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Articles with tag "Soviet Union"

Feature

Soviet Dissident Pavel Litvinov on Freedom of Speech Then and Now: ‘Nothing Is More Important’

The former dissident discusses freedom of speech in modern Russia, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S., including Trump’s dismantling of Voice of America.

United Kingdom Declassifies Confessions of ‘Cambridge Five’ Soviet Spies

Russia honored one of the spies, Anthony Blunt, with a plaque at the Foreign Intelligence Service headquarters in Moscow in 2010.
2 Min read

Kremlin and FSB Order Gulag Museum’s Closure in Latest Crackdown on Historical Memory

A Moscow official said the museum’s future now “remains unclear.”
2 Min read

Moscow’s Gulag History Museum Shutters Over Fire Safety Violations

The museum said that the safety violations, flagged by the city’s construction inspection center, “pose a threat to the safety and comfort of visitors...
2 Min read

Officials Remove Memorial to Victims of Soviet Repression in Russia’s Tomsk

A group of historians had erected wooden posts with the names of people who were executed and buried in the city’s Kashtak ravine.
1 Min read

Aral Sea Disaster Stunts Youth Development – Study

Scientists found that the polluted environment where the Aral Sea once stood has disrupted the endocrine status of young people living nearby.
1 Min read
Feature

‘One Name, One Life, One Plaque’: Russian Project Installs Reminders of Soviet Repressions

“By studying the past, we see that some stories nowadays unfold in the same patterns,” one of the project’s organizers told The Moscow Times.
5 Min read

Russian Traffic Police Force Returns Soviet-Era Name

Soviet authorities first established the GAI in 1936. Russia’s modern traffic police force was changed to the GIBDD in 1998.
1 Min read

100 Years After Death, Lenin Lives On for Some Russians

Several dozen Russian Communists gathered at Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square to mark the anniversary, carrying flowers and banners.
1 Min read

Russian Region to Build ‘Heroes of Donbas’ Memorial Atop WWII-Era Mass Grave – Reports

Procurement documents for the new memorial “don’t contain a single word indicating the existence of the burial site,” local media reported.
2 Min read

Memorial to ‘Victims of Finnish Occupation’ Installed at Stalin-Era Mass Grave – Opposition Deputy

Sandarmokh, where at least 6,000 gulag prisoners were buried in mass graves, is officially designated as a “burial place of victims of political repressions...
2 Min read

Putin to Revive Soviet-Era Athletes Parades on Red Square

The Soviet Union held the parades as a way of promoting physical education and sports among the populace.
1 Min read
Feature

Amid Ukraine War, a Quiet Battle of Memorials Unfolds in Russia

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being immortalized in stone, memorials dedicated to Soviet-era repressions are disappearing en masse.
4 Min read
Feature

The Soviets Conducted Dozens of 'Peaceful' Nuclear Explosions. Their Radioactive Contamination Lingers On.

Questions remain to this day over who should be responsible for monitoring these long-abandoned sites and how they impact human health.
6 Min read

Catholic Church in Russia Condemns Memorial Removal

Authorities recently removed the memorial to Lithuanian archbishop Mecislovas Reinys, who was imprisoned as part of Josef Stalin's Great Terror. 
2 Min read

Stalin Bust Appears at Memorial to Victims of Soviet Repression

The director of the memorial complex defended the new statue of the Soviet dictator as a “logical” reflection of that period.
2 Min read

'War for Identity': Kyiv Pulls Hammer, Sickle from Giant WWII Statue

The symbol was removed from the towering sculpture overlooking Kyiv as part of a de-communization campaign that ramped up after Russia invaded.
3 Min read

Missing Akhmatova Memorial in St. Petersburg Found, Handed to Police

A local lawyer admitted to removing the plaque, saying he was concerned it would be damaged after an upcoming auction to sell the former prison.
1 Min read

Akhmatova Memorial Plaque Disappears from St. Petersburg Prison

"This is not the first time they are trying to erase reminders of the past," opposition deputy Boris Vishnevsky wrote.
2 Min read

In ‘The Dmitriev Affair,’ Gulag Historian’s Persecution Is a Microcosm of Putin’s Russia

Dutch documentary filmmaker Jessica Gorter followed Dmitriev from the taiga to the courtroom.
5 Min read
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