Athena Media - Podcast Directory

Death of an Empire is a 5 part radio series exploring twenty years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union led by Seamus Martin, former Moscow correspondent of The Irish Times, and exploring what made the Soviet Union, what lead to its collapse and what its like inside modern Russia today. Produced by Helen Shaw. Episode 1- Becoming Soviet 1940s -1970s Episode one traces the communist super state built by Joseph Stalin which once covered one sixth of the planet and crossed eleven time zones. Irishwoman Mairead Breslin Kelly shares her personal story about her father, Padraic Breslin, who died in Stalins work camps in 1940. Seamus speaks with an old friend in Moscow, Andrei Mironov, the human rights activist, who was also imprisoned in the 1980s by Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev.