On 24 February 1962, Chairman of the KGB in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic Ivan Savchenko dashed off a five-page announcement regarding concerns over the rapidly declining state of Soviet youth. Alien (Western) influences were seeping into the impressionable minds of the young people across the Soviet Union and their culture, and actions were neededContinueContinue reading “Top Secret 1962 Document: KGB Warns of “Hipsters” Poisoning the Morals of Soviet Youth”
Tag Archives: Soviet Union
July 1941: Hero of the Soviet Union Executed for “Allowing” Nazi Germany to Invade USSR
When discussing Nazi Germany’s opening volleys against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and what Josef Stalin observed as a shameful withdrawal and defeat of Red Army forces in the Western Special Military District [ZapOVO], it is important to give pause and consider the tragic fate of ZapOVO Commander Dmitriy Grigoryevich Pavlov, at theContinueContinue reading “July 1941: Hero of the Soviet Union Executed for “Allowing” Nazi Germany to Invade USSR”
April 1945: Germans Admit to the Needless Execution of Soviet POWs and Civilians on the Eve of the Fall of Königsberg
In late 1944 and early 1945, the Red Army’s combat operations shifted into German territory. During the East Prussian Offensive, the Red Army advanced upon the fortress city of Königsberg (today known as Kaliningrad). To breach the Königsberg Fortified Region, troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front, under the command of Marshal of the Soviet UnionContinueContinue reading “April 1945: Germans Admit to the Needless Execution of Soviet POWs and Civilians on the Eve of the Fall of Königsberg”
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, toContinueContinue reading “Stalin’s Son Revisited: Why Stalin Refused to Save Him”
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 documentsContinueContinue 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 bowelsContinueContinue 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 DecemberContinueContinue 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 inContinueContinue 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 stateContinueContinue reading “FSB Materials on Post-War Operations of Soviet Nazi Collaborators With American Intelligence Agencies”
Soviet State Security Uses Family Members to Entrap Ukrainian Pair With US Intelligence Connections
On 22 August 1948, the Minister of State Security (MGB) of the Ukrainian SSR, General-Lieutenant Sergey Savchenko wrote a lengthy report to his USSR counterpart, General-Colonel Viktor Abakumov regarding efforts to entrap two young men of Jewish ancestry believed to have arrived in the Soviet Union from China attempting to gain entry into the UkrainianContinueContinue reading “Soviet State Security Uses Family Members to Entrap Ukrainian Pair With US Intelligence Connections”
