Summary: Pro wrestler Nikolai Volkoff used to infuriate Cold War crowds with his singing of the Soviet National Anthem --- now he's a 55-year-old grandfather, a vegetarian, and a patriot.
In the tradition of NPR's Todd Holzman, Baltimore-based producer Aaron Henkin uses sport (never mind that this "sport" is professional wrestling) to look behind the music (USSR national anthem) at the fascinating and moving story of one of the WWF's greatest heels, Nicolai "The Mad Russian" Volkoff.
Listeners will hear archival tape of televised matches mixed with the reflections of the meditating, vegetarian Volkoff of today. Henkin contrasts the chutzpah of a young man that would ask arenas full of stark raving rasslin' fans in the 1980s to sing the USSR's national anthem with the Volkoff's true feelings: he hated communism and fled to this country to escape Stalinist persecution.
At 15:27, this piece feels about three minutes too long, but listeners will love Henkin's thoughtful blend of action and cold war history, through the eyes of a man who was arguably one of America's most visible cold warriors.
Aaron Henkin is a multiple threat: he conducts excellent interviews, he writes well for himself, his reading style is crystal clear with lively phrasing, his voice is attractively deep without being so into itself that it lulls you to sleep - and then he goes and provides pristine production values including subtle dramatization. Finding all those chops in one producer is very, very rare. This story, about an ex-pro wrestler from Eastern Europe, was carefully made over a bit of time - and has a high level of human interest. I thought it was ever so slightly long - but the quality is so high it's going to make the air sound good.
An offbeat story with a well worded and voiced narration, this piece would be suitable for several different broadcast slots because it could fall under the heading of immigrant story or sports personality profile, or a personal diary type feature.
The piece is well paced and has a couple of terrific bits of sound such as a wrestling crowd driven to a frenzy at having to listen to the Soviet national anthem. And the central character is an interesting one - a Croatian who dedicated a part of his life to play a much hated Soviet Russian.
I do feel however that more juice could have been squeezed from the main character himself. I would have liked more of the story in his words, a couple more anecdotes or pictures of that time. I don't know anything about wrestling and it made no sense for me to hear that coming from the Eastern Bloc, wrestling in the US was for him a very different affair. His son appears briefly and then he' s gone without us having a chance to see him being the fan and guardian of his father's name that he's just been billed as.
The crux of this story it seems to me - what makes it so special - is that here's this seemingly pretty nice guy who made a living out of getting people to really and truly hate him. But this is not played up enough. By story's end I was gasping for some psychological insight into who Nicolai was. It's not enough to hear him say "it was a job" or "I did it to get paid". This is where I really want that little detail that will make me think oh - so that's what it did to you?. How did he cope with years of being hated, especially as he obviously didn't believe in the political slant he was publically adopting. What specifically made him feel ok enough was enough? How does he feel about those years now?
But I don't want to sound too harsh - it's a good piece, an interesting and engaging listen and it's following a character strong enough to draw even an outsider's attention.
This is a marvelous piece of radio. My favorite items are those which take an intriguing or off-beat tale and use it to tell a much larger story. This brief biography of Nikolai Volkoff, the "Mad Russian" wrestler contains the tragedy and the surreal comedy of cold war thinking.
It's unexpectedly poignant. There's lots of great archival audio, good writing, excellent presentation. An all round entertaining and high quality production.
In the tradition of NPR's Todd Holzman, Baltimore-based producer Aaron Henkin uses sport (never mind that this "sport" is professional wrestling) to look behind the music (USSR national anthem) at the fascinating and moving story of one of the WWF's greatest heels, Nicolai "The Mad Russian" Volkoff.
Listeners will hear archival tape of televised matches mixed with the reflections of the meditating, vegetarian Volkoff of today. Henkin contrasts the chutzpah of a young man that would ask arenas full of stark raving rasslin' fans in the 1980s to sing the USSR's national anthem with the Volkoff's true feelings: he hated communism and fled to this country to escape Stalinist persecution.
At 15:27, this piece feels about three minutes too long, but listeners will love Henkin's thoughtful blend of action and cold war history, through the eyes of a man who was arguably one of America's most visible cold warriors.
