The show began life as an initiative of the British government's Thatcher-era Know-How Fund, established in 1989. The Fund's charter was to aid command-driven socialist societies' transition to free-market economies after the fall of the Soviet Union. In November 1992, the organization created the Marshall Plan for the Mind (MPM), named after the American plan to aid Western Europe rebuild after World War II. "Crossroads" was one of dozens of radio and TV programs the MPM funded in the former Soviet Union. It was conceived as an elaboration of an MPM radio soap opera in Russia, "Dom Sem’ Pod’ezd Chetyre" ("Apartment 7, Entrance 4"). That show was based on the long-running British TV radio soap "The Archers", which had been an enormous success.