WEBVTT - THE LAST SOVIET - EP 4: VK3CFI

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<v Speaker 1>It was early one morning. I was back in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>ninety one. It was January, it was hot. I left

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<v Speaker 1>the radio on. This is Maggie Iaquinto, a Ham radio

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<v Speaker 1>operator in the small town of Kolak, Australia. And I

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<v Speaker 1>was up very early in the morning and having a

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<v Speaker 1>cup of coffee and I heard this crackle. Oh this

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<v Speaker 1>is interesting. And I heard this d heavy rushing going

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<v Speaker 1>cq cq cq. This is you two M I R

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<v Speaker 1>looking for contacts, you two M I R the Soviet

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<v Speaker 1>space station. I was so happy, I was unbelievably happy.

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<v Speaker 1>I said, well, this is it, and with great nervousness

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<v Speaker 1>I pressed the transmit button and I said, you two

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<v Speaker 1>M I R. This is VK three CFI. The handle

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<v Speaker 1>is Maggie over. Maggie had been trying to make contact

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<v Speaker 1>for years and should anyone have seen me at six

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<v Speaker 1>in the morning out on my little street in Kolak dancing,

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<v Speaker 1>and I wow, I've done it. She was about to

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<v Speaker 1>start a long and pretty special relationship with the Soviet

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<v Speaker 1>space station and with a certain cosmonaut, Sira gay K

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<v Speaker 1>so Sia gay Let's looted that. But Maggie's connection to

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<v Speaker 1>Saragay wouldn't just be a cool story to whip out

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<v Speaker 1>it dinner parties. Within an hour, the crowd was heading

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<v Speaker 1>to the seat of Soviet power as the Soviet Union

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<v Speaker 1>unraveled in nineteen ninety one. At allmy armored personnel carriers

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<v Speaker 1>on the streets, it was Maggie's who would tell sarage

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<v Speaker 1>the truth about what was happening in his country. Armored

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<v Speaker 1>personnel carriers rolled by carrying scores of truths, some of

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<v Speaker 1>them brandishing machine guns, and Sarage and the other cosmonauts

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<v Speaker 1>were hungry for the news, and they called it Rita Rita,

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<v Speaker 1>which is my name in Russian. This is CNN breaking news.

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<v Speaker 1>So Rita's information. So I was their information source. Good evening.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Jane Randall in Washington. The information Maggie gave Saragey

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<v Speaker 1>proved crucial because it would help him make the choice

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<v Speaker 1>of a lifetime to stay or to go. Historians may

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<v Speaker 1>have trouble describing a day when Kael Garbato resigned as

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<v Speaker 1>the president of the Soviet Union, which had already ceased

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<v Speaker 1>to exist. I'm Lance Bass and from Kaleidoscope, iHeart podcast

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<v Speaker 1>an exile content. This is the last Soviet Helen Charmon,

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<v Speaker 1>becoming the first Britain in space. She blasted off with

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<v Speaker 1>two Soviet cosmonaut repairment on a missions Design chief need

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<v Speaker 1>to repair the eighteen Mirrors space station that has been

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<v Speaker 1>orbiting the globe for five years now. On May eighteenth,

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety one, Helen Sharman, the British woman who won

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<v Speaker 1>the TV contest, blasted off into space. Alongside her were

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<v Speaker 1>the Soviet cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Anatoly Artabaski. They were

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<v Speaker 1>leaving behind a country in chaos, a country literally breaking

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<v Speaker 1>apart at the seams, the republics Estonia, a human chain

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<v Speaker 1>of protests Lithuania. Down in the Baltic Republic of Lithuania,

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<v Speaker 1>Latvia flag was raised and they sang the national lands.

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<v Speaker 1>They were demanded independence. The parliament in the capital city

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<v Speaker 1>of Bakhu voted unanimously to make ourser Bai John an

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<v Speaker 1>independent republic. But at that particular moment, flying through space

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<v Speaker 1>in a tiny capsule, Helen wasn't really thinking about what

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<v Speaker 1>was happening on Earth. She was just enjoying the ride.

