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Soviet History

Shortly after the first human space flight, the Soviet Union began planning to send a woman to space.

The First Group of Female Cosmonauts Were Trained to Conquer the Final Frontier

Two decades before the first American woman flew to space, a group of female cosmonauts trained in Star City of the Soviet Union 

Woman's shoe found at the site of the March 1945 massacre

400 Artifacts Unearthed at Site of Nazi Massacre Targeting Polish, Soviet P.O.W.s

In March 1945, German soldiers shot 208 Polish and Soviet forced laborers in a series of three mass executions across the Arnsberg Forest

Belarus' servicemen excavate a mass grave for the prisoners of a Jewish ghetto set up by the Nazis during World War II in the city of Brest.

Trending Today

Nazi-Era Mass Grave Found in Former Jewish Ghetto in Belarus

So far, authorities have recovered 730 sets of remains, though there may be many more

Items on display at the recently opened KGB Spy Museum in New York

The Incomplete History Told by New York’s K.G.B. Museum

Designed to be apolitical, the attraction offers whiz-bang tech without the agency’s brutal past

President Kennedy declassified images like this one that showed medium-range ballistic missile launch sites in the Cuban countryside

Cool Finds

How CIA-Backed Spies Detected Soviet Nukes First During Cuban Missile Crisis

A report from Yahoo News lays out how a network of agents detected Soviet operations on the island before a U-2 spy plane snapped the famous photos

1960s science fiction illustration of lunar exploration.

The Missions to the Moon That Never Left the Drawing Board

From pioneers of science fiction to the height of the space race, these are the ideas for lunar flight that never launched

Laima Vince in Lithuania in July 2018

The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust

The Translator Who Brought a Lost Jewish Poet’s Words to the English-Speaking World

Raised in the U.S. but a lifelong speaker of Lithuanian, Laima Vince became enamored of Matilda Olkin’s writing

Writers’ Resort, Sevan

Armenia

Tour Armenia’s Enduring Soviet-Era Architecture

Armenia’s unique flavor of Soviet Modernism combined socialist design ideals, classical stonework and pink volcanic rock

Interior view of the House of Culture.

Armenia

Photos Document What Remains of a Soviet Atomic City

A new book explores the architectural history of Metsamor, Armenia, once a planned utopia for nuclear power plant workers

Nine men's morris is a strategy game that dates back to the Roman Empire and is similar to modern-day checkers

Cool Finds

Excavations at Medieval Vyborg Castle Reveal Secrets of “Hidden” Passageway

The finds include a game board etched into the surface of a clay brick that was likely used to play a variation of the strategy game nine men’s morris

The project will also feature the world premiere of a controversial Ilya Khrzhanovsky film, produced from 2009 to 2011 on another simulated set.

An Immersive Art Installation Will Temporarily Resurrect the Berlin Wall

This fall, event organizers plan on constructing a pseudo-city within a block of Berlin in order to emulate life in an unfamiliar country

In the spring of 2018, Angeline Nanni revisited Arlington Hall, where the Venona team got cracking. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Secrets of American History

The Women Code Breakers Who Unmasked Soviet Spies

At the height of the Cold War, America’s most secretive counterespionage effort set out to crack unbreakable ciphers

How to Cipher Like a Soviet

See if you can figure out how the American code-breakers unraveled the complexities of the Russian codebook

In addition to the graduate program, ASU and the WWII Museum will offer a series of non-credit courses designed for those seeking a less rigorous academic experience

First US-Based World War II Master’s Degree Program Will Launch in January

The online graduate program is a collaboration between Arizona State University and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans

New Research

Did George Orwell Pick Up TB During the Spanish Civil War?

A new technique was able to pull tuberculosis bacteria and morphine residue from a letter the author sent in 1938, ten years befor his diagnosis

Pictured at center, Yekaterina Budanova was one of the only women fighter pilots of World War II, and remains one of the most successful in history.

A Soviet Ace Shot Down Nazi Pilots With Great Skill, But Her Feats Are Mostly Forgotten Today

Yekaterina Budanova, who died in combat 75 years ago today, reveals a larger story about the complicated history of women soldiers in the Red Army

Please for to adopt us, Comrade.

Trending Today

Chernobyl Puppies Going Up for Adoption in the U.S.

Now in quarantine, the pups are expected to come to the U.S. this summer in search of their forever homes

American girl Samantha Smith (center) visited the U.S.S.R. on the invitation of General Secretary Yuri Andropov in July 1983. Here, she's visiting the Artek pioneer camp.

The Surprising Story of the American Girl Who Broke Through the Iron Curtain

Samantha Smith was only 10 when she wrote to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov about the Cold War. In response, he invited her for a visit

When the director of DARPA heard about the blasts and their purpose, he had an immediate reaction: “Holy shit. This is dangerous.”

How Soviet Bomb Tests Paved the Way For U.S. Climate Science

The untold story of a failed Russian geoengineering scheme, panic in the Pentagon, and a Nixon-era effort to study global cooling

The Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. The thing sticking up in the middle is the bust of Lenin.

These Places Are Actually The Middle of Nowhere

These “poles of inaccessibility” are among the world’s most remote places

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