History & Persons

Egor Sennikov09.10.2024

“Dear comrade Zemlyachka… we ask you to let our mother go.“ (F.R5446. Op.56. D.5. L. 53,53ob.) A heart-wrenching letter written in 1942 to Rosalia Zemlyachka (then deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR) from a teenage girl, Nadezhda Sakharova, who lived in the regional Moscow on the Bekasovo state farm near […]

Alexander Palladin08.10.2024

The postponement of the World Friendship Games, scheduled to be held in Yekaterinburg in September, to next year gave me a reason to remember how 38 years ago in Washington I interviewed Ted Turner, the founder of the 24-hour news channel CNN, in connection with the upcoming Goodwill Games, which he started and sponsored as […]

Alexander Palladin06.10.2024

In 1974, Nikolai Ivanovich Bragin, who had been a member of the editorial board of this newspaper in Moscow, flew to Ottawa to work as a special correspondent for Pravda. From the very first days of his stay in Canada, Nikolai Ivanovich immediately showed everyone what a big shot he was: when communicating with his […]

Tony Rocchi05.10.2024

One of the greatest unknowns about the history of the Russian Revolution and Civil War of 1917-1922 is the extent of political terrorism during these years. There were many terrorist attacks and politically motivated killings during the Revolution of 1917-1922. Note that historians now tend to combine the February and October Revolutions of 1917 and […]

Yuri Chekalin01.10.2024

The Soviet war hero used to drink Coca-Cola disguised as vodka. The Cold War is better remembered for greater disputes, but one of the more intriguing developments to come out of the American-Soviet ideological divide was a special batch of clear Coca-Cola. This is the story of a sweet tooth amid a prohibition on Western […]

Georgy Litvinchuk27.09.2024

On September 24, 1911, Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was born. Younger people probably won’t even remember who he was. He headed the USSR for only 11 months and was remembered only for reinstating the 94-year-old Molotov, who had fallen into disgrace under Khrushchev, into the party. Meanwhile, if he had lived at least another six months, […]

Tony Rocchi19.09.2024

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The year 1908 was somewhat pivotal for Leo Tolstoy, the world’s greatest writer. In that year, Tolstoy wrote «I Cannot Be Silent» in which he condemned the government for using violence against revolutionaries and ordinary people during the Revolution of 1905-1907. As Tolstoy wrote: “You say the atrocities committed by the revolutionaries are terrible. I […]

Klim Zhukov14.09.2024

On September 13, 1812, a military council was held in Fili. The main issue was being decided: to give another battle after Borodino near Moscow or to leave the city without a fight. The Russian units themselves were located to the west of Moscow. The council was attended by Generals Barclay de Tolly, Bennigsen, Dokhturov, […]

Tony Rocchi13.09.2024

Leo Tolstoy, the world’s greatest writer, is often glorified as the apostle of non-violent resistance to evil. Tolstoy has been hailed as a Christian anarchist who inspired the heroism of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As noted in the previous article, Tolstoy exonerated terrorists and revolutionaries in his letter “I Cannot Be Silent” […]

Dmitry Litvinov11.09.2024

Soviet-Evacuation-of-Factories-in-WWII-Was-a-Success.jpg

The Rapid Evacuation of Soviet Factories During WWII Was a Success — But Why? It is known that with the beginning of the invasion of Germany and its allies into the territory of the USSR, the Soviet government carried out colossal work on the evacuation of industrial enterprises to the east and the emergency deployment […]

“… Let Our Mother Go”

A Sickle to the Worldview of an American TV Mogul

A Black Sheep in a Black Buick

Terrorism in the Revolution of 1917-1922: an even greater unknown

Clear Coca-Cola for Marshal Zhukov

Controversial Chernenko

Tolstoy and the Culture of Violence in the Russian Empire

Kutuzov: Give Moscow to Napoleon?

Leo Tolstoy: a Man of Contradictions

Soviet Evacuation of Factories in WWII Was a Success

Rasputin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Maria Rasputin

Priestesses of Love

August 17

Japanese Communism: A Century of Revolution, Underground Struggle, and Parliamentary Politics