A report published in June 2025 by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau reveals that there are still challenges that continue to stymie the Russian Federation’s efforts to completely phase out imported components, especially in the realm of shipbuilding. Almaz highlights foreign components its own design and production of high-speed boats for the Russian MinistryContinueContinue reading “Russia’s Largest Supplier of Speedboats for Military and Coast Guard Struggles with its “Unfriendly” Foreign Components”
Tag Archives: Ukraine
June 2025 Russian Ministry of Defense Report Reveals Drone-Defense Measures for Storage Depots
A report published by the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense in June 2025 provides a look at the latest modifications to its counter-drone measures employed as a response to Ukraine’s propensity to expand combat drone operations deep into Russian territory. The report, unclassified but not intended for broadest distribution, covered a number of different (mostlyContinueContinue reading “June 2025 Russian Ministry of Defense Report Reveals Drone-Defense Measures for Storage Depots”
November 1944: SMERSH Interrogates Treblinka Death Camp Executioner, a Soviet Red Army Deserter
During the military operations on the frontlines during the Great Patriotic War, the counterintelligence agencies “SMERSH” of the various fronts, armies, corps and divisions, along with carrying out the tasks assigned to them to combat enemy intelligence agents, simultaneously conducted investigations of Hitler’s atrocities, and carried out an active search for Nazi war criminals andContinueContinue reading “November 1944: SMERSH Interrogates Treblinka Death Camp Executioner, a Soviet Red Army Deserter”
New Russian Helo Training Vessel Begins Factory Sea Trials
The Russian Project 14400 training vessel Nikolay Kamov begins factory sea trials today, 17 July 2025. The vessel was developed to train Russian Navy carrier-based helicopter crews. Equipment on board can imitate various sea conditions. She boasts a 900 ton displacement, is 70 m long, and 12 m wide. She can reach speeds of upContinueContinue reading “New Russian Helo Training Vessel Begins Factory Sea Trials”
“Communists” Come Out of the Woodwork as the Red Army Advances on Berlin, April 1945
As the Red Army approached the outskirts of Berlin, local Soviet spies on the ground reported on the surprising number of individuals springing forward to proclaim their membership in the Communist Party. The author of a 30 April 1945 Top Secret report, recently declassified by the Russian SVR, clearly had no wool pulled over hisContinueContinue reading ““Communists” Come Out of the Woodwork as the Red Army Advances on Berlin, April 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”
Secrecy Vs. Control: What’s Going On with the Classification of Russian Statistics – Carnegie Politika
Another in our series of translations of the latest Carnegie Politika articles. Secrecy Vs. Control: What’s Going On with the Classification of Russian Statistics Openness is no longer declared by the Russian authorities as an instrument of transparency and accountability. But it still partially persists, primarily as a by-product of the desire to control theContinueContinue reading “Secrecy Vs. Control: What’s Going On with the Classification of Russian Statistics – Carnegie Politika”
Minerals for Weapons: Ukraine Declassifies Geological Data on Strategic Minerals
The following translation is cobbled together from Ukrainian- and Russian-language reports from a number of Ukrainian news organizations. Ukraine has declassified a limited list of minerals, including critical minerals, which was a relic from Soviet times, according to Svitlana Hrynchuk, Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources. “The classification has been removed, and weContinueContinue reading “Minerals for Weapons: Ukraine Declassifies Geological Data on Strategic Minerals”
Soviet Spies Reveal Dangerous Condition of Chernobyl Reactors Two Years Before the Catastrophe
On 1 March 1984, slightly more than two years before the April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion that rocked the globe, Soviet intelligence agents provided information to the Ukrainian KGB regarding the alarming condition of the power plant – in particular, load-bearing structures (girders and concrete slabs) at three different locations of reactor No.ContinueContinue reading “Soviet Spies Reveal Dangerous Condition of Chernobyl Reactors Two Years Before the Catastrophe”
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”
Translating History 