Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode number 200 musings of a Russian history podcaster.

Last time, we recounted the multitude of reasons

why the superpower known as the Soviet Union collapsed so rapidly in 1991.

Today on episode 200 of the Russian rulers history podcast also known as Russian

history retold.

I will share with you my favorite memories and feelings about this 10-year-plus adventure.

Back in February of 2009, I had a foolish idea about doing a podcast about Russian history.

I asked myself what do I want to share about Russia in its thousand year existence?

While doing the research I found that most of the material was about the

rulers of the land that began as the land of the Russe in what is now Ukraine and north around

Novgorod. What I've discovered over the 10 years since publishing

episode one is a history that is far richer than I ever could have imagined.

On April 30th 2009, I put out episode one, and to call it a flop is to put it mildly.

The first four episodes were met with a slew of pretty bad reviews, especially from the

podcast reviewer Anne is the man.

He ripped into the podcast, but gave it a few stars for trying to share a history that at the time was untouched.

His comments were mostly about the quality of the sound, especially the popping noises.

Did some more research and upgraded my equipment, including adding a pop screen in front of the microphone.

Well, true to his word, and did another review, and this time he gave me two thumbs up.

Within a week I had over a thousand listeners, and it grew from there.

Initially, I had intended for the podcast to last about two years and about 50 episodes.

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