Radio Moscow – news and commentary April 3, 1947 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
April 3, 1947 – the world as it looked from Moscow in this day, with news and comment from Radio Moscow shortwave. Long before the days of internet and streaming, the only way you could find out what another country was up to was via Shortwave. Crude and unpredictable, news from another country on the other side of the world as a dim-distant miracle.
And in 1947 the atmosphere of Cold War was making itself felt, with Radio Moscow broadcasting daily news and programming to any audience with the means to receive it, along with a healthy dose of propaganda from commentaries and opinion pieces.
On this day the news was about the Big Four Conference in Moscow and the question of Germany and reparations for the way were discussed. The Soviet point of view was that Germany owed Russia a lot; more than the other Allies because, in their view, Russia suffered the worst from German invasion – and so it was only fair Russia receive the lions share of whatever reparations could be gotten from the defeated Germany. Needless to say, the idea of reunifying Germany was out of the question – any chance, no matter how slight, of Germany going back to the way they were in 1939 was a non-starter in any aspect of the Conference talks.
Aside from news on the Conference, there was also news pertaining to Russia’s rebuilding efforts; how the painstaking process of rebuilding destroyed cities and factories was of prime importance now, as it was throughout all of Europe. 1947 was only two years from the end of World War 2 and damage inflicted by the ravages of war weren’t going to be swept away in matter of days. The rebuilding and repairing was going to go on for a very long time.
This, and a lot more in this 20 minute excerpt of a broadcast day via Radio Moscow from April 3, 1947.
Caveat: Since I indicated this broadcast is via shortwave and that the technology at the time was crude compared to what we take for granted now, some effort is required to listen to the whole thing. Noise, fading in and out, distortion and just the occasional rotten signal make this not easy listening. But it’s history as it was happening, and not too many of these shortwave broadcast actually exist. So it’s a rarity and it’s history all wrapped up in one package. But just be aware, listening to it won’t be the easiest thing.
