Soviet

Topic description and stories

Opinion: Thirty years on as 'new Cold War' looms, US and Russia should remember the Rekyjavik summit

21 Oct 2016

David Reynolds (Faculty of History) and Kristina Spohr (London School of Economics and Political Science) discuss current relations between the US...

Mitrokhin's handwritten copy of the KGB First Chief Directorate Lexicon, Credit: Churchill Archives Centre

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’ –...

Red Square in winter., Credit: Credit: Andrew Griffith from Flickr.

Russia: Up close

18 May 2013

A new book prize aimed at furthering our understanding of the Russian-speaking world will help the West to come to terms with the complexity of post-...

The Lyubyanka - Former KGB Headquarters.

Behind the curtain: a history of Russian intelligence

11 May 2013

Ahead of his talk at the Hay Festival, Jonathan Haslam discusses his forthcoming history of Soviet intelligence organisations, revealing, among other...

Totalitarianism, violence and the silent majority

06 Mar 2013

The ‘horrifying genius’ of Soviet totalitarianism and its ability to control and quell protest will be examined tonight by Pulitzer Prize-winning...

Part of the fuselage of the aircraft which crashed near Smolensk in April 2010.

Massacre and metaphor: remembering Katyn

28 Sep 2012

Swathed in conspiracy and suppressed by the Soviet establishment, the historical truth about the Katyn murders remained obscure for more than half a...

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...

A policy of mass destruction

29 Mar 2012

A new study reveals how a radical economic policy devised by western economists put former Soviet states on a road to bankruptcy and corruption.

Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow, where the Stalin Prize Committee transcripts are held

Musical notes from Stalin’s prize-givers

07 Jul 2011

The voices of the artistic elite of Stalin’s Soviet Union, among them Dmitri Shostakovich, are being heard afresh in a new comprehensive study of a...

A bird's eye view of the Kremlin, Moscow

A Russian Odyssey

05 Jun 2011

In 1998, Rachel Polonsky began a 10-year exploration of Russia which culminated in the publication of her book, "Molotov's Magic Lantern". She told...