How the Soviet century wrote itself into the Moscow cityscape: The phrase “the Soviet century”, which refers to the hundred years following the Russian revolution of 1917, is generally understood to be about the political sphere – at home and beyond. Quite how that translates into the material world though is best appreciated through a …
Soviet aggression prompted the birth of the Nato alliance – here’s why that matters now: President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska arrive for a dinner during the Nato summit. Gints Ivuskans/Shutterstock As Nato leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss Ukraine’s future within the alliance, it’s worth considering how the current discussions compare …
Berlin blockade 75 years on: how Russian occupation tactics in Ukraine echo Soviet actions in East Germany: A Soviet blockade of the three western sectors of Berlin started on June 24 1948. At that point, the city, like the rest of Germany, was split into areas of Russian, British, US and French control as part …
Soviet monuments are being toppled – this gives the spaces they occupied a new meaning: The Obelisk, adorned with communist star, was torn down in Riga, Latvia. Ints Vikmanis/Alamy In the Latvian capital of Riga, an 80-metre concrete obelisk came crashing down in late August to the loud cheers of a nearby crowd. It was …
Ukraine war prompts Baltic states to remove Soviet memorials: Soviet-era monument in Riga, Latvia, which was splashed with the colours of the Ukraine flag the day after Russia invaded in February 2022. K?rlis Dambr?ns/ Flickr., CC BY-NC Estonia is to remove all of its Soviet-era war monuments, the latest in a line of eastern European …
Putin’s Russia: people increasingly identify with the Soviet Union – here’s what that means: The view that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, wants to restore territories of the Soviet Union has been a big part of the commentary on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But how much is he in tune with the wishes of the …
Putin’s Russia: how the ex-KGB strongman has gradually turned the clock back to Soviet repression: Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova faces up to ten years in prison after interrupting a broadcast on popular state-owned Russian TV network Channel One with a sign reading: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you …
Today’s intense workplace culture can be traced back to a forgotten Soviet coal miner – podcast: This episode of The Conversation’s In Depth Out Loud podcast features the story of a young Soviet miner named Alexei Stakhanov, and how the work ethic he embodied in the 1930s has been invoked by managers in the west …
How a Soviet miner from the 1930s helped create today’s intense corporate workplace culture: One summer night in August, 1935, a young Soviet miner named Alexei Stakhanov managed to extract 102 tonnes of coal in a single shift. This was nothing short of extraordinary (according to Soviet planning, the official average for a single shift …
South Africa in the news: ‘Soviet disinformation in Indian newspaper echoed for decades’ (Book Review): The Soviets used an Indian newspaper in 1983 to spread disinformation that the AIDS virus had been invented by the US military as a “biological weapon to kill black and gay men” and this echoed for …: “South Africa” – …
Russia and the Gulag: Putin is fighting for state control over how Soviet horrors are remembered: Army soldiers digging mass graves to try and show that the state wasn’t responsible for the dead. A historian who vehemently disagrees behind bars on charges that many believe are false. Organisations that support him being attacked by an …
American and Soviet interwar art was remarkably similar: Charles Sheeler, American Landscape, 1930. Photo © 2016. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence There are two exhibitions on at London’s Royal Academy, each presenting a contrasting perspective on the visual expressions of the interwar years in the US and Soviet Russia. This …