1962: Lies about Stalin-Era Illegal Executions Come Back to Haunt the KGB

On 6 March 1953, a massive warm front struck otherwise icy northern Europe, and wound its way east- and westward, eventually circling the globe. The reason for the warmer than normal air temperatures was the massive sigh of relief simultaneously exhaled from the entire population of the Soviet Union upon learning that Josef Stalin wasContinueContinue reading “1962: Lies about Stalin-Era Illegal Executions Come Back to Haunt the KGB”

Census Takers Executed by Soviet Authorities in 1938 for Unwittingly Revealing Millions of Ukrainians Were Lost to the Holdomor

Hopes were certainly high when Stalin declared a census be taken in 1937 across the entire Soviet Union. As the illustration above shows, gigantic success was anticipated for socialism in the USSR. But as the results started rolling in, Soviet leadership was in for a few surprises. One of the questions asked was whether orContinueContinue reading “Census Takers Executed by Soviet Authorities in 1938 for Unwittingly Revealing Millions of Ukrainians Were Lost to the Holdomor”

Soviet Georgians React to Secret Speech Denouncement of Stalin’s Cult of Personality, 1956

Shortly after midnight on 25 February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev was yielded the floor at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and he had a few things he wanted to get off his chest. For the next four hours, Khrushchev described and denounced the harsh repressions andContinueContinue reading “Soviet Georgians React to Secret Speech Denouncement of Stalin’s Cult of Personality, 1956”

Top Secret 1974 Politburo Records on the Solzhenitsyn Issue: Exile? Imprison? Expel?

By January 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was already well known throughout most of the Soviet Union as a rabble-rouser, trouble-maker, ne’er-do-well, and pretty good author. When he quietly sent his weighty manuscript for ‘Gulag Archipelago’ off to the YMCA Press to be published in Paris and New York City, many inside Kremlin circles were shocked, toContinueContinue reading “Top Secret 1974 Politburo Records on the Solzhenitsyn Issue: Exile? Imprison? Expel?”