The Bismarck Cables
@thebismarckcables · The Bismarck Cables · Substack profile · International
The Bismarck Cables has 60,151 followers on Substack as of Oct 31, 2026. On the latest board read, Oct 31, 2026, they were #23 on Substack's International Bestsellers board. 50 publications recommend them, 2 of them new in the last 30 days, and they recommend 4.
Last read Oct 31, 2026 (UTC). Followers are not email subscribers. Substack lists only the newest 50 recommendations for each publication, so a recommender count of 50 or more is a floor. History starts Oct 31, 2026; Substack publishes nothing earlier.
- Followers
- 60,151
- read Oct 31
- Last 7 days
- first number on Nov 7
- Last 30 days
- first number on Nov 30
- Subscribers
- 58K+
- rounded by Substack
- Paid subscribers
- 100+
- bestseller badge 100+
- Recommended by
- 50
- +2 in 30 days
- Recommends
- 4
- Bestsellers rank
- #23
- International
Followers by day
Tracking since Oct 31, 2026. This is the first reading. Substack doesn't publish past follower counts, so history starts the day I first read a writer and grows by one reading every 3 days (daily if it's on your watchlist). The 7-day change appears on Nov 7, the 30-day change on Nov 30. Recommendation dates below go further back: they're Substack's own.
Show as a table
| Date | Followers | Change | Subscribers | Paid band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 31, 2026 | 60,151 | 58K+ |
Leaderboard positions
| Board | Rank now | Best on record | Reads on it |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Bestsellers | #23 | #23 | 4 of 4 |
Rank on each read
| Writer | Oct 3107:00 | Oct 3113:00 | Oct 3119:47 | Nov 621:50 | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Bestsellers | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 0 |
I read every board once a day.
Recommendations
50 publications recommend The Bismarck Cables; 1 started in the last 30 days. The Bismarck Cables recommends 4. Lists read Oct 31.
When the recommendations started
Show as a table
| Month | Started |
|---|---|
| 2024-11 | 1 |
| 2025-01 | 2 |
| 2025-02 | 3 |
| 2025-04 | 2 |
| 2025-05 | 1 |
| 2025-07 | 1 |
| 2025-08 | 1 |
| 2025-09 | 2 |
| 2025-10 | 1 |
| 2025-11 | 4 |
| 2025-12 | 4 |
| 2026-01 | 6 |
| 2026-02 | 4 |
| 2026-03 | 2 |
| 2026-04 | 2 |
| 2026-05 | 5 |
| 2026-06 | 1 |
| 2026-07 | 2 |
| 2026-08 | 2 |
| 2026-09 | 2 |
| 2026-10 | 2 |
Recommended by
Hannah Lucinda Smith1.3k followers · started Jul 2025- Amjad Nablsistarted Oct 20, 2026new
- The Mazestarted Oct 7, 2026
- Scenaricastarted Sep 27, 2026
- Lisa's Substackstarted Sep 9, 2026
- Suzanstarted Aug 29, 2026
- BEN's Substackstarted Aug 19, 2026
- Daedalus: Field Notesstarted Jul 27, 2026
- Mahnaz's Substackstarted Jul 24, 2026
- Paul's Substackstarted Jun 21, 2026
- Breeger,'s Substackstarted May 27, 2026
- The Young Conservativesstarted May 22, 2026
- Beth's Substackstarted May 15, 2026
- AnnMrie's Substackstarted May 8, 2026
- Matt's Substackstarted May 7, 2026
- Beatrice's Substackstarted Apr 17, 2026
- Rolf's Substackstarted Apr 1, 2026
- Operational Art Notesstarted Mar 16, 2026
- Bob's Substackstarted Mar 7, 2026
- Russ's Substackstarted Feb 26, 2026
- Sheila's Substackstarted Feb 24, 2026
- The Portable Jon-Understanding Our Timesstarted Feb 20, 2026
- John's Substackstarted Feb 2, 2026
- Clicks & Contributionsstarted Jan 26, 2026
All 50
- Readings to ponder - observations from Oparastarted Jan 21, 2026
- David's Substackstarted Jan 17, 2026
- Ryan's Substackstarted Jan 16, 2026
- Karl's Substackstarted Jan 3, 2026
- Frank's Substackstarted Jan 3, 2026
- Tom Schmidtstarted Dec 13, 2025
- Literature & Geopolitics started Dec 10, 2025
- Natural's Substackstarted Dec 7, 2025
- Jim's Substackstarted Dec 6, 2025
- James's Substackstarted Nov 26, 2025
- Laura's Substackstarted Nov 16, 2025
- elli's Substackstarted Nov 2025
- MC's Substackstarted Nov 2025
- Julio's Substackstarted Oct 2025
- Deirdre’s Substackstarted Sep 2025
- Biswajit’s Substackstarted Sep 2025
- Pawel’s Substackstarted Aug 2025
- Chyavan’s Substackstarted May 2025
- Reinforcement & Ruinstarted Apr 2025
- Kevin’s Substackstarted Apr 2025
- Wigderson Library & Pubstarted Feb 2025
- Paulette’s Substackstarted Feb 2025
- Roy’s Substackstarted Feb 2025
- Edward’s Substackstarted Jan 2025
- Kumpal’s Substackstarted Jan 2025
- Alan’s Substackstarted Nov 2024
Recommends
Paul Krugman877k followers · started Sep 10, 2026
Noah Smith691k followers · started Oct 2022
Matthew Yglesias365k followers · started Sep 10, 2026
Derek Thompson182k followers · started Jun 2025
Substack lists the 50 newest recommenders of each publication. I add every recommendation found in the full lists of the 6,392 publications I read, so writers with many recommenders may still be missing a few small ones. "Started" is Substack's date.
Who recommends writers like this one
Publications that recommend at least two other International writers with 50,000 or more followers (12 writers in that group), but not The Bismarck Cables.
- recommends 3 of them
Alexander Vindman@avindman - recommends 3 of them
Tim Mak@timkmak - recommends 3 of them
Dominik Presl@stationzero - recommends 2 of them
Aaron Rupar@aaronrupar - recommends 2 of them
Simon Rosenberg@simonwdc - recommends 2 of them
Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum - recommends 2 of them
Jeff Stein@spytalk - recommends 2 of them
Mick Ryan@mickryan - recommends 2 of them
Sam Matey-Coste@sammatey - recommends 2 of them
Sasha Ingber@sashaingber