In 1953, the Soviet Union detonated their first hydrogen bomb, a fusion bomb that was many times greater than the fission bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan to end World War Two. The project was being developed as early as 1946, three years before the Soviet Union even detonated their […]
Monthly Archives: October 2014
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A Thaw that would not refreeze
by jmhawkins •
After the death of Stalin, the Soviet Union did not know what to do. The years of repression and cleansing left the population of Russia fearful and questioning the new leadership. There was something that came out of the death … Continue reading →
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A Chink in the Armor: Revolution in Hungary
by jimmy jewett •
When examining the history of the Soviet Union, it is easy forget the U.S.S.R. was technically just a conglomerate of multiple ‘autonomous’ nations, bound together by the Warsaw Pact. While Stalin was largely able to manage this large union … Continue reading →
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Soviet Prisoners Released . . . Not All Necessarily Free
by Kelly Cooper •
After Stalin’s death on March 1953, a process known as de-stalinization occurred throughout the Soviet Union. When Stalin died, reforms dismantled and altered institutions from Stalin’s reign such as the Gulag labour-camp system that held numerous Soviet prisoners that were … Continue reading →
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A New Frontier for Good ….. or Evil?
by jslattery •
On October 4th, 1957 the Soviet Union showed the world why they, too were a superpower. On that day, they launched the first man-made satellite into Earth’s orbit. Sputnik 1, which simply means “satellite” in Russian, was launched for all the world to see. Also, for those who wanted to listen to Sputnik, they could […]
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The H Word: Soviet Russia’s Hydrogen Bomb
by cpurvis2 •
In 1953, the USSR set off their first hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. This “super-bomb” was determined to surpass the power of their atomic bomb, which they had detonated four years prior. The hydrogen bomb explosion … Continue reading →
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More Land Means More Food, Or Does It?
by phillip5 •
After the end of WWII, Russia was faced with another enemy. One that had been fighting them long before Nazi Germany. Feeding their people was again a top concern of the Russian government resulting in a decision to expand their agricultural boundaries. In 1954 Russia started a virgin land campaign which meant land that previously […]
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If it Looks, Walks, and Sounds like a Nazi, it’s Probably a Nazi
by jslattery •
During World War 2, Ukraine found themselves in a peculiar spot. On one hand, the Ukrainians had experienced a genocide from the Soviet government in the form of a manufactured famine known as the Holodomor (from the Ukrainian Голодомор, meaning “Extermination by hunger”) which killed approximately 4 million people. Because of this genocide, it’s easy […]
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Communism vs. Fascism…the Ali vs. Frazier heavyweight bout of WWII.
by mikegancio •
Aside from catastrophes of the First World War such as Verdun and The Somme, few occurrences have come close to equaling the brutality and utter disregard for human life as displayed during the winter of 1942-43 at the city of Stalingrad.What transpired was, in all likelihood, the worst single instance of human slaughter in history. Historians have […]
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Soaring Above the Glass Ceiling
by Anna •
While the Soviet Union still lagged behind Western nations in areas like technology and industry during World War II, their advances in gender equality were internationally innovative. The female call to civil and national duty was fulfilled in flight, surpassing conventional positions in fields, factories, and homes. The army included 800,000 women, but the Soviet Union was the first…