Ancient to Recent

The Lakota are on the rise.

For generations, the Sioux had possessed one enormous advantage: numbers. But numbers alone were not enough.

The Lakota lacked the horses and firearms necessary to turn their strength into military power. Caught between rival European empires and powerful Indigenous nations, their expansion had repeatedly been checked.

Now, everything is about to change.

In this first episode of our new series, we trace the transformation of the Lakota as they encounter two technologies that will reshape the Great Plains: the gun and the horse.

We travel back to the seventeenth century, exploring the Lakota's encounters with French traders, the Iroquois, Cree, Ojibwa and other Indigenous nations competing for control of the continent.

As France and Britain battle for North America, both seek Indigenous allies.

The Sioux need guns.

The Europeans need warriors.

But the Indigenous nations have their own ambitions, rivalries and political calculations.

Then comes the horse.

Reintroduced to North America by the Spanish, it begins spreading across the interior. For the Lakota, it will be revolutionary.

Mobility, firepower and access to the vast buffalo herds of the Great Plains begin transforming Lakota society.

But the Lakota are not entering an empty wilderness. They face the Crow, Pawnee, Cree, Assiniboine, Mandan, Arikara and many other powerful peoples.

Smallpox devastates the peoples of the Missouri River, shattering societies that had long acted as a barrier to Lakota expansion.

As the old balance of power collapses, the Lakota move west.

The Black Hills become increasingly important. The Missouri becomes a highway rather than a boundary.

And the Lakota begin combining the things they need most: mobility, firepower, numbers and the buffalo.

Meanwhile, Britain defeats France and emerges as the dominant European power in North America.

Then, as Britain and its American colonies go to war, another great power begins to emerge.

In 1776, as the American colonists declare independence, the Lakota are establishing their dominance across the Black Hills.

Two peoples are declaring themselves to the world.

Two nations whose futures will become inseparably intertwined.

And the collision between them is only beginning.

🎧 New episodes every Saturday

📲 YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts | @AncientToRecent

#Lakota #Sioux #LittleBighorn #AmericanWest #NativeAmericanHistory #IndigenousHistory #GreatPlains #AmericanHistory #USHistory #AmericanRevolution #LakotaHistory #HistoryPodcast #HistoryDocumentary

The first attempt has failed.

Trotsky has survived the machine-gun assault on his home. But Stalin's campaign to destroy his old rival is entering its final stage.

In this final episode, we follow Ramón Mercader as he moves deeper into Trotsky's inner circle, slowly gaining the trust of those closest to him.

As Trotsky's world contracts behind fortified walls, he begins to reflect on the revolution he helped create, and the extraordinary path that brought him to Mexico.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, a new plan is taking shape.

This time, there will be no army.

No machine guns.

No dramatic assault.

Just one man, one carefully constructed identity, and one final opportunity to silence the last prophet.

🎧 New episodes every Saturday

📲 YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts | @AncientToRecent

#Trotsky #RussianRevolution #HistoryPodcast #SovietHistory #Stalin #NKVD #RamonMercader #Trotskyism #Communism #SovietUnion #MexicanHistory #HistoryDocumentary

The assassin is already in position.

As Leon Trotsky settles into his fortified compound in Mexico, Stalin's campaign to destroy him enters its final and most dangerous phase.

In this fifth episode, we follow the NKVD's hunt for Trotsky and the extraordinary operation designed to penetrate his inner circle.

We meet Ramón Mercader, the young Spanish communist who would eventually become one of the most notorious assassins of the twentieth century.

Under the identity of "Jack Mornard", Mercader begins a carefully constructed romance with Silvia Ageloff, a Trotskyist who unknowingly becomes the key to his access to Trotsky.

As Mercader slowly works his way towards Mexico, the NKVD prepares multiple teams and infiltrates Trotsky's organisation from within.

But while Stalin's agents close in, Trotsky himself begins to confront a more personal enemy: doubt.

The revolutionary who once believed Marxism was an inevitable scientific truth now looks around the world and sees capitalism surviving, fascism advancing and the Soviet Union transformed into the Stalinist dictatorship he had spent years fighting.

