How a Texas Grocery Store Ended the Cold War [Very Special Episodes]

Summary

Noble Blood: "How a Texas Grocery Store Ended the Cold War" [Very Special Episodes]

Host: Dana Schwartz
Guests: Jason English, Zarin Burnett, Evan Mack, Yelena Biberman
Episode Date: November 15, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this special episode of "Noble Blood," host Dana Schwartz and her panel peel back one of the Cold War’s strangest turning points: Boris Yeltsin's 1989 visit to a Texas grocery store. Through insightful conversation, personal anecdotes, and theatrical flair, the episode explores how Yeltsin’s exposure to American supermarket abundance brought home the stark failures of Soviet communism—and may have catalyzed the end of the Soviet Union itself.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Life in the USSR (08:34–11:26)

• Contrast in Grocery Experiences:
  • Yelena Biberman, who grew up in Soviet Belarus, shares visceral memories of never-ending food lines, rationing, and the everyday hunger that defined Soviet life.
  • Yelena (08:34): “Let’s say you’re walking down 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.”
• First Impressions of America:
  • Upon immigrating, Yelena describes overwhelming awe at the sheer scale and luxury of American supermarkets: “Here in the US, it’s like, please buy as much as you can. … But the most important was bananas. Oh my God. That was the Holy Grail.” (11:07)

2. Boris Yeltsin’s Rise and Reformist Zeal (12:25–16:45)

• Yeltsin’s Early Years:
  • Born into poverty, witnessed Stalinist repression, always retained a populist, anti-elite streak.
• Challenging the Party:
  • Yeltsin’s anti-corruption actions and willingness to criticize the slow pace of reforms marked him as a bold, sometimes reckless figure.
  • According to Yelena, the Chernobyl disaster and government cover-ups fueled public hunger for new leaders like Yeltsin. (15:00)

3. The Fateful US Tour and the Grocery Store Visit (18:47–29:18)

• Boris Yeltsin in America:
  • The US tour was meant to show Yeltsin American achievements.
  • Comedic Missteps:
    • New York’s major attractions “didn’t impress” Yeltsin.
    • After sleep deprivation and whisky, Yeltsin was "visibly intoxicated" at a Baltimore speech (20:38).
• The Randall’s Visit:
  • Yeltsin’s spontaneous request brings him to a Houston supermarket.
  • Store manager Paul Yirga, with minutes’ notice, welcomes Yeltsin and his entourage.
  • Lev Sukhanov, Yeltsin's aide, recalls being dazzled: “It felt like we were descending into the depths of a kaleidoscope. … Some of us started counting the types of ham, but we lost count.” (23:50)

4. The Impact: Sensory Overload and Political Revelation (25:16–34:04)

• Disbelief and Suspicion:
  • Yeltsin initially suspects an American “Potemkin village,” a staged façade, but is repeatedly assured the store is utterly normal (25:16–25:55).
• Astonishment:
  • He quizzes workers about their qualifications, interrogates shoppers about their budgets, and marvels at the possibilities for ordinary Americans.
  • Freezer Aisle Moment:
    • “There’s a photo of Yeltsin looking down at a freezer case full of ice cream. He has a big smile on his face… the subject of his fascination is a box of Jell-O Pudding Pops.” (26:55)
  • Produce Revelation:
    • Lev Sukhanov, on the vegetables: “A radish the size of a large potato was illuminated by bright light … Radishes were literally dazzling.” (27:48)
  • Yeltsin’s verdict (via Houston Chronicle): “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.” (29:18)

5. Aftermath: The Collapse of Communism (34:04–40:51)

• Profound Impact:
  • On the plane, Yeltsin sits silently, “his head in his hands,” reportedly consumed by the realization of Soviet failure (35:07).
  • Yelena Biberman: “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.” (35:58)
• Chain of Events:
  • Yeltsin wins elections, survives a military coup attempt, and, with two other leaders, decides to dissolve the Soviet Union.
  • Yelena’s Insight: “Once you see that another way is possible, another reality is possible, you can’t unsee it. So that experience in the supermarket … influenced his decision to dissolve the Soviet Union.” (39:57)

