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  • The dismissal that freed him and sent him toward the firing squad

    The dismissal that freed him and sent him toward the firing squad
    2026/10/30
    A former colonial technician builds a secret bilingual prison newspaper as he moves toward a firing squad - how do you fall that far?

    The dismissal that freed him and sent him toward the firing squad

    In this episode, we follow Phan Đăng Lưu from colonial-trained agricultural engineer to imprisoned organizer, tracing the choices, networks and methods that carried him toward Saigon in 1940 and execution in 1941. What did he walk away from, and what did he build inside prison that made him so dangerous?

    Person: Phan Đăng Lưu
    Date of death: 28 August 1941
    Age: 39
    Location of execution: Bà Điểm commune, outskirts of Saigon
    Education: Agricultural engineer, College of Agricultural Administration in Tuyên Quang

    - Trained and employed by the French colonial administration as a sericulture officer and moved across postings before being dismissed for his anti-colonial views.
    - Joined nationalist groups after dismissal, elected to the Tân Việt Revolutionary Party central committee in July 1928 with responsibility for revolutionary propaganda.
    - Co-edited Vietnamese translations and publications of Marxist texts via the Quan hải tùng thư press, building intellectual infrastructure rather than clandestine pamphleteering.
    - Traveled with Hà Huy Tập to Guangzhou in late 1928 to contact the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth League; the mission failed but organizational work continued.
    - While imprisoned, hand-wrote a bilingual newspaper over three years using a language he taught himself from his jailers, a secret project that never left the prison walls.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    25 分
  • The two revolvers that turned a Soviet editor into a traitor

    The two revolvers that turned a Soviet editor into a traitor
    2026/10/29
    An Austrian-born Soviet editor is found with two revolvers in Kharkiv - how does a propagandist become a suspect?

    The two revolvers that turned a Soviet editor into a traitor

    In this episode we follow the life and work of Johann Gockel-Ehrlich, from a paper-shop childhood in Hallein to editing German-language atheist propaganda in Kharkiv, and the moment two revolvers in his apartment set a four-year process in motion. How did the state turn his career of anti-religious publishing into grounds for accusation?

    Person: Johann Gockel-Ehrlich
    Date: born 8 July 1896; revolvers found night of 10 December 1933; executed 11 March 1938
    Location: Kharkiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
    Occupation: Editor-in-chief of Neuland; German-language publisher and writer
    Topic: Anti-religious literature, Communist Party activism

    - Born in Hallein, trained as a bookbinder, son of parents who ran a paper goods shop.
    - Joined the Communist Party of Austria in 1919, founded local party cells, became branch president.
    - Emigrated to the USSR in 1923, attended the Communist Party of the Nationalities of the West, then moved to Kharkiv.
    - Edited and published German-language atheist materials: Neuland biweekly, Anti-Religious Library pamphlets, and children's illustrated books.
    - On 10 December 1933, two revolvers were discovered in his Kharkiv apartment, initiating a multi-year security process.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • A stamped box of photos toppled eighty years of silence

    A stamped box of photos toppled eighty years of silence
    2026/10/28
    A boxed archive of photos from Athens, stamped May 1, 1944, resurfaces after eighty years - how do you fall from that high?

    A stamped box of photos toppled eighty years of silence

    In this episode, we follow the sudden reappearance of an uncatalogued photographic archive and the chain of events it set off in modern Greece. We lay out the images, the dates, the places and the decisions that linked twenty-first-century auctions to wartime reprisals - and ask what it means when silence is unboxed.