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<v Speaker 1>A few hundred kilometers above the earth surface, you can

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<v Speaker 1>see that the Earth is curved, you can see vasts

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<v Speaker 1>sections of the Pacific Ocean, the whole of Western Europe

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<v Speaker 1>in Mungo beautiful, inspiring. After forty eight hours, she finally

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<v Speaker 1>arrived at the Mere space Station. As Helen Sharman Sawyer's

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<v Speaker 1>spacecraft dot with the Mere Station last Monday, it was

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<v Speaker 1>the realization of a dream that started more than two

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<v Speaker 1>years ago. I remember opening the hatch I went through first.

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<v Speaker 1>It was just so nice to float into these long,

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<v Speaker 1>thin modules, feeling weightless. I remember being the most natural,

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<v Speaker 1>relaxing feeling I'd ever had as she floated in zero

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<v Speaker 1>gravity for the first time. Helen discovered her home for

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<v Speaker 1>the next week. Tunnels with tight walls and low ceilings, wires, screens, keyboards,

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<v Speaker 1>and transmitters stuck to every available surface. The space station

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<v Speaker 1>Mirror was a technological marvel, humanity's only outpost in space,

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<v Speaker 1>and the Soviets had created it. But in their rush

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<v Speaker 1>to get it up there, comfort had to take a

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<v Speaker 1>back seat, so the place was kind of a dump,

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<v Speaker 1>reeking a mold, mites and body odor. And thanks to

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<v Speaker 1>my INSYNCT tour days, I can actually imagine what that

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<v Speaker 1>smells like like. Five sweaty teenage boys in a bus

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<v Speaker 1>for months. Not pretty. Helen was going up there for

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<v Speaker 1>a week, but anatole and sarage for five months. For

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<v Speaker 1>it all to work, everything had to be super organized.

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<v Speaker 1>Mission control planned. Certainly, my time to the nearest, five minutes,

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<v Speaker 1>five minutes, we were told when we needed to awake

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<v Speaker 1>around seven am Moscow time, have a space shower, meaning

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<v Speaker 1>wipe your body down with a wet towel, and typically

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<v Speaker 1>we would have breakfast together chicken with Brunes bread, candy, coffee.

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<v Speaker 1>Not my usual breakfast, in fact, I'm not the biggest

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<v Speaker 1>fan of Russian food, but I guess it's certainly feeling.

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<v Speaker 1>And there was only one toilets in use, so we

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<v Speaker 1>have to work around each other in that respect. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>in space, even something as simple as ping becomes a

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<v Speaker 1>whole operation. Everyone gets their own custom shaped funnel which

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<v Speaker 1>is attached to a vacuum hose. When you gotta go,

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<v Speaker 1>you have to hold the funnel right up against you

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<v Speaker 1>unless you want to end up surrounded by droplets of

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<v Speaker 1>floating pea, and that as gross. After all that, the showering,

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<v Speaker 1>the eating, the peeing, the cosmonauts are ready to get

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<v Speaker 1>down to some actual work because the station wasn't in

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<v Speaker 1>great shape. There were power outages, computer failures, leaks. It

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<v Speaker 1>needed constant maintenance and that is why our guy Sarage

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<v Speaker 1>was there. He was the engineer and his job was

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<v Speaker 1>to fix all these problems, to keep the station running,

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<v Speaker 1>to keep the dream of Soviet space alive. That's without Santatoli,

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<v Speaker 1>Arts and Varsity and their Cricolo will spend five months

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<v Speaker 1>and plan a record eight walks in space as they

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<v Speaker 1>go about repairing the Mirror Station. Helen Charman had her

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<v Speaker 1>own special job on Mirror Space farmer. She was growing

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<v Speaker 1>wheat potatoes. She even planted a lemon tree, growing food

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<v Speaker 1>in space. Been like mad Damon in the Martian the

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<v Speaker 1>Scientific Experiment she took part and weren't going to win

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<v Speaker 1>any Nobel prizes, but it was nevertheless of British first.