6. Legacy and the Power of Small Moments (40:51–48:38)

• Personal and Cultural Repercussions:
  • The episode reflects on Yeltsin’s complicated legacy—how a brief encounter with Texas abundance may have tipped the scales of history.
  • Evan Mack on the story’s obscurity: “I thought this is the greatest story that nobody knows about. It was really earth-changing stuff that no one knows about.” (42:06)
• From Opera to Broadway:
  • Composer Evan Mack created an opera and then a musical based on Yeltsin’s supermarket epiphany—transforming global history into song and dance.
    • The musical number “Make Your Move” features Randalls cashiers teaching Yeltsin their “rock and roll moves”—later echoed as Yeltsin stands defiantly on a tank during the 1991 coup attempt (43:07).

7. Reflection and Appreciation (44:20–48:34)

• Dana on Gratitude:
  • “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.” (44:37)
• Panel on Irony and Pop Culture:
  • Zarin Burnett quips about the power of “a Jell-O Pudding Pop” toppling communism (45:04); Dana observes the relatable, firebrand side of young Yeltsin.
• Imaginary Casting Game:
  • The panel imagines the episode as a film or Muppet musical—with Jesse Plemons (or the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) as Yeltsin, Anya Taylor-Joy as Yelena, and Tom Holland as the hip cashier (46:03–47:23).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Yelena Biberman on food shortages:
  “I remember just not having food at home. … So I would eat bread and salt. And had it not been for the bread, I don’t know what I would have done.” (10:04)
• On American supermarkets:
  “Sometimes my mother says the reason why we left the Soviet Union was so my kids could eat bananas.” (11:07)
• Lev Sukhanov, Yeltsin’s aide:
  “What I saw in this supermarket was no less amazing than America itself.” (23:50)
• Yeltsin, on seeing ordinary abundance:
  “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.” (29:18)
• Sukhanov, at checkout:
  “Girl sitting at cash register didn’t have to count anything. … Well, what else could be simpler than smarters in such a system?” (32:06)
• After visiting Randall’s, Yeltsin (summarized):
  "What have they done to our poor people? I think we have committed a crime against our people by making their standard of living so incomparably lower than that of the Americans." (35:07)
• Dana Schwartz, reflection:
  “Everything seemed more wonderful. I kind of realized how much I had taken for granted at the grocery store.” (44:37)
• Zarin Burnett:
  “Isn’t it wild that communism could be felled by the power of a Jell O Pudding Pop?” (45:04)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [08:34] – Soviet breadlines and childhood memories with Yelena Biberman
• [10:40] – Emigrating and experiencing an American supermarket for the first time
• [15:00] – Public anger post-Chernobyl and political hunger for change
• [18:47] – Evan Mack discovers Yeltsin’s story for his opera/musical
• [22:44] – Yeltsin arrives at Randall’s in Houston
• [23:50] – Lev Sukhanov’s kaleidoscopic description of American grocery stores
• [25:16] – Yeltsin thinks it’s a trick (“Potemkin village”) and is proven otherwise
• [27:48] – Awe over American produce (radishes the size of potatoes)
• [29:18] – Yeltsin predicts a revolution if Soviets saw American supermarkets
• [32:06] – Laser price scanners blow Yeltsin and aides away
• [35:07] – Yeltsin’s transformation: the trip’s emotional aftermath
• [39:57] – Yelena on the supermarket’s pivotal influence on Yeltsin’s choices
• [42:06] – Evan Mack’s musical and opera inspiration
• [44:37] – Dana’s personal takeaways on gratitude

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Conclusion

The episode weaves together history, humor, and heart in showing how an ordinary Texas grocery store became a stage for extraordinary global change. Through Boris Yeltsin’s wide-eyed amazement, listeners experience the profound, personal break between ideology and lived reality—a moment summed up, delightfully, by a box of Jell-O pudding pops.

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Want more?

• Listen for a clip from "The World Still Needs You, Boris Yeltsin" at [43:54].
• For a blast of perspective, try your next grocery run through Boris Yeltsin’s eyes.