    Person: Napoleon Soukatzidis
    Event: Ambush at Molaoi (April 27, 1944)
    Date: May 1, 1944
    Location: Haidari; Kaisariani; Athens
    Status: Photographs declared a national monument in 2026

    - A box stamped "Aten 1.5.44" containing 262 photos surfaced at an online auction in February 2026 after being uncatalogued for more than eighty years.
    - The images show two hundred men marched to a rifle range on the edge of Athens on May Day, and every man was dead by sundown that day.
    - The Greek government moved to block the auction, acquire the collection, and declare the photographs a national monument to be projected at Kaisariani on April 25, 2026.
    - The timing of a vandalized memorial plaque at Kaisariani coincided with the public release, prompting investigators to note links to far-right extremists; no charges were filed.
    - The executed men had been imprisoned before the German occupation-held under Metaxas's decree at Akronauplia and later transferred to Haidari, where prisoners were treated as units for reprisal.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • The promise he gave the king toppled him from power

    The promise he gave the king toppled him from power
    2026/10/27
    A trusted communist negotiator promises King Michael a referendum and the pact haunts him as power narrows around one man.

    The promise he gave the king toppled him from power

    In this episode, we follow the trajectory of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu from intellectual organizer to central figure in Romania's wartime switch and its aftermath. The episode traces the decisions, relationships, and moments of visibility that turned a party co-founder into a target - and asks how his promise to the king reshaped his fate.

    Person: Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu
    Date: April 17, 1954
    Location: Jilava Prison courtyard
    Event: Wrote August 23, 1944 proclamation read by King Michael
    Position: Minister of Justice and Politburo member

    - Co-founded the Romanian Communist Party in 1921 and edited its newspaper Socialismul.
    - Traveled as "Mironov" to a 1928 Comintern congress and argued Moldovans were Romanians.
    - Served as party representative in Moscow (c.1933-1935) while developing private doubts about Stalinist orthodoxy.
    - Met with royal emissary Ioan Mocsony Stârcea in spring 1944 and promised the party would not declare a republic without a referendum.
    - From summer 1946 the Securitate opened a dossier and began monitoring him for being too visible and influential.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 分
  • The La Sagesse gate they tore down that pushed her to power-and then to ruin

    The La Sagesse gate they tore down that pushed her to power-and then to ruin
    2026/10/26
    A woman who tore down a colonial gate in Grenada rises in a revolution - how do you fall from that high?

    The La Sagesse gate they tore down that pushed her to power-and then to ruin

    In this episode, we trace Jacqueline Creft’s path from a local protest at La Sagesse to a leading role in Grenada’s New Jewel Movement and the People’s Revolutionary Government. We follow the decisions, relationships, and actions that put her at the center of power and ask what happens when the movement turns inward.

    Person: Jacqueline Creft
    Event: La Sagesse gate protest, gate torn down by Creft and Maurice Bishop
    Date: March 13, 1979 (New Jewel Movement seized power)
    Location: Wilberforce Cemetery, Grenada (tombstone of Vladimir Creft) and La Sagesse estate
    Topic: Creft’s rise from activist and education minister to a target within the revolutionary government

    - Creft and Maurice Bishop led a physical protest in January 1973 tearing down Lord Brownlow’s gate that cut off community access.
    - Two months after the La Sagesse action, the New Jewel Movement was formally founded with Creft as a founding member.
    - Creft left Grenada to study political science at Carleton University in Ottawa, where she met Bishop and returned to Grenada to organize.
    - Between 1976-1977 she worked with CADEC and moved between Grenada and Trinidad before being banned from Trinidad.
    - On December 4, 1977 Vladimir Creft was born; on March 13, 1979 the New Jewel Movement seized power and the People’s Revolutionary Government was established.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • The private letter to Stalin that reopened his past and toppled him

    The private letter to Stalin that reopened his past and toppled him
    2026/10/25
    A private letter to Stalin, a crossed-off name and a return to a death list: how does a top Soviet economist become expendable under the terror?

    The private letter to Stalin that reopened his past and toppled him

    In this episode, we trace the life and choices that put Valerian Obolensky - the man who built Soviet financial institutions - at the mercy of a system he helped create. We follow the moments, decisions and relationships that kept him close to power while making him vulnerable: how do you fall from that high?

