Topic description and stories

State of Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and Dissent After Stalin

25 Apr 2019

Towards the end of the 1960s, rumours began to spread that nonconformist citizens of the USSR were being diagnosed with mental illnesses and confined...

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Thatcher speaking in the White House grounds during her 1987 visit to the USA

‘Don’t put yourself through it again’: Thatcher papers reveal ‘distress’ after bruising election win

10 Oct 2017

Margaret Thatcher’s third and final election victory dominates the 50,000 pages of her personal papers for the year 1987 – opening to the public from...

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Mitrokhin’s KGB archive opens to public

07 Jul 2014

KGB files from the famous Mitrokhin Archive – described by the FBI as ‘the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source’ –...

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Detail from 'How many millions are starving? Ten' by Vladimir Maiakovskii

A Soviet Design for Life

03 Jul 2012

A unique tour through the Soviet century – via one woman’s extraordinary collection of books, propaganda posters, ration coupons and even cigarette...

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