Serhii Plokhy joins us to discuss his 2019 book, Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen Behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance. Plokhy relied on the declassified KGB and U.S. Air Force documents to examine the reasons for the steady deterioration of relations between the Soviet and American airmen on U.S. bases in Soviet Ukraine during World War II.
While both sides were fighting for the same goal of Germany's unconditional surrender, differences arose that no common purpose could overcome. They can be classified as the clash between democracy and autocracy. Soviet secret policemen watched over the operations, shadowing every move, and eventually trying to prevent fraternization among American servicemen and Soviet citizens, forcing the Americans to leave the bases. The story of the American bases foreshadowed the eventual collapse of the Grand Alliance and the start of the Cold War.
Kyrill Kunakhovich, UVA assistant professor of history and a specialist on the Cold War, moderates the conversation.