What happens
Mistress of the Far East, an episode of The Pacific Story, follows a visiting American, Mr. Walton, as he is shown around Vladivostok by Mr. Seminoff, a Soviet official, and a Japanese consular walker, Mr. O'Connor, is seen photographing the harbor. Seminoff explains the city's strategic importance to Soviet Russia and Japan, the harbor's submarines and fortifications, and the city's history from its founding in 1860 through the Russian imperial era, the 1918 Allied intervention and the Japanese occupation. The episode describes the Soviet grip on the Trans-Siberian railway and the rebuilding of the port. The broadcast is a historical portrait of the city's role in the wider contest over the Pacific, shown through Walton's guided tour and its background. The recording breaks off partway, so the story's later developments are not covered here.
Vladivostok, Soviet Far East, Pacific coast
Characters: Mr. Walton, Mr. Seminoff, Mr. O'Connor, Alexander Tobleson
Listen for: Mr. Seminoff's explanations of Vladivostok's strategic position, and the account of the Allied and Japanese intervention of 1918 to 1922
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.