The Baltic Independence Movement

Prior to 1991, the Baltic States had long suffered from precarious sovereignty. In the early years of the 20th century, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had gained recognition as independent nation states by the Soviet Union, only to lose it in 1939 after the signing of the Molotov Ribbentropp Pact. Over the course of World War …

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Come Fly With Us

The 1960's was an era of precarious relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. The decade started out with proxy clashes by the two superpowers, followed by near nuclear war, and various other close calls. However, this turbulent period of hostility started to change and move towards a detente between the two sworn …

Hero of the Soviet Union

"None the less the greatest credit for victory in the war surely belongs to the Soviet population itself. It was the Soviet men and women who sowed the fields, operated the lathes, stormed enemy positions, and survived siege and occupation. They often did so with signal heroism under conditions of unspeakable deprivation"- William C. Fuller, …

Maksimizing our Potential: Maksim Gorky and the Great Retreat

The 1930s in the USSR was a period of great change on the cultural front, a period in which revolutionary values were replaced with Stalinist ideology and policies. A crucial part of this "Great Retreat", as it is now called, was the re-unification of literature with Party values; thus making a move away from the …

From War to Revolution

  In the years leading up to the Revolutions of 1917, the Russian Empire's status as a "great power" was increasingly insecure as a result of (among many other things) the devastating loss Russia faced in the Russo-Japanese War; the events and backlash of Bloody Sunday; as well as its innumerable losses faced in WWI. …

Hut of a Settler

This photo was taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, in the Mugan Steppe area of the outer Caucasus region of the Russian Empire (Modern Day Azerbaijan). The photo depicts a "traditional Ukrainian house" built by peasant settlers, who moved to the outskirts of the Empire in hopes of finding arable and livable farming land on which …

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me! Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton