For an Audio Podcast CLICK HERE] In July 1976, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, 17 year old Russian diver Sergei Nemtsanov makes the gut wrenching decision to defect to Canada from Communist Soviet Union. He had won numerous Soviet diving competitions and was brought to Montreal with medal expectations. He finished only 9th in theContinue reading “A Diver’s Defection, Summer Love and the Montreal Olympics”
Category Archives: Scandals & Revolutions
President Andrew Jackson was the Founding Fathers’ Donald Trump
US President Andrew Jackson certainly had a background tailor-made to be a politician. And he certainly was a shrewd and seasoned one.
The Last Deadly Days of the Knights Templar
For almost 200 years, the famous Knights Templar had considerable power, wealth, and influence across Europe and the Mediterranean. But it all came to an abrupt and bloody end in 1314. The Knights were originally founded as a Christian monastic-military order, devoted to protecting pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Land following the FirstContinue reading “The Last Deadly Days of the Knights Templar”
Why China’s Boxer Rebellion Sounds Familiar
By start of the 1900’s, China had lost a number of humiliating wars with Japan, Russia and other European powers. It fought to resist foreign armies, but lacked a modern military, and suffered millions of casualties. China’s Qing Dynasty was forced to accept humiliating foreign control over the Empire’s economy, as well as an influxContinue reading “Why China’s Boxer Rebellion Sounds Familiar”
The Cold War’s forgotten Hungarian Revolution
On October 23rd 1956, thousands of Hungarian workers and students flooded the streets of Budapest. With fists raised in defiance, they shouted for “Freedom from Soviet tyranny!”
America’s First Whistleblowers were its Founding Fathers
America’s very first whistleblowers were not the British, but actually 10 American naval officers during the Revolutionary War. They bravely reported improper behavior by the Continental Navy’s most powerful officer, their superior, to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In February 1777, those 10 men secretly gathered below deck on the USS Warren to sign a petition documentingContinue reading “America’s First Whistleblowers were its Founding Fathers”
The 1989 Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia
During an astonishing 6-week period in 1989, between November 17th and December 29th, a non-violent Velvet Revolution took place in Communist Czechoslovakia. It overthrew the 44 year old Soviet backed regime put in place by Josef Stalin at the end of World War II, and replaced it with a free democracy. It was nicknamed theContinue reading “The 1989 Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia”
Poland’s SOLIDARITY Movement was the 1st Crack in Communism
Poland’s Solidarity [Solidarnosc] labor union was nothing less than Revolutionary, the 1st crack in the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain, leading to its ultimate demise. Since the mid-1970s, Poland’s Communist economy was spiraling downward — production had plummeted, wages stagnated, and shortages were everywhere. In 1979, the new Polish Pope John Paul II famously visited Warsaw,Continue reading “Poland’s SOLIDARITY Movement was the 1st Crack in Communism”
‘Count’ Cagliostro, Europe’s Charlatan Extraordinaire
Most everyone has heard of Europe’s’ legendary lover Casanova, but how many of you have heard of his equally infamous counterpart, Cagliostro? Though not a famed womanizer, Cagliostro was nonetheless Casanova’s equal when it came to sheer audacity.
The Many Murders of Russia’s Rasputin
How many murder attempts did it take to finally kill the infamous Siberian monk Rasputin? Five, and all in the same night! Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, was a Siberian-born peasant and monk. At the young age of 23, he left his wife and three children to follow his calling and join an Orthodox monastery. After onlyContinue reading “The Many Murders of Russia’s Rasputin”