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Today is the 100 year anniversary of the Great October Revolution (as it was called in the USSR) or the 1917 October Revolution. Here are some first-hand witnessed depictions of events of that time by the painter Ivan Vladimirov, who used to work in the Tsar Police department in Petrograd at that time.Arrested “old regime” nobles and aristocrats being convoyed. People with axes chopping down Tsar emblems – two headed eagles.“Wine trade – wine, liquor, beer, cigarettes”Old Russia generals climb into a truck. Peasants carry things that were probably looted from the houses of rich people who are no longer...

.............The broad outlines of Bernie’s long-running infatuation with all things Soviet Russian are available to diligent researchers. We know Bernie went to Moscow for his honeymoon. This is sort of passed over and laughed off by his supporters, but it should not be. It that era it was considered a signature event in the life of a dedicated American communist. Something many American communists looked forward to as a culmination of their connections with the movement. This was frequently accompanies by other highly symbolic gestures, like getting married in a Red Dress, or having the wedding ceremony itself in the...

This meeting is part of the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall... Kissinger (now 94) reflects on the events, personalities, and thinking that characterized the United States and Soviet Union's leadership.

Many commentators have suggested that the greatest threat to the authoritarian regime in Russia would be a Ukraine that successfully navigated the difficult passage to economic development and political freedom, but apparently even Ukraine’s moves in that direction are a problem for the Kremlin. That is because, as the SerpomPo telegram channel put it, the chief reaction of Russians to the debates between the two Ukrainian presidential candidates is envy, envy that each of those who watched as many Russians did could decide for himself or herself who won and how they would if they could vote, something not possible...

Only nine days after provoking near universal anger among Belarusians and revulsion in Western capitals by having his forces tear down 70 crosses at the site of the Kuropaty mass graves near Minsk, Alyaksandr Lukashenka compounded his offense by having them destroy 50 more yesterday. This time the actions were taken by about 100 participants in a Soviet-style Saturday work session, and leaders announced that they were planting trees in place of the metal crosses. But their actions provoked a counter-demonstration by Belarusians outraged by this attack on religion and national identity and negative commentaries by Catholic and Orthodox leaders....

A record 70 percent of Russians approve of Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s role in Russian history, according to a poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster on Tuesday. Stalin’s image has been gradually rehabilitated in the 2000s from that of a bloody autocrat to an “outstanding leader.” President Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet anthem, Soviet-style military parades and a Soviet-era medal for labor during his presidency. A record low of 19 percent viewed Stalin’s role negatively, down from 32 percent in 2016. “Stalin begins to be perceived as a symbol of justice and an alternative to the current...

Russian state deputies have again raised the issue of renaming Sverdlovsk Province, which is currently named in honor of Yakov Sverdlov, who played an important role in planning the October Revolution and is widely believed to have participated in the slaying of the Royal Martyrs on July 17, 1918. The proposal came during a closed meeting of provincial Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev with the federal parliamentary deputies from the region on the preparations for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Ekaterinburg, reports URA.RU. “In his speech, Pavel Vladimirovich [Krasheninnikov],” the head of the Committee for State Construction and Legislation, “among...

KIEV - A comedian with no political experience is tipped to win the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday amid discontent over corruption and five years of war against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. Here is a timeline of the main events in Ukraine’s political history since the country’s independence in 1991. ** 1991: Leonid Kravchuk, leader of the Soviet republic of Ukraine, declares Kiev’s independence from Moscow. In a referendum and presidential election Ukrainians approve independence by 92 percent and elect Kravchuk president. ** 1994: Kravchuk loses presidential election to Leonid Kuchma in elections...

WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Monday accused Russia of “reckless escalation” of the situation in Venezuela by deploying military planes and personnel to the crisis-stricken South American nation that Washington has hit with crippling sanctions. The Russian planes and military personnel arrived outside the Venezuelan capital Caracas on Saturday, according to local media reports, two months after the Trump administration disavowed President Nicolas Maduro. Washington has recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate president and demands that Maduro leave power, which Russia has described as a U.S.-backed coup against the socialist government.

housands of candles will be lit all over Estonia on Monday to commemorate the tens of thousands of victims of the 1949 March Deportation. Between 25-28 March, more than 22,000 people in Estonia alone were forced from their homes and deported east, many to never return. 70 years ago, four days of deportations of local civilians from throughout the Soviet-occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania began on 25 March in the meticulously organised Operation Priboi ("Coastal Surf").Over the course of the operation, more than 22,000 people from Estonia, and a total of more than 90,000 people across the Baltics, were forcibly...

