Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. - An independent film is bringing to light a well-kept secret in these parts: Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's only daughter has lived incognito for much of the past two decades in small towns in Wisconsin.

Most historians in Russia and the West agree that Joseph Stalin was responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people. But now a bizarre libel hearing is under way at a Moscow court that could clear the name of the power-crazed Soviet dictator, widely considered one of history’s most vicious tyrants.

Albert Axell, the American military writer, historian and author of Marshall Zhukov: The Man Who Beat Hitler, explains just how much the West has undervalued the Soviet Union’s contribution to victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Related Articles The Red Army saved Europe Dancing with Hitler at the abyss Hidden past inside the secret cities Do you believe people are still interested in WWII, which was over a fairly long time ago? My friend, a British professor, told me about a survey that revealed striking ignorance: 95pc of young people in the UK believe Germany was an...

"On the topic of marraige, population control and families. The Soviets were very much so family oriented. They spent large sums of money ideolizing the childhood and promoting large families. Stalin, though a murderous bastard indeed, even banned abortions. Abortion was legalized later and used as birth control, but only because the defunct Soviet economy could not produce things such as condoms. Regardless, abortions were never promoted or pushed. Indeed, the award of the Hero Mother was given to women with many children and they were lionized as the saviors of Soviet society. This is of course not to say...

One of Russia's most famous statues of Vladimir Lenin has been bombed, leaving the Bolshevik revolutionary with a gaping hole in his rear. The bronze statue, in the city of St Petersburg, was badly damaged before dawn on Wednesday, when the blast blew a hole in Lenin's coat. No-one was hurt in the attack, the motive for which was unknown. The statue, outside the Finland Station, marks the Bolshevik leader's return from exile in April 1917. "Today at 0430 [0030 GMT] there was an explosion at the Lenin monument at the Finland Station in the city centre," a spokesman for...

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Visitors to the German capital who are disappointed by the scant remains of the Berlin Wall can get a taste of the old days at a new communist-style hotel which revives the atmosphere of East Germany. In a multi-storey concrete block near the city's eastern train station, former communist leader Erich Honecker, wearing his trademark thick black glasses, stares down at guests from the walls of each of the 39 rooms. Garish orange patterned curtains and retro brown sofas clash with lime green walls. Plastic plants and old-style lamps stand by windows overlooking more concrete blocks...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized the removal from the center of Tallinn to a military cemetery by the Estonian government late last week of a Soviet memorial commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, which had stood for decades in the center of the Estonian capital. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that the removal of the monument minimizes the severity of the crimes of the Holocaust in Estonia and insults the Nazis‘victims in the country. According to Zuroff: “While the Center unequivocally condemns the crimes committed against...