On 1 May 1945, amidst fierce fighting in Berlin and with both Hitler and Goebbels having committed suicide in the span of 36 hours, the Commander of the Berlin Defense Area Helmut Weidling clearly saw the writing on the wall. Soviet troops were certainly just days away from taking the city, and Weidling recognized thatContinueContinue reading “Weidling Announces Hitler’s Suicide, Orders German Army to Lay Down Arms”
Tag Archives: WW2
Project “Enormoz” Update: 1944 NKVD Report on Foreign Nuclear Weapon Programs Using Input from Spies Abroad
On 5 November 1944, the head of the Soviet NKVD Foreign Intelligence Directorate, Pavel Mikhaylovich Fitin, disseminated a Top Secret report on global advances in the field of nuclear weapon developments. The list of addressees for the report is not included in the material, but given the level of detail and the highly sensitive natureContinueContinue reading “Project “Enormoz” Update: 1944 NKVD Report on Foreign Nuclear Weapon Programs Using Input from Spies Abroad”
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”
Soviet Agent in 1941 London Reports to NKVD on England’s Atomic Bomb Project
In September 1941, a Soviet rezident in London known as ‘Vadim’ (now known to be Anatoly Gorsky) sent an enciphered Top Secret cable to his NKVD colleagues in Moscow regarding details of a recent meeting of the “uranium committee” (presumed to be a reference to the MAUD Committee) and England’s continued efforts at pursuing theContinueContinue reading “Soviet Agent in 1941 London Reports to NKVD on England’s Atomic Bomb Project”
New Declassified Documents Published Marking the Liberation of Poland
The Russian Federation Ministry of Defense announced today (7 May) that it has created a new web portal commemorating the liberation of Poland, using a number of documents from the Ministry’s voluminous Central Archive. The site, entitled “Освобождение Польши: Помнит, нельзя забыть!” [The Liberation of Poland: Remember, Never Forget!], provides a multimedia walkthrough of aContinueContinue reading “New Declassified Documents Published Marking the Liberation of Poland”
Translating History 