Downtown Tokyo in the 1920s / Creative Commons During the 1920s, Soviet cultural authorities sought to develop a new, post-imperialist literature that would acknowledge a “new East”. By Dr. Katerina Clark Professor of :Comparative Literature and of Slavic Languages and Literatures Yale University Abstract Sergei Tretiakov (left) and Boris Pilniak (right) / Public Domain During[…]
Seduction, propaganda, and ultimate power and control. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 08.05.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Benito Mussolini and Fascism in Italy (1922-1939) Mussolini in an official portrait / Wikimedia Commons Benito Mussolini, born into a poor blacksmith’s family, was so named by his radically socialist father (his mother was a devout Catholic schoolteacher)[…]
Wikimedia Commons Looking at the various forms of propaganda in circulation during the Russian Revolution. By Dr. Katya Rogatchevskaia Lead Curator, East European Collections British Library Is there such a thing as ‘good’ propaganda? Over the 20th century, the word ‘propaganda’ acquired predominantly negative connotations and to many, it is associated with totalitarian regimes. Back in 1928,[…]
Public Domain Exploring how events of the Russian Revolution and civil wars were reported within Russia and abroad, and how the press was used to inform, persuade, or even repress, the masses. By Katie McElvanney AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Candidate Queen Mary University The two Russian revolutions of 1917, and subsequent civil wars, not only caused great political[…]
British supply convoy with Russian escorts in Iran, September 1941 / Public Domain At dawn on August 25, 1941, the people of Iran awoke to a full-scale invasion of their country by the combined forces of Britain and the Soviet Union. By Dr. Ursula Sims-Williams / 07.11.2018 Lead Curator, Persian Collections British Library At dawn[…]
Monument to the Soviet Army, Sofia / Photo by Bin im Garten, Wikimedia Commons What is the afterlife of an old communist statue? By Dr. Theodora Dragostinova / 11.04.2014 Associate Professor of History The Ohio State University What is the afterlife of an old communist statue? Just what to do with all the Soviet-era monuments[…]
Ariel view of the destroyed reactor, 1986 Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly military conscripts and reservists, were mobilized in a desperate struggle with the consequences of the explosion. By Dr. David Moon 11.28.2016 Anniversary Professor of History University of York Fire fighters and power station workers struggled to put out the fire. Two people were[…]
By Taylor Downing / 05.27.2018 Historian On November 9th 1983, the leadership of the Soviet Union nearly ordered a full pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US and Western Europe. The entire Soviet nuclear arsenal was readied. Huge SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles in their silos were put on standby. SS-20 mobile missile launchers deployed to their[…]
Soviet leaders Red Square, Moscow, USSR celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution / Photo by L.Y. Leonidov, Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Theodore R. Weeks / 12.03.2010 Professor of History Southern Illinois University Abstract Under tsarist and Soviet rule respectively, russification and sovietization were intended to ensure state control over a diverse population. The Russian[…]