Every year or so, additional questions and claims appear on the Internet regarding the so-called 'Scorched Earth Order' signed by Josef Stalin and Boris Shaposhnikov, on behalf of the Headquarters (Stavka / Ставка) of the Supreme High Command. Would-be historians take the contents of the basic document and add their own ingredients, either made upContinue reading "Stalin’s 1941 Scorched Earth Order: Separating Myth from Fact"
1966: Soviets Detonate 30-Kiloton Nuclear Charge to Extinguish Out-of-Control Gas Fire
On December 1, 1963, Well No. 11 at the Urtabulak Gas Field in the Bukhara Oblast of the Uzbek SSR hit a high-pressure (300 atmospheres) gas formation, destroying the wellhead and igniting a massive, seemingly unquenchable fire. Unquenchable, that is, using traditional methods. The fire would go on to burn for nearly three years, afterContinue reading "1966: Soviets Detonate 30-Kiloton Nuclear Charge to Extinguish Out-of-Control Gas Fire"
1935: USSR and US Negotiate the Sale of the US Naval Ordnance Factory in West Virginia to the Soviets
Throughout the 1930s, the Soviet Union expressed tremendous interest in procuring advanced weapons (and the means to produce the same) from a number of countries, not least of which was the United States. We’ve uncovered a small stack of documents that outline one specific line of inquiry: the attempted purchase of the US Naval OrdnanceContinue reading "1935: USSR and US Negotiate the Sale of the US Naval Ordnance Factory in West Virginia to the Soviets"
Stalin’s Son Revisited: Why Stalin Refused to Save Him
As discussed in an August TranslatingHistory post, Yakov Dzhugashvili, the oldest child of Josef Stalin, was captured by Germans in 1941 near Vitebsk and used as a propaganda piece by Hitler and Goebbels. According to a generally accepted legend, he was dangled as bait in a proposed exchange with the Germans for Field Marshall Paulus, toContinue reading "Stalin’s Son Revisited: Why Stalin Refused to Save Him"
On This Date: 1942 – Soviet Fighter Pilot Rams Nazi Ju-88 to Bring it Down, His Second Such Victory That Year
On 27 December 1942, Soviet pilot Petr Shavurin downed an enemy aircraft by ramming it at an altitude of 6000 meters. It was a frosty December of 1942. The winter days were short. A blizzard raged with only brief interruptions. On December 27th, exactly five months after his ramming attack in the skies over Gorky,Continue reading "On This Date: 1942 – Soviet Fighter Pilot Rams Nazi Ju-88 to Bring it Down, His Second Such Victory That Year"
December 1966: Man-Made Objects on the Lunar Surface! Soviet Luna-13 Spacecraft Sends Mysterious Photos to Earth, Scientists Offer Answers
On December 26, 1966, the Soviet-developed interplanetary spacecraft Luna-13 transmitted to Earth a photo panorama of the lunar surface, on which objects resembling parts of apparent man-made origin can be seen. On 26 December 2025, the 59th anniversary of the Luna-13's achievement, the Russian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation [RGANTD] published declassified documentsContinue reading "December 1966: Man-Made Objects on the Lunar Surface! Soviet Luna-13 Spacecraft Sends Mysterious Photos to Earth, Scientists Offer Answers"
Cold War West Germany: Giving Eastern Bloc Truck Drivers License to Spy
Every now and then, while researching other materials being translated, I'll bump into a curious news article that catches the eye and won't let it go. For example, this gem from the Philadelphia Inquirer from 10 January 1986: As I was living and working in West Berlin at the time, many kilometers within the bowelsContinue reading "Cold War West Germany: Giving Eastern Bloc Truck Drivers License to Spy"
Rosatom: Nuclear Secrets of Department K: Counterintelligence Activities in Russia’s Nuclear Industry
Earlier this week, the official website for the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation published an article on newly revealed activities of the nuclear industry's counterintelligence organs. We're translated the article and are happy to provide it to our readers. Nuclear Secrets of Department "K": Counterintelligence Activities in the Development of Russia’s Nuclear Industry 1 DecemberContinue reading "Rosatom: Nuclear Secrets of Department K: Counterintelligence Activities in Russia’s Nuclear Industry"
FSB Spill: Russian Anti-Soviet Saboteur Describes Training by American Agents, Quick Capture by Soviet Authorities
An earlier article from TranslatingHistory offered some details from a brief interrogation of Aleksandr Lakhno, who was trained in West Germany in the early 1950s along with several other émigrés from the Soviet Union to carry out, at best, an anti-Soviet propaganda campaign. Lakhno spent months learning tradecraft from US and British intelligence specialists inContinue reading "FSB Spill: Russian Anti-Soviet Saboteur Describes Training by American Agents, Quick Capture by Soviet Authorities"
FSB Materials on Post-War Operations of Soviet Nazi Collaborators With American Intelligence Agencies
The Central Archives of the Russian Federation Federal Security Service (FSB) recently declassified documents from criminal cases against members of a group of American intelligence agents — Aleksandr Lakhno, Aleksandr Makov, and Sergei Gorbunov — who served in Nazi penal establishments during the Great Patriotic War and were arrested in April 1953 by Soviet stateContinue reading "FSB Materials on Post-War Operations of Soviet Nazi Collaborators With American Intelligence Agencies"
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