The Death of Stalin’s Son
The death of Joseph Stalin’s son Yakov Dzhugashvili in a German concentration camp 80 years ago was kept a secret for decades.
Soviet Union
Stealing a Living
Theft in East Germany was so common as to be nicknamed ‘the people’s sport’. Why were citizens of the GDR so light-fingered?
The USSR in Afghanistan
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and its effect on the international politics of the late Cold War era.
Concrete Plans
The architects who adapted to the demands, whims and chicanery of the Stalinist state.
Do You Exist?
The nightmarish power of the Soviet passport.
![kolkhoz [collective farm] women working in a field, 1930s.](https://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_list/public/2021-12/Soviet-Letters.jpg?itok=0CGaEXAm)
Loveless Letters
In 1935 Stalin declared ‘life has become better’. This was clearly not the case for everyone, but feelings had to be expressed very carefully.
Can’t Go On
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, had aimed to bring new life to a system in which he believed until the last.
One Giant Leap for Tortoise-Kind
The first of Earth’s creatures to hurtle into the Moon’s orbit were slow and sedentary residents of the Great Steppe.
Revolution in the air
Those who control the media control the state. Lenin knew this, but by 1991 his Soviet successors had forgotten, to their ultimate cost.
‘The Happy Traitor’ by Simon Kuper review
The Happy Traitor: Spies, Lies and Exile in Russia. The Extraordinary Story of George Blake unpicks the motives and damage inflicted by the double agent.