1956 Episode 2.12 takes us to the 22-24 October 1956, where the war plan that would create the Suez Crisis was created, developed and signed by Britain, France and Israel in an unassuming Parisian suburb. This process was, of course, far from straightforward or guaranteed to produce a result. It required the French reassuring both the Israeli and British representatives about the solid nature of their plan, and it also demonstrated the lack of tact which Selwyn Lloyd in particular seemed to poss...
Apr 18, 2024•33 min
1956 Episode 2.11 finally takes us to that controversial moment when Britain, France and Israel began to move closer together. The Sevres Protocol was neither developed nor signed in a day, and in the first two weeks of October, negotiations critically important to the later conflict were underway. At first, Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd hoped to make use of the UN Security Council to gain British satisfaction in Egypt, and for a time he was successful in this aim, because Anthony Eden was ill ...
Apr 11, 2024•32 min
1956 Episode 2.10 takes us to the Commonwealth, seen as so vital to British interests, but fracturing over the question of the best course of action to take against President Nasser. The Canadian, Australian and NZ governments were all uneasy at the prospect of war, and some, like the Canadian Foreign Minister Lester Pearson, advocated a diplomatic approach. While Eden forged ahead with an aggressive policy, torpedoing another conference on the Suez Canal in the process, he increasingly began to...
Apr 04, 2024•30 min
1956 Episode 2.9 looks at that moment which has become infamous in history – the collusion between Britain, France and Israel. We are almost ready to see these sneaky meetings take place, and for the infamous agreement take shape, but first, it is worth investigating another important and underrated angle of the Crisis. The key element of the Suez Crisis story that demonstrates how low Britain sank must be the manifest failure of the British Government to develop any legal argument in favour of ...
Apr 02, 2024•38 min
1956 Episode 2.8 examines the increasingly secretive plotting which took place behind the scenes in early autumn 1956. While Eden worked feverishly to make the conflict he desired come together, the countless variables continued to haunt him. We see here a glimpse of a common theme which will occupy us later on – the use of legal arguments to support the Anglo-French operation, on the grounds that Nasser had infringed upon British ‘rights’ and that Britain was thus entitled to compensation. In t...
Mar 28, 2024•34 min
1956 Episode 2.7 examines the steps which led towards the military intervention in Egypt, by placing the British behaviour in its imperial context. In spring 1955, Britain remained a premier power in the Middle East, while American representation in that theatre was not particularly impressive, save for the commercial connections which American citizens had with the different oil barons there. In the space of a year though, disquiet in the Middle East and several threats to Britain’s sphere of i...
Mar 26, 2024•35 min
1956 Episode 2.6 looks at the increasingly close cooperation between Britain and France in light of the signal defeat of Western imperialist ambitions in Egypt. We open our episode with a defining scene – President Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal. The nationalisation of the Canal was not the moment that the world flocked to condemn Nasser’s regime, as Anthony Eden may have hoped. For a time, the Egyptian leader would be seen as unstable, aggressive and unreasonable, but this bad press...
Mar 21, 2024•28 min
1956 Episode 2.5 looks at British commitments in the Middle East, and how setbacks there could massively drag down ideas of British ‘prestige’ in that region. What did the French have to fear from Colonel Nasser, and how did this tie in with later Anglo-French agreements? The answers can be found here. Also of note in this episode is the moment when the Anglo-American loan to Nasser was cancelled, which meant that the Egyptian leader would be unable to construct his Aswan Dam. With this setback ...
Mar 19, 2024•30 min
1956 Episode 2.4 examines Britain's embarrassing and dissatisfying efforts to try and make Egypt see sense. Here we see what kind of Government Anthony Eden led, and how he shook it up, or failed to shake it up, after he assumed the premiership in spring 1955. Anthony may have deserved his turn, but he would quickly exhaust the sense of goodwill he had built up over the years. In spite of his reputation for integrity and bravery when standing up to the appeasement policy of the 1930s, Eden prove...
Mar 14, 2024•38 min
1956 Episode 2.3 examines British views of Suez and Nasser's new Egyptian regime. As the British government underwent a change and waved goodbye to great old men like Churchill, it was clear at the same time that this new government had no intention of changing its imperial tune. Egypt was a place to be held onto, not relinquished; Nasser was a figure to be loathed, rather than cooperated with; British prestige, as much as her long-standing strategic and security interests, depended on holding t...
