On 8 December 1941, the day after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s subsequent declaration of war, Soviet Ambassador to China Aleksandr Panyushkin was called to meet Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek and Minister of Foreign Affairs Guo Taiqi to receive a personal message to be conveyed to Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The message spellsContinueContinue reading “Top Secret Message to Stalin Captures Chiang Kai-shek’s Emotional Response to Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor”
Tag Archives: USSR
Two Thousand Cases of Cannibalism During the Holodomor: Ukrainian MVD Presents Interactive Map Based on Declassified Documents
On Holodomor Remembrance Day, Interior Minister Igor Klimenko spoke about a unique map created based on Soviet-era criminal cases, visually presenting data on cannibalism cases in 1932–1933. Details were provided by Channel 24, quoting Igor Klimenko. Reading the data is quite difficult, but necessary. This is how we can learn our true history. It isContinueContinue reading “Two Thousand Cases of Cannibalism During the Holodomor: Ukrainian MVD Presents Interactive Map Based on Declassified Documents”
DETI: German-Trained Soviet Teens Parachute Into Kursk Oblast to Conduct Sabotage, 1943
Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the third in the series of documents translated. This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 3 September 1943 on the arrest of three saboteurs trainedContinueContinue reading “DETI: German-Trained Soviet Teens Parachute Into Kursk Oblast to Conduct Sabotage, 1943”
DETI: NKVD Discovers Saboteur Schools Established by German Intelligence to Train Kidnapped Soviet Orphans
Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the second in the series of documents translated. This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 25 December 1941 on the discovery of two saboteur andContinueContinue reading “DETI: NKVD Discovers Saboteur Schools Established by German Intelligence to Train Kidnapped Soviet Orphans”
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”
1990: Soviet Union Responds to Czechoslovakia Request for 1968 Prague Spring Invasion Documents
In 1990, members of the CPSU’s Central Committee found themselves in a touchy situation. With the communist regime no longer in power in Czechoslovakia, that country’s Office of the Attorney General asked the Soviet Union leadership to hand over a specific document that, it was felt, could finger the individuals responsible for the 1968 invasionContinueContinue reading “1990: Soviet Union Responds to Czechoslovakia Request for 1968 Prague Spring Invasion Documents”
Cuban Missile Crisis: Document 1
The first set of documents I’ll be translating and posting over the coming weeks are from those donated to the National Security Archive by Russian historian Sergo Mikoyan dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are 60 documents in all, and will be of interest to Cold War historians and those interested in Soviet, Russian,ContinueContinue reading “Cuban Missile Crisis: Document 1”
Translating History 