Free Republic

Around the world there are different versions of the jolly, bearded man who gives gifts to children in December or, in some countries, January. Unlike the bloated, red-coated father Christmas of the West, Russia’s Santa Claus, known as Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), is slender with a wizard-like flowing beard and he wears a long robe that comes in different colors, such as blue and white. He is assisted not by elves, but by his beautiful granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden). His sleigh is powered not by reindeers, but three steely horses. What really sets Russia’s Santa Claus apart from his Western...

George Blake, the former MI6 officer and one of the Cold War's most infamous double agents, has died aged 98, Russian media has reported. Over nine years, the Soviet spy handed over information that led to the betrayal of at least 40 MI6 agents in Eastern Europe. He was jailed in London in 1960, but escaped in 1966 and fled to Russia. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said Blake "had a genuine love for our country".

Thanks to a new project from the Moscow Archives and the State Inspectorate for Real Estate, unique documents on a number of churches and chapels destroyed in Moscow in the 1920s and 30s are now available online. The project aims to identify and publish documents connected with the historical appearance of the capital city, according to the official website of the Mayor of Moscow. All materials identified so far—plans, drawings, watercolor drawings of facades—are already available online on the website of the Moscow Archives in the “Unique Documents” section. “Thanks to our joint educational project, Muscovites will be able to...

Russians are marveling at American Bolshevism on full display on our college campuses. Lilia Kim is one Russian expat who lives in Los Angeles and has observed the retro communism fan boys and girls at close range. It scares her. She wrote a post recently that has gone viral on the subject. The post is translated below (not the best translation) and the original in Russian is here. The comments are epic. https://www.facebook.com/lilya.kim/posts/1615663161968657 In short, beware of what you wish for, because you just might get it, and it is deadly. Today I had the weirdest conversation with my kids...

The Soviet UN vote helped Israel for a moment in time. That was all.Andrei Gromyko, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s representative at the United Nations, stunned the world on November 29, 1947, during the debate on the partition of Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. “The Jewish people had been closely linked with Palestine for a considerable period of history,” Gromyko told the UN General Assembly. “As a result of the war, the Jews as a people have suffered more than any other people. The total number of the Jewish population who perished at the hands of the...

November 16, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Out of the many news headlines that have dominated the year 2020 so far, there is one somber event that is in danger of being forgotten: November 18, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the first-ever legalization of abortion. Researchers estimate that legal abortion has resulted in about one billion abortions worldwide in the past 100 years, making it what they call the “greatest genocide in history.” On this date 100 years ago, Soviet Russia announced the legalization of abortion in order, according to the state explanation, to combat the growing numbers of women who...

On National Day for the Victims of Communism, we solemnly remember the more than 100 million lives claimed by communism in the 20th century. We commit ourselves to stopping the spread of this oppressive ideology that, without fail, leaves in its wake misery, destruction, and death. As proud Americans who cherish the blessings of freedom and democracy, we promise to support the more than one billion people currently captive within communist regimes and denied their unalienable rights to life and liberty. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the decisive Polish victory against Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks in the Battle of...

... “KY Dem Ed Pritchard was convicted of voter fraud in 1949 for fraudulently casting 254 votes,” Paul wrote. “His biographer said: ‘the untidy truth was that widespread vote fraud was America’s dirty little secret . . .’ Elections with millions of mail ballots makes fraud more likely not less.” ... Twitter is censoring this tweet, which is 100 percent a statement of fact pic.twitter.com/yul8TW3MJO — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 6, 2020 ... Despite Twitter’s contention that the information was misleading or disputed, Paul quoted the information straight from the biography of Edward Prichard. Now, it appears that Twitter removed...

You’re driving down the road. Suddenly, a Toyota RAV4 pulls up beside you. Sprayed on its focus group-derived curves is a chihuahua, posing gracefully before a waterfall. ...You turn the corner and soon come across a full-size Dodge Ram pickup, parked at an angle. On its driver’s-side door, you see a mural of Chuck Norris leaning on a saddle. And that saddle is saddled on the bed of a different pickup truck. So I welcome you inside Russia’s airbrushed car scene. No, this is nothing like plasti-dip. And, no, the paint isn’t removable. “Aerography is not cheap, to say the...

Two lawmakers are requesting that the State Department provide details on Turkey's recent reported use of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system against F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets, as well as Russia’s ability to gather critical intelligence through it on U.S. and NATO allies. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and James Lankford, R-Okla., sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after media reports that Turkey tracked U.S.-made F-16s flying in the eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Eunomia joint exercise in August involving France, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. Reports of this activation make clear that Turkey has no intention...