Mar 12, 2024•34 min
A French investment opportunity, an ancient idea, and a British masterstroke - discover in this episode how the Suez Canal became so monumentally important for British imperial interests in the latter 19th century, and how this interest was then carried over into the 20th century. After years of defending and expanding their stock in Suez, it was highly unlikely that Britain was going to give up its position there without a fight. Yet, at the same time, decolonisation trends across the world wer...
Mar 07, 2024•35 min
In this episode, we will examine the painful post-war experience of France, why it was so reluctant to let go of its colonies and how this caused it more damage in the long run. As an integral, but largely forgotten player in the Crisis, understanding the French angle is essential for us. On many occasions, the fractured French government would be the only thing holding the also fractured plans for Suez together. Here, we discover what was moving the French in North Africa, and how its bitter Al...
Mar 05, 2024•29 min
1956 now enters its second season, and we are confronted with several pressing questions. How did the British, French, Israelis and Americans become involved in Egypt, and how did these events affect what was ongoing in Hungary? The incredible spectacle of these two simultaneous crises, both caused by very different forces, and hosting very different characters, is what we have to examine next, so I hope you'll join me as we introduce the Suez Crisis - perhaps the greatest error of modern Britai...
Mar 05, 2024•19 min
1956 Episode 1.15 examines the final moments of Imre Nagy, as the Soviet noose tightened around him. But the Kremlin was not safe yet. Of particular concern to Moscow and to the Hungarians was the stance of Yugoslavia, as its embassy in Budapest provided asylum to Imre Nagy and 40 other individuals responsible for guiding and leading the momentarily independent Hungarian state. The revolution may have been crushed within a few days, but it was evidently not going to be so simple to remove the me...
Feb 29, 2024•37 min
1956 Episode 1.14 analyses the Soviet response in the first week of November 1956, as the rug was finally pulled on Hungarian independence. Having already removed his country from the Warsaw Pact and requested Western assistance, Nagy was persona non grata in Soviet minds, yet this Hungarian communist was not finished yet. If there was any chance at all that this Hungarian state could be preserved, he was willing to engage in whatever to took to protect his people from the Soviet axe. Yet, unfor...
Feb 27, 2024•37 min
1956 Episode 1.13 examines the unlikely triumph of the Hungarians in Budapest, even as the Soviets schemed for revenge. After somehow wresting a ceasefire agreement from the Soviet Union, the Hungarian revolution appeared – against all odds – to be secured by 28th October. Yet, this was merely a pause for Moscow, it was not the end. As Hungarians began to dream of life outside the Soviet sphere, Soviet tanks were preparing to move, and figures within Imre Nagy’s tightening circle were preparing ...
Feb 22, 2024•42 min
1956 Episode 1.12 examines a key moment when a Hungarian student protest exploded into something far more encouraging, and for the Soviets, far more dangerous. The demands of the protesters – joined by workers, peasants, Hungarian communists, soldiers and many more figures besides – were as disconcerting as the threat the protest posed to Soviet control. Still more incredible than the growth of the protest was the transformation of this protest into a riot, and the further transformation of this...
Feb 20, 2024•41 min
1956 Episode 1.11 looks at what happened when Moscow decided it’d be a good idea to force Rakosi, the avowed Stalinist, to share power with Imre Nagy, his opposite in almost every respect. Rakosi wished to maintain the status quo even as his favourite weapons like the secret police were taken away, yet Nagy recognised and appreciated from an early stage that much would have to change. Hungary couldn’t continue on in the manner of a repressed, unhappy vassal, especially if Moscow wished to guaran...
Feb 15, 2024•37 min
1956 Episode 1.10 continues where we left off last time, and looks a bit more at the person of Matyas Rakosi. Rakosi was the Stalinist dictator of Hungary from the late 1940s, and he set about establishing a Hungarian Stalinist regime, complete with all the trappings Stalin enjoyed. For every purge, every policy and ever character assassination that the man of steel engaged in, Rakosi felt compelled to demonstrate his loyalty by going still further. He would terrorise the people of Hungary into ...
Feb 13, 2024•32 min
1956 Episode 1.9 takes a somewhat depressing journey into post-war Hungary, to present a story and a people which suffered much over the course of the Soviet occupation – also known as the Soviet ‘liberation’. Liberation from what, one may ask? Well how about liberation from national pride, freedom of conscience and that all too valuable commodity in history – freedom from fear. Fear was the key ingredient in the Soviet-Hungarian relationship between 1945-56, and in this episode we detail its ke...
