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?”
Tag Archives: Soviet Union
1943 Report to Moscow on the Frank Questions Being Asked of the Liberators
Throughout 1943, as the German Army stalled and took on massive losses in Soviet territory, Red Army troops were able to eventually push them back and, in the wake of the battles, were rightly embraced as liberators of the inhabitants of those territories the Nazis had been occupying. Soldiers and citizens alike, unsurprisingly, had manyContinueContinue reading “1943 Report to Moscow on the Frank Questions Being Asked of the Liberators”
Stalin’s Eldest Son: Captured, Interrogated, Killed
Yakov Dzhugashvili, the oldest child of Josef Stalin, could never be said to have enjoyed an easy life. After his mother died when he was less than one year old, his father dumped him off to be reared by her family while he went off to be Stalin, doing Stalinesque things as only he couldContinueContinue reading “Stalin’s Eldest Son: Captured, Interrogated, Killed”
Russia and Ukraine, 1991: Declassified Phone Conversations Between Washington and Moscow – Part 1
On December 26, 1991, the Council of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a declaration ending 69 years of the existence of the Soviet Union. This was the result of the Belovezh Accords of December 8, when the leaders of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Belarus SSR signed aContinueContinue reading “Russia and Ukraine, 1991: Declassified Phone Conversations Between Washington and Moscow – Part 1”
Russian Briefing Sheds Light on Locations, Radioactivity Levels of Submerged Submarines and Nuclear Waste in the Arctic and Far East
The Russian Academy of Science and the Russian Federation Ministry of Science and Higher Education hosted the three-day conference “Modern Methods and Means of Oceanological Research” from 13 to 15 May 2025 in Moscow and the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology. The conference is held every two years, and is devoted to a number of disciplinesContinueContinue reading “Russian Briefing Sheds Light on Locations, Radioactivity Levels of Submerged Submarines and Nuclear Waste in the Arctic and Far East”
On This Date: 1942 Message on Red Army Cowardice on the Stalingrad Front
In a 1942 message written to the Military Councils of the Armies of the Stalingrad Front, Commander of Troops General-Lieutenant Vasiliy Gordov voiced his frustrations over the fact that individual soldiers, and sometimes even entire units, were known to retreat from battle without authorization, only to face no punishment from higher headquarters. Pointing out thatContinueContinue reading “On This Date: 1942 Message on Red Army Cowardice on the Stalingrad Front”
On This Date: 1944 Report from Beria on Security Operations to Destroy Armed Ukrainian Partisan Formations
Special Folder Top Secret Copy No. 1 5 August 1944 According to the NKVD-NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, recently, in connection with the advance of the Red Army units to the West and the departure of individual units of the NKVD troops stationed in the areas of the Rivne region, the OUN (Organization ofContinueContinue reading “On This Date: 1944 Report from Beria on Security Operations to Destroy Armed Ukrainian Partisan Formations”
Korean War: Kicking Off the Soviet Propaganda Program
Translating History winds down its look at Korean War with four new translations, the last of our documents from this batch. Today’s post features evidence that most of the world was siding with the United Nations version of events, that the North Koreans invaded South Korea as puppets of the USSR. The Soviets, seeing theContinueContinue reading “Korean War: Kicking Off the Soviet Propaganda Program”
16 May 1945: Positive ID of of Hitler and Goebbels Corpses Amidst Early Days of Berlin Post-War Recovery
Yet another in the series of Top Secret reports submitted from Berlin by an unidentified deep-cover “illegal,” one of many keeping Moscow informed of how things are working out in Germany in the early days after the war. In this excerpt, the author indicates that Berlin appears to be somewhat on the rebound, following theContinueContinue reading “16 May 1945: Positive ID of of Hitler and Goebbels Corpses Amidst Early Days of Berlin Post-War Recovery”
Lunch With the Nazis: Soviet Report on Events After Germany’s Unconditional Surrender: 11 May 1945
Germany’s capitulation document – or as Bob Hope put it, “The paper so nice, they signed it twice…” – was signed in Reims on 7 May 1945, and again the next day in Berlin, at the insistence of the USSR that Germany bring the war to an end in the same city from which itContinueContinue reading “Lunch With the Nazis: Soviet Report on Events After Germany’s Unconditional Surrender: 11 May 1945”
Translating History 