For the first time, Trotsky is forced to ask whether the revolution, and perhaps his entire life's work, had been a mistake.
Yet his faith survives.

As Trotsky writes his final testament and reflects on his life, the NKVD prepares to strike.

In May 1940, an armed force led by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros launches a daring assault on Trotsky's compound.

Machine guns tear through the house.

The guards are overwhelmed.

Trotsky and Natalia hide beneath the hail of bullets.

And yet, somehow, Trotsky survives.

The first attempt has failed.

But Stalin is not going to give up.

The next assassin will not come with twenty men and machine guns.

He will come alone.

He will come as a friend.

🎧 New episodes every Saturday

📲 YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts | @AncientToRecent

#Trotsky #RussianRevolution #HistoryPodcast #SovietHistory #Stalin #Mexico #NKVD #RamonMercader #Trotskyism #SpanishCivilWar #Siqueiros #GreatTerror #HistoryDocumentary

Trotsky has finally found refuge.
After eight years of exile, the former leader of the Red Army arrives in Mexico, welcomed by President Lázaro Cárdenas and embraced by a circle of artists, intellectuals and revolutionaries.
But safety is not the same as peace.
In this fourth episode, we follow Trotsky from his arrival in Mexico in 1937 as he attempts to build a new life far from Stalin and the Soviet Union. 
We explore Mexico’s own revolutionary history, why Cárdenas was willing to grant asylum to Stalin’s most famous enemy, and Trotsky’s extraordinary relationship with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
As Trotsky begins writing, lecturing and rebuilding the international Left Opposition, the NKVD is already closing in.
We follow the infiltration of Trotsky’s organisation by Soviet agents, including Mark Zborowski, who gains the trust of Trotsky’s son Lev Sedov and provides Moscow with vital information about the movement.
Then comes tragedy.
Lev Sedov dies suddenly in Paris, in circumstances Trotsky immediately suspects are suspicious. 
As Stalin’s campaign reaches deeper into Trotsky’s family and supporters, the former revolutionary begins to realise that nowhere is truly safe.
Finally, Trotsky leaves the Casa Azul and moves into a fortified compound in Coyoacán.
The walls are strengthened.
The windows are bricked up.
Guards are posted.
Weapons are stockpiled.
But the greatest danger may already be inside.
As Trotsky grows older and increasingly isolated, Stalin has not forgotten him.
The order has been given.
Now the hunt for Leon Trotsky enters its final chapter.

🎧 New episodes every Saturday

📲 YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts | @AncientToRecent

#Trotsky #RussianRevolution #HistoryPodcast #SovietHistory #Stalin #Mexico #MexicanRevolution #FridaKahlo #DiegoRivera #NKVD #Trotskyism #HistoryDocumentary

Trotsky has lost his struggle with Stalin for leadership of the Soviet Union

But his revolutionary fire still burns bright.

The man who helped seize power and build the Red Army is now a political exile, hunted by the regime he helped create.

In this third episode, we follow Trotsky from exile in Kazakhstan to Turkey, France and Norway as Stalin's campaign against his former rival intensifies.

We explore Trotsky's bitter confrontation with the liberal democracies that refused him entry, the contradiction between his demands for political freedom and his own defence of revolutionary dictatorship, and his growing isolation from the Communist movement.

But Stalin's vengeance reaches far beyond Trotsky himself.

As the Moscow Trials and Great Terror begin, Trotsky watches helplessly as his supporters, friends and family are arrested, imprisoned and executed. His name becomes the centrepiece of Stalin's vast conspiracy theory.

Finally, Norway withdraws its protection and Trotsky is forced to leave Europe.

Across the Atlantic, an unlikely refuge awaits.

Mexico.

But as Trotsky sails towards his new home, Stalin's most dangerous enemy is about to enter the final and most terrifying chapter of his life.

Can Trotsky survive when the full power of the Soviet state is determined to destroy him?

🎧 New episodes every Saturday

📲 YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts | @AncientToRecent

#Trotsky #RussianRevolution #HistoryPodcast #SovietHistory #Stalin #GreatTerror #MoscowTrials #Trotskyism #RussianHistory #HistoryDocumentary