Retracing the Iron Curtain: A 3,000-Mile Journey Through the End and Afterlife of the Cold War (133)

Jul 31, 2020

01:13:12

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Tim Phillips travelled the route of the former Iron Curtain from deep inside the arctic circle to the meeting point in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. On his journey, he explored both the surviving traces of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall.

The people he meets bear vivid witness to a time of change. There are some who now look on the Cold War with nostalgia and affection, but many more who still despise it unable to forgive the hard and sometimes lost decades that their families, friends, and nations had to endure.

Strikingly a large and increasing proportion of these populations no longer has any personal recollection of this defining 20th Century conflict. They were still too young or not even born when the curtain and the wall came down.

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Back to today’s episode, we welcome Tim to our Cold War conversation…

There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, which can also be found as a link in your podcast app. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode133/

If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook.

Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye.

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0:00 Introduction and anecdotes from Tim Phillips

2:06 Call for listener support and introduction to Tim Phillips' story

4:45 Discussion on NATO countries bordering the Soviet Union

17:24 The concept of Finlandisation and Finnish neutrality during the Cold War

27:10 Soviet occupation of Bornholm

34:51 Journey from the Baltic to Marienborn

38:47 The transformation of the border area into a nature reserve post-Cold War