China has reacted warmly to Russian President Vladimir Putin's suggestion that the two nations could one day upgrade their strategic partnership to an official military alliance, thus uniting two of the United States' top global competitors. "You can imagine everything," Putin responded when asked during his discussion Thursday at the Valdai Discussion Club whether a military alliance could be imagined between China and Russia. The Russian leader explained that the reason such a pact had not already been forged had nothing to do with reservations on either side, but a lack of necessity. "We have always assumed that our relations...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday there is no need for a Russia-China military alliance now, but noted it could be forged in the future. Putin's statement signaled deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid growing tensions in their relations with the United States. The Russian leader also made a strong call for extending the last remaining arms control pact between Moscow and Washington. Asked during a video conference with international foreign policy experts Thursday whether a military union between Moscow and Beijing was possible, Putin replied that “we don't need it, but, theoretically, it’s quite possible to imagine it.”...

Long but fascinating. This is what the left really wants to do with those who don't share its vision of a 'radiant future'. A Zek Remembers StalinÂ’s Camps A new foreword to Julius MargolinÂ’s stunning, recovered memoir of the gulag TIMOTHY SNYDER SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 Wikipedia Political prisoners eating lunch in the Intalag coal mineWIKIPEDIA We speak of memory, but memory is empty without witness. It is too much to expect that all who suffer speak. Yet without witness, memory devolves into propaganda that serves the moment. Julius Margolin asks whether the real Russia is the one that celebrates victory...

In 1941, German soldiers murdered more than 30,000 Jews from Kiev within one and a half days. What took place at the Babi Yar gorge was one of the most horrific massacres of all time. Berlin, September 29th, 2020 (The Berlin Spectator) — Eight decades ago, the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany’s army, was busy attacking and conquering the better part of Europe while murdering millions of Jews and members of other minorities in its death camps, forced labor camps and in massacres on streets, in woods and at other locations. Can it get any worse than shooting people on the street,...

Мой Cтив (My Steve): A personal recollection of Stephen F. Cohen, who died on September 18 at the age of 81.

by Samantha Foster CNN appears to have used a doctored image of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden with his young son, in a gushing propaganda "documentary" clearly produced to promote the former VP for the presidency. The Democratic nominee initially shared back in June, a photo of himself and a young Hunter Biden from a Washington Redskins game, to commemorate Father's Day. But when CNN used the photo in their Monday night special "Fight for the White House: Joe Biden's Long Journey," the Redskins logo was removed from the hat! The "news" network was immediately castigated for such "Soviet-style propaganda." Back...

ILNIUS (REUTERS) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko could be about to give away his country's independence by signing an agreement on deeper integration with Russia, Lithuania's foreign minister said on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has for many years pushed for closer ties with Belarus under the auspices of a unified state, and raised the idea again last month. Lukashenko has in the past rejected such moves, accusing Russia of wanting to swallow up his country, but now faces protests and the threat of Western sanctions over an Aug. 9 presidential election which opponents say was rigged. Russia has stood...

The movie "Thirteen Days" is the latest dramatization of President Kennedy's showdown with the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Retired Air Force Maj. Gottlieb "John" Wilmsmeyer, 71, hasn't seen the film. But the Missouri farmer figures he can match that Cold War tale with a nail-biter of his own. It occurred about the same time. It might even have influenced the missile crisis. But for nearly 40 years, Wilmsmeyer had to keep quiet about "Operation Speedlight Delta." He was crew commander on a KC-135 tanker at Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kan., in the summer of...

The documentary film was released and posted on August 20 on the YouTube channel of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation in connection with the celebration of 75 years of nuclear industry. The film, edited in classic Soviet-style propaganda, shows all preparation procedures. First the transportation of the giant bomb by rail to the Olenya airbase near Olenegorsk on the Kola Peninsula. The Tu-95 aircraft take-off and flight across the Barents Sea to the detonation site near the Matochkin Strait at Novaya Zemlya. Then the release of the bomb attached to a parachute to slow the fall so the plane could...

Keane says Belarus' location is 'very strategic' to Putin who wants to increase Russia's 'sphere of influence' Belarus' location is “very strategic” to Russian President Vladimir Putin who “wants to increase the sphere of influence of Russia in the region, in Eastern Europe in particular and also in the Middle East,” Fox News senior strategic analyst and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane said on Monday. Keane made the comments on “America’s Newsroom” the weekend after thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Minsk, the capital city of Belarus, to protest police violence against peaceful demonstrators earlier in the week after...