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<v Speaker 1>And in the evenings, after they'd finished all their duties,

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<v Speaker 1>it was finally time to chill. Sometimes we could just relax.

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<v Speaker 1>Is usually a good hour where there's nothing scheduled, where

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<v Speaker 1>you can just be together and look out the window,

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<v Speaker 1>talk about families and friends that we left behind. The

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<v Speaker 1>last couple of years had been strange for Helen she'd

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<v Speaker 1>quit her job, broken up with her boyfriend, and let's

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<v Speaker 1>face it, I'm going to Russia to train as a

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<v Speaker 1>cosmonaut is a pretty good excuse. She'd left her parents

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<v Speaker 1>behind in England and moved to the USSR. But she

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<v Speaker 1>was twenty seven single. Her whole life was ahead of her.

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<v Speaker 1>For Saragey, it's different. He recently got married to someone

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<v Speaker 1>in mission control actually, though she wasn't on this mission,

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<v Speaker 1>and now they had a baby. Sigey's daughter was born

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<v Speaker 1>just a few months before we flew into space, and

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<v Speaker 1>he would have missed her terribly. He knew that was

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<v Speaker 1>what his mission was assigned to do, and he knew

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<v Speaker 1>his wife would look after the door so beautifully. But

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<v Speaker 1>your babies grow up very quickly, and Segay was going

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<v Speaker 1>to miss a lot of that development. Over five months

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<v Speaker 1>in space, sarage was going to watch his daughter Orga

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<v Speaker 1>grow up on screen. He could only talk to his

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<v Speaker 1>family every two weeks. He'd miss his daughter's first words,

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<v Speaker 1>sitting up, crawling, and then her first steps. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>big deal, really, but he knew, you know that that

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<v Speaker 1>was his job, and he knew he was going to

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<v Speaker 1>do that, so he'd thought it all through accepted it,

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<v Speaker 1>that isolation from the Earth and the fact that you're

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<v Speaker 1>not with all your friends and family anymore. Over that week,

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<v Speaker 1>Helen listens to the usually quiet sarage began to open

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<v Speaker 1>up about how he's missing summer and Moscow, the long

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<v Speaker 1>warm evenings with friends and family, about how his daughter

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<v Speaker 1>is growing up without him. Every time, Saragey tells Helen

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit more, and Helen found herself looking forward

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<v Speaker 1>to their evening chats. But then all too soon it's

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<v Speaker 1>time for Helen to return to Earth. It must have

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<v Speaker 1>felt weird after so much build up and training, knowing

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<v Speaker 1>at twenty seven the first lining for Obit has already

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<v Speaker 1>been written. But even stranger was having to leave Space

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<v Speaker 1>without Saragey and Anatoly and that final goodbye. It was

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<v Speaker 1>heart wrenching because I knew I was leaving them behind

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<v Speaker 1>in space. Not only I enjoyed it and I didn't

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<v Speaker 1>want to leave to return to Earth just then, but

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<v Speaker 1>saying goodbye to what felt like then the two best

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<v Speaker 1>friends I had ever had. This morning, it was warm

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<v Speaker 1>farewells from the two cosmonauts staying behind, to the mere

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<v Speaker 1>crew being relieved, and to Helen. They passed through the

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<v Speaker 1>hatch into their Sawyer's craft, which I'm doped from MEA

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<v Speaker 1>and just before half past ten this morning fired its

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<v Speaker 1>retro rockets. Less than half an hour later they were

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<v Speaker 1>parachuting to Earth. Watched firemission control and when Helen landed

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<v Speaker 1>back in the USSR before going home to her parents,

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<v Speaker 1>she actually visited Saragey's family. I went round to visit

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<v Speaker 1>his wife and his baby after I returned from space

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<v Speaker 1>while Segey was still in space. That's how close they'd become.

