last Purge: The Leningrad Affair

    Stalin's Last Purge: The Leningrad Affair
    Jul 1 2026
    In the wake of World War II, Stalin turned his paranoia against the very party elite who had helped him win. The Leningrad Affair of 1949-1952 was a brutal purge targeting the city's leadership, including Central Committee secretary Aleksei Kuznetsov, Politburo member Nikolai Voznesensky, and Leningrad party boss Pyotr Popkov. All were accused of a phantom conspiracy to make Leningrad a rival power base, tried in secret, and executed. This episode examines how Stalin's suspicion of the Leningrad party organization, which had operated semi-autonomously during the siege, led him to eliminate potential successors and tighten his grip on the postwar Soviet state. We also explore the role of Georgy Malenkov and Lavrentiy Beria in orchestrating the purge, the show trials' impact on the party apparatus, and how the affair foreshadowed the 1953 Doctor's Plot. Through newly accessible archives and firsthand accounts from survivors, we uncover a chapter of Stalinist terror that decimated a generation of administrators who had rebuilt the city after the blockade. #LeningradAffair #StalinPurge #AlekseiKuznetsov #NikolaiVoznesensky #GeorgyMalenkov #LavrentiyBeria #SovietHistory #ColdWar #PoliticalPurges #LeningradSiege #Stalinism #USSR #EasternEurope #20thCentury #StalinistTerror #SovietElite #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    7 mins
  • Stalin's Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign: The Purge of Jewish Culture

    Stalin's Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign: The Purge of Jewish Culture
    Jul 1 2026
    In the years after World War II, Stalin turned his paranoia against the Soviet Union's Jewish population, launching a campaign against 'rootless cosmopolitans' that targeted intellectuals, artists, and doctors. This episode explores the ideological crackdown that began in 1948, focusing on the closure of Jewish publishing houses, theaters, and schools; the arrest of prominent Jewish writers and poets; and the fabrication of the 'Doctors' Plot' just before Stalin's death. We discuss key figures like Solomon Mikhoels, whose murder in 1948 signaled the start of the purge, and Ilya Ehrenburg, who navigated the shifting political winds. The episode also examines how this campaign reflected Stalin's broader turn toward Russian nationalism and anti-Western isolationism, and how it devastated Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union. By tracing the roots of state-sponsored anti-Semitism to the betrayal of revolutionary internationalism, we uncover a chilling chapter in the late Stalinist era that foreshadowed the stagnation of the Brezhnev years. #Stalin #AntiCosmopolitanCampaign #SovietJews #JewishCulture #Yiddish #SolomonMikhoels #DoctorsPlot #IlyaEhrenburg #MGB #Pravda #RootlessCosmopolitans #StalinistPurges #SovietUnion #ColdWar #1940s #1950s #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    12 mins
  • Stalin's Foreign Fighters: The International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War

    Stalin's Foreign Fighters: The International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War
    Jun 30 2026
    In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a little-known chapter of Soviet history: the International Brigades that fought in the Spanish Civil War. While most accounts focus on the Western volunteers, Lucas reveals how the Soviet Union organized and dispatched thousands of foreign communists—including Chinese, Japanese, and Eastern European exiles—to fight Franco's forces. They discuss the role of the Comintern in recruiting volunteers, the infamous 'Lincoln Battalion' with its Soviet handlers, and the tragic fate of these fighters after Spain fell. Lucas also delves into the controversial figure of Andreu Nin, the POUM leader killed by NKVD agents, and the secret Soviet archives that only recently revealed the full scale of Stalin's intervention. The episode touches on the cultural impact, including the famous song 'Jarama Valley' and how the Spanish Civil War became a proxy battlefield for Stalin's ambitions. Listeners learn about the forgotten heroes who later faced persecution in Stalin's purges. #SpanishCivilWar #InternationalBrigades #Comintern #Stalin #NKVD #AndreuNin #POUM #LincolnBattalion #SovietUnion #Franco #JaramaValley #ChineseVolunteers #JapaneseCommunists #StalinistPurges #ProxyWar #1930s #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    6 mins
  • Stalin's Trophy Trains: The Soviet Looting of German Science

    Stalin's Trophy Trains: The Soviet Looting of German Science
    Jun 30 2026
    In May 1945, as the Red Army occupied Berlin, special NKVD teams were already dismantling German laboratories, packing blueprints into freight cars, and shipping entire research institutes east. This episode follows the little-known story of the Soviet Trophy Commissions — the systematic plunder of Nazi scientific and industrial assets, from V-2 rocket parts to captured physicists. We trace how Stalin's agents raced against American and British teams under Operation Paperclip, how German rocket scientists ended up on Gorodomlya Island at Lake Seliger, and how the spoils of this looting spree jump-started Soviet rocketry, nuclear research, and aircraft design. Along the way, we meet figures like rocket engineer Helmut Gröttrup, NKVD colonel-general Ivan Serov, and aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan. The episode also touches on the moral calculus of using Nazi expertise to build a Soviet future — and the long shadow these decisions cast on the Cold War. #SovietTrophyCommissions #OperationPaperclip #V2Rockets #HelmutGröttrup #IvanSerov #GorodomlyaIsland #NKVD #Stalin #ColdWarBegins #GermanScientists #SovietAviation #Mikoyan #LakeSeliger #Rocketry #History #FexingoHistory #WWIIAftermath #ScientificPlunder Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    9 mins
  • Stalin's Arctic Gulag: The Norilsk Tragedy Uncovered

    Stalin's Arctic Gulag: The Norilsk Tragedy Uncovered
    Jun 29 2026
    In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the monstrous Norilsk Gulag, one of Stalin's most brutal and remote prison camps, established in 1935 to exploit the rich nickel deposits of the Siberian Arctic. They trace its origins under the GULAG's boss Naftaly Frenkel, the role of Norilsk in the Soviet war effort, and the unimaginable conditions that led to the 1953 Norilsk uprising—one of the largest prisoner revolts in Soviet history. Drawing on firsthand accounts, they discuss how the camp's legacy shaped the city of Norilsk, the Arctic mining town that still exists today, and how the history was suppressed by the Soviet state until the Gorbachev era. They also examine the environmental impact and the ongoing struggle for historical memory in Russia. This episode offers a harrowing but essential look at a lesser-known corner of the Gulag system, blending personal stories with broader historical context. #NorilskGulag #GULAG #Stalin #ArcticExile #SiberianPrisonCamps #NaftalyFrenkel #NorilskUprising1953 #NickelMining #SovietForcedLabor #StalinsRepression #GULAGHistory #SovietUnion #ColdWar #Siberia #RussianHistory #History #FexingoHistory #ArcticHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    10 mins
  • Stalin's Great Construction: The White Sea Canal

    Stalin's Great Construction: The White Sea Canal
    Jun 29 2026
    In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into one of the most brutal and paradoxical projects of Stalin's era: the White Sea–Baltic Canal, or Belomorkanal. Built between 1931 and 1933 using forced labor from the Gulag, the canal was meant to showcase Soviet engineering prowess and the 'rehabilitation' of prisoners through work. But the reality was staggeringly different: over 100,000 lives lost, brutal conditions, and a construction that was nearly unusable. The hosts explore the propaganda triumph that followed, including a famous 1934 book edited by Maxim Gorky that portrayed the canal as a model of socialist reform. They discuss the roles of key figures like Genrikh Yagoda, the OGPU chief who oversaw the project, and Naftaly Frenkel, the former capitalist turned Gulag administrator who devised the conveyor-belt system. The episode also examines the canal's legacy in Soviet memory, its strategic irrelevance, and how it became a symbol of the system's willingness to sacrifice human life for prestige. A sobering look at one of the first major Gulag megaprojects that foreshadowed even greater tragedies. #Belomorkanal #WhiteSeaCanal #Stalin #Gulag #OGPU #GenrikhYagoda #MaximGorky #NaftalyFrenkel #ForcedLabor #SovietPropaganda #GreatConstruction #Karelia #1930s #USSR #History #FexingoHistory #SovietHistory #LaborCamps Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    6 mins