Feb 08, 2024•32 min
We continue our story from last time, as the Polish situation is connected to other fascinating questions. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this chapter in Soviet-Polish relations was the notable involvement of China. The Chinese, it emerged, were very interested in seeing that other peoples travelled their own ‘road to socialism’ as they had done. A Polish road to socialism would validate the unique Chinese experience of struggle over the last few decades, and it would also confirm that M...
Feb 06, 2024•29 min
1956 Episode 1.7 examines the continuing deterioration of the Polish situation, as Polish citizens dared to ask more and more questions, and to criticise the Soviet order, on their lips was one figure above all – Vladislav Gomulka (pictured). Gomulka was one figure among many who had been disgraced and imprisoned during Stalin’s numerous purges. Gomulka, it was said, was too vocal a critic, and too independent or nationalistically inclined to rule Poland in Moscow’s name. Now though, the Polish ...
Feb 01, 2024•39 min
1956 Episode 1.6 examines the tumultuous fallout of Khrushchev’s February speech in the context of Poland. What was the Polish experience of living in the Soviet orbit? Here we set the scene and trace a bit of the background. It’s a tragic kind of story if you happen to be a Pole, or care about the sovereignty of independent states, but it also makes for fascinating listening. Here we look at a specific example of a revolutionary study, which tore the lid off of Soviet occupied Poland and which ...
Jan 30, 2024•32 min
1956 Episode 1.5 examines the implications for the Soviet people, as Khrushchev’s speech is disseminated through the sprawling empire. The questions which many citizens had were to be restricted and constrained by the specific parameters set down by the Soviet authorities. In short, as we’ll see in this episode, there was a fine line between debate and dissent. Pravda liked to distinguish between dissent and debate by presenting discussion of the secret speech in the spirit of party-mindedness, ...
Jan 25, 2024•28 min
1956 Episode 1.4 examines the immediate storm caused by Khrushchev’s denunciations of Stalin in late February. Above all, the greatest ingredient in this storm was that of confusion. Soviet officials didn’t know what to tell the assembled crowds, and schoolteachers didn’t know what to tell their pupils. How far exactly could they go in the condemnation of Stalin? This wasn’t made clear, nor was it made clear exactly what Khrushchev hoped to gain. He seemed to vacillate between wanting people to ...
Jan 23, 2024•32 min
Episode 1.3 opens with the scene which greeted Khrushchev as he performed that incendiary speech over 24-25th of February 1956. It was a pivotal day in the history of the Soviet Union, and after we unwrap its major aspects, we then tackle the key questions – how had this speech come to be, and how had Khrushchev managed to convince his peers that it was necessary? These questions require answers if we’re to understand and appreciate the world which housed the secret speech, so I hope you’ll tune...
Jan 18, 2024•32 min
Episode 1.2 follows on from where our first episode left off. Here, the power struggle between the Soviet Union’s top men is in full swing, and power plays, character assassination, genuine assassination and even more tactics besides distinguish this period of post-Stalin Soviet history. Nikita Khrushchev’s victorious succession and confirmation as First Secretary was far from certain once the struggle began, but as his rivals continued to underestimate him, and as he worked to build up his powe...
Jan 16, 2024•32 min
What happened when the architect of the Cold War passed away? Would the Soviet Union Stalin built adapt to a new successor, or would a set of chain reactions doom the empire in its cradle? If you want to learn more about what followed after the Korean War – as a story and as a year of significance, 1956 has few equals, and we open our narrative with the event which set up all subsequent events – the death of Josef Stalin on 5th March 1953. As far as deaths of prominent characters go, the death o...
Jan 11, 2024•32 min
Welcome to 1956, an era of schemes, revolution, propaganda, intrigue and a whole lot of diplomacy! Originally brought exclusively to patrons, I've repurposed this series for all listeners, and within it you will learn exactly why I believe this eventful year is well worth your time. Our series begins with the death of Stalin, a megalomaniacal dictator who left no successor save the clique of people who had managed to survive his paranoid wrath for several years. Nikita Khrushchev, against all th...
Jan 11, 2024•11 min
Like what you hear? Consider signing up on Patreon to access the entire series. Thanksss! For the last four+ years, this PhD thesis has been my obsession. Like pushing a boulder up a hill, the struggle was real. But, sometimes, struggle can produce great things, and I hope you'll agree that what I made is worthy of your time. This series comes exclusively to $5 patrons, but as is customary, listeners get the first episode for free. See if you like the sound of this nitty-gritty exploration of hi...
Jan 08, 2024•44 min