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<v Speaker 1>And my hair was, you know, I'd had it cut

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<v Speaker 1>quite short, and the baby Auga said dad. When I arrived,

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<v Speaker 1>Baby Auga called Helen dad to her. Saragey was just

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<v Speaker 1>some stranger with short hair, much like Helen. And that's

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<v Speaker 1>when Helen realized exactly how much Sarahgey was missing. And

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<v Speaker 1>now Sarah finds himself missing Helen loneliness is starting to

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<v Speaker 1>gnaw at him. Downtime on the space station seems to

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<v Speaker 1>drag on forever, and one evening, almost out of boredom,

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<v Speaker 1>sarage starts flicking through the handover notes left by the

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<v Speaker 1>previous crew, and that's when he sees something strange amongst

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<v Speaker 1>the detailed log about technical issues and repairs. There's a

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<v Speaker 1>series of scribbles, numbers, letters, and symbols, each with dates

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<v Speaker 1>and times next to them. It looks like some kind

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<v Speaker 1>of call log, but cosmonauts only get one personal call

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<v Speaker 1>every week or so these are way more regular. It's

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<v Speaker 1>beginning to look like the last crew weren't just using

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<v Speaker 1>the radio to call home. They were speaking to people

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<v Speaker 1>all over the world, to people in Taiwan or Ireland

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<v Speaker 1>or Ohio, to people in their living room, to amateur

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<v Speaker 1>radio operators. And there's one call sign that comes up

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<v Speaker 1>again and again, and next to it the word Australia

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<v Speaker 1>v K three CFI Nervous. He tunes the radio to

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<v Speaker 1>the right frequency and waits nothing. The next day he

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<v Speaker 1>finds himself going through the motions until he can try again.

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<v Speaker 1>Nothing days pass. Every night he keeps coming back to

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<v Speaker 1>the radio, listening to the same old empty cracker. But

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<v Speaker 1>one evening, just as he's about to call it quits,

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<v Speaker 1>a woman's voice Physics into Life. Two years earlier, nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighty nine, Australia. Kolak a small town just outside of Melbourne,

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<v Speaker 1>twelve thousand people, best known for its dairy farm somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>in that town. A woman is in a makeshift radio

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<v Speaker 1>shack in her house, trying to get through to the

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<v Speaker 1>Soviet space station. It's VK three CFI Maggie aya Quinto.

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<v Speaker 1>I can remember her dancing around the kitchen, flinging a

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<v Speaker 1>T twel over ahead, dancing to some type of Balkan music.

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<v Speaker 1>That's been Maggie's son. Maggie died in twenty fourteen, but

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<v Speaker 1>we spoke to her sons and to an Australian radio

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<v Speaker 1>producer named Jesse Burrell, who sent us an interview she

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<v Speaker 1>did with Maggie in twenty eleven. She had a quirky personality.

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<v Speaker 1>She had a fun sense of humor. She liked puns.

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<v Speaker 1>She liked bad action movies. She liked playing softball, She

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<v Speaker 1>liked Macedonian dancing. She spoke Russian. Maggie was born in

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<v Speaker 1>America and learned Russian at college in the early sixties,

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<v Speaker 1>during the height of the Cold War. She was just

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<v Speaker 1>fascinated with the USSR. Maggie followed the news of the

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<v Speaker 1>Soviet Union anyway she could, reading the papers, listening to

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<v Speaker 1>the radio, watching TV. She was convinced that one day

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<v Speaker 1>she would visit, but then life guide in the way,

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<v Speaker 1>she met a guy and moved to Australia with him.

