November 12, 2025 • 43 mins
In 1989, Boris Yeltsin walked into a Houston supermarket — and walked out ready to end an empire. What he saw in Texas that day would shake the foundations of the Soviet Union.
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On the Very Special Episodes podcast, we tell one incredible story each week. Follow us down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.
Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Dave Roos
Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Mixing and Mastering by Josh Fisher
Research and Fact-Checking by Dave Roos and Austin Thompson
Voice Actor is Tom Antonellis
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Social Clips by Yarberry Media
Executive Producer is Jason English
Special thanks to composer Evan Mack for letting us play a clip of “Make Your Move,” from his original opera Yeltsin in Texas. Learn more at evanmack.com.
And thanks to Yelena Biberman for sharing her story. Check out her excellent podcast How to Kill a Superpower.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Randall's, a run of the mill supermarket in Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The year is nineteen eighty nine, and this.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Randall's, in a Houston strip mall, is like thousands of
other chain grocery stores across America. There's an in house
bakery that makes bad bagels and good donuts, a meat counter,
seafood dairy, and of course, a produce section.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
There's quite a selection.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Alongside Texas grown peaches and peppers, are potatoes from Idaho,
avocados from Mexico, and bananas from South America. Stacks of
lettuce and rows of upright celery glisten with beads of water.
There are six types of apples, three kinds of grapes,
(00:56):
and tomatoes in every shape and size. That's what American
shoppers expect when they walk into a grocery store, and
that was true in nineteen eighty nine. But imagine for
a minute that you've never seen an American grocery store before.
Imagine that you've grown up in the Soviet Union, behind
(01:19):
the proverbial iron curtain, where food shopping means lines, really
long lines for just about everything. In Soviet grocery stores,
there is only one type of flour one type of milk,
and for most people, bananas only exist in movies. Imagine,
(01:42):
for the sake of today's story, that you are Boris Yeltsin.
You remember Boris Yeltsin, right, the Soviet politician who became
a joke on late night TV after a few too
many vodka induced pratfalls. What you might not remember is
(02:02):
that Yeltsin was once a brash, young politician. He pushed
for radical reforms in the former Soviet Union. And what
you almost certainly don't know is that in nineteen eighty nine,
while on a tour of the United States, Boris Yeltsen
made an unscheduled visit to a random Randall's grocery that
(02:26):
left him a profoundly changed man.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
In fact, you.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Could argue the collapse of the Soviet Union began when
Boris Yeltsin encountered a freezer case full of jell O
pudding pops. After everything the United States had done to
try and win the Cold War, is that what broke Communism?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A nuclear arms race, proxy wars, CIA incursions, CIA assassination, attempts, infiltration, diplomacy,
the deatonte star wars. I mean trillions and trillions of
dollars spent, and in the end, it was a Russian
who came to a grocery store and said, Holy moly,
(03:13):
they have pudding pops.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
We're done. That's it. It's over.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Welcome to very special episodes and I heeart original podcast.
I'm your host, Danash Schwartz, and this is the grocery
store that killed Communism.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Welcome back Very Special episodes. Cheese Dana. He's Aaron. I'm
Jason as, a history lover and a former cashier and
Tuesday night front end manager at the A and P
grocery store in Denville, New Jersey. Like this was tailor
made for me. I have to say it's probably our
favorite episode of the season. And I don't know if
(03:57):
Yeltson would have had the similar religious experience at our
A and P. It was pretty nice. But there's a
reason it's no longer in business rip A and P.
But we pack a lot into this one. Mm hm,
cold War history, grocery stores, Texas, Texas Operas, little musical theater.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It kind of hits everything.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I love food, history, musical theater exactly.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
And I don't know about you go. I have a
Boris Yeltson guarantee. It's very simple. If there's any story
with Boris Yeltson, I will read it or listen to it,
because he's just such a crazy world figure of history.
Like back in the day, my friends and I, we
used to have a deadpool that was the Pope, Hope
or Boris Yeltson. We'd try to which one of them
would be the last to live. We couldn't believe it ourselves,
but Boris Yeltson won. He outlived Bob Hope and the Pope.
(04:45):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
To understand how a grocery store in Texas could change
the course of history, you have to understand what life
was like in the Soviet Union in the late nineteen
eighties chunks of the twentieth century. The Soviet economy kept
pace with the United States. They were the two global superpowers.
(05:09):
In America, we had free market capitalism fueled by private
business ownership and fierce competition. In the Soviet Union, they
had something called a command economy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Basically, every aspect.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Of the economy was dictated by production goals handed down
from a central communist authority. From the outside, the Soviet
system seemed to work. Their GDP often outpaced the US,
and military spending was through the roof, But those achievements
hid the fact that the USSR spent way too much
(05:47):
on nuclear bombs and way too little on basic consumer goods.
For decades, Soviet families suffered shortages of food, clothing, household good,
good everything. Yolena Biberman grew up in Belarus, which was
at the time a Soviet satellite state in eastern Europe.
(06:10):
Elena was eleven in nineteen eighty nine, part of the
last generation who could remember what life was really like
in the USSR, right before it all came tumbling down.
We asked her about breadlines, but Elena says, bread was
just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 7 (06:29):
Oh man, Yes, so lines, lots of lines. Let's say
you walking on the street, you see a line, you
immediately join. You don't know what it's for, but if
it's a line, it means it's something good. And eventually
it takes time, but you ask around and you figure
out what it is, and as time progressed, increasingly was
more likely to be something edible food.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It wasn't all bad, Elena says, So I.
Speaker 7 (06:52):
Remember very vividly there was a line, and I stood
in it, and I waited and waited and waited, and
at the end of it, I got like a little
haste tree, and it was so warm and delicious.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It was worth it. I still remember it to hear
Yolena tell it.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The Soviet Union of her childhood wasn't the colorless concrete
wasteland Americans sometimes picture. For example, she went to the
movies every week in these ornate movie palaces. New Year's
Eve was celebrated like Christmas, with a sparkling tree, gifts,
and fireworks. Elina's town even had a public seltzer dispenser
(07:31):
with different flavors, like a free soda fountain. Everyone drank
from the same shared glass that they washed out with
a quick swirl of water.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
There's a small town, so I guess these same germs
kept going around, and you know, we were immune.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
But in the background of Elena's childhood memories was the constant,
low grade hum of hunger. Both of her parents worked,
but the family never had enough to eat.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
I remember not having food at home, and so I
found myself really hungry, and thank god, there was always
bread in the stores. I would always be able to
go to the store and buy bread, and I would
just eat bread, and then sometimes I would add salt
to it, so I would eat bread and salt. And
had it not been for the bread, I don't know
what I would have done and what other people around
(08:20):
me would have done, because then it's sort of like
there's nothing.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
When things got even worse for Elena and her family,
they immigrated to the United States. Elina will never forget
her first trip to an American grocery store.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
So my aunt is the one who kind of organized
this for us. She came to you as before us
and then she was like, okay, you're ready. She knew
it would be an emotional experience and very overwhelming, so
she waited a few days before taking us to a supermarket.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Then I remember seeing.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
A cart that would be cards and already confused, like
what and they were giant and like, first of all,
while they're helping you shop, because in this Union it
was like the opposite that like, please don't buy so much.
Here in the US, it's like, please buy as much
as you can. So already like it was like wow,
But the most important was bananas. Oh my god, that
(09:13):
was the holy grail. Sometimes my mother says, the reason
why we left the Soviet Union was that so my
kids could eat bananas.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yolena had no idea such a place existed in America.
For decades, the communist leadership told people the Soviet Union
was the envy of the world. American style capitalism oppressed
the worker and enriched the elites.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
America was the land of hunger.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Only the Soviet system looked out for everyone. That story
is hard to swallow if you're having bread and salt
sandwiches every night for dinner. As shortages dragged on, the
Soviet people became increasingly rescue. That's why politicians like Mikhail
(10:02):
Gorbachev introduced reform programs in the nineteen eighties like Glasnost
and Perestoika. Glasnost promised greater openness and transparency in Soviet politics,
and Perestroika was supposed to restructure the stagnant Soviet economy,
(10:23):
But some Soviet politicians thought Gorbachev's reforms were too slow
and didn't go nearly far enough. Boris Yeltsen was one
of the loudest voices calling for radical change. Yeltsen was
an outsider politician who knew something about hunger. He was
(10:44):
born in nineteen thirty one in a remote village in
the Ural Mountains. Yeltsin's grandfather lost his land when farming
was collectivized under Stalin in the nineteen forties. Yeltsin's father
was assigned to work in a put factory. The family
lived in a communal hut for ten years. In his autobiography,
(11:07):
Yeltsin remembers having no warm clothes, so in the winter,
the children huddled up next to a nannygoat. The goat's
milk also got them through World War II. Yelton never
forgot his humble beginnings. Even after he became a Communist
party official, he remained a quote man of the people.
(11:31):
He'd make unannounced visits to factories and shops and schools
and ask people about.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
When he saw faults in the system, he called them out.
One of Yeltsin's first actions as Party chief of Moscow
was to declare war on bribery and corruption. He fired
two thirds of the Moscow party bosses. He closed down
stores where senior party officials secretly bought items not available
(12:00):
to the general public, like fresh fruits and vegetables. If
there were shortages, he said everyone should experience them equally.
Under Gorbachev, Yelton rose all the way to the polit Bureau,
this central committee of the Communist Party, but Yeltin grew
frustrated with the slow pace of change and openly criticized
(12:23):
party leadership, including Gorbachev. In nineteen eighty seven, Yelton was
ousted from the pulit Bureau, and his enemies tried to
paint him as a drunken.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Ox, a fool.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
This could have been the end of Yelton's political career,
but instead he found his voice as an anti Communist
crusader and underdog. Yelena says that after the Chernobyl disaster,
there was real anger that the government had covered up
the extent of the danger.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
We wanted new people in charge who were really sick
of the old leadership of the journaltocracy that has over
time been disconnected from reality and its people. The Chernobyl
accident and I was sort of in the middle of
where the cloud ended up going from there, the radiation
it really hit my town and after we found out
it took a while, but once we found out, people
(13:17):
were so disappointed and there was a sense like this
is it, like we need new people in charge. And
this is why people were excited about somebody like Yitzen
because he seemed different, new generation, not afraid to say thanks,
to speak his mind.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
In nineteen eighty nine, the Soviet Union held its first
democratic elections for a new governing body called the Congress
of People's Deputies. Yelton ran as a delegate from Moscow
and won in a landslide. He saw victory as a
mandate for change and formed a radical reform party to
(13:53):
challenge the Communists. Yeltsin was now the most famous and
powerful pro democracy the advocate in the Soviet Union, but
he faced tremendous opposition from hardliners on the Politburo and
Ivan Gorbachev. In September of nineteen eighty nine, Boris Yeltsen
(14:13):
was invited to take a tour of the United States.
American politicians were curious about this outspoken Soviet rabble rouser,
and Yeltsin, who had never been to America before, was
eager to see democracy in action. The Soviet Ministry of
Foreign Affairs reluctantly granted Yeltsin a visa if the Communist
(14:38):
party leadership had known what was going to happen to
Yeltsin in America and how it was going to change
Soviet history. They never would have let him go. Evan
Mack is a musician and composer. He writes operas and
(15:01):
musicals for a living, which is pretty cool. Until a
few years ago, the name Boris Yeltsin meant very little
to Evan.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, he was the big drunkey on TV all the
time in my childhood.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
But then a Texas arts organization commissioned an original opera
set in the lone Star State. While googling little known
events from Texas history, Evan stumbled across the strange little
story of Boris Yeltsin's visit to a Randall's grocery store in.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Evan knew immediately he had found this subject for his
new opera, but he had a lot of research to do.
What was going on in the Soviet Union in nineteen
eighty nine and what was Yeltsin's role?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
To me, it seems like it was end stage Bolshevism,
You know, this sense of things are not working. No
one really knows the solution, but things had to change.
He was quite charismatic, you know he was. He was
a volleyball player. He played the spoons like it was
just like that was his instrument, you know. So there
was this this sort of everyman quality about him.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Reading through old news stories, Evan learned that Yeltsin's trip
to the United States was a fact finding mission of sorts.
Just like in his Moscow days, Yeltsin learned best by
meeting people face to face. In September nineteen eighty nine,
Yeltsin landed at JFK Airport in New York and set
(16:29):
out to meet America.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
It wasn't very exciting at first.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And in New York they showed him three things.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
They showed him the Statue of Liberty, the un and
Trump Tower. No one knows why those were the three
things in nineteen eighty nine to show him, but they
showed him that.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
He was not impressed.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
The next stop, Baltimore, was a minor disaster. Unable to
sleep from jet lag, Yeltsin down two sleeping pills with
a couple shots of whiskey. At an early morning speech
the next day, he was quote visibly intoxicated, according to
The New York Times. In Washington, d C President H. W.
(17:11):
Bush passed on a one on one meeting with Yeltsin,
afraid it would insult Gorbachev, Yeltsin's frenemy. Yeltsin's consolation prize
was a meeting with Vice President Dan Quayle in Philadelphia.
Yeltsin was shown the Liberty Bell. In Indiana, he was
taken to a pig farm. Yeltson joked, Generally, I prefer
(17:35):
to see Americans, but I guess pigs will do. In Texas,
Yeltsin gave a speech at a Dallas press club that
would have gotten him shot under Stalin or at least
thrown in a Siberian gulog. Yeltson said that for too
many years, Soviet leaders pretended to build socialism while the
(17:57):
people pretended to work.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It was, in his words, a society built on lies.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
The next day, September sixteenth, he got a tour of
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Yeltsen was shown mission
control and mockups of a space station called Freedom. Yeltsen,
a former engineer, asked some technical questions, but his mind
seemed to be elsewhere. After the Johnson Space Center, it
(18:28):
was off to the Houston Airport, where Yeltsin and his
entourage would catch a flight to Miami, the final stop
of their US tour. But as they left for the airport,
Yeltsen asked his handlers if there was time to stop
at a grocery store. A grocery store, sure, why not.
(18:49):
They made some calls and found the closest one.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
It was a Randall's grocery store about a mile and
a half from the Johnson Space Center. I don't even
think it was a flagsh store. It was just a
Randall's grocery store, one of many chains in that area.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
The store manager, Paul Jurga, had just a few minutes warning.
He met the busload of Russians in the parking lot,
shook hands and welcomed them in.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
People were still shopping, There were people curious and walking around.
You know, there was a photographer, but if you look
at even some of the pictures, there's.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Not a huge crowd around him. It's not a mob
of people.
Speaker 8 (19:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It wasn't like Gorbatchrov showed up. It wasn't the head
of Russia, or it wasn't you know, some celebrity. It
was just a random VIP coming.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
We don't know why exactly Yeltsen asked.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
To see a grocery store, or what was going through
his mind when he first stepped inside Randall's, But if
it was anything like the experience of his aid Leve Sukunov,
then it was pure sensory overload. Here's how Suknov described
it in his memoir Three Years with Boris Yeltsin.
Speaker 9 (19:59):
I was immediately struck by abundance of light, and in
general color scheme of everything was so bright and impressive
that it felt like Vivre descending into depths of Kalidoscope.
When we walked along rows, our eyes didn't know where
(20:20):
to stop. I could guess different things, but what I
saw in this supermarket was no less amazing than America itself.
Some of us started counting the types of hams we.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Lost cult Yeltsen probably had these same thoughts as he wandered,
dumbfounded through Randall's, but his amazement was also mixed with suspicion.
As a student of Russian history, Yeltsen knew the story
of Prince Gregory Potempkin. Potempkin was a secret lover of
(20:56):
Catherine the Great and Allegedly, he wanted to impressed her
with a tour of the recently annexed territory of Crimea.
According to legend, Potempkin built facades of colorfully painted villages
along her parade route to hide the unpleasant reality of
(21:17):
starving peasants. Yeltson thought that Randalls was a Potempkin village.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Seeing the store and walking to the grocery store, he
immediately thought, oh, this is a setup by the Americans,
like let's put on a dog and pony show and
this is look at us. And and they, the Americans
were confused because like, wait a minute, what do you.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Like this is this is a grocery store, Like there's
probably a better one down the block.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Then he thought, oh, this is this.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Is where the NASA brass shop, only the upper echelon
generals of NASA and the big important people. And again
they were like nope, just one on this corner, as
opposed to a mile away from here.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeltsin was flabbergasted. All this was for regular people.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
He asked one of the workers, how many college degrees
someone has to have to catalog.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Everything and run everything?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And I think one was like I did a semester
community college. Like, there's just so many things that don't
line up because it was so vast and so amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yelton stopped a young woman rolling by with her cart and,
while being friendly, quizzed her about her income and how
much she spent on groceries each week. He did the math.
It was expensive, but not crazy. Middle class Americans were
eating like kings. There's a photo of Yelton looking down
(22:49):
at a freezer case full of ice cream. He has
a big smile on his face and his arms are
raised as if to say, what a miracle. The subject
of his fascination is a box of Jello pudding pops.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So eighties, but Jello pudding pops. He couldn't believe that.
I think also because the fact that in the center
of an aisle was a freezer, right, a huge long freezer.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
They didn't have that.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So to see something and then have this product of
you know, Bill Cosby's face on it and Chella pudding pops,
you know, that was shocking.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
But the real shocker came in the produce section. Sure
there were fruits and vegetables in the Soviet Union. Some
people had gardens in the country and grew their own produce,
and in the summer there were markets in the big cities,
but the choices were always limited, and there were lines
for cabbages. In America, however, even the humblest grocery store
(23:50):
contained a veritable cornicopia.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Here's Sukenov again.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
In vegetable section.
Speaker 9 (23:57):
Viva letally shocked byquality of produce. A reddish the size
of large potato, was illuminated by bright light and water
was scattered onto it from small spirits. Redishes were literally dazzling,
and next to them were onions, garlic, eggplant, cauliflower, tomatos, culcumber.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeltsin's grandfather was a farmer. He had a connection to
the earth. There's nothing more earthy than onions and potatoes.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
It's peasant food.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And here in America, Yelton realized even a peasant could
eat better than Gorbachev himself.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
There was like two things, if you think about it.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
One had this sort of shock and awe of colors,
the amount of products, the variety of all of those products. Right,
So think cereal aisle, think cookies, think different chips.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
That was one type of commercialism. The other was radish.
Is the size of potatoes that rocked him at his core,
like commercialism is one thing, but abundance is another. You know,
we've been told all of this stuff about the failings
of American capitalism, but live and improof. Yeah, you could
argue that the commercialism is a failing.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
But not the radish, not the giant onion.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
That's irrefutable proof that the system is working.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
There was a reporter from the Houston Chronicle who covered
Yeltsin's twenty minute visit to Randall's in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
As Eyeltzen stood before.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
The piles of shiny apples and crisp lettuce and bright
yellow bananas, he turned to her and said, if the
Soviet people, who wait in line every day for a
meager selection of goods ever saw a US supermarket, there
would be a revolution. The last photograph taken of Boris
(26:09):
Yeltsen at Randall's supermarket shows him at the checkout stand.
A teenage clerk who is rocking a sweet eighties perm
is explaining how the price scanners work. Once again, Yeltsin
and his team are blown away. His aide you can
have described it.
Speaker 9 (26:28):
At the exit from American Supermarket, Girl is seating at
cash register didn't have to count anything. In her hands,
she held small device that resembled head dryer, which she
quickly ran over price code on the package. After this operation,
price appeared on computer cash register screen. The customer paid
(26:54):
and could freely pass through electronic turnstile to fill what
else could be simpler and smarters in such a seastem.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
An hour earlier, Yelton was at the Johnson Space Center
where NASA officials showed him the plans for a new
space station. He was unfazed the beeping laser checkout thing,
a revelation further proof that the Soviet Union was light
years behind America. At the exit, the store manager presented
(27:26):
Yelton with a goodie bag for the trip home. Putting
on a brave face, Yelton joked, is this what you
give a starving Russian?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You should add some soap? We need that too.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Outside in the Randalls parking lot, however, something snapped inside
Boris Yeltsin. Sure, Yeltsen talked a big game about changing
the system. He was a loud critic of the Communist
Party's leadership and openly called for democratic and capitalist reforms,
but he was also a proud son of the Soviet
(28:01):
Union and believed deep down in the promises of the
Bolshevik Revolution, a system of government that was supposed to
put the workers and the common people first. Somewhere in
the Randalls parking lot where Atsukin, of quote, the last
vestige of Bolshevism collapsed inside Yeltsin.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
When he got into the parking lot, it was sadness
on what we've done to our people, and then anger.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Right, if the people saw what I just saw on.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
An American grocery store, there'd be a revolution, because it's
it's the exact opposite of the Bolshevik revolution, Right. They
were overthrowing the yoke of the czar, and they were,
you know, it was going to be equality for everybody.
And did they achieve some of the things, yes, But
after you know, of course Stalin and all of the atrocities,
(28:58):
it instantly did not have.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You know, you could see very clearly it did not happen.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
But he now walks into the enemy's grocery store the
day to day and said, this is the ideal of
the everyman, that a person can walk in any income.
And he saw them, and he met them and could
grab whatever they wanted off the shelf and bring it
home to eat or cook, or make or process or microwave.
I don't know, you know, So that's revolutionary in the
(29:23):
sense of our abundance is the revolution that they were
striving for and never hit.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
There's no question that Yeltsin's trip to Randall's affected him deeply.
One of his biographers wrote, for a long time on
the plane to Miami, he sat motionless, his head in
his hands. What have they done to our poor people?
I think we have committed a crime against our people
(29:52):
by making their standard of living so incomparably lower.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Than that of the Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
When Yeltsin were turned to Moscow, he was more committed
than ever to tearing down what was clearly a failing system.
The Communist Party could keep telling its lies about the
superiority of the Soviet system, but the people knew differently,
and Yeltsen spoke directly to their struggles and frustrations.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
So after he comes back from Texas, he becomes sort
of the face of change, standing up to the Communist Party,
speaking differently, not using the usual jargon, speaking like a
normal person would speak.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Gorbachev had introduced reform programs like Peristroika and glass Nut,
which were supposed to slowly reform the Soviet system, but
Yeltsin had officially lost his patients.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
There was some daylight in the closed society with Gorbachev's policies.
He was adamant that you kick that door open, we
are going to break it down. We're going to tear
down that wall. The Pericans have this thing. The Russian
people will topple their government if they saw how other
people were living.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
We can't wait another second.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Less than two months after Yeltsin returned from.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
The US, the Berlin Wall fell.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Communism was faltering, and the Soviet people saw a chance
for real change. Yeltsen soared in popularity. In the spring
of nineteen ninety, Yeltsin was elected in a landslide to
the Russian State Legislature, and his colleagues named him President
of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. But Yeltsen wanted
(31:39):
a true mandate, so he took an unprecedented step. He
resigned his membership in the Communist Party and called for
general elections in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
He won nearly.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Sixty percent of the popular vote as an independent candidate
and became the first democratically elected president of Russia. Meanwhile,
Gorbachev was still the head of the Communist Party in
the Soviet Union, and just two months after Yeltsin's election
as President of Russia, a group of Communist hardliners tried
(32:19):
to hold Gorbachev hostage and stage a military coup. Hundreds
of tanks rolled into Moscow and pointed their canons at
the Russian Parliament building for two days. The hard line
communists demanded that Gorbachev stepped down and for the Communist
(32:40):
Party to regain its old school grip on Soviet politics
and the economy. Yelton wasn't having it. There's this famous
footage of him standing on top of a tank, one
of the very same tanks that were sent to destroy
everything he was fighting for.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
They pull him up and he starts reading his speech
about peace and land and bread and which is remnants
of the Bolshevik revolution, right, that was Lenin saying, But
it was in this new lens of like absolutely not,
We're going to go not going back, We're going to
open up, We're going to.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Do all these things.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
He didn't like Gorbachak, but he saved them because I
think his thinking was open up, open up, definitely, don't
close it.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
So I'm going to stop this thing, and he did.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
The tanks turned around and just like that, the coup
was over.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But Yeltin wasn't done.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
There was one more major change that had to happen
if the Soviet people were going to have a say
in their future. In December nineteen ninety one, during a
meeting at a hunting lodge in Belarus, Yelten made a
bold proposition to the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, it's
time to dissolve the Soviet Union. Yeltin was supposed to
(33:59):
be there to negotiate, create a treaty, not to tear
down the entire Iron Curtain, but that's the kind of
figure Yelton had to become, uncompromising, bold and little nuts.
