By 1965, Sergo Beria had lived with his KGB-assigned new last name ‘Gegechkori’ (his mother’s maiden name) for a decade. He’d also found himself, in his words, unaware that he had been stripped of his academic credentials, and that his discharge from the Soviet Army had been accompanied with a demotion down to the lowestContinueContinue reading “Beria’s Son Petitions CPSU and KGB Leadership for Return of Confiscated Goods, Academic Title, and State Decorations”
Author Archives: misterestes
1971 Ukrainian KGB Report Documents Grisly Discovery of Ukrainian Mass Burial Site in Bykvinya
The following is a declassified Secret report filed by Vitaliy Fedorchuk, at the time the Chairman of the Ukrainian Committee for State Security, regarding the discovery of the now infamous mass grave site in Bykvinya, near Kyiv. Following up on the news that a number of juveniles had unearthed gold dental work and skeletal humanContinueContinue reading “1971 Ukrainian KGB Report Documents Grisly Discovery of Ukrainian Mass Burial Site in Bykvinya”
Declassified KGB Reports on Eve of Margaret Thatcher 1990 Visit to the USSR
In 1990, the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse. Just a year and some change from the failed coup attempt, and the sounds of Eastern Europe’s ideological fetters and chains (and the very real remains of the Berlin Wall) falling to the ground as a hint of things to come, 1990 was stillContinueContinue reading “Declassified KGB Reports on Eve of Margaret Thatcher 1990 Visit to the USSR”
Newly Declassified Documents: USSR Preparations for Emergency Touchdown of American Apollo Spacecraft on Soviet Soil
The following is the translation of an article from the Russian news website “3DNews – Daily Digital Digest,” which was originally published on 16 July. We’ve learned that the USSR was preparing the necessary equipment in the event of an emergency landing of an American Apollo spacecraft on Russian territory in 1975. This is shownContinueContinue reading “Newly Declassified Documents: USSR Preparations for Emergency Touchdown of American Apollo Spacecraft on Soviet Soil”
Newly Declassified Documents: ROSCOSMOS Website Publishes Declassified Transcripts from Ill-Fated SOYUZ-11 Mission
To mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy that took their life, ROSCOSMOS recently published information about the crew of SOYUZ-11. Among the documents are the declassified conversations of the cosmonauts before their flight. The site is in its original Russian. On 30 June 1971, when the crew of the SOYUZ-11 spacecraft were returning toContinueContinue reading “Newly Declassified Documents: ROSCOSMOS Website Publishes Declassified Transcripts from Ill-Fated SOYUZ-11 Mission”
New Declassified Soviet Documents Published Commemorating the Liberation of Prague
The Russian Federation Ministry of Defense announced on 21 May the release of a substantial cache of freshly declassified documents relating to the liberation of Prague via its multimedia website, using a number of documents from the Ministry’s seemingly endless Central Archive. The website, entitled “…И Прага была спасена. Не вправе забыть, переписать, исказить” […AndContinueContinue reading “New Declassified Soviet Documents Published Commemorating the Liberation of Prague”
1955 Top Secret Soviet Documents on Plans to Repatriate WW2 POWs
The following set of documents wас published in the book “Военнопленные в СССР 1939-1956” [‘Prisoners of War in the USSR 1939-1956’], a joint venture of the Volgograd State Institute’s Scientific Research Institute of Problems of the Economic History of the 20th Century, the Russian Federal Archive Service, the Russian Federation State Archive, and the StorageContinueContinue reading “1955 Top Secret Soviet Documents on Plans to Repatriate WW2 POWs”
Cuban Missile Crisis, Document 37
3 November 1962 / Record of a conversation between A.I Mikoyan and Fidel Castro Record of a conversation between First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.I. Mikoyan and Prime Minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Government Fidel Castro 3 November 1962 Today a two-hour conversation took place between ComradeContinueContinue reading “Cuban Missile Crisis, Document 37”
New Declassified Documents Published Marking the Liberation of Poland
The Russian Federation Ministry of Defense announced today (7 May) that it has created a new web portal commemorating the liberation of Poland, using a number of documents from the Ministry’s voluminous Central Archive. The site, entitled “Освобождение Польши: Помнит, нельзя забыть!” [The Liberation of Poland: Remember, Never Forget!], provides a multimedia walkthrough of aContinueContinue reading “New Declassified Documents Published Marking the Liberation of Poland”
New Declassified Documents Online Commemorating the Liberation of Hungary
The Russian Federation Ministry of Defense today published a number of recently declassified documents commemorating events leading up to and involving the February 1945 liberation of Hungary by Soviet Red Army forces. The multimedia portal, titled “Hungary Remembers and Cannot Forget,” appears to cover a number of events throughout the 50-day siege of Nazi-occupied Budapest.ContinueContinue reading “New Declassified Documents Online Commemorating the Liberation of Hungary”
Translating History 