It is no exaggeration to say that Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1960s adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel “War and Peace” is a singular feat of filmmaking that can never be repeated. If it were, a director would have to match the resources at Bondarchuk’s disposal — a virtually unlimited budget, props from Russia’s great museums, thousands of extras from the Soviet army — and engineer sprawling battle sequences using no computer-generated effects. The extraordinary support behind “War and Peace” is apparent in every lavish frame of its seven-plus hours, and it is staggering to witness — even more so in the...

I’ve been informed that the way we celebrate Women’s Day in western society is a little bit weak compared to the way they do it in Russia– which might have something to do with the fact that the Soviets basically invented the holiday. Long before the world had International Women’s Day, Soviet Russia had ‘Working Women’s Day’, where it was first declared a national holiday as early as 1917. The United Nations didn’t adopt the March 8th celebration until 1975 when it became an official international holiday in the West, and the communist-associated “worker” element was hastily dropped from the...

As hundreds of supporters queued in Red Square to lay flowers at the grave of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, on the 66th anniversary of his death this week, two young activists mingled with the crowd beneath the Kremlin’s walls. “Burn in hell, executioner of the people and murderer of women and children!” shouted Yevgeny Suchkov, before snapping a red carnation and hurling it at a granite bust of Stalin. Police and Kremlin security officers reacted instantly, seizing him in a neck lock and dragging him away. While all the attention was on Suchkov, his fellow activist, Olga Savchenko, stepped...

The Soviet Union even went so far as to include the Katyn Massacre among the list of Nazi war crimes presented at the Nuremberg trials. Wikimedia CommonsOfficials examine the exhumed remains of the Katyn massacre. 1943. In 1940, Poland was caught between the military aggression of both Germany and the Soviet Union. The conflict climaxed that spring in Russia’s Katyn Forest when the Soviets murdered 22,000 of the best and brightest Poles of their generation en masse — then tried to blame the whole thing on the Nazis. The Katyn massacre and its ensuing cover-up shaped Russo-Polish relations for the...

Stalin Kicked The Bucket: Ray Anderson [1953] Old Joe kicked the bucket, he's long gone. He won't worry us from now on. He lived in a place they call Moscow. His number came up and he had to go Yes, old Joe's dead and gone. He stayed around too long. And nobody now can save his hide, 'Cause old Joe lay right down and died. Old Joe won't worry us no more. He killed the helpless by the score. Now I hope he's satisfied, Since old Joe's taken his last ride Yes, old Joe's dead and gone. He stayed around...

The millions of people the Stalin system killed did not disappear into thin air: they were buried typically in mass graves that Russia today has inherited but whose people and officials do not know what to do with them. As a result, they remain a continuing wound on the body of the country, Anastasiya Platonova of Takiye dela says. The Soviet system has left behind “cemeteries of the victims of political repressions: mass burials of those shot as well as small cemeteries of the camps and special settlements,” she continues. Some have been studied, but most have not, despite the...

The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience in international play. By contrast, the United States' team—led by head coach Herb Brooks—consisted exclusively of amateur players, and was the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared: "Do you believe in miracles?! YES!" In 1999,...

Er … suuuuure it is. The only way anyone could assert this with a straight face, let alone with the smug dismissal Ocasio-Cortez displays here, is to be entirely ignorant of the post-war history of Berlin, Germany, and the deep desire to flee the communist system in both. A quick search on “Berlin Wall history” for the woefully uneducated would land on this entry in Encylopaedia Britannica: In the years between 1949 and 1961, about 2.5 million East Germans had fled from East to West Germany, including steadily rising numbers of skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Their loss threatened to...

Pompeo began his trip with a Monday stop at the statue of Ronald Reagan in Budapest’s Liberty Square, completed in 2011 to commemorate his administration’s stalwart opposition to the Soviets. Then, on Tuesday morning in Bratislava, the secretary of state visited the Gate of Freedom memorial at Slovakia’s Austrian border. He ended the day with a meeting with Poland’s foreign minister, Jakub Czaputowicz. At every stop, Pompeo reminded his audience of U.S. and international reporters of the grim legacy of Soviet Communism while paying tribute to his host countries, which, he said, “cast off the Soviet yoke.” At the Gate...

After listening to all the responses last night to the Gentleman from Nevada asking the Candidates what they would do with Yucca Mountain, they all got it wrong IMHO.If my memory is correct, Pres. Carter signed an agreement with the Soviets in regards to Nuclear Proliferation and one of the concessions he made was not to reprocess our spent fuel from Nuclear Power Plants. This would allow to recapture unspent fuel and make pellets of it again for refueling. France does, and it maybe folklore, but I have seen it claimed all their spent fuel would fit in a closet.If...