History & Persons

Alexander Palladin01.02.2025

As I mentioned recently in my The End of an Era previous piece, in October of 1990, I got an offer to head the Presidential Information Service (PIS) post, reporting directly to Valery Ivanovich Boldin, Chief of Staff of the USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev. Each morning we would prepare digests of the latest mass media […]

Yuri Chekalin30.01.2025

Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev first met in person in 1855 in St. Petersburg. Before that, they had already known each other in absentia through friendly letters to each other and through published works. Ivan Sergeevich was 10 years older than Leo Nikolayevich and, at the time of their first meeting, was the most famous […]

Alexander Palladin28.01.2025

On January 27, 1944, the military blockade of Leningrad, the 2nd largest city in the USSR, by German and Finnish troops was finally broken. It lasted for 872 days and ranks as the longest and most lethal siege in world history, causing an estimated 1.5 million deaths. Some historians speak of the siege operations in […]

Yuri Chekalin27.01.2025

German worker August Landmesser, whose wife was Jewish, refused to salute Hitler. This famous photograph was taken in 1936. The photo shows workers giving the Nazi salute during the launch of the training ship Horst Wessel. Only August Landmesser crossed his arms instead of saluting. This photograph is a historical document of that era when […]

Yuri Chekalin26.01.2025

Traffic control is a difficult task, but, if necessary, even a baboon can do it. Can a baboon be trained to manage the passing trains? Yes, with the help of a human friend! Railway signalman James Wide, who lost both his legs in an accident on the job and was forced to use awkward prosthetics, […]

Yuri Chekalin23.01.2025

Did the Bolsheviks Install a Monument to Judas? Part 1. To understand the absurdity, I will allow myself to cite Henning Kehler’s “memories” from his book “The Red Garden” published in 1921. It is full of artistic inventions, as the author himself admitted (“the memories are artistically processed, condensed and enhanced. Each of them contains […]

Yuri Chekalin22.01.2025

The legend about the installation of the monument to Judas in Sviyazhsk has been known for a long time. It would seem that enough has been said about its sources, but there are, as they say, details. Quite interesting to pass by. So, the legend is that after the Red Army soldiers arrived in Sviyazhsk […]

Alexander Palladin20.01.2025

120 years ago, Russia and Japan waged an armed struggle for the redistribution of spheres of influence in the Far East. The Russian Manchurian army included about 500 clergymen who enjoyed well-deserved authority in the army. Many of them took part in battles, demonstrating courage and heroism while performing their pastoral duty. My grandmother Lida, […]

Egor Yakovlev16.01.2025

“Married the woman he loved, wrote a great play, died in battle“, – Pushkin wrote about Griboyedov’s enviable fate. Russian writer, playwright, linguist, historian and orientalist, author of the play “Woe from Wit”, Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov was born 230 years ago. A vivid description of Griboyedov was given by his contemporary Alexander Pushkin. In “Journey […]

Yuri Chekalin15.01.2025

Fyodor Fyodorovich Serpilin, the main character of Konstantin Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead”, was a composite image. In him, one could guess the features and destinies of the legendary generals-commanders Alexander Gorbatov and Ivan Grishin, but the main prototype was Colonel Semyon Fyodorovich Kutepov, whom the writer Simonov (at that time – a […]

Eyewitness Report on August ’91 Events At Kremlin

Why Did Tolstoy Challenge Turgenev to a Duel?

German and Finnish Siege Could Not Silence The Voice of Leningrad

The Man Who Refused to Salute Hitler

Baboon Railwayman

Did the Bolsheviks Install a Monument to Judas? Part 2.

Did the Bolsheviks Install a Monument to Judas? Part 1.

For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland

Pushkin on Life and Death of Griboyedov

Who Was The Prototype Of Brigade Commander Serplin?

The Deal of the Century for Trump the Peacemaker

Fasting

The Glory of the World

The Paradox of Russian Central Bank