Questions tagged [soviet-union]
The Soviet Union or USSR (1922–1991) was a socialist state in Eurasia. After the 1924 death of founding leader Lenin (who led the October Revolution in 1917), Stalin established a planned economy and suppressed political opposition. After World War II, the Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, opposing the USA in the Cold War. 1980s leader Gorbachev attempted reform with perestroika and glasnost but the country collapsed in 1991.
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Did China repay Soviet grain aid?
The Sino-Soviet rift/split is a complicated issue. But there can be little doubt that it was complete by mid 1963, when the «Polemics on the General Line» were released by the Chinese Communist Party.
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What is the context for Glennon's 1956 intelligence gathering trip to the USSR?
In 1956, my father, John J. Glennon (Librarian of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, now the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) was one of the few fluent Russian speakers in ...
Glennon
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How old was the Pripyat hospital МСЧ-126 at the time of Chernobyl disaster?
After seeing praises (both in general and about the historically accurate display of Soviet Union) on the Chernobyl series, I decided to watch it.
In the first episode we see a hospital. What striked ...
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Was Lassalism persecuted in the USSR during the Stalin period?
Background
Ferdinand Lassalle was the founder of the General German Workers Association (ADAV), which is considered as the first organized labor movement (at least in Germany) and would later evolve ...
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Were there Jewish diplomats in Nazi Germany?
It is pretty well known that Nazis discouraged US companies from having local representatives who were Jews. I imagine it did not happen all at once and the way foreign Jews were treated was quite ...
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How were Soviet-Afghanistan War casualties distributed between the Soviet Republics? Were they disproportionately non-Russian?
It's frequently asserted that the impact of the Soviet-Afghanistan War disproportionately fell on Soviet Republics outside Russia, as non-Russians were overrepresented in the Red Army. The resultant ...
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Help identify details from a Soviet military uniform?
My family on my great-grandfather's side came from Romania and I have a picture of one of his brothers in a soviet military uniform.
I know nothing of his involvement in the military and was hoping ...
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What was Vyshinsky's position about extrajudical repressions in the USSR?
Vyshinsky was the prosecutor-general of the USSR who is mosly known for his participation in the Moscow show trials of the 1930s.
But what was his position regarding the extrajudical repressions?
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How did US, and the Western world's people react when USSR suddenly became an ally during WWII?
Before the USSR's participation in WWII with the West, it had a non-aggression pact with Germany, invaded Poland, and is basically the super-villain of the Red Scare. But suddenly, after USSR became ...
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How successful was the NDEA?
The National Defence Education Act (NDEA) was passed shortly after the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik I with the goal of remedying what the American government believed to be a gap in ...
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Which Soviet submarine was HMS Splendid tracking on 30th March 1982?
In 'Vulcan 607', R. White describes the background of the submarines that headed to the Falkland Islands. For the HMS Splendid, he notes that the submarine, under CO Lane-Nott was engaged in a mission ...
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Was Frisbee criticized in the Soviet Union?
In the U.S. of the 1950s, the Space Age and molded plastic flying discs (Frisbees) were both novel. New materials and a supposed resemblance to UFOs made this linkage irresistible for early disc ...
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Why did many scientists spy for the Soviet Union and contribute to their atomic program?
I want to understand why some scientists collaborated with the Soviet Union and its atomic program during and after the WWII. What I want to know is if there were some specific characteristics or ...
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How were Soviet nuclear weapons controlled?
Gobrachev said that the reason he allowed the Soviet Union to collapse was to prevent a civil war involving nuclear weapons. I think Kazakhastan returned the nukes in its territory, well after the ...
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Was the East Prussian operation "unequalled in munitions expenditure"?
In his memoirs (text in Russian), Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky claims the following (emphasis added by me):
I will note in passing that in terms of munitions consumption the East Prussian operation ...
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How much did the production of the Tsar Bomba cost to the Soviets?
The Tsar Bomba, also known as the "King of Bombs," was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Developed and tested by the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, this ...
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Did the Soviet Union or China participate in the light bulb cartel? If not, in what ways did they differ and how long did their bulbs last?
The Phoebus cartel was a well known scheme to fix the standard lifespan of incandescent lightbulbs that arose at the beginning of the 20th century.
See Spectrum.ieee.org.
Although not implemented for ...
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Why were so many Soviet films shot in 1938–39 about a future German invasion?
Why were so many Soviet films about an anticipated Nazi German invasion into the USSR shot in 1938–1939, both before the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and after it?
Before the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact Nazi ...
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What did Frank Sinatra think of the Sinatra Doctrine?
Frank Sinatra died seven years after the introduction of the Sinatra Doctrine in the Soviet Union. I'm wondering if he ever commented on it, especially since the Soviets named it after him.
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Did German civilians really offer the Red Army to publicly shoot 30-40 civilians in exhange for free food?
According to this article (Russian), in June 1945 General Serov reported to Beriia about the following incident.
On May 28th, 1945, a Red Army soldier was shot at by someone from a window in Berlin’s ...