The KGB could have arrested him for treason, but he'd
seen enough to know there was no going back.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there's a sense
a lot of people have that it was inevitable that
there were largest structural forces at play, like the rise
of nationalism and countries like Ukraine those certainly played a role,
but the role of actual individuals like Yeltsin cannot be overestimated.
The ultimate decision to dissolve the Soviet Union just came
down to Yeltsin and two other leaders, the leader of
(34:42):
Ukraine and leader of Belarus, and that's it. And that
experience in the supermarket, like without it, it's possible he
would not have taken that leap of faith and really
exposed himself to potentially being disposed of by the KGB
for treason when he made the decision to dissolve the
city US. But I think sort of once you see something,
(35:02):
once you see that another way is possible, and other
realities possibly can't unsee it. So that experience in the
supermarket I think influenced his decision to dissolve this of union.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
The image of Yelton standing on the tank defiantly putting
down an attempted coup was probably the highlight of his
political career.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It was all downhill from there.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Reelected as Russian President, he was in charge as the
country went through a painful transition to capitalism after nearly
seventy five years of rigid communist control. In retrospect, maybe
it was all too sudden and too fast, but that's.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
The path the people chose.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
By the time Yeltsen resigned from office in nineteen ninety nine,
he was a physical wreck from years of illness and alcoholism.
That was the red faced Boris yel who Evan Mack
remembered seeing on TV as a kid in Russia. Yelton
was unpopular internationally. He'd become a joke, which is why
(36:11):
Evan was so surprised to learn about Yeltsin's historic trip
to Randalls and how a Houston grocery store and a
risk taking young Yeltsin played such a pivotal role in
ending Soviet Communism.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
I thought, this is the greatest story that nobody knows about.
Like he was really earth changing stuff that no one
knows about.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
And so we started writing a one act comedy operatic
version of it.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yep, remember that Evan is a composer. In twenty twenty,
he and his writing partner Joshua Maguire wrote an original
opera called Yeltsin in Texas, kind of like Nixon in China,
but set in a grocery store and a lot funnier.
After a successful run in Houston and a pause for
(37:03):
that thing called the Pandemic. The show was reimagined as
a Broadway style musical called The World Still Needs You
Boris Yeltsin. The climax of the musical is a song
called make Your Move. In it, a Randall's cashier who
moonlights as a rock star encourages Yeltsin to seize the
(37:25):
moment and become his own political rock star, and.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
He shows him as rock and roll moves, which are
the fist bump, the peace sign, and the Texas rodeo swing.
And actually, if you look back at the footage him
on the tank, he's giving a fist bump, a peace sign.
He's taking that new Russian flag and waving it over
his head like a yeehaw of Texas.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
And so because if you think about it, Boris Yelton
getting on that tank during a military coup is the
most rock star thing that one could absolutely do.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Here's to you, Boris Yeltsin, and here's a clip of
make Your Mood Move from Evan's musical.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
If there are any.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Broadway producers out there, you can reach him at Evanmack
dot com.
Speaker 8 (38:13):
Music Seize the Damn thank youss.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
One takeaway I think I had from this episode was
after it, I went to the grocery store and everything
seemed more wonderful. I kind of realized how much I
had taken for granted at the grocery store, and it
just it was delightful. I sometimes bring my baby to
the grocery store and he loves it. He just like
loves reaching. And I think that's a good attitude and
(39:21):
approach to take to kind of every life experience. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (39:24):
I love the perspective shift the story gave you.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, you just appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
Isn't it wild that communism could be felled by the
power of a jell O pudding pop?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah and a candy right?
Speaker 6 (39:33):
I mean, like, was it the CIA wasn't fear of
nuclear war? Nope, a Texas grocery store and basically said
a bullet a wars can be one with tasty treats.
Maybe we should look into this. Also, after his me
too moment, I didn't think that the mention of Bill
Cosby would ever be a source of laughter again, but
yet this story with the jell O pudding pops, I
was like, ohait and he did it so big surprises.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
I like how fororce Elton is firmly a caricature in
almost every time he's mentioned in your pick during alcoholic
wandering out in the street. I did enjoy spending some
time earlier in his life and career when he's like
the firebrand up and coming, and you can kind of
understand because there were times where it'd be like, how
(40:14):
is this guy in charge of the country?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Would never happen?
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Here?
Speaker 6 (40:17):
The man of the people thing really comes through in
this one.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Yeah, did you cast who's playing Yeltsin in the twenty
twenty seven Golden Globe winning film Here?
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Okay? So I went two ways with this one. I
cast it Boris and Jolena Bieberman the person who grew
up in Civiet Union talking about what it was like,
and then Evan Mack, the opera writer, and then also
the Randalls cashier. So for Boris Yeltsen, I have my
dream casting, which would be Philip seymour Hoffman. Oh right,
wouldn't he been? He killed the role all right? And
then this guy have gone to before in the past,
(40:47):
but he is living. I think Jesse Plemmons looks the
most like Boris yeltsin and could pull it off, you know,
just do like a little bit of wake gain, get
a little vodka, like some pallor going, and he'd nail it.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I love Jesse Plemmons, right, He's just so good.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
Constantly think of him for casting. I'm like, well, if
he looks like the part, I'm giving it to Jesse Plemmings.
Now for Elena Bieberman, I was thinking of Anna Taylor Joy.
She actually is Russian from what I understand. I think
that to be an interesting like oh Beck and Soviet Union.
I remember, you know, breadlines, So I thought that would
be kind of fun for her. And then for Evan
Mack the Texas Opera songwriter Jason Segal right in the
(41:21):
opera then is done with muppets. I mean, how much
fun to have a Boris Yelton muppet.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Maybe this should just be muppets, right?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Is it possible this entire, very special episode should be
done only with muppets.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
And then for the Randalls Cashier because in the opera
they have the dance moves, I thought, well we go
with Tom Holland because he's known for his dance moves.
I mean that brother could swing.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Oh yeah, Jason, you've seen the singing in the Rain
umbrella Meedley right, yes, oh, thank god to anyone who
hasn't look it up immediately.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Yes please.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
Speaking of Broadway, who do we know? How do we
get Evan Max opera? This needs to be the come
from away of next year. Who can we call?
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Get some Broadway producers on the horn?
Speaker 6 (42:08):
And Jason, you're the biggest Broadway fishing auto I know
who's constantly going to theater. How would you imagine this one?
Are you imagining the Texas store? Are you imagining like
something a little bit more magical? Do you have like
a set design for this?
Speaker 5 (42:21):
I would love to see a just super bright grocery
store set and then have that replaced by something darker.
And now, look, I don't want to step on Evan
Max's vision. I am just the fan. I'm the one
who will go buy the cup with the show logo
on it and then we'll use it into the ground
for four or five years after. But it just seems
(42:43):
like the perfect topic for a play or musical, just
this small historical thing that ended up having a huge
impact that people don't know. These grocery stores. Magic is
happening in the grocery stores.
Speaker 6 (42:57):
Magic and Aisle seven.
