Posts tagged as:

History

Soviet Era Magazine Covers

September 4, 2009

Just a quick post linking to a great article about Soviet Magazine Covers

What if the Romanovs had been restored?

November 12, 2008

Martin Gilbert, writing in the Times, imagines an entirely different end to the First World War:
Imagine: in October 1918, Lloyd George’s Cabinet is planning for a prolonged struggle in 1919. Haig’s solution promises to avoid a confrontation even bloodier than the Somme or Passchendaele. The Government agrees. Germany’s main condition is to keep the vast [...]

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Julia Pirie – An Unlikely Spy

November 3, 2008

As the latest James Bond film is released, the obituary of Julia Pirie provides a timely reminder that the business of espionage is not all glamour:
Julia Pirie, who has died aged 90, spent two decades as an MI5 agent at the heart of the Communist Party of Great Britain, most of it as personal assistant [...]

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Hammer and sickle over the Reichstag, 1945

May 2, 2008

On 30 April 1945, Mikhail Petrovich Minin scrambled to the top of the ruined Reichstag to raise the Soviet flag. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a photographer with him…

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Impersonators of Russian and Soviet leaders

January 29, 2008

Street impersonators of every Russian leader, from Lenin to Putin.

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Khalkhin-Gol: The forgotten battle that shaped WW2

January 21, 2008

In August 1939, just weeks before Hitler invaded Poland, the Soviet Union and Japan fought the largest tank battle the world had ever seen

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Executed Today – a blog about executions

November 7, 2007

Sometimes I wonder what inspires people to set up new blogs. Take Executed Today, for example, a brilliantly executed (sorry – couldn’t resist) blog about historical executions.
But, sometimes I think it’s just best to accept that what seems like the craziest idea at the time is actually just the most inspired idea, [...]

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The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, sock-puppet style

September 5, 2007

What can I say? It’s the Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, brought to you by sock puppets.

Brought to you by the Puppet Liberation Theatre. And some shifty looking guys behind a red blanket.

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When it comes to planting flags, Russia has previous

August 13, 2007

Actually, that’s a slightly misleading title. Pretty much every country in the world has planted its flag somewhere to stake its claim to some piece of land or other. But the Russians of old – well, they had a slightly different approach…
Professor Basil Dmytryshyn, in a letter to the Wall Street Joural, writes:
[In] June 21, [...]

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Mikhail Gorbachev – Louis Vuitton Bag Model

August 1, 2007

That Mikhail Gorbachev’s come a long way hasn’t he? From leader of the unfree, communist world, to a slave to capitalist fashion.
Yep, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has signed up with fashion label Louis Vuitton to model their latest bag.
To my eye, it looks just like all their other bags. But the picture of [...]

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Future History – The decline and fall of Russia

June 22, 2007

Every now and then, someone pops up and says that, for Russia the end is nigh: the oil boom is unsustainable, the population is falling, the Chinese are coming, the vodka will run out – that sort of thing.

But, if Russia actually did collapse, how would it happen? John O’Sullivan has put his thinking [...]

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Leave our Tsar alone!

June 20, 2007

Here a Tsar, there a Tsar, everywhere a Tsar-Tsar.
The Economist this week posts an impassioned plea for everyone to stop calling government officials Tsars:
Newish title-holders include Canada’s copyright tsar, New Orleans’s recovery tsar, Singapore’s baby tsar, Tony Blair’s respect tsar, Thailand’s condom tsar and America’s nipple tsar (Michael Powell, whose job as chairman of the [...]

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Wild Mongolian Horde was merely the Army of Ancient Russia

June 3, 2007

Apparently, the Mongols weren’t who we thought they were, and the wusses couldn’t even conquer Russia:
The reason is simple – the actual “Mongol conquerors of Russia” never existed. The yoke theory was created by the German court historians of the new Russian dynasty – the Romanovs. It has served the end of justifying the Romanovs’ [...]

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From Russia with lust – the Tsar’s love letters

May 16, 2007

Apparently Tsar Alexander II was a bit of a ladies man. At the age of 47 he embarked on a passionate affair with the 18 year old Katia, an affair that was to last 14 years.
Throughout their affiar, Katia and Alexander wrote epic erotic letters to each other – sometimes several in a single [...]

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