    Person: Valerian Obolensky Obolensky (pseudonym N. Osinsky)
    Date: Born 25 March 1887; list signed 20 August 1938; death 1 September 1938 (twelve days after list)
    Location: Born in Kursk province; career centered in Moscow and Soviet institutions
    Event: Private letter to Stalin protesting exile (1 January 1928); name removed then re-added to a death list
    Topic: Rise from noble birth to chairman of the Supreme Economic Council and target of the 1937-38 purges

    - Born into a minor noble family in Kursk province and radicalized by 1905, Obolensky abandoned privilege to join the Bolsheviks.
    - Adopted the pseudonym N. Osinsky after arrest and exile; built a dual identity as noble-born Valerian and economist-Osinsky.
    - By age 30 he was chairman of the Supreme Economic Council (Vesenkha), designing the new state's financial framework.
    - He repeatedly dissented privately and publicly: joining the Left Communists, praising Anna Akhmatova in Pravda (1922), and backing Trotsky in 1924.
    - On 1 January 1928 he wrote a private letter to Stalin protesting Smirnov’s exile - a document that later resurfaced as part of the case that put his name, removed once, back onto a death list.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • The handkerchief she pressed into his hands that sent her over the wall

    The handkerchief she pressed into his hands that sent her over the wall
    2026/10/24
    A fourteen-year-old village organizer in Shanxi must choose whether to stay with the wounded man she sheltered - will she?

    The handkerchief she pressed into his hands that sent her over the wall

    In this episode, we trace the last months of a teenage local cadre in wartime Shanxi and the network of family, party and duty that made staying the default choice. We follow how roles, promotions and personal ties converged on one moment and ask how a child came to decide in the face of armed raids.

    Person: Liu Hulan (born Liu Fulan)
    Date: January 12, 1947 (date of death)
    Location: Yunzhouxi Village, Shanxi Province
    Role: Village Women's Rescue Committee secretary; Women's Officer, Fifteenth District Anti-Japanese League

    - Joined Communist youth corps at age nine and advanced to district-level women's officer by fourteen
    - Took on administrative and logistics roles: grain seizures, cotton quotas, land reform and civil defense
    - Hid and nursed wounded PLA commanders in her home, including Wang Gengu and later Wang Gengu
    - Pressed a small handkerchief into her stepmother's hands before soldiers arrived; the handkerchief was never found
    - The party posthumously enrolled her and her execution instrument became a museum relic

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 分
  • The trunk he hid in turned a schoolmaster into a guerrilla chief

    The trunk he hid in turned a schoolmaster into a guerrilla chief
    2026/10/23
    A schoolmaster turned guerrilla hides in a car trunk, rises to power - then faces one night that unravels decades of trust and power?

    The trunk he hid in turned a schoolmaster into a guerrilla chief

    In this episode, we follow the life of Son Sen from teacher to top military leader of the Khmer Rouge, tracing the choices, networks, and methods that propelled him into power and into the machinery of state violence. What decisions and ties produced the man at the center of a night of mass killing?

    Person: Son Sen
    Date: June 10, 1997
    Location: northern Cambodia
    Event: trucks ran over bodies after executions
    Period: 1953-1972 (Paris studies to Chief of Staff)

    - At 16 Son Sen enrolled in teacher training in Phnom Penh and later worked at the National Pedagogical Institute.
    - Around 1953 he went to Paris, joined Marxist reading groups, and formed a circle with Saloth Sar (Pol Pot), Ieng Sary, and others.
    - In May 1956 French authorities revoked his scholarship for political activity; he returned to Cambodia and resumed teaching while doing party work.
    - In 1964 Son Sen hid in the trunk of a Chinese diplomatic car to evade checkpoints and escaped into the jungle to organize Khmer Rouge cells.
    - By 1972 he had become Chief of Staff of the Khmer Rouge armed forces and supervised the movement’s security apparatus.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分