At twelve years old, Bing became a Red Guard—and for a few intoxicating months, he felt invincible.



Growing up in Mao’s Beijing, Bing was taught to worship Chairman Mao, recite the Little Red Book and attack the old order. But the Cultural Revolution soon turned against his own family.



His parents were condemned and sent to labour in the countryside, his grandmother was driven from Beijing, and Bing was left to care for his nine-year-old sister after she suffered a devastating injury during a Red Guard raid.



Later conscripted into the People’s Liberation Army, Bing endured brutal conditions in Manchuria while preparing for a possible Soviet invasion just twenty miles from the border.



His extraordinary journey would eventually take him from an oilfield and a reopened Chinese university to America—where he fulfilled his grandmother’s dying wish by reuniting a family divided by the Chinese Civil War decades earlier.



Curated episode extras⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode476⁠⁠⁠ [%20⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode476⁠⁠⁠]

⁠

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Learn more about your

From Mao's Red Guard to conscription into the Chinese People's Liberation  Army  (476)			 					

One morning in August 1980, the noise of 10,000 shipyard workers suddenly stopped. Something extraordinary was happening.



As a young shipbuilding student, Bogdan finds himself inside Gdańsk’s Lenin Shipyard as workers down tools and the movement that will become Solidarity begins to take shape. What follows is a remarkable journey through the final decade of communist Poland.



Bogdan recalls student occupation strikes, the shock of martial law, encounters with riot police, and his unconventional escape from military conscription by becoming a teacher. He describes his first intoxicating glimpse of the West in Vienna and West Berlin, where two worlds exist just metres apart across the Berlin Wall.



Then, in the summer of 1989, Bogdan and his wife board a flight for Canada with borrowed money, a few possessions and no certainty about what comes next.



This is a deeply personal story of resistance, freedom and starting again.



Buy the book and support the podcast here ⁠⁠⁠ [https://amzn.to/4gJADz2]⁠https://amzn.to/4y3dlLC⁠ [https://amzn.to/4y3dlLC]

Curated episode extras⁠ ⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode475⁠⁠

⁠ Bogdan's website & other book purchase options  https://www.bogdanmarzewski.com/book

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The Birth of Poland's Free Trade Union Solidarity (475)

Bogdan was born just a month before the Berlin Wall went up—and left communist Poland a month before it came down. In between lay a childhood shaped by shortages, censorship, compulsory conformity and a growing determination to escape.



Raised in Słupsk, a formerly German city near the Baltic coast, Bogdan remembers crowded post-war housing, Saturday school, packed Catholic churches and a world where bananas, meat and even bicycles depended on contacts and barter. His family carried deeper scars: wartime forced labour, a father shot while fleeing captivity, and an uncle whose unexpected return from Britain reunited relatives separated for decades.



Yet everyday life also brought football, music lessons, Western films and quiet mockery of a system few truly believed. Convinced that shipbuilding offered a route abroad, Bogdan entered university—and found himself at the Gdańsk shipyard in August 1980, just as Lech Wałęsa and Solidarity changed Poland forever before his eyes.



Buy the book and support the podcast here ⁠ [https://amzn.to/4gJADz2]https://amzn.to/4y3dlLC

Curated episode extras⁠ ⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode474⁠ [https://coldwarconversations.com/episode474⁠⁠]

Bogdan's website & other book purchase options  https://www.bogdanmarzewski.com/book

Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,

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Growing Up Under Communism on Cold War Poland’s Baltic Coast (474)

For decades, ordinary Swedes secretly prepared for the day Soviet forces might occupy their country. Farmers, factory workers, gamekeepers and travelling salesmen were recruited into a clandestine resistance network, trained to operate radios, use dead drops, scout escape routes and, if necessary, sabotage an invading army.

Historian Johan Wennström joins me to reveal the extraordinary story behind Sweden’s Stay Behind organisation. He explains why officially neutral Sweden quietly collaborated with MI6, the CIA and NATO, how the organisation preserved its secrecy, and why the royal family and government might have fled to Britain. We hear of mysterious Sunday walks, ammunition delivered to railway stations, aerial “elk surveys” concealing reconnaissance missions and the cyanide capsules for use if an operative was captured.

It is a gripping account of patriotism, secrecy and sacrifice—and of hundreds of volunteers who carried the burden of a war that, thankfully, never came to Sweden.

Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/4gJADz2

Curated episode extras⁠ https://coldwarconversations.com/episode473/

⁠Swedish Fighter pilot episode https://coldwarconversations.com/episode386/

Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,

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If the Soviets Invaded : Sweden's Secret Underground Resistance Plan (473)

During the Cold War, British soldiers fought a Provisional IRA insurgency in their own country. Probably the toughest location was South Armagh, where they had to travel by helicopter, while watchtowers scanned the fields, and an IRA sniper could strike without warning.

In this episode, journalist and Royal Navy officer Toby Harnden takes us inside his book “Bandit Country” [https://amzn.to/45GF60h], which describes the borderland of South Armagh where the Provisional IRA fought one of its most formidable campaigns.

Harnden recalls arriving during the uneasy peace of 1996, meeting IRA members and security personnel, and learning how family ties, local knowledge and the Irish border made the South Armagh Brigade unusually effective.