Transcript

[Ross Store Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Dana Schwartz]

I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.

[Jason English]

It's the rage bait.

[Yelena Biberman]

It feels like it's trying to divide people.

[Evan Mack]

We got clear facts.

[Yelena Biberman]

Maybe we can calm down a little.

[Dana Schwartz]

NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts.

[Evan Mack]

Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America there's nothing.

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[Dana Schwartz]

Welcome to Randall's, a run of the mill supermarket in Texas. The year is 1989 and this 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. There's quite a selection. 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 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 1989. 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 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 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 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 1989, while on a tour of the United States, Boris Yeltsin made an unscheduled visit to a random Randall's grocery that left him a profoundly changed man. In fact, you could argue the collapse of the Soviet Union began when Boris Yeltsin encountered a freezer case with 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?

[Evan Mack]

A nuclear arms race, proxy wars, CIA incursions, CIA assassination attempts, Infiltration, diplomacy, detente, Star Wars, I mean, trillions and trillions of dollars spent on. And in the end, it was a Russian who came to a grocery store and said, holy moly, they have pudding pops.

[Jason English]

We're done.

[Evan Mack]

That's it. It's over.

[Dana Schwartz]

Welcome to very special episodes, an I heart original podcast. I'm your host, Dana Schwartz, and this is the grocery store that killed communism.

[Jason English]

Welcome back Very special episodes. She's 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 Yeltsin 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&P. But we pack a lot into this one. Cold war history, grocery stores, Texas, Texas operas, little musical theater.

[Dana Schwartz]

It kind of hits everything I love. Food, history, musical theater.

[Jason English]

Exactly.

[Zarin Burnett]

And I don't know about you guys, I have a Boris Yeltsin guarantee. It's very simple. If there's any story with Boris Yeltsin, I will read it or listen to it because he's just such a crazy world figure of history. Back in the day, my friends and I, we used to have a deadpool that was the Pope, Hope or Boris Yeltsin. We decided which one of them would be the last to live. We couldn't believe it ourselves, but Boris Yeltsin won He outlived Bob Hope and the Pope.

[Jason English]

So there you go.

[Dana Schwartz]

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 1980s. For chunks of the 20th century, the Soviet economy kept pace with the United States. They were the two global superpowers. 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. Basically, every aspect 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 on nuclear bombs and way too little on basic consumer goods. For decades, Soviet families suffered shortages of food, clothing, household goods, everything. Yelena Biberman grew up in Belarus, which was at the time a Soviet satellite state in Eastern Europe. Yelena was 11 in 1989, part of the last generation who can remember what life was really like in the USSR right before it all came tumbling down. We asked her about breadlines, but Yelena says bread was just the tip of the iceberg.

[Yelena Biberman]

Oh, man.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yes.

[Yelena Biberman]

So lines. Lots of lines. Let's say you're walking down 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 takes time. But you ask around, and you figure out what it is. And as time progressed, increasingly it was more likely to be something edible. Food.

[Dana Schwartz]

It wasn't all bad, Yelena says.

[Yelena Biberman]

So I 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 pastry, and it was so warm and delicious, it was worth it. I still remember it.

[Dana Schwartz]

To hear Yelena tell it, 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. Yelena's town even had a public seltzer dispenser 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.

[Yelena Biberman]

It was a small town, so I guess these same germs kept going around, and, you know, we were immune.

[Dana Schwartz]

But in the background of Yelena's childhood memories was the constant low Grade hum of hunger. Both of her parents worked, but the family never had enough to eat.

[Yelena Biberman]

I remember just not having food at home. And so I found myself really hungry. And thank God there was always bread in the store. So 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 me would have done. Because then it's sort of like there's nothing.

[Dana Schwartz]

When things got even worse for Yelena and her family, they immigrated to the United States. Yelena will never forget her first trip to an American grocery store.