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<v Speaker 1>She had two sons and started working as a computer

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<v Speaker 1>teacher at the local high school in Colac. The sides

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<v Speaker 1>of Colac. It was a good bakery there, not exactly

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<v Speaker 1>what Maggie's dreams were made of. Even the bakery was

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<v Speaker 1>closed on weekends. No Balkan dancing club, definitely no Russians

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<v Speaker 1>to talk to. But Maggie had a secret weapon cable here,

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<v Speaker 1>all right, and so that just comes into the radio

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<v Speaker 1>shock here Ham radio. I always wanted to be a

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<v Speaker 1>Ham radio operator when I was fifteen or sixteen, I

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<v Speaker 1>just wanted to do this. Ham Radio a way for

0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.800
<v Speaker 1>people to talk to each other from home using radio waves,

0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.320
<v Speaker 1>a more advanced version of the ten can on a string.

0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:32.040
<v Speaker 1>It promised freedom, independence, adventure. There's no way that I

0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.360
<v Speaker 1>can visit every country in the world, but I can

0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.640
<v Speaker 1>with Ham Radio. Maggie talked to all sorts of people

0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.560
<v Speaker 1>and even went to Ham Radio conferences on weekends. They

0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.240
<v Speaker 1>would always be hosted at some sort of basketball court,

0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.640
<v Speaker 1>and they'd just be tables set up along the walls

0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.680
<v Speaker 1>stacked with different types of gear, like different types of radios,

0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.360
<v Speaker 1>and everyone would call each other by their unique call sign.

0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.160
<v Speaker 1>It's like code names, a jumble of letters and numbers

0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.560
<v Speaker 1>that shows who's calling and where from. In Australia, all

0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.760
<v Speaker 1>of the Ham radio call signs start with VK. India's

0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:09.520
<v Speaker 1>vu vs Canada. You get the idea, and three represents Victoria,

0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.080
<v Speaker 1>so I'm VK three. And then the suffix, which is

0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:16.840
<v Speaker 1>two letters or three represents your unique identity, so I

0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:21.399
<v Speaker 1>was VK three CFI and no one else in the

0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.240
<v Speaker 1>world can have that call sign. And not these Ham

0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.040
<v Speaker 1>radio conferences, people would actually address Maggie not by her name,

0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.399
<v Speaker 1>but by her call sign. This is the level of

0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:36.120
<v Speaker 1>geekiness we're talking about. And then at one of these conferences,

0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.600
<v Speaker 1>she starts hearing a rumor, a whisper going around the

0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.320
<v Speaker 1>community that a handful of Hams have managed to get

0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.840
<v Speaker 1>through to space, not just any space, but space behind

0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:55.040
<v Speaker 1>the Iron curtain, the space station mirror. Maggie can't get

0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.560
<v Speaker 1>it out of her head, the idea of speaking to

0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.399
<v Speaker 1>a real Soviet and she starts thinking, maybe this is

0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:06.639
<v Speaker 1>my chance to finally visit the USSR, even if her

0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.280
<v Speaker 1>little patch of the Soviet Union would be two hundred

0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.560
<v Speaker 1>and fifty miles up in space, and so Maggie gets

0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.560
<v Speaker 1>to work. She had already turned her spare bedroom into

0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.399
<v Speaker 1>a sort of radio shack, like something out of a

0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:24.199
<v Speaker 1>seventy science fiction film, cables MIC's audio equipment and the

0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.760
<v Speaker 1>radio itself. But even this gear isn't sophisticated enough to

0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:33.639
<v Speaker 1>pick up the signal she's after from space. The sheer

0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:38.280
<v Speaker 1>distance makes it really, really hard. So Maggie buys a

0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.000
<v Speaker 1>second radio for her kitchen and fixes a giant antenna

0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.199
<v Speaker 1>to the roof of her house. Then she wires it

0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.040
<v Speaker 1>all up to an old Tashiba laptop, a real doorstopper.