We explore its sniper teams, homemade mortars, intelligence networks, the massive London & Manchester attacks, Libyan weapons and attempts to bring down British helicopters. Harnden also examines the Kingsmill massacre, the devastating 1979 Warrenpoint ambush, alleged Garda collusion, and the British Army’s deployment of the SAS.



Finally, he reveals the brigade’s scepticism towards the Good Friday Agreement—and asks whether the old republican flame still burns beneath South Armagh’s landscape today.

Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/45GF60h

Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode472/

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CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION

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Bandit Country - The IRA and South Armagh (472)

What happens when the man guarding the Iron Curtain decides to escape through it himself?



In 1975, Jiří Barteček was a Czechoslovak border guard, trained to track fugitives with a German shepherd and ordered to stop anyone attempting to reach Austria. Yet Jiří had no intention of defending the communist system. Haunted by the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 and determined never to shoot an innocent person, he secretly studied the border’s weaknesses and planned an audacious escape.



One night, accompanied by two friends and carrying his AK-47, he disabled the alarm, slipped beneath the wire and plunged into a river crossing. His ordeal did not end in the West. After days hiding around Vienna, Jiří entered an Austrian refugee camp—where an unknown gunman twice tried to kill him.



This is a story of courage, chance and survival, told by the border guard who turned the Iron Curtain against itself.



 * Curated episode extras ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode471



Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,

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CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION

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A Czech Border Guard’s Daring Escape to the West (471)

What happens when the man guarding the Iron Curtain decides to escape through it himself?



In 1975, Jiří Barteček was a Czechoslovak border guard, trained to track fugitives with a German shepherd and ordered to stop anyone attempting to reach Austria. Yet Jiří had no intention of defending the communist system. Haunted by the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 and determined never to shoot an innocent person, he secretly studied the border’s weaknesses and planned an audacious escape.



One night, accompanied by two friends and carrying his AK-47, he disabled the alarm, slipped beneath the wire and plunged into a river crossing. His ordeal did not end in the West. After days hiding around Vienna, Jiří entered an Austrian refugee camp—where an unknown gunman twice tried to kill him.



This is a story of courage, chance and survival, told by the border guard who turned the Iron Curtain against itself.







Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

For twenty-six years, war, exile and the Iron Curtain kept one Polish family apart. Torn from his homeland and sent into Stalin’s labour camp system, Aleksander Jablonski survived hunger, forced labour and a wartime journey through Russia, Iran and Italy before fighting at Monte Cassino.



When the war ended, returning to communist Poland was impossible. He built a new life in Britain, but the family he had left behind remained painfully out of reach. Then, after more than a quarter of a century, came the chance to cross back behind the Iron Curtain.



In this moving episode, his daughters tell a story of separation, survival and a reunion in communist Poland. It is also the story of a Polish community in Britain, the children who inherited its memories, and the enduring pull of a homeland that distance, politics and time could never entirely erase.



Additional thanks to Stefan Hales-Józefczyk and the Leek Polish Connection [https://www.facebook.com/groups/919017792711874] for welcoming me into their group and allowing me to record this story.

 * Curated episode extras ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode470



Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,

You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.

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If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.



Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://coldwarconversations.com/store/]



CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION

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Twenty-Six Years Apart: A Family Reunited Behind the Iron Curtain (470)

I’m delighted to tell you about  Cold War Conversations History Tours

I'm exploring the idea of hosting a Cold War history tour via a specialist tour company, and I'd like your help working out what it should be.

There are several directions it could take, and your answers will shape the plan. There’s a short survey which should take about 5 minutes.

Here's the link https://survey.chasehistorytours.com/coldwar

 

As a thank you, those who complete the survey will be eligible for a discount if a tour is announced (please provide your email at the end).

Thanks for listening and supporting the podcast.







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Announcing Cold War Conversations History Tours

After German reunification, former East German Air Force officer Roland faced an extraordinary transformation: joining the military alliance he had once been trained to fight.



Roland recounts his difficult passage from the East German military into the Bundeswehr. His experience, qualifications and years of service suddenly counted for less.



Having been a member of the Communist Party, he endured intensive screening, as well as a reduction in rank, lower pay than western colleagues and long separations from his family. Some new comrades welcomed him; others regarded him with suspicion, prejudice and open hostility.



Yet Roland was determined to prove that professionalism could survive the collapse of the country he had served. From working with Mi-8 helicopters to supporting Germany’s inherited MiG-29 fleet, he rebuilt his career inside a radically different military culture.



This is a revealing story of reunification from inside the armed forces—and of one former “enemy” confronting divided loyalties, institutional mistrust and the challenge of beginning again.



Special thanks to Witali Gerber, military historian and curator at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, for his assistance in arranging this interview.



 * Curated episode extras ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode469/⁠⁠⁠



Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,

You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.

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If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.



Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://coldwarconversations.com/store/]



CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION

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Between Two Air Forces: From East German Officer to German Captain (469)

Ian Sanders (@coldwarpod) · Zencastr

Ian Sanders (@coldwarpod)

Award-winning real stories of the Cold War told by those that were there. Every week we interview an eyewitness of the Cold War. Across soldiers, spies, civilians, and others, we aim to cover the whole gamut of the Cold War experience. Hosts Ian Sanders, James Chilcott and Peter Ryan bring your ears into the heart of the Cold War. Reading a history book is one thing, but hearing a human voice, with every breath, hesitation and intonation brings a whole new dimension to understanding what it was like to be there.