Radio War Nerd EP #102 — Russian Civil War + Remembering Stanislav Petrov

As a latin american well aware of the history of our relationship with the US since the beginning of time...its soooo funny to see how paranoid the US people (yeah, I wont say "Americans" cuz that is freaking wrong!!!) are about this whole "fake news" and "interference with our democratic system" hysteria. Spreading "fake news" and messing with other countries' democratic systems and elections have been the US standard procedure since as far as I can remember in Latin America. This is not new or something that the Russians just invented. "IF" the Russians are doing this to the US (and that is a big IF to me, Im more inclined to believe this is another one of your regular scare tactics applied to your own people) then this is nothing more but karma, you have no moral ground to complain since you have done this to everyone else (including the russians) first and I'm glad Putin is giving you a taste of your own medicine.

Thanks a lot for these maps. Really helps to have all them in one page instead of looking for it when one incomprehensible name pops in. It is said that Roosevelt addressed his fellow citizens during the war through radio, beginning his educative discourse by asking people to get their map and then pointing to them places to understand the situation... From FDR to RWN!

I am a semi-regular listener of RWN, an old fan of both of your work from the Exile (though I was introduced to the publication a year before its shutdown), and a communist. I was a bit disappointed by this episode, however, for the following reasons- 1. Definitely too broad a topic to do a single episode on... why not just dedicate the episode to something more specific, like the literature and movies of the Russian Civil War (that was only discussed at the very end) I feel like a lot of people who follow RWN and formerly the Exile are pretty well-versed on the basics of the Russian Civil War considering their likely interests (Russia, leftism, warfare, etc.) 2. Speaking of movies, there is a decent number of good, artistically valuable Soviet films on the subject, alongside the excessively propagandist ones, but I was surprised that the one chosen for discussion was a marginal movie that was a product of perestroika culture. Wagonloads of corpses? You I am sure are aware of the atrocity-pandering, only partially based on facts, that was so common in that period and in the early 90's Russia. It should not be mistakenly confused with an objective re-analysis of the Revolution. 3. Why not include a discussion of the October Revolution and its effect on the development of world history, and the development of left wing politics specifically? Was it a watershed moment or a mistake? Did it bolster and inspire left-wing politics or confuse, demoralize , and discredit them in the long term? There are many perspectives but I am surprised that you guys, as self-described leftists, do not offer your analysis. I suspect that maybe it is because you are worried about alienating a part of your readership, but I could be wrong. Perhaps this is something you might look into in a future episode? Thank you and best regards.

Also, on that subject, given that the second volume of his Stalin biography is coming out, Stephen Kotkin might be a pretty solid idea for a RWN guest. Just throwing that out there.

I don't mean to be pedantic, but several times you contrasted Trotsky's views with Lenin's, which is good, but then blame it on the latter's adherence to Hegelian views of history. This is a pretty crude misreading of both Lenin, who would have likely balked at that characterization of his opposition, as well as Hegel. Lenin was a devotee of Hegel to the point where in his last days, when he was semi-paralyzed and dying, he went to his library to get three volumes of Hegel's works (it's in Kotkin's recent biography of Stalin, "The Paradoxes of Power").

Loved the episode, it's always great to listen to you two talk about anything Russian. Your first hand knowledge and perspective are sorely needed given the idiotic Russophobia that dominates American discourse at the moment. Really looking forward to to the Polish Soviet War episode.

Your guests are always first class, but you might consider switching it up by bringing on someone whom you respect but have disagreements with . . . of course listening to you two ambush a loudmouth asshole hack would be priceless . . . but that would be quite hard to pull off . . .

I wasted several minutes hate-watching that atrocious Ken Burns Vietnam apologia before remembering I had some fresh RWN to look forward to. Really hope you guys enjoy doing this; I know I'm not the only person who looks forward to it every week.

I was smeared in USA today thanks to Hamilton 68 and their Fascist BND/CIA backers the German Marshall Fund and the Alliance for Securing Democracy But my site quickly disapeared from Hamilton 68's website once we exposed their funders <a href="http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/09/exposing-underground-reich-part-3.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2017/09/exposing-underground-reich-part-3.html</a>

OK, just saw goodreads...but what about movies?

Lots of book and movie names in here...can you do a War Nerd Reading/Viewing list for those of us who listen while driving or something...?

I read somewhere that a lot of the soldiers on both sides were German and Austro-Hungarian POWs who had nothing better to do.

6 minutes in... I love you guys.

Fascinating show. I really did not think I would have anything to add to this, but no.. In contemporary science fiction, a writer called Charles Stross has a really good series known as the Laundry Novels. In the third one, called "The Fuller Memorandum", who should be a historical part of the plot but Baron Roman Nicolaus Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg! Further down the line in the series, there is a very good description of modern warfare and weaponry in "The Nightmare Stacks". The books are scary and comical at the same time but I'm only getting some of the jokes now after following them for years. His recent-time books like Halting State are also very good. Great stuff. I'm looking forward to the episode on the Polish-Bolshevik war. Also, did you ever finish with the Uighers? regards

What was that great intermission music?

Alex Zaitchik's past indigenous reporting: <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/murder-in-the-rainforest-20141216" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/murder-in-the-rainforest-20141216</a> <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/02/10/to_get_the_gold_they_will_have_to_kill_every_one_of_us/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.salon.com/2013/02/10/to_get_the_gold_they_will_have_to_kill_every_one_of_us/</a> <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/63472/forest-fighters" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://newrepublic.com/article/63472/forest-fighters</a>

I am reading now in Spanish Evan Mawdsley "Whites vs Reds". Downloading right now. I'll enjoy It for sure.