Letter from Wife of People’s Artist of Ukraine Oleksandr Kurbas to Soviet Authorities in Hopes of Learning his Fate, ca. 1954

The following is a copy of an undated letter to the Prosecutor General of the USSR Rudenko from People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and UZ SSR Valentina Chistyakova with a request to provide information about her husband Oleksandr Kurbas, who was sentenced in 1934 to 5 years of imprisonment, information about his whereabouts, andContinueContinue reading “Letter from Wife of People’s Artist of Ukraine Oleksandr Kurbas to Soviet Authorities in Hopes of Learning his Fate, ca. 1954”

Ukrainians React to Stalin’s Death in a Way that Attracts the Attention of State Security

Source: Istorychna Pravda, “How Ukrainians Reacted to Stalin’s Death. Declassified Special Notifications of the MGB” On Friday, 5 March 1953, the newspaper Pravda published the following sensational piece of news: “On March 5, at 9:50 in the evening, after a serious illness, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of the SSRContinueContinue reading “Ukrainians React to Stalin’s Death in a Way that Attracts the Attention of State Security”

1971 Ukrainian KGB Report Documents Grisly Discovery of Ukrainian Mass Burial Site in Bykvinya

The following is a declassified Secret report filed by Vitaliy Fedorchuk, at the time the Chairman of the Ukrainian Committee for State Security, regarding the discovery of the now infamous mass grave site in Bykvinya, near Kyiv. Following up on the news that a number of juveniles had unearthed gold dental work and skeletal humanContinueContinue reading “1971 Ukrainian KGB Report Documents Grisly Discovery of Ukrainian Mass Burial Site in Bykvinya”

Declassified KGB Reports on Eve of Margaret Thatcher 1990 Visit to the USSR

In 1990, the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse. Just a year and some change from the failed coup attempt, and the sounds of Eastern Europe’s ideological fetters and chains (and the very real remains of the Berlin Wall) falling to the ground as a hint of things to come, 1990 was stillContinueContinue reading “Declassified KGB Reports on Eve of Margaret Thatcher 1990 Visit to the USSR”