0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.159
<v Speaker 1>Everything's set up ready to go. Maggie tunes the transceiver

0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.119
<v Speaker 1>to the right frequency for the Soviet space station you

0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:05.639
<v Speaker 1>Tube M I R and nothing. She does this over

0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:14.560
<v Speaker 1>and over again every day. She wakes up before five,

0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.320
<v Speaker 1>while her sons are still sleeping. She pads into the kitchen,

0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.320
<v Speaker 1>tunes in and listens. In the middle of the night,

0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.879
<v Speaker 1>after she's finished work, planned lessons, marked essays, made dinner,

0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.399
<v Speaker 1>got her sons ready for bed, she sits up in

0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:34.320
<v Speaker 1>the dark listening, and usually she's got the TV news

0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.800
<v Speaker 1>on in the background, and every night the news brings

0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:42.040
<v Speaker 1>stories of chaos from the Soviet Union check points across

0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.720
<v Speaker 1>Berlin had finally buckled. The Berlin Wall falls November nine,

0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.480
<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty nine. A few weeks later in Czechoslovakia, the

0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.440
<v Speaker 1>people overthrow the Communist governed will give offense monopoly on power.

0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.720
<v Speaker 1>A month later, in Romania, people shoot their dictator. Chow

0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:06.840
<v Speaker 1>Ku is dead, so is his wife. Two years pass.

0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.879
<v Speaker 1>You heard that right, Two years And all this time

0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.440
<v Speaker 1>Maggie keeps trying to reach the Soviet space station, getting

0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.040
<v Speaker 1>up on the roof to tinker with her antenna, buying

0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.520
<v Speaker 1>and barring every piece of equipment she can. But still

0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.280
<v Speaker 1>her chances are slim because Mirror is in constant rotation

0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.760
<v Speaker 1>around the Earth. It's only above Australia for ten minutes

0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.320
<v Speaker 1>a time, a few times a day. To catch it,

0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:33.800
<v Speaker 1>Maggie has to be on the right frequency at the

0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.840
<v Speaker 1>exact right time, and she starts to feel like she's

0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.440
<v Speaker 1>running out of options, like nothing she tries is working.

0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:48.720
<v Speaker 1>Until one warm morning in January nineteen ninety one, the

0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.200
<v Speaker 1>sun is just beginning to spread across the roofs of

0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.359
<v Speaker 1>Colac and Maggie sits in her radio shack, sipping a

0:20:55.400 --> 0:21:00.680
<v Speaker 1>warm cup of coffee, and I heard this deep hey

0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:06.879
<v Speaker 1>Russian going c q c q c q. This is

0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:11.480
<v Speaker 1>you too, am I r looking for contacts? Oh, I

0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.879
<v Speaker 1>have been waiting two years to talk to you. Yahoo

0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:23.439
<v Speaker 1>shoo to talk to you. So I am such a

0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:30.800
<v Speaker 1>happy person. I am very very happy. And what can

0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:51.440
<v Speaker 1>I tell you about us? To it over? Finally, Maggie

0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.840
<v Speaker 1>had reached the Soviet Union, and soon the person she

0:21:54.920 --> 0:22:00.040
<v Speaker 1>was speaking to almost every day was Sergei Krakov. I

0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.360
<v Speaker 1>remember waking up one morning, There'll be this loud static

0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.359
<v Speaker 1>it'd be five in the morning, five thirty in the morning.

0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:13.680
<v Speaker 1>Are times when they're having their free time they go

0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:20.479
<v Speaker 1>talk to us. See this deep, powerful Russian voice calling

0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:29.440
<v Speaker 1>my mother. Rico, you just get shocked into a wiking

0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.399
<v Speaker 1>and he hears the thick Russian accent, this guy, and

0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:33.840
<v Speaker 1>so you know, you put in your class and it

0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.040
<v Speaker 1>kind of stumble down the hall into the radio shack.

0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:40.480
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, good morning, good evening. They would speak in

0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:46.080
<v Speaker 1>a mixture of English and Russian. Maggie called it runglish.