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What is the correct timeline of events for the boycott of the Olympic Games 1980 in Moscow
Coming from the recent question of How did the US government manage to enforce the 1980 boycott of the Olympic Games in Russia? and a comment in that thread I kept wondering.
Who was the first and ...
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What role, if any, did the Chinese Communist Party play in the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang?
The Soviets invaded Xinjiang to support their client, a warlord who had no connection to the CCP.
Did the CCP support this invasion? Oppose it? Or just try to avoud talking about it?
Related: were ...
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Was Isserson a good commander on the field?
Isserson is one of the fathers of the deep battle doctrine and was one of the most brilliant minds of the Soviet Army. (According to Joukov's memoir)
However, Isserson was also described as an awful ...
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Why Finland received so little foreign support during the winter war?
Considering the following four facts:
Many western countries helped the anti-communist government during the Russian civil war,
League of Nation supports Finland,
The war lasts really long comparing ...
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What's the proxy war that the USSR spent most resources on?
Off the top of my head it might be Afghanistan, but I'm not totally sure despite direct troop participation. They also sent substantial aid to Vietnam, North Korea, and various Arab countries fighting ...
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Where can I find statistics on Soviet education of foreign students and in foreign countries?
I'm looking for statistics on soviet education of the foreign students and in foreign countries. In particular, I am trying to find numbers on:
How many foreigners were educated in Soviet Union (e.g. ...
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Why was Stalin OK with the UN's headquaters being placed in the US?
It feels like Stalin should have objected to this because this gives the US some extra influence. Why not insist on placing the headquaters somewhere more neutral?
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Was Russia or the USSR ever involved in a large military embarrassment alongside or against Vietnam?
I was listening to a Russian politician's (2021, pre-war) declaration of what would happen with the current war in Ukraine, and I was caught offguard by him mentioning a Russian military-related ...
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Where can I find an English translation of the text of the Belovezh Accords?
It is reported in many places on the internet that the decision to abolish the Soviet Union was made in the Belovezh Forest in Belarus, near Poland, by the heads of government of three of the Soviet ...
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Which place in Europe and/or Russia had its catenary lines removed/replaced several times for political reasons?
I could swear I remember reading about a city or rail line -- maybe in Germany? Maybe in Poland? -- that had the overhead electrical wires for trains removed, exported to another city or country, and ...
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What operations were carried out by the partisans of the Chernihiv junction in the Great Patriotic War?
I am interested in finding out more about the Chernihiv partisan junction which was an important force throughout the Great Patriotic War, and their leader Alexei Fyodorovich Fyodorov.
Unfortunately, ...
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Which Soviet leader has said "there is censorship in the West too - it's called money"!
I vaguely remember hearing a quote from soviet leader (might be Gorbachev, could be someone else), acknowledging media censorship in the Eastern bloc but arguing there is censorship in the West as ...
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Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, how many of each aircraft did the USSR receive?
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed 1939 Aug 23, and lasted till 1941 Jun 22.
During that time, how many aircraft were delivered to the Soviet Union, and what types were they? I'm especially ...
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Identification of Stalingrad memorabilia medallions
Some time in the 1970s, an academic from Riga, Latvia, visited my grandfather (a physicist) in the UK and gave these Stalingrad "medals" (for want of a better word) to his sons. 50 years on, ...
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Why did Women's Day never really catch on in the US, even though it started there?
The roots of International Women's Day (March 8th) go all the way back to New York City in 1909 and the Socialist Party of America. However, from what I have learned the International Women's Day is ...
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When was the official cover of Project Genetrix abandoned? Did the Soviets show (or threaten to show) any of the balloons' equipment?
I've read the Wikipedia page on Project_Genetrix (and one of its sources) but one aspect that's not clear to me is when the official cover the project was abandoned. According to the declassified ...
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Which Soviet resolution rejected "laughter for laughter's sake"?
George Counts (1949):
During the past two and one-half years the Central Committee has issued a series of "ideological resolutions" ... These resolutions not only reject "art for art's ...
user54367
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Were there written (draft) Soviet proposals that would have effectively restricted the US navy from (parts of) Europe?
I'm pretty sure that if one trawls the Soviet propaganda, one can find something asking Americans to bugger off from Europe altogether (ok, on a more serious note--Gorbatchev did propose the ...
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Were Soviet Union's best trained and equipped forces deployed on the Chinese border and not against NATO?
I heard a scholarly gentleman make this claim (without giving any details of his sources) that after the Sino-Soviet split the most capable forces were not aligned for a war with the West but were ...
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How many of the secret agents betrayed by Aldrich Ames were executed during Gorbachev's tenure?
Basically, I've always been a big fan of Gorbachev and, knowing that the CIA spies spying on the USSR were betrayed right before his arrival on the Soviet political scene, I was wondering if he had ...
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Did Nazi propaganda about the USSR change after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
I'm well-aware that Soviet propaganda completely changed its orientation after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, starting a much more positive portrayal of the Nazis in many aspects up until the German ...
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