When it rains, it pours for Marshall of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov. Having done little to quell insubordination and a lack of military discipline and morale in the ranks, as the year 1939 draws to a close, he is facing the very real and growing issue of desertion. As we’ll see in the followingContinueContinue reading “1939: Infantry Deserters a Problem for the Red Army After Invading Poland”
Monthly Archives: September 2026
1939: Voroshilov Excuses Soviet War Crimes Against Polish Civilians as a Misunderstanding
One runs out of words when trying to explain the thought process of a decorated Marshal of the Soviet Union dismissing the unlawful summary execution of at least nine Polish civilians as a “mistake and a misunderstanding” that took place against the backdrop of “combat operations and acute class struggle.” Another slap on the wrist,ContinueContinue reading “1939: Voroshilov Excuses Soviet War Crimes Against Polish Civilians as a Misunderstanding”
1939: Voroshilov Issues Slaps on the Wrist for Negligence that Led to the Death of Four Soviet Airmen
Disclaimer: The central photo of this image was created with AI. On September 22, 1939, four Soviet Polikarpov I-15 biplane fighters from the 35th Fighter Aviation Regiment crashed near Sinyavka, Belarus, shortly after taking off from Nabushevo airfield. The flight of six I-15s and one I-16 was ordered to redeploy to Baranavichy during the SovietContinueContinue reading “1939: Voroshilov Issues Slaps on the Wrist for Negligence that Led to the Death of Four Soviet Airmen”
1939: Stalin’s Biggest Enemy During the Soviet Invasion of Poland Was the Red Army Itself
We can thank Carl von Clausewitz for the concept of the fog of war. But leave it to the Red Army to provide us with shining examples of the fog of logistics, which may have come close to derailing what otherwise should have been a walk-in-the-park invasion of Poland in 1939. Toss in a subsequentContinueContinue reading “1939: Stalin’s Biggest Enemy During the Soviet Invasion of Poland Was the Red Army Itself”
1939: Logistics and Carelessness Abound While Nazis and Red Army Collaborate to Slice Poland in Half
We’ve stumbled onto an unknown (to us) cache of thousands of classified documents held in the archives of the Lieutenant General Kazimierz Sosnkowski Military Historical Office dealing primarily with the challenges faced by Poland brought on by the USSR (invasion, annexation, authoritarian rule, oppression, etc.) from at least 1939 to 1955. It’s a fascinating collection,ContinueContinue reading “1939: Logistics and Carelessness Abound While Nazis and Red Army Collaborate to Slice Poland in Half”
October 1940: Soviet Patent on Creation of Atomic Bomb Mocked and Rejected by Soviet Defense Engineers
In October 1940, two young Soviet physicists named Viktor Maslov and Vladimir Shpinel, working at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (UFTI) in Kharkiv, submitted a revolutionary invention claim titled “On the Use of Uranium as an Explosive and Toxic Agent.” This proposal would come to be recognized as the first valid technical designContinueContinue reading “October 1940: Soviet Patent on Creation of Atomic Bomb Mocked and Rejected by Soviet Defense Engineers”
1964: Japanese Delegation Visit Khrushchev in Sochi as Smokescreen Before His Ouster Ten Days Later
During his October 1964 vacation in Sochi, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev held a notable meeting with a visiting Japanese parliamentary delegation that ultimately became one of his very last diplomatic acts before being overthrown. While a similar meeting in September 1964 saw Khrushchev aggressively issuing nuclear warnings against China to a Japanese cohort, the OctoberContinueContinue reading “1964: Japanese Delegation Visit Khrushchev in Sochi as Smokescreen Before His Ouster Ten Days Later”
Translating History 