History & Persons - The CommentaTHOR

Alexander Palladin15.05.2025

Jaroslav Hašek was born on April 30, 1883. He was a Czech satirist, anarchist, playwright, feuilletonist, and journalist. He wrote about 1,500 different short stories, feuilletons, and other works, of which his unfinished novel, The Good Soldier Švejk, gained worldwide fame. Hašek spent his entire life making fun of himself and the world around him. […]

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 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 […]

Egor Yakovlev27.04.2025

April 25, 1883 Marshal Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny was born one of the first marshals of the Soviet Union, three times Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of the St. George Cross of all degrees. Semyon Budyonny came from a poor peasant family. He was born in the territory of the Don Host (now Rostov Oblast). […]

Alexander Palladin03.04.2025

Less than 120 years ago, on September 5, 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in New Hampshire, ending the year-and-a-half-long Russo-Japanese War. According to various estimates, up to 80,000 Japanese and up to 52,000 Russian servicemen died in it, including my great-grandfather Afanasy Reshetnikov. For his role in Portsmouth negotiations U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt […]

Alexander Palladin31.03.2025

US President Donald Trump declassified JFK assassination records, including those confirming that Lee Harvey Oswald was a poor marksman. This was mentioned, for instance, in a report by CIA station chief in Moscow. In November 1991, Vyacheslav Nikonov, the then assistant to the KGB head Vadim Bakatin and grandson of former Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, […]

Alexander Palladin27.03.2025

In-December-1987-Mikhail-Gorbachev-and-Ronald-Reagan.jpg

In December 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan held their 3rd summit meeting in Washington and I covered this event in a group of Soviet reporters. While there, I got a call from CNN. They invited me to take part once again in Crossfire nightly TV program. (I was their regular guest during my stay […]

Alexander Palladin20.03.2025

In June 1905, The Chronicle of the War with Japan weekly, published in Russia’s capital, ran this: “It can be said without any doubt that espionage has never been practiced in previous wars on such a large scale as it is being used now by our enemy in the Far East. The Japanese have flooded […]

Alexander Palladin12.03.2025

Two weeks ago, a new feature movie, called “North Pole”, was released in Russia. Based on real facts, it is dedicated to the crew of the first Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-3. Nearly 63 years ago, in mid-July of 1962, it became Soviet Navy’s first submarine to surface in the North Pole area. The vessel was […]

Category: History & Persons

The World of Jaroslav Hašek

Cultural Shock

US President’s Wreath At SS Burial Site

Spirit of the Elbe Is Gone?

About the Revolution Hero And Marshal Budyonny

Russo-Japanese War: Stalin’s Revanche

CIA’s Cent and My Kopeck on JFK Assassination

My TV Duel with Future US Presidential Candidate

Espionage Craft Practiced by Japan in Its War with Russia

Unique Soviet School

The World of Jaroslav Hašek

MAGA Isn’t Happy With Trump-Zelensky Warming

“A Gift, Free Of Charge”

Cultural Shock