Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.

A couple of hours later, the ballet goes on and the music goes on on Radio Moscow,

and we're thinking of getting the bosses out of bed.

On comes all the announcements saying that Gorbachev's been deposed,

and a new council of ministers has been put in charge and that went mad.

This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.

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We speak today with Alastair Coleman,

who joined BBC Monitoring as a technician in 1989,

just in time for the fall of the Berlin Wall.

He was on the console night shift at Kavisham on the night of the coup against Soviet

leader Gorbachev in 1991 and describes that night as the highlight of his career at the time.

Before we start, I'd like to thank Andrew Adolfson, Rick Mason, Mike Smith,

Aide Bryant, Oleg Bjorsvik, as the latest members of our select band of supporters

who are helping us financially just for the price of a cup of coffee a month and hell keep us on the air. They will shortly

be the proud owners of a Cold War Conversations coaster. Don't you want one too? Just go to

patreon.com slash cold war pod. That's p-a-t-r-E-O-N.com slash Cold War Pod.

Back to today's episode, Alistair, spent 15 years in shortwave radio, radio telegraphy, and satellite reception

and research, providing the signals for monitors and editors to see foreign media.

He tells a fascinating story of how many countries obtained information about activity behind the iron curtain.

We welcome Alastair Coleman to our Cold War conversation.

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