0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:51.720
<v Speaker 1>I have too little, sir over Do you have a wife?

0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.879
<v Speaker 1>Do you have any children? He even talked to the

0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.760
<v Speaker 1>students in her computer class. The house would be packed

0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.960
<v Speaker 1>if with students from school, and they would line up

0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:13.480
<v Speaker 1>to ask questions and Maggie would translate. I can remember

0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:17.239
<v Speaker 1>they were speaking in these really strong Australian accents, like

0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.720
<v Speaker 1>Sarah Gay, what do you eat in spice? What do

0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:28.040
<v Speaker 1>you do when? The communication wasn't always the smoothest, but

0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:32.359
<v Speaker 1>that didn't matter. The desire to communicate, that was the

0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:37.280
<v Speaker 1>truly wonderful part about being a him radio operators. Gay

0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:41.080
<v Speaker 1>was really into him radio Oh my goodness. In fact,

0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:44.240
<v Speaker 1>he called her more than she called him. Sire Gay

0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:48.280
<v Speaker 1>and I had this relationship and he wanted to communicate

0:23:48.640 --> 0:24:02.600
<v Speaker 1>with me. Sarah Gay needed Maggie because deep down he

0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:06.480
<v Speaker 1>was struggling. When Sarage left the Soviet Union, the country

0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:11.200
<v Speaker 1>was in turmoil, food was in short supply, millions were

0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:15.120
<v Speaker 1>taking to the streets and protest. There was this tinderbox

0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:20.160
<v Speaker 1>feeling like anything could happen. And now whenever he asks

0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:22.800
<v Speaker 1>Mission control what's going on back home, he gets a

0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:27.120
<v Speaker 1>breezy it's fine, a brush off, a change of subject.

0:24:27.960 --> 0:24:33.720
<v Speaker 1>So he gets uneasy, frustrated. But then Sarage realizes there

0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:37.600
<v Speaker 1>is a way he can get information, information that isn't

0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:41.120
<v Speaker 1>filtered through mission control, and he can get that from

0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:46.560
<v Speaker 1>his friend in Australia, from Maggie, and so he asks her,

0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:50.840
<v Speaker 1>what's going on in my country? What are you hearing now?

0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:54.119
<v Speaker 1>We just scour the newspapers and I'd rewrite articles in

0:24:54.400 --> 0:24:57.800
<v Speaker 1>very simple English, and I would leave it in my system.

0:24:57.920 --> 0:24:59.800
<v Speaker 1>She figured out a way to send the computer on

0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.679
<v Speaker 1>her written messages, which meant she could type up news.

0:25:04.160 --> 0:25:06.399
<v Speaker 1>It was easier than reading out whole articles over a

0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:09.560
<v Speaker 1>bad connection. My own system was a tiny bulletin board.

0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:13.760
<v Speaker 1>They would read those articles. They loved reading all that stuff.

0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:19.119
<v Speaker 1>They didn't get that information from their own central so

0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:23.400
<v Speaker 1>I was their information source. Moscow was losing its grip

0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:26.760
<v Speaker 1>on the Soviet Union. The rebels are using every kind

0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:29.200
<v Speaker 1>of weapon they can lay hands for seventy two years

0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.960
<v Speaker 1>of foreign domination. Armenia has declared itself independent from the

0:25:32.960 --> 0:25:38.000
<v Speaker 1>Soviet Union. Sarage starts to feel like he's losing it,

0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:44.480
<v Speaker 1>far away from home, floating in a black void, left

0:25:44.640 --> 0:25:53.120
<v Speaker 1>in the dark, until finally, in July nineteen ninety one,

0:25:53.400 --> 0:25:59.280
<v Speaker 1>mission control calls him. They say, look, there's a problem.

0:25:59.520 --> 0:26:04.160
<v Speaker 1>States are breaking away and we're worried Kazakhstan will be next.