Comments for 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
Produced by Aaron Henkin
Other pieces by Aaron Henkin
Rating Summary
5 comments
Kerry Seed
Posted on April 11, 2006 at 02:54 PM | Permalink
Review of 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
In the tradition of NPR's Todd Holzman, Baltimore-based producer Aaron Henkin uses sport (never mind that this "sport" is professional wrestling) to look behind the music (USSR national anthem) at the fascinating and moving story of one of the WWF's greatest heels, Nicolai "The Mad Russian" Volkoff.
Listeners will hear archival tape of televised matches mixed with the reflections of the meditating, vegetarian Volkoff of today. Henkin contrasts the chutzpah of a young man that would ask arenas full of stark raving rasslin' fans in the 1980s to sing the USSR's national anthem with the Volkoff's true feelings: he hated communism and fled to this country to escape Stalinist persecution.
At 15:27, this piece feels about three minutes too long, but listeners will love Henkin's thoughtful blend of action and cold war history, through the eyes of a man who was arguably one of America's most visible cold warriors.
Marjorie Van Halteren
Posted on April 04, 2006 at 11:43 AM | Permalink
Review of 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
Aaron Henkin is a multiple threat: he conducts excellent interviews, he writes well for himself, his reading style is crystal clear with lively phrasing, his voice is attractively deep without being so into itself that it lulls you to sleep - and then he goes and provides pristine production values including subtle dramatization. Finding all those chops in one producer is very, very rare. This story, about an ex-pro wrestler from Eastern Europe, was carefully made over a bit of time - and has a high level of human interest. I thought it was ever so slightly long - but the quality is so high it's going to make the air sound good.
Dheera Sujan
Posted on April 01, 2006 at 10:01 AM | Permalink
Review of 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
An offbeat story with a well worded and voiced narration, this piece would be suitable for several different broadcast slots because it could fall under the heading of immigrant story or sports personality profile, or a personal diary type feature.
The piece is well paced and has a couple of terrific bits of sound such as a wrestling crowd driven to a frenzy at having to listen to the Soviet national anthem. And the central character is an interesting one - a Croatian who dedicated a part of his life to play a much hated Soviet Russian.
I do feel however that more juice could have been squeezed from the main character himself. I would have liked more of the story in his words, a couple more anecdotes or pictures of that time. I don't know anything about wrestling and it made no sense for me to hear that coming from the Eastern Bloc, wrestling in the US was for him a very different affair. His son appears briefly and then he' s gone without us having a chance to see him being the fan and guardian of his father's name that he's just been billed as.
The crux of this story it seems to me - what makes it so special - is that here's this seemingly pretty nice guy who made a living out of getting people to really and truly hate him. But this is not played up enough. By story's end I was gasping for some psychological insight into who Nicolai was. It's not enough to hear him say "it was a job" or "I did it to get paid". This is where I really want that little detail that will make me think oh - so that's what it did to you?. How did he cope with years of being hated, especially as he obviously didn't believe in the political slant he was publically adopting. What specifically made him feel ok enough was enough? How does he feel about those years now?
But I don't want to sound too harsh - it's a good piece, an interesting and engaging listen and it's following a character strong enough to draw even an outsider's attention.
michele ernsting
Posted on March 30, 2006 at 09:27 AM | Permalink
Review of 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
This is a marvelous piece of radio. My favorite items are those which take an intriguing or off-beat tale and use it to tell a much larger story. This brief biography of Nikolai Volkoff, the "Mad Russian" wrestler contains the tragedy and the surreal comedy of cold war thinking.
It's unexpectedly poignant. There's lots of great archival audio, good writing, excellent presentation. An all round entertaining and high quality production.
Kerry Seed
Posted on March 29, 2006 at 02:39 PM | Permalink
Review of 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
In the tradition of NPR's Todd Holzman, Baltimore-based producer Aaron Henkin uses sport (never mind that this "sport" is professional wrestling) to look behind the music (USSR national anthem) at the fascinating and moving story of one of the WWF's greatest heels, Nicolai "The Mad Russian" Volkoff.
Listeners will hear archival tape of televised matches mixed with the reflections of the meditating, vegetarian Volkoff of today. Henkin contrasts the chutzpah of a young man that would ask arenas full of stark raving rasslin' fans in the 1980s to sing the USSR's national anthem with the Volkoff's true feelings: he hated communism and fled to this country to escape Stalinist persecution.
At 15:27, this piece feels about three minutes too long, but listeners will love Henkin's thoughtful blend of action and cold war history, through the eyes of a man who was arguably one of America's most visible cold warriors.