With the action and suspense of a best-selling mystery novel, Red Shambhala takes listeners on a thrilling journey into the underground occult agenda of the 1920’s Soviet secret police.

Using historical archives and primary documents, former Library of Congress historian Andrei Znamenski reveals the strange accounts of the Bolsheviks’ clandestine quest for ultimate power. Red Shambhala details the attempts of Marxist revolutionary and cryptographer Gleb Bokii and occult writer Alexander Barchenko to create a divine era of Communism by tapping into the power of Shambhala, a mythic land of pure bliss where inhabitants enjoyed god-like capabilities. This romantic dream also caught the attention of other die-hard revolutionaries, staunch nationalists, and occultists, forging a most unlikely 20th-century enterprise.

Bolshevik secret police, Tibetan lamas, Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, and wife Helena Roerich, and the right-wing fanatic baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg embarked on dangerous quests through Mongolia, Tibet, and the Himalayas. Despite differing agendas, they pursued the same overall goal: to master the sacred wisdom of Shambhala and create an ideal society.

For those interested in the secret machinations that often occur behind political movements, Red Shambhala reveals that real-life history is at times far stranger than fiction.