Joseph Stalin was one of bloodiest dictators in world history and one of the most significant people of the 20th Century. He was the absolute ruler of the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc of Eastern Europe. He killed millions… Read More ›
Russian History
How did Joseph Stalin react to the German invasion during WWII?
Joseph Stalin reacted extremely slowly to the invasion of his country by German forces in 1940. Indeed, not only did he react slowly, but he also ignored warnings that the Germans planned to attack his country. Stalin’s response to the… Read More ›
Why was Nikita Khrushchev deposed as the leader of the USSR?
Nikita Khrushchev assumed leadership of the Soviet Union during the period following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Khrushchev served as a General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as a… Read More ›
If not for Vasili Arkhipov – 100s of millions of people could have died
From History New Network by Douglas Gilbert author of The Last Saturday of October: The Declassified Secrets of Black Saturday: “Vasili Arkhipov is arguably the most important person in modern history, thanks to whom October 27, 2017 isn’t the 55th… Read More ›
What do we really know about Joseph Stalin?
From the JSTOR Daily by Matthew Willis: Joseph Stalin died sixty-five years ago this month. But it wasn’t until Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s, and then the breakup of the USSR, that the state archives were opened and the full… Read More ›
The Sad, Sad Story of Laika, the Space Dog, and Her One-Way Trip into Orbit
From Smithsonian.com by Alice George: With a pounding heart and rapid breath, Laika rode a rocket into Earth orbit, 2,000 miles above Moscow streets she knew. Overheated, cramped, frightened, and probably hungry, the space dog gave her life for her… Read More ›
Millions of Russians and eastern Europeans now believe that they were better off under communism. What does this mean?
From Aeon by Kristen R. Ghodsee author of Red Hangover: Legacies of 20th Century-Communism and Scott Sehon author of Free Will and Action Explanation: A Non-Causal, Compatibilist Account: The public memory of 20th-century communism is a battleground. Two ideological armies stare at each… Read More ›
5 of the most dangerous spy plane missions in US history
From Business Insider by Brad Howard: Since the United States entered World War II, the Department of Defense has engaged in the systematic surveillance of other nations by air to glean valuable intelligence on weapons capabilities and military movements. These… Read More ›
Re-discovering Igor Stravinsky’s Chant funèbre after its disappearance over 100 years ago
From The American Scholar by Sudip Bose: In July 1914, just before the First World War began, Igor Stravinsky took a hasty trip to his estate in the village of Ustyluh, very near the Polish border in western Ukraine. This… Read More ›
Here’s what St. Petersburg really thinks of Putin on Election Day
From the DailyBeast by Anna Nemtsova: The draft beer taps danced in the bartenders’ hands at Manneken Pis, a Belgian café on the Petrogradskaya Side, one of the oldest and most sophisticated neighborhoods of St. Petersburg. On the eve of… Read More ›
NATO Expansion: What Yeltsin Heard
From National Security Archive: Declassified documents from U.S. and Russian archives show that U.S. officials led Russian President Boris Yeltsin to believe in 1993 that the Partnership for Peace was the alternative to NATO expansion, rather than a precursor to… Read More ›
How did Stalin become the leader of the Soviet Union?
How and when did Joseph Stalin come to power? Stalin is remembered as one of the bloodiest tyrants in the history of the world. He was the absolute ruler of the Soviet Union and later of the Communist bloc in… Read More ›
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade: the Historiography of American soldiers during the Spanish American War
During the Spanish Civil War, approximately 2,800 American men and women answered the call from the Communist party to defend the Spanish republic from fascist aggression. These men and women served in the Fifteenth International Brigade and formed the Abraham… Read More ›
How Did Spy Services Develop in Russia?
Espionage in Russia, with its long history of political turmoil, developed to become one of the most effective espionage services by the 20th century when the Soviet Union emerged. The road to that development, however, was long and full of… Read More ›
Why did the Russian Romanov Dynasty collapse in 1917?
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was perhaps the most important event in the twentieth century. It saw the world’s first Communist government and it led to a wave of communist inspired revolutions around the world and ultimately the Cold War…. Read More ›
