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”
Tag Archives: Soviet Union
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”
Hitler’s Plans to Nuke the Soviet Union: Gruppenführer Werner Wächter’s Interrogation
On September 14, 1945, the head of the NKVD Operations Sector in Berlin, Major General Aleksey Sidnev, sent the Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General Ivan Serov, a new special message on the progress of the investigation into the case of SA Gruppenführer Werner Wächter. As revealed during interrogations, simultaneouslyContinueContinue reading “Hitler’s Plans to Nuke the Soviet Union: Gruppenführer Werner Wächter’s Interrogation”
Soviet Censors Send Top Secret 1946 Report to Communist Officials for Action Regarding Mail from Family Members of Ukrainian Servicemen
Postal censorship was never unique to the Soviet Union. Often most associated with wartime correspondence between deployed servicemen and their families back home, in many countries censorship was accepted as a small price to pay to keep operationally sensitive information out of enemy hands. Also generally accepted is the understanding that, once peace has beenContinueContinue reading “Soviet Censors Send Top Secret 1946 Report to Communist Officials for Action Regarding Mail from Family Members of Ukrainian Servicemen”
Top Secret: Months Before Apollo-Soyuz Launch, Leak Detected in Soviet Docking System
On July 15, 1975, within a few hours of each other, manned spacecraft – the Soviet Soyuz-19 and the American Apollo – took off into the sky to conduct an experiment in docking and creating the first-ever unified international orbital complex. Two days later, Soviet cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov met American astronauts ThomasContinueContinue reading “Top Secret: Months Before Apollo-Soyuz Launch, Leak Detected in Soviet Docking System”
Weidling Announces Hitler’s Suicide, Orders German Army to Lay Down Arms
On 1 May 1945, amidst fierce fighting in Berlin and with both Hitler and Goebbels having committed suicide in the span of 36 hours, the Commander of the Berlin Defense Area Helmut Weidling clearly saw the writing on the wall. Soviet troops were certainly just days away from taking the city, and Weidling recognized thatContinueContinue reading “Weidling Announces Hitler’s Suicide, Orders German Army to Lay Down Arms”
Executed for Cowardice in 1941, Exonerated in 1957: The Curious Tale of Frolov and Ivanov
First, here are the “facts” as Russian historians know them, or believe them to be: Winter is coming in 1941, the first year of the tragic siege of Leningrad. German and Finnish forces are doing their best to completely encircle the city, and are finally able to do so when the Wehrmacht troops reached LakeContinueContinue reading “Executed for Cowardice in 1941, Exonerated in 1957: The Curious Tale of Frolov and Ivanov”
Genesis of COSMOS 110: Exposing 4-Legged Cosmonauts in Space to Radiation Belts for 22 Days
Today’s document is actually a packet of documents, written 60 years ago on the cusp of a Soviet space experiment to study the effects of long-term radiation exposure of one-cell organisms and “biochemically and biologically important matter.” The experiment would take place as part of the Cosmos 110 flight program, to be launched approximately oneContinueContinue reading “Genesis of COSMOS 110: Exposing 4-Legged Cosmonauts in Space to Radiation Belts for 22 Days”
Casting Blame for the Chernobyl Disaster: Foreign Students in Ukraine Chime In
On 30 April 1986, less than four full days after the explosion that rocked the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, an official with the 5th Directorate of the Ukrainian KGB penned a Secret report based on human intelligence sources regarding wild rumors on the source of the catastrophe that had been already been spreading throughout theContinueContinue reading “Casting Blame for the Chernobyl Disaster: Foreign Students in Ukraine Chime In”
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