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The last article I posted from Pravda was about the new Russian tank, which got me flamed pretty good. (Hey, I didn't necessarily AGREE with it, I just POSTED it.)

This is a human interest story about some old guy who is a hero of the Great Patriotic War.

Pretty decent. However, the Russians (Soviets) have an extremely poor track record when dealing with historical accuracy. Many "Heroes" of the Soviet Union were later "erased", a la "1984", from the history books. The late Soviet Union (and to a lesser degree, Russia today) used to print annual "addendums" to their history books. One year, there was a photo of 6 great "heroes" standing together in the mountains, posed just after the war ended. Years later, one of the six fell out of favor (and out of site ;). The very next year, the historical "addendums" arrived with a photo and caption to be pasted over the original. In it, the former hero, who stood in the middle, had been removed and the mountainous background filled in. No mention was ever made as to why he was removed, or that he ever existed. All that remained was a curious gap where he once stood.

Pravda articles are only good for piqueing (sp?) our curiosity, as we can never really be sure if the events, or even the person, ever existed.