Soviet Union
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WHAT IF GORBACHEV HAD WON TWENTY YEARS AGO? By Gaither Stewart
I have presented here excerpts from some of my own articles written during the Gorbachev perestroika period, plus notes and reflections concerning Mikhail Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Chief of State of the USSR, and his role in the history of Socialism. Continue reading
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Final Statement – Adopted by the International History Conference Commemorating 70th Anniversary of the Outbreak of 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War
We are increasingly alarmed with the current rise of revisionism of the history of World War II in the West and in several post-Soviet republics where incendiary political considerations outweigh commitment to historical accuracy. Continue reading
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NATO: A Feast of Blood By Cynthia McKinney
‘It is transparently clear now that NATO has exceeded its mandate, lied about its intentions, is guilty of extra-judicial killings–all in the name of ‘humanitarian intervention.’ If the humanitarian ruse is allowed against Libya, why not…anywhere? ‘People around the world need us to stand up and speak out for ourselves and them because Iran and… Continue reading
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Russian politics: Nostalgia or a new political direction? By Eric Walberg
As Russia gears up for its election season this winter, Putin’s Popular Front and Rogozin’s nationalist front are playing an old Soviet melody and even borrowing a tune from revolutionaries in Cairo. Eric Walberg recognises the refrain Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, May 25, 2011: THE DIARY OF ANATOLY CHERNYAEV, 1991
Marking the 90th birthday of former top Gorbachev advisor Anatoly Sergeevich Chernyaev, the National Security Archive today publishes on the Web at www.nsarchive.org the latest installment of the unique and invaluable Chernyaev diary, covering the final fateful year of the Soviet Union, 1991. Continue reading
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Taras DYACHENKO Hiroshima and Modernity
If the nuclear bombings – which, moreover, mostly targeted the civilian population – did not play the key role in winning the war, what could be the objective behind them? A. Vert, a British journalist who lived in the USSR in the 1940s answered the question clearly over three decades ago: Washington meant to intimidate… Continue reading
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Why World War II ended with Mushroom Clouds By Jacques R. Pauwels
Sixty-five years ago, Truman did not have to use the atomic bomb in order to force Japan to its knees, but he had reasons to want to use the bomb. The atom bomb enabled the Americans to force Tokyo to surrender unconditionally, to keep the Soviets out of the Far East and – last but… Continue reading
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Opening Soviet Archives Providing New Insight Into Stalin’s Mind By Sherwood Ross
Historians today are only coming to understand the complex and sophisticated individual that was Joseph Stalin, who ruled Russia for nearly thirty years until his death in 1953. Much of the information shedding light on the character of the dictator is being unearthed from the archives of the Soviet Union, opened in the 1990s after… Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, May 25, 2010: THE DIARY OF ANATOLY CHERNYAEV, 1990
Fifth Installment of Former Top Soviet Adviser’s Journal Available in English for First Time For more information, contact: Svetlana Savranskaya – 202/994-7000 www.nsarchive.org Washington, DC, May 25, 2010 – Today the National Security Archive publishes its fifth installment of the diary of Anatoly Chernyaev, the man behind some of the most momentous transformations in Soviet Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, April 30, 2010 HISTORIC DISSIDENT JOURNAL PUBLISHED ONLINE
Original Russian-Language “Problems of Eastern Europe” Connected Soviet, Eastern and Western Publics New Russia Web Page Features Digitized Soviet Documents On Missile Crisis, Afghanistan, End of Cold War, and Dissidents From National Security Archive Collections English introduction – www.nsarchive.org/rus New Russian-language page – www.nsarchive.org/rus/Index.html Washington, DC, April 30, 2010 – A rare complete series of Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, April 29, 2010: BREAKING DOWN SOVIET MILITARY SECRECY
Previously unpublished documents from inside the Kremlin shed new light on how Soviet and American scientists breached the walls of Soviet military secrecy in the final years of the Cold War… These glasnost tours punctured some of the myths and legends of both sides. They showed that the Reagan administration had exaggerated Soviet capabilities and… Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, April 7, 2010 Why is “Poodle Blanket” Classified? Still More Dubious Secrets at the Pentagon
In a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Pentagon claims that “Poodle Blanket” contingency plans from 1961 for a possible confrontation over West Berlin (no longer divided) with the Soviet Union (no longer a country) still need to be secret for fear of damage to current U.S. national security, according to… Continue reading
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Book Review: When and why did the Russian Revolution go wrong? Brian Pearce, with commentary by Terry Brotherstone
Brian Pearce’s life – largely unsung beyond a substantial circle of friends, intellectual and political contacts, and aficionados of the art of scholarly translation – deserves to be studied by everyone who thinks the lessons of the political tragedies of the 20th century must inform the making of the 21st. Continue reading
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1987: "About the Results of Eduard Shevardnadze and Anatoly Dobrynin's Visit to Afghanistan"
Gorbachev: And [let us] carry out a realistic line. We have accepted everything in Poland — the Catholic church, the individual peasant agriculture, the ideology, and the political pluralism. Reality is reality. The comrades are right in saying: it is better to pay cash than the lives of our men. [Let us] push Najib and… Continue reading
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The Anglo-US Drive into Eurasia and the Demonization of Russia By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
As tensions mount between the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on one side and Moscow and its allies on another, the history of the Second World War is being re-framed to demonize Russia, the legal successor state and largest former constituent republic (pars pro toto) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics… Continue reading
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Soviet Hegemony of Form: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More By ALEXEI YURCHAK
This paper was prompted by a personal question that has puzzled many former Soviet people, myself included, since the late 1980s: How to make sense of the sudden evaporation of the colossal and seemingly monolithic Soviet system and way of life, in which we grew up and lived? What was it about the Soviet system… Continue reading
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The Real News Network – Gore Vidal on “The Emperor”
Part 2 “He smiled benignly at the oil wells” http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.1900384 Posted with vodpod Continue reading
The New Dark Age 