[Yelena Biberman]

So my aunt is the one who kind of organized this for us. She came to us, 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. Then I remember seeing a cart. There would be carts and already confused, like, what? And they were giant. And like, first of all, wow, they're helping you shop. Because in the Soviet 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 was the holy Grail. Sometimes my mother says the reason why we left the Soviet Union was that so my kids could could eat bananas.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yelena 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. America was the land of hunger. 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 restless. That's why politicians like Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reform programs in the 1980s, like glasnost and perestoika. Glasnost promised greater openness and transparency in Soviet politics. And perestroika was supposed to restructure the stagnant Soviet economy. But some Soviet politicians thought Gorbachev's reforms were too slow and didn't go nearly far enough. Boris Yeltsin was one of the loudest voices calling for radical change. Yeltsin was an outsider politician who now knew something about hunger. He was born in 1931 in a remote village in the Ural Mountains. Yeltsin's grandfather lost his land when farming was collectivized under Stalin in the 1940s. Yeltsin's father was assigned to work in a potash factory. The family lived in a communal hut for 10 years. In his autobiography, Yeltsin remembers having no. No warm clothes. So in the winter, the children huddled up next to a nanny goat. The goat's milk also got them through World War II. Yeltsin never forgot his humble beginnings. Even after he became a Communist Party official, he remained a man of the people. He'd make unannounced visits to factories and shops and schools and ask people about their daily lives. 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 to the general public, like fresh fruits and vegetables. If there were shortages, he said, everyone should experience them equally. Under Gorbachev, Yeltsin rose all the way to the Politburo, the Central committee of the Communist Party. But Yeltsin grew frustrated with the slow pace of change and openly criticized party leadership, including Gorbachev. In 1987, Yeltsin was ousted from the Politburo, and his enemies tried to paint him as a drunken ox, a fool. This could have been the end of Yeltsin'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.

[Yelena Biberman]

We wanted new people in charge. We were really sick of the old leadership of the gerontocracy 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 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 Yeltsin, because he seemed different, new generation, not afraid to say things, to speak his mind.

[Dana Schwartz]

In 1989, the Soviet Union held its first democratic elections for a new governing body called the Congress of People's Deputies. Yeltsin ran as a delegate from Moscow and won in a landslide. He saw victory as a mandate for change and for formed a radical reform party to challenge the Communists. Yeltsin was now the most famous and powerful pro democracy advocate in the Soviet Union, but he faced tremendous opposition from hardliners on the Politburo and even Gorbachev. In September of 1989, Boris Yeltsin 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 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.

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[Dana Schwartz]

Evan Mac is a musician and composer. He writes operas and musicals for a living, which is pretty cool. Until a few years ago, the name Boris Yeltsin meant very little to Evan.

[Evan Mack]

Yeah, he was the big drunk guy on TV all the time in my childhood.

[Dana Schwartz]

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 1989. Evan knew immediately he had found the subject for his new opera, but he had a lot of research to do. What was going on in the Soviet Union in 1989 and what was Yeltsin's role?

[Evan Mack]

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 tall, he was a volleyball player, he played the spoons like it was just like that was his instrument. So there was this sort of everyman quality about him.

[Dana Schwartz]

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 1989, Yeltsin landed at JFK Airport in New York and set out to meet America. It wasn't very exciting at first.

[Evan Mack]

And in New York they showed him three things. They showed him the Statue of Liberty, the UN and Trump Tower. No one knows why Those were the three things in 1989 to show him, but they showed him that he was not impressed.

[Dana Schwartz]

The next stop, Baltimore, was a minor disaster. Unable to sleep from jet lag, Yeltsin downed two sleeping pills with a couple shots of whiskey at an early morning smell speech the next day, he was quote, visibly intoxicated. According to the New York Times In Washington D.C. president H.W. 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. Yeltsin joked, generally I prefer 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 gulag. Yeltsin said that for too many years, Soviet Leaders pretended to build socialism while the people pretended to work. It was, in his words, a society built on lies. The next day, September 16, he got a tour of NASA's Johnson Space center in Houston. Yeltsin was shown mission control and mockups of a space station called Freedom. Yeltsin, a former engineer, asked some technical questions, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere. After the Johnson Space center, it 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, Yeltsin asked his handlers if there was time to stop at a grocery store. A grocery store? Sure, why not? They made some calls and found the closest one.

[Evan Mack]

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 flagship store. It was just a Randall's grocery store, one of many chains in that area.

[Dana Schwartz]

The store manager, Paul Yirga, had just a few minutes warning. He met the busload of Russians in the parking lot, shook hands and welcomed them in.

[Evan Mack]

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 not a huge crowd around them. It's not a mob of people. You know, it wasn't like Gorbachev showed up. It wasn't the head of Russia, or it wasn't, you know, some celebrity. It was just a random VIP coming.

[Dana Schwartz]

We don't know why exactly. Yeltsin asked 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 aide Lev Sukhanov, then it was pure sensory overload. Here's how Sukhanov described it in his memoir, Three Years with Boris Yeltsin.

[Lev Sukhanov]

I was immediately struck by abundance of light and in general, color scheme of every single was so bright and impressive that it felt like we were descending into depths of kaleidoscope. When we walked along rows, our eyes didn't know where 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 hamster, we lost count.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeltsin probably had the same thoughts as he wandered dumbfounded through Randalls. But his amazement was also mixed with suspicion. As a student of Russian history, Yeltsin knew the story of Prince Gregory Potemkin. Potemkin was a secret lover of Catherine the Great, and allegedly he wanted to impress her with. With a tour of the recently annexed territory of Crimea. According to legend, Potemkin built facades of colorfully painted villages along her parade route to hide the unpleasant reality of starving peasants. Yeltsin thought that Randalls was a Potemkin village.

[Evan Mack]

Seeing the store and walking to the grocery store, he immediately thought, oh, this is a set up 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. What do you mean? Like this is. This is a grocery store. Like there's probably a better one down the block. Then he thought, oh, this is. This 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. One on this corner as opposed to a mile away from here.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeltsin was flabbergasted. All this was for regular people.

[Evan Mack]

He asked one of the workers how many college degrees someone has to have to catalog everything and run everything. And I think one was like, I did a semester at community college. Like there's just so many things that don't line up because it was so vast and so amazing.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeltsin 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 Yeltsin looking down at a few 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 Jell o pudding pops.

[Evan Mack]

So 80s, but Jell O Pudding Pops. He couldn't believe it. I think also because the fact that in the center of an aisle was a freezer, right? A huge long freezer. They didn't have that. So to see something and then have this product of, you know, Bill Cosby's face on it and Jello Pudding Pops, you know, that was shocking.

[Dana Schwartz]

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 contained a veritable cornucopia. Here's Sukhanov again in vegetable section.

[Lev Sukhanov]

We were literally shocked by quality of produce a radish the size of large potato was illuminated by bright light and water was scattered onto it from small size spirits. Radishes were literally dazzling. And next to them were onions, garlic, eggplant, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumber.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeltsin's grandfather was a farmer. He had a connection to the earth. There's nothing more earthy than onions and potatoes. It's peasant food. And here in America, Yeltsin realized even a peasant could eat better than Gorbachev himself.

[Evan Mack]

There was like two things if you think about it. 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, right? That was one type of like commercialism. The other was radishes 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 in proof, yeah, you could argue that the commercialism is a failing, but not the radish, not the giant onion. That's irrefutable proof that this system is working.

[Dana Schwartz]

There was a reporter from the Houston Chronicle who covered Yeltsin's 20 minute visit to Randalls in 1989. As Yeltsin stood before 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.

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[Dana Schwartz]

The last photograph taken of Boris Yeltsin at Randall's Supermarket shows him at the checkout stand. A teenage clerk who is rocking a sweet 80s perm is explaining how the price scanners work. Once again, Yeltsin and his team are blown away. His aide Sukhanov described it at the.

[Lev Sukhanov]

Exit from American supermarket. Girl sitting at cash register didn't have to count anything. In her hands she held small device that resembled hair dryer, which she quickly ran over price code on the package. After this operation, price appeared on computer cash register screen. The customer paid and could freely pass through electronic turnstile. Well, what else could be simpler than smarters in such a system?

