Translating History continues its look at the early days of the Korean War with two new translations of declassified documents from 1950. The materials in the collection contain two versions of the origin of the Korean War of 1950-1953 and the degree of guilt of the DPRK and ROK in unleashing it. One of themContinueContinue reading “Two Versions of the Beginning of the Korean War, Stalin and Gromyko Embrace the Lie”
Tag Archives: Stalin
Kremlin Suggests North Korea Slow its Roll in 1949, the Eve of the Korean War
Translating History has recently received a small bundle of declassified Russian-language materials related to Soviet diplomatic involvement in the Korean War, and will be publishing the translations thereof in the coming week. We hope they may be of interest to our readers. The materials can be divided into two groups. The first group includes officialContinueContinue reading “Kremlin Suggests North Korea Slow its Roll in 1949, the Eve of the Korean War”
Russian FSB Declassifies and Publishes Materials from Potsdam Conference Preparations
To mark the 80th anniversary of the 16 July 1945 kick-off of the Potsdam Conference between the leaders of the Soviet Union, United States, and Great Britain, the Russian Federation Federal Security Service (FSB) has published a handful of materials, freshly declassified for the occasion. The following was translated from information cobbled together from aContinueContinue reading “Russian FSB Declassifies and Publishes Materials from Potsdam Conference Preparations”
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”
Moldova Announces Complete Declassified Deportation Archive to be Made Public in July
The popular Moldovan news website Point.md today cited reporting from tv8.md on the declassification of tens of thousands of files on Moldovan citizens deported, most significantly from the Stalin era. Because the website’s report is currently only available in Romanian and Russian, we have taken it upon ourselves to provide an English translation for thoseContinueContinue reading “Moldova Announces Complete Declassified Deportation Archive to be Made Public in July”
Did ‘Cambridge Five’ Espionage Contribute to Poland Succumbing to Soviet Influence after World War II?
Recently declassified documents published to the Russian FSB website are claimed to contain information provided by the so-called ‘Cambridge Five’ – the notorious spy ring that provided information to the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the early 1950s. The documents deal with Poland’s efforts to prepare for a post-war world in which that countryContinueContinue reading “Did ‘Cambridge Five’ Espionage Contribute to Poland Succumbing to Soviet Influence after World War II?”
Yeltsin Library Declassifies Nazi Plans to Cooperate with United States, Great Britain
On 7 April 2025, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library published declassified information which reveals that Nazi Germany planned to cooperate with representatives of the USA and Great Britain in a war against the USSR. The relevant document can be found on the institution’s website; the English translation is provided below. The declassified document is postedContinueContinue reading “Yeltsin Library Declassifies Nazi Plans to Cooperate with United States, Great Britain”
Alarmed by Nuclear Lag, Soviet Ukrainian Physicist Requests Funding for US-Built Cyclotron (1944)
In early 1944, the President of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Science Akademik A.A. Bogomolets sent a Secret letter to then-Chair of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR Nikita Khrushchev, asking him to look into the possibility of not only procuring a cyclotron laboratory to hasten the Soviet Union’s lagging explorationContinueContinue reading “Alarmed by Nuclear Lag, Soviet Ukrainian Physicist Requests Funding for US-Built Cyclotron (1944)”
Closing In: Beria’s 1942 Report to Stalin on Allied Advances in Building the Bomb
In March 1942, Lavrentiy Beria penned a Top Secret internal report for Josef Stalin regarding recent advances by a number of non-Soviet countries (England, France, Germany, and the US) in trying to achieve nuclear fission as a new power source. These research efforts have, in turn, spawned interest in seeing how this new science couldContinueContinue reading “Closing In: Beria’s 1942 Report to Stalin on Allied Advances in Building the Bomb”
Freshly Declassified Documents from the Yalta Conference to be Unveiled on 4 February
The Information Center of the Government of Moscow reported today that the GRU will be handing over declassified documents concerning the Yalta Conference to the Victory Museum. The following is the translation of the Information Center’s press release: On Tuesday, February 4, the Victory Museum will host an official ceremony to hand over archival documentsContinueContinue reading “Freshly Declassified Documents from the Yalta Conference to be Unveiled on 4 February”
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