Alexander Palladin

Alexander Palladin09.07.2026

A hundred years ago Armand Hammer, an American businessman, won the trust of Soviet leaders and, for decades, exploited it to his own advantage, skillfully cultivating the image of a loyal and selfless friend of our country. Lots of my fellow citizens, for instance, tend to believe that in 1980 Hammer financed the construction of […]

Alexander Palladin13.05.2026

On May 13th, 1991, an assassination attempt was made on Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. He was wounded with pistol shots by Mehmet Ali Ağca, member of the Turkish “Grey Wolves” group of nationalists. Previously, Ağca killed Agdi Ipekçi, editor of Turkey’s major newspaper Milliyet. He was caught and convicted, but managed to […]

Alexander Palladin12.05.2026

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, has died in the United States at the age of 87. While working in Washington, D. C. in 1980s as Bureau Chief of Izvestia I took part in half a dozen talk shows at CNN Crossfire program, debating Soviet-American relations with US politicians, journalists, and political scientists. Turner was one […]

Alexander Palladin08.07.2025

During the Great Patriotic War, a total of 649 signals about enemy air raids and 3,087 reports of artillery shelling were transmitted by Leningrad Radio station, managed by Pyotr Aleksandrovich Palladin. On such occasions, the city radio used to be disconnected from the broadcast network. Instead, the metronome beating was put on the air. For […]

Alexander Palladin31.05.2025

80 years ago, on June 26, 1945, the UN Charter was signed at the final meeting of the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. Ukraine and Belarus, along with the USSR, were among the 50 founding countries of this international organization. My father’s second cousin Alexander Vladimirovich Palladin signed the above mentioned historic document on […]

Alexander Palladin15.05.2025

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this article, in 1973 I started working as a reporter in Canada. There, and later on in USA, I experienced a real shock to find out how little local people knew about other nations, their culture and history. In 1950s my father worked at Goslitizdat, the biggest Soviet […]

Alexander Palladin12.05.2025

In September 1973, I started working as a Soviet reporter in Canada. That was my first travel to the West as an adult. At the beginning my Canadian acquaintances would often inquire, “Do you feel a cultural shock?” Lots of things, quite understandably, seemed peculiar to me and my wife. However, we took them in […]

Alexander Palladin08.05.2025

How-the-Red-Army-managed-to-defend-Leningrad-during-WWII.jpg

My great-uncle, Colonel Alexei Afanasyevich Reshetnikov, was wounded twice during the Battle of Moscow. At the end of the war, as Deputy Chief of the Artillery Supply Directorate of the 2nd Belorussian Front, he took part in the largest battles with the Nazis. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of […]

Alexander Palladin04.05.2025

During his state visit to Germany on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, on May 5, 1985, Ronald Reagan stopped in Bitburg, where he laid a wreath at the burial site of German soldiers who died in both world wars. US 40th President did just that […]

Alexander Palladin04.05.2025

During my stay in Washington, D.C. as bureau chief of Izvestia, I took part in numerous TV and radio programs, discussing Soviet-American relations with US politicians, journalists, and political scientists. One of those occasions stucks out in my mind as it dealt with a unique event at American television. On April 19, 1985, I got […]

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The Wheeler-Dealer: Kremlin Leaders’ Favorite Armand Hammer

45th Anniversary of Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II

Ted Turner in Memoriam

As It Happened in Sieged Leningrad

He Signed the UN Charter

Cultural Shock: Chingiz Aitmatov

Cultural Shock

My Platoon of the Immortal Regiment

US President’s Wreath At SS Burial Site

Spirit of the Elbe Is Gone?

The Michael Jackson Biopic is Missing its Most Controversial Story

Madama Butterfly and the Japan of the Western Imagination

The Spanish Civil War at 90: the Republic’s Response

Terminator Is about 80 Years Old