0:26:05.200 --> 0:26:08.679
<v Speaker 1>If we lose Kazakhstan, we lose our launch pad bikan Nor.

0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:14.560
<v Speaker 1>If we lose Biknor, we lose our access to space.

0:26:16.400 --> 0:26:20.040
<v Speaker 1>But they say, we've got an idea. We want to

0:26:20.080 --> 0:26:23.480
<v Speaker 1>send a Kazak cosmonaut to Mirror as an olive branch,

0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:27.199
<v Speaker 1>a way to keep the Kazakhs on our side. The

0:26:27.200 --> 0:26:31.280
<v Speaker 1>thing is, and here's the hitch. He's not experienced, and

0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:34.560
<v Speaker 1>he's not an engineer. He definitely won't be able to

0:26:34.560 --> 0:26:38.200
<v Speaker 1>take care of the station. So, Sarah game, we're giving

0:26:38.200 --> 0:26:41.680
<v Speaker 1>you a choice. You can come back to Earth, back

0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:45.000
<v Speaker 1>to your family as planned, and abandon the station to

0:26:45.080 --> 0:26:50.320
<v Speaker 1>an unknown fate. Or you can stay as long as

0:26:50.359 --> 0:26:56.320
<v Speaker 1>it takes and protect the station, our last hope. You

0:26:56.400 --> 0:27:01.639
<v Speaker 1>have three hours to decide to stay or to go.

0:27:10.640 --> 0:27:28.200
<v Speaker 1>That's next time on The Last Soviet. The Last Soviet

0:27:28.240 --> 0:27:31.600
<v Speaker 1>is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with iHeart Podcast and

0:27:31.720 --> 0:27:36.439
<v Speaker 1>Exile Media, produced by Sama's Dat Audio and hosted by

0:27:36.520 --> 0:27:42.679
<v Speaker 1>me Lance Bass Executive produced by Kate Osbourne and Mangesh Hadakador,

0:27:43.320 --> 0:27:48.639
<v Speaker 1>with Oz Wallisham and Kostas Linos from iHeart Executive Produced

0:27:48.680 --> 0:27:53.080
<v Speaker 1>by Katrina Norvelle and Nikki E Torre from Sama's Dad Audio.

0:27:53.280 --> 0:27:57.880
<v Speaker 1>Our executive producers are Joe Sykes and Dasha Listsina. Produced

0:27:57.960 --> 0:28:02.520
<v Speaker 1>by Asia Fuchs, Dasha litz Sa and Joe Sykes. Writing

0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:07.240
<v Speaker 1>by Lydia Marchant, Research by Mika Golubovski and Molly Schwartz,

0:28:08.080 --> 0:28:12.320
<v Speaker 1>Music by Will Epstein, Themed by Martin Orstring, mixing and

0:28:12.400 --> 0:28:16.200
<v Speaker 1>sound designed by Richard Ward and special thanks to Nando

0:28:16.320 --> 0:28:20.560
<v Speaker 1>villa We, Lissa Pollock, Will Pearson, Connel BYRNE, Bob Pittman

0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:24.200
<v Speaker 1>and Isaac Lee. Many thanks to Ben and josh Iya

0:28:24.280 --> 0:28:26.720
<v Speaker 1>Quinto for letting us use some of their mom Maggie's

0:28:26.720 --> 0:28:31.359
<v Speaker 1>incredible recordings, and to Australian radio producer Jesse Barrell for

0:28:31.440 --> 0:28:34.560
<v Speaker 1>the interview she did with Maggie in twenty eleven. If

0:28:34.560 --> 0:28:37.000
<v Speaker 1>you want to hear more shows like this, nothing is

0:28:37.000 --> 0:28:40.160
<v Speaker 1>more important to the creators here at Kaleidoscope than subscribers,

0:28:40.480 --> 0:28:44.440
<v Speaker 1>ratings and reviews, so please spread the love wherever you listen,