Speaker 5 (43:01):
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
This show is hosted by Danish Schwartz, Zaren Burnett and
Jason English. Today's episode was written by Dave Rouse. Our
senior producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by
Jonathan Washington. Additional editing by Mary Doo, Mixing and mastering
by Josh Fisher. Original music by Elise McCoy, show logo
(43:24):
by Lucy Kintonia, Social clips by Yarberry Media. Our executive
producer is Jason English. Special thanks to our voice actor
Tom Antonellis, and thanks to Evan Mack for letting us
use some music from Yeltson in Texas, which I hope
we're all getting to see on Broadway one day. Very
Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Welcome to Randall's, a run of the mill supermarket in Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The year is nineteen eighty nine, and this.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Randall's, in a Houston strip mall, is like thousands of
other chain grocery stores across America. There's an in house
bakery that makes bad bagels and good donuts, a meat counter,
seafood dairy, and of course, a produce section.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
There's quite a selection.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Alongside Texas grown peaches and peppers, are potatoes from Idaho,
avocados from Mexico, and bananas from South America. Stacks of
lettuce and rows of upright celery glisten with beads of water.
There are six types of apples, three kinds of grapes,
(00:56):
and tomatoes in every shape and size. That's what American
shoppers expect when they walk into a grocery store, and
that was true in nineteen eighty nine. But imagine for
a minute that you've never seen an American grocery store before.
Imagine that you've grown up in the Soviet Union, behind
(01:19):
the proverbial iron curtain, where food shopping means lines, really
long lines for just about everything. In Soviet grocery stores,
there is only one type of flour one type of milk,
and for most people, bananas only exist in movies. Imagine,
(01:42):
for the sake of today's story, that you are Boris Yeltsin.
You remember Boris Yeltsin, right, the Soviet politician who became
a joke on late night TV after a few too
many vodka induced pratfalls. What you might not remember is
(02:02):
that Yeltsin was once a brash, young politician. He pushed
for radical reforms in the former Soviet Union. And what
you almost certainly don't know is that in nineteen eighty nine,
while on a tour of the United States, Boris Yeltsen
made an unscheduled visit to a random Randall's grocery that
(02:26):
left him a profoundly changed man.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
In fact, you.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Could argue the collapse of the Soviet Union began when
Boris Yeltsin encountered a freezer case full of jell O
pudding pops. After everything the United States had done to
try and win the Cold War, is that what broke Communism?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A nuclear arms race, proxy wars, CIA incursions, CIA assassination, attempts, infiltration, diplomacy,
the deatonte star wars. I mean trillions and trillions of
dollars spent, and in the end, it was a Russian
who came to a grocery store and said, Holy moly,
(03:13):
they have pudding pops.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
We're done. That's it. It's over.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Welcome to very special episodes and I heeart original podcast.
I'm your host, Danash Schwartz, and this is the grocery
store that killed Communism.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Welcome back Very Special episodes. Cheese Dana. He's Aaron. I'm
Jason as, a history lover and a former cashier and
Tuesday night front end manager at the A and P
grocery store in Denville, New Jersey. Like this was tailor
made for me. I have to say it's probably our
favorite episode of the season. And I don't know if
(03:57):
Yeltson would have had the similar religious experience at our
A and P. It was pretty nice. But there's a
reason it's no longer in business rip A and P.
But we pack a lot into this one. Mm hm,
cold War history, grocery stores, Texas, Texas Operas, little musical theater.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It kind of hits everything.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I love food, history, musical theater exactly.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
And I don't know about you go. I have a
Boris Yeltson guarantee. It's very simple. If there's any story
with Boris Yeltson, I will read it or listen to it,
because he's just such a crazy world figure of history.
Like back in the day, my friends and I, we
used to have a deadpool that was the Pope, Hope
or Boris Yeltson. We'd try to which one of them
would be the last to live. We couldn't believe it ourselves,
but Boris Yeltson won. He outlived Bob Hope and the Pope.
(04:45):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
To understand how a grocery store in Texas could change
the course of history, you have to understand what life
was like in the Soviet Union in the late nineteen
eighties chunks of the twentieth century. The Soviet economy kept
pace with the United States. They were the two global superpowers.
(05:09):
In America, we had free market capitalism fueled by private
business ownership and fierce competition. In the Soviet Union, they
had something called a command economy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Basically, every aspect.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Of the economy was dictated by production goals handed down
from a central communist authority. From the outside, the Soviet
system seemed to work. Their GDP often outpaced the US,
and military spending was through the roof, But those achievements
hid the fact that the USSR spent way too much
(05:47):
on nuclear bombs and way too little on basic consumer goods.
For decades, Soviet families suffered shortages of food, clothing, household good,
good everything. Yolena Biberman grew up in Belarus, which was
at the time a Soviet satellite state in eastern Europe.
(06:10):
Elena was eleven in nineteen eighty nine, part of the
last generation who could remember what life was really like
in the USSR, right before it all came tumbling down.
We asked her about breadlines, but Elena says, bread was
just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 7 (06:29):
Oh man, Yes, so lines, lots of lines. Let's say
you walking on the street, you see a line, you
immediately join. You don't know what it's for, but if
it's a line, it means it's something good. And eventually
it takes time, but you ask around and you figure
out what it is, and as time progressed, increasingly was
more likely to be something edible food.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It wasn't all bad, Elena says, So I.
Speaker 7 (06:52):
Remember very vividly there was a line, and I stood
in it, and I waited and waited and waited, and
at the end of it, I got like a little
haste tree, and it was so warm and delicious.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It was worth it. I still remember it to hear
Yolena tell it.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The Soviet Union of her childhood wasn't the colorless concrete
wasteland Americans sometimes picture. For example, she went to the
movies every week in these ornate movie palaces. New Year's
Eve was celebrated like Christmas, with a sparkling tree, gifts,
and fireworks. Elina's town even had a public seltzer dispenser
(07:31):
with different flavors, like a free soda fountain. Everyone drank
from the same shared glass that they washed out with
a quick swirl of water.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
There's a small town, so I guess these same germs
kept going around, and you know, we were immune.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
But in the background of Elena's childhood memories was the constant,
low grade hum of hunger. Both of her parents worked,
but the family never had enough to eat.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
I remember not having food at home, and so I
found myself really hungry, and thank god, there was always
bread in the stores. I would always be able to
go to the store and buy bread, and I would
just eat bread, and then sometimes I would add salt
to it, so I would eat bread and salt. And
had it not been for the bread, I don't know
what I would have done and what other people around
(08:20):
me would have done, because then it's sort of like
there's nothing.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
When things got even worse for Elena and her family,
they immigrated to the United States. Elina will never forget
her first trip to an American grocery store.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
So my aunt is the one who kind of organized
this for us. She came to you as before us
and then she was like, okay, you're ready. She knew
it would be an emotional experience and very overwhelming, so
she waited a few days before taking us to a supermarket.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Then I remember seeing.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
A cart that would be cards and already confused, like
what and they were giant and like, first of all,
while they're helping you shop, because in this Union it
was like the opposite that like, please don't buy so much.
Here in the US, it's like, please buy as much
as you can. So already like it was like wow,
But the most important was bananas. Oh my god, that
(09:13):
was the holy grail. Sometimes my mother says, the reason
why we left the Soviet Union was that so my
kids could eat bananas.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yolena had no idea such a place existed in America.
For decades, the communist leadership told people the Soviet Union
was the envy of the world. American style capitalism oppressed
the worker and enriched the elites.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
America was the land of hunger.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Only the Soviet system looked out for everyone. That story
is hard to swallow if you're having bread and salt
sandwiches every night for dinner. As shortages dragged on, the
Soviet people became increasingly rescue. That's why politicians like Mikhail
(10:02):
Gorbachev introduced reform programs in the nineteen eighties like Glasnost
and Perestoika. Glasnost promised greater openness and transparency in Soviet politics,
and Perestroika was supposed to restructure the stagnant Soviet economy,
(10:23):
But some Soviet politicians thought Gorbachev's reforms were too slow
and didn't go nearly far enough. Boris Yeltsen was one
of the loudest voices calling for radical change. Yeltsen was
an outsider politician who knew something about hunger. He was
(10:44):
born in nineteen thirty one in a remote village in
the Ural Mountains. Yeltsin's grandfather lost his land when farming
was collectivized under Stalin in the nineteen forties. Yeltsin's father
was assigned to work in a put factory. The family
lived in a communal hut for ten years. In his autobiography,
(11:07):
Yeltsin remembers having no warm clothes, so in the winter,
the children huddled up next to a nannygoat. The goat's
milk also got them through World War II. Yelton never
forgot his humble beginnings. Even after he became a Communist
party official, he remained a quote man of the people.
(11:31):
He'd make unannounced visits to factories and shops and schools
and ask people about.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
When he saw faults in the system, he called them out.
One of Yeltsin's first actions as Party chief of Moscow
was to declare war on bribery and corruption. He fired
two thirds of the Moscow party bosses. He closed down
stores where senior party officials secretly bought items not available
(12:00):
to the general public, like fresh fruits and vegetables. If
there were shortages, he said everyone should experience them equally.
Under Gorbachev, Yelton rose all the way to the polit Bureau,
this central committee of the Communist Party, but Yeltin grew
frustrated with the slow pace of change and openly criticized
(12:23):
party leadership, including Gorbachev. In nineteen eighty seven, Yelton was
ousted from the pulit Bureau, and his enemies tried to
paint him as a drunken.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Ox, a fool.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
This could have been the end of Yelton's political career,
but instead he found his voice as an anti Communist
crusader and underdog. Yelena says that after the Chernobyl disaster,
there was real anger that the government had covered up
the extent of the danger.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
We wanted new people in charge who were really sick
of the old leadership of the journaltocracy that has over
time been disconnected from reality and its people. The Chernobyl
accident and I was sort of in the middle of
where the cloud ended up going from there, the radiation
it really hit my town and after we found out
it took a while, but once we found out, people
(13:17):
were so disappointed and there was a sense like this
is it, like we need new people in charge. And
this is why people were excited about somebody like Yitzen
because he seemed different, new generation, not afraid to say thanks,
to speak his mind.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
In nineteen eighty nine, the Soviet Union held its first
democratic elections for a new governing body called the Congress
of People's Deputies. Yelton ran as a delegate from Moscow
and won in a landslide. He saw victory as a
mandate for change and formed a radical reform party to
(13:53):
challenge the Communists. Yeltsin was now the most famous and
powerful pro democracy the advocate in the Soviet Union, but
he faced tremendous opposition from hardliners on the Politburo and
Ivan Gorbachev. In September of nineteen eighty nine, Boris Yeltsen
(14:13):
was invited to take a tour of the United States.
American politicians were curious about this outspoken Soviet rabble rouser,
and Yeltsin, who had never been to America before, was
eager to see democracy in action. The Soviet Ministry of
Foreign Affairs reluctantly granted Yeltsin a visa if the Communist
(14:38):
party leadership had known what was going to happen to
Yeltsin in America and how it was going to change
Soviet history. They never would have let him go. Evan
Mack is a musician and composer. He writes operas and
(15:01):
musicals for a living, which is pretty cool. Until a
few years ago, the name Boris Yeltsin meant very little
to Evan.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, he was the big drunkey on TV all the
time in my childhood.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
But then a Texas arts organization commissioned an original opera
set in the lone Star State. While googling little known
events from Texas history, Evan stumbled across the strange little
story of Boris Yeltsin's visit to a Randall's grocery store in.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Evan knew immediately he had found this subject for his
new opera, but he had a lot of research to do.
What was going on in the Soviet Union in nineteen
eighty nine and what was Yeltsin's role?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
To me, it seems like it was end stage Bolshevism,
You know, this sense of things are not working. No
one really knows the solution, but things had to change.
He was quite charismatic, you know he was. He was
a volleyball player. He played the spoons like it was
just like that was his instrument, you know. So there
was this this sort of everyman quality about him.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Reading through old news stories, Evan learned that Yeltsin's trip
to the United States was a fact finding mission of sorts.
Just like in his Moscow days, Yeltsin learned best by
meeting people face to face. In September nineteen eighty nine,
Yeltsin landed at JFK Airport in New York and set
(16:29):
out to meet America.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
It wasn't very exciting at first.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And in New York they showed him three things.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
They showed him the Statue of Liberty, the un and
Trump Tower. No one knows why those were the three
things in nineteen eighty nine to show him, but they
showed him that.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
He was not impressed.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
The next stop, Baltimore, was a minor disaster. Unable to
sleep from jet lag, Yeltsin down two sleeping pills with
a couple shots of whiskey. At an early morning speech
the next day, he was quote visibly intoxicated, according to
The New York Times. In Washington, d C President H. W.
(17:11):
Bush passed on a one on one meeting with Yeltsin,
afraid it would insult Gorbachev, Yeltsin's frenemy. Yeltsin's consolation prize
was a meeting with Vice President Dan Quayle in Philadelphia.
Yeltsin was shown the Liberty Bell. In Indiana, he was
taken to a pig farm. Yeltson joked, Generally, I prefer
(17:35):
to see Americans, but I guess pigs will do. In Texas,
Yeltsin gave a speech at a Dallas press club that
would have gotten him shot under Stalin or at least
thrown in a Siberian gulog. Yeltson said that for too
many years, Soviet leaders pretended to build socialism while the
(17:57):
people pretended to work.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It was, in his words, a society built on lies.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
The next day, September sixteenth, he got a tour of
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Yeltsen was shown mission
control and mockups of a space station called Freedom. Yeltsen,
a former engineer, asked some technical questions, but his mind
seemed to be elsewhere. After the Johnson Space Center, it
(18:28):
was off to the Houston Airport, where Yeltsin and his
entourage would catch a flight to Miami, the final stop
of their US tour. But as they left for the airport,
Yeltsen asked his handlers if there was time to stop
at a grocery store. A grocery store, sure, why not.
(18:49):
They made some calls and found the closest one.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
It was a Randall's grocery store about a mile and
a half from the Johnson Space Center. I don't even
think it was a flagsh store. It was just a
Randall's grocery store, one of many chains in that area.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
The store manager, Paul Jurga, had just a few minutes warning.
He met the busload of Russians in the parking lot,
shook hands and welcomed them in.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
People were still shopping, There were people curious and walking around.
You know, there was a photographer, but if you look
at even some of the pictures, there's.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Not a huge crowd around him. It's not a mob
of people.
Speaker 8 (19:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It wasn't like Gorbatchrov showed up. It wasn't the head
of Russia, or it wasn't you know, some celebrity. It
was just a random VIP coming.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
We don't know why exactly Yeltsen asked.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
To see a grocery store, or what was going through
his mind when he first stepped inside Randall's, But if
it was anything like the experience of his aid Leve Sukunov,
then it was pure sensory overload. Here's how Suknov described
it in his memoir Three Years with Boris Yeltsin.
Speaker 9 (19:59):
I was immediately struck by abundance of light, and in
general color scheme of everything was so bright and impressive
that it felt like Vivre descending into depths of Kalidoscope.
When we walked along rows, our eyes didn't know where
(20:20):
to stop. I could guess different things, but what I
saw in this supermarket was no less amazing than America itself.
Some of us started counting the types of hams we.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Lost cult Yeltsen probably had these same thoughts as he wandered,
dumbfounded through Randall's, but his amazement was also mixed with suspicion.
As a student of Russian history, Yeltsen knew the story
of Prince Gregory Potempkin. Potempkin was a secret lover of
(20:56):
Catherine the Great and Allegedly, he wanted to impressed her
with a tour of the recently annexed territory of Crimea.
According to legend, Potempkin built facades of colorfully painted villages
along her parade route to hide the unpleasant reality of
(21:17):
starving peasants. Yeltson thought that Randalls was a Potempkin village.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Seeing the store and walking to the grocery store, he
immediately thought, oh, this is a setup by the Americans,
like let's put on a dog and pony show and
this is look at us. And and they, the Americans
were confused because like, wait a minute, what do you.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Like this is this is a grocery store, Like there's
probably a better one down the block.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Then he thought, oh, this is this.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Is where the NASA brass shop, only the upper echelon
generals of NASA and the big important people. And again
they were like nope, just one on this corner, as
opposed to a mile away from here.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeltsin was flabbergasted. All this was for regular people.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
He asked one of the workers, how many college degrees
someone has to have to catalog.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Everything and run everything?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And I think one was like I did a semester
community college. Like, there's just so many things that don't
line up because it was so vast and so amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yelton stopped a young woman rolling by with her cart and,
while being friendly, quizzed her about her income and how
much she spent on groceries each week. He did the math.
It was expensive, but not crazy. Middle class Americans were
eating like kings. There's a photo of Yelton looking down
(22:49):
at a freezer case full of ice cream. He has
a big smile on his face and his arms are
raised as if to say, what a miracle. The subject
of his fascination is a box of Jello pudding pops.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So eighties, but Jello pudding pops. He couldn't believe that.
I think also because the fact that in the center
of an aisle was a freezer, right, a huge long freezer.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
They didn't have that.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So to see something and then have this product of
you know, Bill Cosby's face on it and Chella pudding pops,
you know, that was shocking.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
But the real shocker came in the produce section. Sure
there were fruits and vegetables in the Soviet Union. Some
people had gardens in the country and grew their own produce,
and in the summer there were markets in the big cities,
but the choices were always limited, and there were lines
for cabbages. In America, however, even the humblest grocery store
(23:50):
contained a veritable cornicopia.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Here's Sukenov again.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
In vegetable section.
Speaker 9 (23:57):
Viva letally shocked byquality of produce. A reddish the size
of large potato, was illuminated by bright light and water
was scattered onto it from small spirits. Redishes were literally dazzling,
and next to them were onions, garlic, eggplant, cauliflower, tomatos, culcumber.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeltsin's grandfather was a farmer. He had a connection to
the earth. There's nothing more earthy than onions and potatoes.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
It's peasant food.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And here in America, Yelton realized even a peasant could
eat better than Gorbachev himself.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
There was like two things, if you think about it.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
One had this sort of shock and awe of colors,
the amount of products, the variety of all of those products. Right,
So think cereal aisle, think cookies, think different chips.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
That was one type of commercialism. The other was radish.
Is the size of potatoes that rocked him at his core,
like commercialism is one thing, but abundance is another. You know,
we've been told all of this stuff about the failings
of American capitalism, but live and improof. Yeah, you could
argue that the commercialism is a failing.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
But not the radish, not the giant onion.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
That's irrefutable proof that the system is working.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
There was a reporter from the Houston Chronicle who covered
Yeltsin's twenty minute visit to Randall's in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
As Eyeltzen stood before.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
The piles of shiny apples and crisp lettuce and bright
yellow bananas, he turned to her and said, if the
Soviet people, who wait in line every day for a
meager selection of goods ever saw a US supermarket, there
would be a revolution. The last photograph taken of Boris
(26:09):
Yeltsen at Randall's supermarket shows him at the checkout stand.
A teenage clerk who is rocking a sweet eighties perm
is explaining how the price scanners work. Once again, Yeltsin
and his team are blown away. His aide you can
have described it.
Speaker 9 (26:28):
At the exit from American Supermarket, Girl is seating at
cash register didn't have to count anything. In her hands,
she held small device that resembled head dryer, which she
quickly ran over price code on the package. After this operation,
price appeared on computer cash register screen. The customer paid
(26:54):
and could freely pass through electronic turnstile to fill what
else could be simpler and smarters in such a seastem.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
An hour earlier, Yelton was at the Johnson Space Center
where NASA officials showed him the plans for a new
space station. He was unfazed the beeping laser checkout thing,
a revelation further proof that the Soviet Union was light
years behind America. At the exit, the store manager presented
(27:26):
Yelton with a goodie bag for the trip home. Putting
on a brave face, Yelton joked, is this what you
give a starving Russian?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You should add some soap? We need that too.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Outside in the Randalls parking lot, however, something snapped inside
Boris Yeltsin. Sure, Yeltsen talked a big game about changing
the system. He was a loud critic of the Communist
Party's leadership and openly called for democratic and capitalist reforms,
but he was also a proud son of the Soviet
(28:01):
Union and believed deep down in the promises of the
Bolshevik Revolution, a system of government that was supposed to
put the workers and the common people first. Somewhere in
the Randalls parking lot where Atsukin, of quote, the last
vestige of Bolshevism collapsed inside Yeltsin.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
When he got into the parking lot, it was sadness
on what we've done to our people, and then anger.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Right, if the people saw what I just saw on.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
An American grocery store, there'd be a revolution, because it's
it's the exact opposite of the Bolshevik revolution, Right. They
were overthrowing the yoke of the czar, and they were,
you know, it was going to be equality for everybody.
And did they achieve some of the things, yes, But
after you know, of course Stalin and all of the atrocities,
(28:58):
it instantly did not have.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You know, you could see very clearly it did not happen.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
But he now walks into the enemy's grocery store the
day to day and said, this is the ideal of
the everyman, that a person can walk in any income.
And he saw them, and he met them and could
grab whatever they wanted off the shelf and bring it
home to eat or cook, or make or process or microwave.
I don't know, you know, So that's revolutionary in the
(29:23):
sense of our abundance is the revolution that they were
striving for and never hit.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
There's no question that Yeltsin's trip to Randall's affected him deeply.
One of his biographers wrote, for a long time on
the plane to Miami, he sat motionless, his head in
his hands. What have they done to our poor people?
I think we have committed a crime against our people
(29:52):
by making their standard of living so incomparably lower.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Than that of the Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
When Yeltsin were turned to Moscow, he was more committed
than ever to tearing down what was clearly a failing system.
The Communist Party could keep telling its lies about the
superiority of the Soviet system, but the people knew differently,
and Yeltsen spoke directly to their struggles and frustrations.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
So after he comes back from Texas, he becomes sort
of the face of change, standing up to the Communist Party,
speaking differently, not using the usual jargon, speaking like a
normal person would speak.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Gorbachev had introduced reform programs like Peristroika and glass Nut,
which were supposed to slowly reform the Soviet system, but
Yeltsin had officially lost his patients.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
There was some daylight in the closed society with Gorbachev's policies.
He was adamant that you kick that door open, we
are going to break it down. We're going to tear
down that wall. The Pericans have this thing. The Russian
people will topple their government if they saw how other
people were living.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
We can't wait another second.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Less than two months after Yeltsin returned from.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
The US, the Berlin Wall fell.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Communism was faltering, and the Soviet people saw a chance
for real change. Yeltsen soared in popularity. In the spring
of nineteen ninety, Yeltsin was elected in a landslide to
the Russian State Legislature, and his colleagues named him President
of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. But Yeltsen wanted
(31:39):
a true mandate, so he took an unprecedented step. He
resigned his membership in the Communist Party and called for
general elections in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
He won nearly.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Sixty percent of the popular vote as an independent candidate
and became the first democratically elected president of Russia. Meanwhile,
Gorbachev was still the head of the Communist Party in
the Soviet Union, and just two months after Yeltsin's election
as President of Russia, a group of Communist hardliners tried
(32:19):
to hold Gorbachev hostage and stage a military coup. Hundreds
of tanks rolled into Moscow and pointed their canons at
the Russian Parliament building for two days. The hard line
communists demanded that Gorbachev stepped down and for the Communist
(32:40):
Party to regain its old school grip on Soviet politics
and the economy. Yelton wasn't having it. There's this famous
footage of him standing on top of a tank, one
of the very same tanks that were sent to destroy
everything he was fighting for.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
They pull him up and he starts reading his speech
about peace and land and bread and which is remnants
of the Bolshevik revolution, right, that was Lenin saying, But
it was in this new lens of like absolutely not,
We're going to go not going back, We're going to
open up, We're going to.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Do all these things.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
He didn't like Gorbachak, but he saved them because I
think his thinking was open up, open up, definitely, don't
close it.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
So I'm going to stop this thing, and he did.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
The tanks turned around and just like that, the coup
was over.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But Yeltin wasn't done.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
There was one more major change that had to happen
if the Soviet people were going to have a say
in their future. In December nineteen ninety one, during a
meeting at a hunting lodge in Belarus, Yelten made a
bold proposition to the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, it's
time to dissolve the Soviet Union. Yeltin was supposed to
(33:59):
be there to negotiate, create a treaty, not to tear
down the entire Iron Curtain, but that's the kind of
figure Yelton had to become, uncompromising, bold and little nuts.
The KGB could have arrested him for treason, but he'd
seen enough to know there was no going back.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there's a sense
a lot of people have that it was inevitable that
there were largest structural forces at play, like the rise
of nationalism and countries like Ukraine those certainly played a role,
but the role of actual individuals like Yeltsin cannot be overestimated.
The ultimate decision to dissolve the Soviet Union just came
down to Yeltsin and two other leaders, the leader of
(34:42):
Ukraine and leader of Belarus, and that's it. And that
experience in the supermarket, like without it, it's possible he
would not have taken that leap of faith and really
exposed himself to potentially being disposed of by the KGB
for treason when he made the decision to dissolve the
city US. But I think sort of once you see something,
(35:02):
once you see that another way is possible, and other
realities possibly can't unsee it. So that experience in the
supermarket I think influenced his decision to dissolve this of union.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
The image of Yelton standing on the tank defiantly putting
down an attempted coup was probably the highlight of his
political career.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It was all downhill from there.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Reelected as Russian President, he was in charge as the
country went through a painful transition to capitalism after nearly
seventy five years of rigid communist control. In retrospect, maybe
it was all too sudden and too fast, but that's.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
The path the people chose.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
By the time Yeltsen resigned from office in nineteen ninety nine,
he was a physical wreck from years of illness and alcoholism.
That was the red faced Boris yel who Evan Mack
remembered seeing on TV as a kid in Russia. Yelton
was unpopular internationally. He'd become a joke, which is why
(36:11):
Evan was so surprised to learn about Yeltsin's historic trip
to Randalls and how a Houston grocery store and a
risk taking young Yeltsin played such a pivotal role in
ending Soviet Communism.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
I thought, this is the greatest story that nobody knows about.
Like he was really earth changing stuff that no one
knows about.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
And so we started writing a one act comedy operatic
version of it.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yep, remember that Evan is a composer. In twenty twenty,
he and his writing partner Joshua Maguire wrote an original
opera called Yeltsin in Texas, kind of like Nixon in China,
but set in a grocery store and a lot funnier.
After a successful run in Houston and a pause for
(37:03):
that thing called the Pandemic. The show was reimagined as
a Broadway style musical called The World Still Needs You
Boris Yeltsin. The climax of the musical is a song
called make Your Move. In it, a Randall's cashier who
moonlights as a rock star encourages Yeltsin to seize the
(37:25):
moment and become his own political rock star, and.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
He shows him as rock and roll moves, which are
the fist bump, the peace sign, and the Texas rodeo swing.
And actually, if you look back at the footage him
on the tank, he's giving a fist bump, a peace sign.
He's taking that new Russian flag and waving it over
his head like a yeehaw of Texas.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
And so because if you think about it, Boris Yelton
getting on that tank during a military coup is the
most rock star thing that one could absolutely do.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Here's to you, Boris Yeltsin, and here's a clip of
make Your Mood Move from Evan's musical.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
If there are any.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Broadway producers out there, you can reach him at Evanmack
dot com.
Speaker 8 (38:13):
Music Seize the Damn thank youss.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
One takeaway I think I had from this episode was
after it, I went to the grocery store and everything
seemed more wonderful. I kind of realized how much I
had taken for granted at the grocery store, and it
just it was delightful. I sometimes bring my baby to
the grocery store and he loves it. He just like
loves reaching. And I think that's a good attitude and
(39:21):
approach to take to kind of every life experience. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (39:24):
I love the perspective shift the story gave you.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, you just appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
Isn't it wild that communism could be felled by the
power of a jell O pudding pop?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah and a candy right?
Speaker 6 (39:33):
I mean, like, was it the CIA wasn't fear of
nuclear war? Nope, a Texas grocery store and basically said
a bullet a wars can be one with tasty treats.
Maybe we should look into this. Also, after his me
too moment, I didn't think that the mention of Bill
Cosby would ever be a source of laughter again, but
yet this story with the jell O pudding pops, I
was like, ohait and he did it so big surprises.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
I like how fororce Elton is firmly a caricature in
almost every time he's mentioned in your pick during alcoholic
wandering out in the street. I did enjoy spending some
time earlier in his life and career when he's like
the firebrand up and coming, and you can kind of
understand because there were times where it'd be like, how
(40:14):
is this guy in charge of the country?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Would never happen?
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Here?
Speaker 6 (40:17):
The man of the people thing really comes through in
this one.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Yeah, did you cast who's playing Yeltsin in the twenty
twenty seven Golden Globe winning film Here?
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Okay? So I went two ways with this one. I
cast it Boris and Jolena Bieberman the person who grew
up in Civiet Union talking about what it was like,
and then Evan Mack, the opera writer, and then also
the Randalls cashier. So for Boris Yeltsen, I have my
dream casting, which would be Philip seymour Hoffman. Oh right,
wouldn't he been? He killed the role all right? And
then this guy have gone to before in the past,
(40:47):
but he is living. I think Jesse Plemmons looks the
most like Boris yeltsin and could pull it off, you know,
just do like a little bit of wake gain, get
a little vodka, like some pallor going, and he'd nail it.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I love Jesse Plemmons, right, He's just so good.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
Constantly think of him for casting. I'm like, well, if
he looks like the part, I'm giving it to Jesse Plemmings.
Now for Elena Bieberman, I was thinking of Anna Taylor Joy.
She actually is Russian from what I understand. I think
that to be an interesting like oh Beck and Soviet Union.
I remember, you know, breadlines, So I thought that would
be kind of fun for her. And then for Evan
Mack the Texas Opera songwriter Jason Segal right in the
(41:21):
opera then is done with muppets. I mean, how much
fun to have a Boris Yelton muppet.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Maybe this should just be muppets, right?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Is it possible this entire, very special episode should be
done only with muppets.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
And then for the Randalls Cashier because in the opera
they have the dance moves, I thought, well we go
with Tom Holland because he's known for his dance moves.
I mean that brother could swing.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Oh yeah, Jason, you've seen the singing in the Rain
umbrella Meedley right, yes, oh, thank god to anyone who
hasn't look it up immediately.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Yes please.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
Speaking of Broadway, who do we know? How do we
get Evan Max opera? This needs to be the come
from away of next year. Who can we call?
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Get some Broadway producers on the horn?
Speaker 6 (42:08):
And Jason, you're the biggest Broadway fishing auto I know
who's constantly going to theater. How would you imagine this one?
Are you imagining the Texas store? Are you imagining like
something a little bit more magical? Do you have like
a set design for this?
Speaker 5 (42:21):
I would love to see a just super bright grocery
store set and then have that replaced by something darker.
And now, look, I don't want to step on Evan
Max's vision. I am just the fan. I'm the one
who will go buy the cup with the show logo
on it and then we'll use it into the ground
for four or five years after. But it just seems
(42:43):
like the perfect topic for a play or musical, just
this small historical thing that ended up having a huge
impact that people don't know. These grocery stores. Magic is
happening in the grocery stores.
Speaker 6 (42:57):
Magic and Aisle seven.
Speaker 5 (43:01):
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
This show is hosted by Danish Schwartz, Zaren Burnett and
Jason English. Today's episode was written by Dave Rouse. Our
senior producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by
Jonathan Washington. Additional editing by Mary Doo, Mixing and mastering
by Josh Fisher. Original music by Elise McCoy, show logo
(43:24):
by Lucy Kintonia, Social clips by Yarberry Media. Our executive
producer is Jason English. Special thanks to our voice actor
Tom Antonellis, and thanks to Evan Mack for letting us
use some music from Yeltson in Texas, which I hope
we're all getting to see on Broadway one day. Very
Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Dana Schwartz
Jason English
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