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Lenin waving flag in front of crowd of workers and soldiers

From Romanovs to Reds: Russia's Revolutions at 100

… reshaped life inside Russia as the establishment of the Soviet Union upended the global order. To mark the 100-year … the revolution also had global consequences, reshaping international politics. But what caused the revolution? What were …
West Berliners stand amid the rubble of WWII and watch U.S. Air Force transport planes land at Templehof Airport during the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

The Berlin Airlift

… On May 12, 1949,  the Soviet Union officially lifted its blockade of  West Berlin , … … Soviet Union … United States … Cold War … Diplomacy/International Relations … Europe … The Berlin Airlift …
a ceremony in Ukraine

Soviet Ukraine in a Nutshell

When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917 during World War I, the lands of today’s Ukraine became a battleground of violence and instability until 1922.
… and instability until 1922. … Mayhill Fowler … Former Soviet Union … Ukraine … World War II / WWII … Soviet Ukraine in a Nutshell …
a group of Ukrainian theatre performers on a stage

Ukrainian Theater on the Soviet Stage

On a summer day in August 1920, in the middle of war, a group of Ukrainians performed Macbeth.
… Macbeth. … Mayhill Fowler … Ukraine … Art … Former Soviet Union … Theater … Ukrainian Theater on the Soviet Stage …
Abovian Among the Kurds, painting by Mkrtich Sedrakyan, 1950. (Image from author's personal collection, courtesy of the Khachatur Abovian House-Museum, Yerevan, Armenia.)

Top Ten Origins: Russia’s Relations with the Kurds

… map of Kurdish-inhabited areas in the Middle East and the Soviet Union ( left ), and 1960 Soviet ethnographic map of the Near … as opposed to Classical Armenian. Although a major Armenian national figure, Abovian’s outlook was universal. His wife …

Russia, America, and the Conspiratorial Worldview

… both the United States and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Russia, they even form part of the Kremlin’s … Cold War. The network, as documents available through the National Security Archive show, played an important role in …
woman looking at hypodermic needle

The Blame Game: The USSR’s Response to HIV/AIDS

The Soviet Union tried to minimize news of the HIV/AIDS outbreak, blaming the victims.
… two viruses could possibly be. Yet, the ways in which the Soviet Union reacted to the arrival of HIV/AIDS, and how it spread … in part, by Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, …

Avoiding the Scourge of War: The Challenges of United Nations Peacekeeping

… two U.N. peacekeeping missions, and one laborious African Union peacekeeping mission have done nothing to restore … met in San Francisco to draft a charter for a new international collective security organization determined "to … as the Cold War animosity between the United States and the Soviet Union crystallized. Despite these challenges, the …
Khrushchev during his visit to the Agricultural Research Service Center in Maryland.

Khrushchev’s Great American Road Trip

Review of Nikita Khrushchev's Journey into America, by Lawrence J. Nelson and Matthew G. Schoenbachler (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2019)
… General Secretary of the Communist Party and Premier of the Soviet Union , arrived in Washington for a tour of the country. The … … Reviews … United States … Soviet Union … Diplomacy/International Relations … Food & Agriculture … Cold War … …
a man harvesting wheat - Lviv, Ukraine 1991 Wheat Harvest on Collective Farm 1991 by Manhhai, Flickr, cc-by 2.0

Ukraine: The Breadbasket of Europe

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has returned to its pre-revolutionary positin as a major agricultural exporter of key commodities.
… Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has returned to its pre-revolutionary … Academic Technology Services. … Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has returned to its …
Soldiers marching in front of the memorial - The Motherland Calls in Volgograd.

Living in History: Stalingrad at 75

… months of vicious street-to-street fighting, Stalingrad’s Soviet defenders repelled their German opponents—albeit at … German invaders. The post-war reconstruction of the Soviet Union was closely linked to a rebirth of the nation that … Stalingrad was a resurrection: of the city itself, of national unity and spirit, and of hope for the future. The …
A scene from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Remembering '56: The Hungarian Revolution

… but ultimately unsuccessful uprising that nearly expelled Soviet forces from Hungary in late October. The … the crisis in Hungary dealt a serious blow to the Soviet Union’s credibility that was difficult to repair. Hungarian … 2015, used the occasion to reaffirm 1956’s sacred place in national memory while justifying his tough stance on …
The detonation of the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb

Top Ten Origins: Civil Defense, Nuclear War, and Duct Tape

… 1949 – Stalin and the Bomb Detonation of Joe-1, the first Soviet atomic bomb, in August 1949 ( left ), and a 1950 … urgency to do much more. Then in August 1949, the Soviet Union under General Secretary Joseph Stalin successfully … defense officials failed to convince Congress to fund a national shelter network to protect against blast, heat, and …

Dispatches from the Armenian Revolution

… and 1980s] rather than … other revolutions in the post-Soviet world.” Unlike the so-called “color revolutions” that … a messy and prolonged confrontation with Russia. Eschewing nationalism and  NATO , the April Armenian Revolution … a new kind of revolution in the world of the former Soviet Union. By not directing their movement against Russia or any …
WE.177A was an air-launched boosted fission weapon deployed by the UK

The Two Sides of the Nuclear Coin

… halting nuclear proliferation. In 1965, when the U.S. and Soviet governments worried about the prospect of nuclear … to its current members (then the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China). Alva Myrdal, Sweden’s … the Republicans also managed to advance plans for a national missile defense system, a venture that contravened …
The Sofia Monument to the Soviet Army painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag din support of the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution.

World War II in Eastern Europe: Many Lands, Many Memories

… for many non-Russians who lived in or next to the Soviet Union for half a century or more, this war looked like the … countries were banned during the 1920s.  The resurgent nationalism of that era also played out differently in …
Northern Alliance Troops in Afghanistan in 2001.

Why Afghanistan Will Not Be a Quagmire

… century. It is also true that Afghanistan defeated the Soviet Union in a bloody decade-long war that began in 1979. Should … Again, no. There is a major difference between the international situation today and the international situation in …
Political prisoners in Kengir, Kazakhstan

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

… his native land. Solzhenitsyn would also outlive both the Soviet experiment and the twentieth century, dying in his 90 … end of the war he was arrested at the front by SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence agency, for writing derogatory … in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published in the Soviet Union in 1962. Solzhenitsyn went on to publish three more …
Monument with figures dressed as pop culture figures like Superman, Santa, and Ronald McDonald

1989: The Year That Changed It All

… transform the planet. After more than four decades, the Soviet controlled communist bloc of Eastern European … two words from 1987, which was my first time in the Soviet Union, where we were reading Mikhail Gorbachev's new book, … how these former Soviet Bloc countries dealt with their national memories and it appears that Germany, for example, …
Crowds of people waving Ukrainian flags

The Fate of Crimea, the Future of Ukraine, Part II

… The crisis between Ukraine, Russia, and the European Union/United States continues to dominate headlines with … about Ukraine’s struggles to achieve democracy in the post-Soviet era. ( Image Source ) … Patrick Potyondy  Welcome to … in running a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development called the Parliamentary Development …
Moskvitch 3 vehicles roll off the assembly line at JSC Moscow Automobile Plant Moskvitch, 2022.

Sanctions on Russia: Impact and Efficacy

… began in February 2022, the United States and European Union began to levy increasingly damaging sanctions against … of sanctions to date, major companies left Russia. Multinational giants such as McDonald’s, Exxon Mobil, H&M, and … Russia’s fielding of increasingly old equipment drawn from Soviet stocks, and its turn to outside suppliers such as …
US Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., signing the UN Charter on 26 June 1945. President Truman stands by at left (UN Photo/Yould).

The Signing of the United Nations Charter

… powers in World War II discussed how to create a new international organization dedicated to collective security and … League of Nations. The United States, Great Britain, and Soviet Union led a coalition known as the united nations against …
In 2011, thousands of ultra-nationalist demonstrators took to the streets of Moscow, armed with tsarist insignia and shouting the anti-immigrant chant "Let's give Russia back to the Russians!"

Russia’s Lost Empire

Review of Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation, From 1470 to the Present, by Serhii Plokhy (New York: Basic Books, 2017)
… are especially important given current events in former Soviet republics, especially in Ukraine . In Lost Kingdom: … Plokhy examines the origins of Russian imperialism and nationalism from the emergence of Kievan Rus in the ninth … fully aligned with the Russian state: during the Soviet Union’s reign as a superpower. Apart from the years spanning …