History & Persons

Alexander Palladin13.01.2025

On January 7, 1991, I was discussing current issues with Valery Ivanovich Boldin, Chief of Staff of the USSR President, when a red bulb lit up at his desk signaling a phone call from Mikhail Gorbachev. On such occasions visitors had to leave Boldin’s office immediately but Valery Ivanovich picked up the receiver with one […]

Alexander Palladin11.01.2025

Justin Trudeau announced his decision to step down as Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister. With slightly more than 9 years in that office he is № 7 in the national list of longest serving PMs. The eldest son of Pierre Trudeau, on November 4, 2015 he became the second-youngest government leader in Canadian history and the […]

Klim Zhukov08.01.2025

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, the dominant aspects of human life were the church, the state and the army. Accordingly, the activities of merchants were regulated by the state and the church with the help of military forces. The already difficult economic situation was aggravated by strict restrictions, trade was at rock bottom, […]

Alexander Palladin07.01.2025

Russia’s Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost) has a close relative in the Western world. His name is Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas. They both have the same gentle, kind characters and similar duties, i.e. to deliver gifts to children and to amuse people at large. What makes them different, though, is their names, different […]

Alexander Palladin25.12.2024

Upon his return to Moscow from Crimea after the well-known events of August 1991, Gorbachev appointed Grigory Revenko as the head of the Presidential Administration instead of Valery Boldin who was arrested for participating in the State Emergency Committee. Revenko brought with him a group of trusted people, including Anatoly Sazonov. He was made the […]

Klim Zhukov21.12.2024

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906. He is the personification of stability. The people of Rus’-Moscow Kingdom-Russian Empire-USSR have never lived so calmly, well-fed, richly, confidently, but most importantly — calmly. The majority of the population was confident in the future. The other side of memory is the endless jokes about Brezhnev. […]

Alexander Palladin19.12.2024

In mid-80s, I bought a photo album with this title in a Washington-based book store. As a result, by pure chance, I learned about Russia’s pioneer of color photography who at the beginning of the 20th century carried out a titanic task of taking hundreds of superb pictures of what used to be called Russian […]

Yuri Chekalin17.12.2024

Amet-Khan Sultan was born in Crimea on October 25, 1920, to a Lak father and a Crimean Tatar mother. Like many young people of the 1930s, he attended an aeroclub, which determined his future fate. Having been drafted into the army in 1939, Amet-Khan was sent to the Kachin Aviation School, from where he graduated […]

Alexander Palladin16.12.2024

In the Russo-Japanese War that began 120 years ago, Russia suffered defeat which was also caused by its inability to wage properly what we now call information wars. St. Petersburg-based contemporary weekly magazine “Chronicles of the War With Japan” published an article headlined “Japanese Propaganda In Europe”, noting that propaganda of Japanese and Japanophile ideas […]

Alexander Palladin12.12.2024

Once in 1974 when I was stationed in Canada, Alexander Yakovlev, our ambassador in that country, shared with me his views on Academician Andrei Sakharov who renewed his public attacks on Kremlin’s policy. Before his assignment in Ottawa Yakovlev worked at Central Committee as the actual head of Agitprop and was quite knowledgeable about the […]

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Gorbachev As a Reincarnated Pontius Pilate

Unlike Father, Unlike Son

A Little About Medieval Advertisement

Western Relative of Russia’s Grandpa Frost

The End of an Era

On the Birthday of Leonid Brezhnev

Photographs for the Tsar

Amet-Khan Sultan: the Air Ace Who Bacame the Two Times Hero of the Soviet Union

Losing Info Wars Costs Dearly

Perestroika Architect Yakovlev And H-Bomb’s Father Sakharov

The Deal of the Century for Trump the Peacemaker

Fasting

The Glory of the World

The Paradox of Russian Central Bank