What happens
Ivan, a young Kyrgyz shepherd, is afraid of the tractors brought to clear sand for a new railway across the waterless plains of Kyrgyzia. Encouraged by a Russian engineer, he overcomes his fear, learns to run and maintain the machines, and becomes a leader among his people. The episode traces how the Kyrgyz and other peoples of Soviet Asia moved from nomad life to industrial production, how earlier revolt against Tsarist conscription gave way to shared Soviet development, and how these regions contributed to the defense of Moscow and Stalingrad. Dr. H. H. Fisher, professor of history at Stanford University, closes the program with commentary on the region's strategic and political importance for the Pacific era.
Soviet Asia, especially Kyrgyzia, in the decades after the Russian Revolution, with references to Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad during World War II
Characters: Ivan, Dr. H. H. Fisher, Julian
Listen for: The account of Ivan learning to run the tractors and the railway built across the desert, and Dr. Fisher's closing commentary on Soviet Asia's role in the war and the Pacific era
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.