On 24 February 1962, Chairman of the KGB in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic Ivan Savchenko dashed off a five-page announcement regarding concerns over the rapidly declining state of Soviet youth. Alien (Western) influences were seeping into the impressionable minds of the young people across the Soviet Union and their culture, and actions were neededContinueContinue reading “Top Secret 1962 Document: KGB Warns of “Hipsters” Poisoning the Morals of Soviet Youth”
Tag Archives: USSR
July 1941: Hero of the Soviet Union Executed for “Allowing” Nazi Germany to Invade USSR
When discussing Nazi Germany’s opening volleys against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and what Josef Stalin observed as a shameful withdrawal and defeat of Red Army forces in the Western Special Military District [ZapOVO], it is important to give pause and consider the tragic fate of ZapOVO Commander Dmitriy Grigoryevich Pavlov, at theContinueContinue reading “July 1941: Hero of the Soviet Union Executed for “Allowing” Nazi Germany to Invade USSR”
April 1945: Germans Admit to the Needless Execution of Soviet POWs and Civilians on the Eve of the Fall of Königsberg
In late 1944 and early 1945, the Red Army’s combat operations shifted into German territory. During the East Prussian Offensive, the Red Army advanced upon the fortress city of Königsberg (today known as Kaliningrad). To breach the Königsberg Fortified Region, troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front, under the command of Marshal of the Soviet UnionContinueContinue reading “April 1945: Germans Admit to the Needless Execution of Soviet POWs and Civilians on the Eve of the Fall of Königsberg”
Stalin’s 1941 Scorched Earth Order: Separating Myth from Fact
Every year or so, additional questions and claims appear on the Internet regarding the so-called ‘Scorched Earth Order’ signed by Josef Stalin and Boris Shaposhnikov, on behalf of the Headquarters (Stavka / Ставка) of the Supreme High Command. Would-be historians take the contents of the basic document and add their own ingredients, either made upContinueContinue reading “Stalin’s 1941 Scorched Earth Order: Separating Myth from Fact”
1966: Soviets Detonate 30-Kiloton Nuclear Charge to Extinguish Out-of-Control Gas Fire
On December 1, 1963, Well No. 11 at the Urtabulak Gas Field in the Bukhara Oblast of the Uzbek SSR hit a high-pressure (300 atmospheres) gas formation, destroying the wellhead and igniting a massive, seemingly unquenchable fire. Unquenchable, that is, using traditional methods. The fire would go on to burn for nearly three years, afterContinueContinue reading “1966: Soviets Detonate 30-Kiloton Nuclear Charge to Extinguish Out-of-Control Gas Fire”
On This Date: 1942 – Soviet Fighter Pilot Rams Nazi Ju-88 to Bring it Down, His Second Such Victory That Year
On 27 December 1942, Soviet pilot Petr Shavurin downed an enemy aircraft by ramming it at an altitude of 6000 meters. It was a frosty December of 1942. The winter days were short. A blizzard raged with only brief interruptions. On December 27th, exactly five months after his ramming attack in the skies over Gorky,ContinueContinue reading “On This Date: 1942 – Soviet Fighter Pilot Rams Nazi Ju-88 to Bring it Down, His Second Such Victory That Year”
Rosatom: Nuclear Secrets of Department K: Counterintelligence Activities in Russia’s Nuclear Industry
Earlier this week, the official website for the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation published an article on newly revealed activities of the nuclear industry’s counterintelligence organs. We’re translated the article and are happy to provide it to our readers. Nuclear Secrets of Department “K”: Counterintelligence Activities in the Development of Russia’s Nuclear Industry 1 DecemberContinueContinue reading “Rosatom: Nuclear Secrets of Department K: Counterintelligence Activities in Russia’s Nuclear Industry”
FSB Spill: Russian Anti-Soviet Saboteur Describes Training by American Agents, Quick Capture by Soviet Authorities
An earlier article from TranslatingHistory offered some details from a brief interrogation of Aleksandr Lakhno, who was trained in West Germany in the early 1950s along with several other émigrés from the Soviet Union to carry out, at best, an anti-Soviet propaganda campaign. Lakhno spent months learning tradecraft from US and British intelligence specialists inContinueContinue reading “FSB Spill: Russian Anti-Soviet Saboteur Describes Training by American Agents, Quick Capture by Soviet Authorities”
Soviet State Security Uses Family Members to Entrap Ukrainian Pair With US Intelligence Connections
On 22 August 1948, the Minister of State Security (MGB) of the Ukrainian SSR, General-Lieutenant Sergey Savchenko wrote a lengthy report to his USSR counterpart, General-Colonel Viktor Abakumov regarding efforts to entrap two young men of Jewish ancestry believed to have arrived in the Soviet Union from China attempting to gain entry into the UkrainianContinueContinue reading “Soviet State Security Uses Family Members to Entrap Ukrainian Pair With US Intelligence Connections”
FSB Publication Details Finland’s Communications Intelligence Successes Against Soviet Union Before and During WW2
In 2020, the official periodical of the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service] carried a lengthy but interesting breakdown of the history and successes enjoyed by the Finnish Radio Intelligence Service (Radiotiedustelukeskus, or RTK) during the Winter War between Finland and the USSR (1939-1940), as Germany’s ally during World War II (1941-1944), and during the LaplandContinueContinue reading “FSB Publication Details Finland’s Communications Intelligence Successes Against Soviet Union Before and During WW2”
Translating History 