[Dana Schwartz]

An hour earlier, Yeltsin 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 Yeltsin with a goodie bag for the trip home. Putting on a brave face, Yeltsin joked, is this what you give a starving Russian? You should add some soap. We need that too. Outside in the Randalls parking lot, however, something snapped inside Boris Yeltsin. Sure, Yeltsin 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 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, wrote Sukhanov, quote the last vestige of Bolshevism collapsed inside Yeltsin when he got into the parking lot.

[Evan Mack]

It was sadness on what have we done to our people and then anger, right. If the people saw what I just saw in 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 Tsar 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, it instantly did not happen. You know, like you could see very clearly it did not happen. 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, like. So that's revolutionary in the sense of our abundance is the revolution that they were striving for and never hit.

[Dana Schwartz]

There's no question that Yeltsin trip to Randalls 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 by making their standard of living so incomparably lower than that of the Americans. When Yeltsin returned 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 Yeltsin spoke directly to their struggles and frustrations.

[Yelena Biberman]

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.

[Dana Schwartz]

Gorbachev had introduced reform programs like perestroika and Glasnut, which were supposed to slowly reform the Soviet system. But Yeltsin had officially lost his patience.

[Evan Mack]

There was some daylight in the closed society with Gorbachev's policies. He was adamant that you kick that door open like we are going to break it down, we're gonna tear down that wall. The Americans have this thing. The Russian people would topple their government if they saw how other people were living. We can't wait another second.

[Dana Schwartz]

Less than two months after Yeltsin returned from the US The Berlin Wall fell. Communism was faltering and the Soviet people saw a chance for real change. Yeltsin soared in popularity. In the spring of 1990, 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 Yeltsin wanted a true mandate, so he took an unprecedented step. He resigned his membership in the Communist Party and called for general elections in 1991. He won nearly 60% 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 to hold Gorbachev hostage and stage a military coup. Hundreds of tanks rolled into Moscow and pointed their cannons at the Russian parliament building. For two days, the hard line Communists demanded that Gorbachev step down and for the Communist Party to regain its old school grip on Soviet politics and the economy. Yeltsin 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.

[Evan Mack]

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 not going back. We're going to open up, we're going to do all these things, you know, he didn't like Gorbachev, but he saved him. Because I think his thinking was, open up, open up, definitely don't close it, so I'm going to stop this thing. And he did.

[Dana Schwartz]

The tanks turned around, and just like that, the coup was over. But Yeltsin wasn't done. 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 1991, during a meeting at a hunting lodge in Belarus, Yeltsin made a bold proposition to the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus. It's time to dissolve the Soviet Union. Yeltsin was supposed to be there to negotiate a treaty, not to tear down the entire Iron Curtain. But that's the kind of figure Yeltsin had become. Uncompromising, bold, and a little nuts. The KGB could have arrested him for treason, but he'd seen enough to know there was no going back.

[Yelena Biberman]

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there's a sense a lot of people have, that it was inevitable, that there were larger structural forces at play, like the rise of nationalism in 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 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 Soviet Union. But I think sort of once you see something, once you see that another way is possible, another reality is possible, you can't unsee it. So that experience in the supermarket, I think influenced his decision to dissolve the Soviet Union.

[Dana Schwartz]

The image of Yeltsin standing on the tank defiantly putting down an attempted coup was probably the highlight of his political career. It was all downhill from there. Re elected as Russian president. He was in charge as the country went through a painful transition to capitalism after nearly 75 years of rigid communist control. In retrospect, maybe it was all too sudden and too fast, but that's the path the people chose. By the time Yeltsin resigned From office in 1999, he was a physical wreck from years of illness and alcoholism. That was the red faced Boris Yeltsin who Evan Mack remembered seeing on TV as a kid in Russia. Yeltsin was unpopular internationally. He'd become a joke. Which is why 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.

[Evan Mack]

I thought this is the greatest story that nobody knows about. It was really earth changing stuff that no one knows about. And so we started writing a one act comedy operatic version of it.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yep. Remember that Evan is a composer. In 2020, 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 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 youe Move. In it, a Randalls cashier who moonlights as a rock star encourages Yeltsin to seize the moment and become his own political rock star.

[Evan Mack]

And he shows him his 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, you know? And so, because if you think about it, Boris Yeltsin getting on that tank during a military coup is the most rockstar thing that one could absolutely do.

[Dana Schwartz]

Here's to you, Boris Yeltsin. And here's a clip of make youe Move from Evan's musical. If there are any Broadway producers out there, you can reach [e-mail].

[Yelena Biberman]

Sometimes.

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Make.

[Lev Sukhanov]

Your move once I.

[Dana Schwartz]

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.

[Jason English]

And.

[Dana Schwartz]

And it just 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 approach to take to kind of every life experience.

[Zarin Burnett]

Yeah. I love the perspective shift the story gave you.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Zarin Burnett]

You just appreciate, isn't it wild that communism could be felled by the power of a Jell O Pudding Pop?

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. And it can be, right?

[Zarin Burnett]

I mean, like, it wasn't the CIA. Wasn't fears of nuclear war. Nope. A Texas grocery store. And basically, instead of bullets, awards can be won with tasty treats. Like, maybe we should look into this. Also, after his meeting, I didn't think that the mention of Bill Cosby would ever be a source of laughter again. But yet this story with the Jello Pudding Pops, I was like, oh, and he did it. So big surprises.

[Jason English]

I like how Boris Yeltsin is firmly a caricature in almost every time he's mentioned and you're picturing 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 is this guy in charge of the country? Like, would never happen here.

[Zarin Burnett]

The man of the people thing really comes through in this one.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Jason English]

Did you cast who's playing Yeltsin in the 2027 Golden Globe winning film here?

[Zarin Burnett]

Okay, so I went two ways with this one. I casted Boris and Yelena Bieberman, the person who grew up in Soviet Union, talking about what it was like. And then Evan Mack, the opera writer, and then also the Randalls cashier. So for Boris Yeltsin, I have my dream casting, which would be Philip Seymour Hoffman. Right. Wouldn't he be? He would just Kill the role, Rip. And then this guy I've gone to before in the past, but he is living. I think Jesse Plemons looks the most like Boris Yeltsin and could pull it off. You know, just do, like, a little bit of weight gain, get a little vodka, like some pallor going, and he'd nail it.

[Dana Schwartz]

I love Jesse Plemons. Right?

[Zarin Burnett]

He's just so good. I constantly think of him for casting. I'm like, well, if he looks like the part, I'm giving it to Jesse Plemons. Now for Yelena Bieberman, I was thinking Anna Taylor, Joy. She actually is Russian, from what I understand. I think that it'd be an interesting, like, oh, back in Soviet Union, I remember, you know, bread line. So I thought that would be kind of fun for her. And then for Evan Mack, the Texas opera songwriter, Jason Seagal, right? In the opera, then is done with Muppets. I mean, how much fun to have a Boris Yeltsin Muppet.

[Dana Schwartz]

Maybe this should just be Muppets, right? Is it possible this entire very special episode should be done only with Muppets?

[Jason English]

I love it.

[Zarin Burnett]

And then for the Randall's 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.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, yeah. Jason, you've seen the Singing in the Rain Umbrella medley, right?

[Zarin Burnett]

Yes.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, thank God. To anyone who hasn't, look it up immediately.

[Zarin Burnett]

Yes, please.

[Jason English]

Speaking of Broadway, who do we know? How do we get Evan Mack's opera? This needs to be the come from away of next year. Who can we call?

[Dana Schwartz]

Get some Broadway producers on the horn.

[Zarin Burnett]

And Jason, you're the biggest Broadway aficionado 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 a set design for this?

[Jason English]

I would love to see 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 Mack'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 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.

[Zarin Burnett]

Magic in aisle 7.

[Jason English]

Very Special Episodes is made by some Very special people. This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett and Jason English. Today's episode was written by Dave Roos. Our senior producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Jonathan Watts Washington Additional editing by Mary Dew. Mixing and mastering by Josh Fisher. Original Music by Elise McCoy. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla Social clips by Yarbury 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 Yeltsin in Texas, which I hope we're all getting to see on Broadway one day. Day Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.

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