After the events of World War II, the state of Czechoslovakia came under the influence of the Soviet Union and communist ideals. This culminated in 1968 when the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) saw Alexander Dubček, a communist reformer, elected as their First Secretary 1. Once in power, he began to promote his political agenda with a slogan of “Socialism … Continue reading Come And Czech This Out
Category: Red Star
The Ear-Resistible Crop
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It is laid out in the thirteenth chapter of Gregory Freeze’s book, Russia A History, that Khrushchev was not the most likely successor to Stalin; However, he had a great attribute in his ability to relate to the common folk through his concern for popular welfare (409). Khrushchev, after taking power, implemented agricultural reforms specifically …
The Worst Thing About Prison was… the Dementors
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Following the death of Stalin, a set of reforms were made in “de-stalinizing” the Soviet Union. Among these key reforms was the release of prisoners from camps administered by the GULAG. Lavrentii Beria was named minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security (MVD) in 1953 and on March 26, Beria sent the […]
Before the West was Cool: Soviet Hipsters in the 1950s
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I first discovered the stilyagi of the fifties when I saw a movie on Kanopy called Hipsters (2008). Set in 1955 Moscow, the film follows a Komsomol member who falls in love with one these stilyagi. A term for nonconformist, Western-oriented youths, the word stilyagi carried a highly negative connotation in Soviet society. Bonus: Listen to a song about hipsters (written by hipsters) while…
Evtushenko: The Part The Poet Played.
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On this March 6th, a radio announcer begins, “Dearest Comrades and friends.” He begins knowing that the lives of all those who listened were about to be changed forever. And those poets who listened would somehow know their art could never be the same. The relationship between the Soviet citizens and Stalin is one of …
An Unorthodox Solution
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To the average Russian, it must have seemed in the summer of 1941 that their was no salvation from the Nazi tide to the West. Within the first month of Germany’s “Operation Barbarossa”, which takes overtones
Hero of the Soviet Union
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“None the less the greatest credit for victory in the war surely belongs to the Soviet population itself. It was the Soviet men and women who sowed the fields, operated the lathes, stormed enemy positions, and survived siege and occupation. They often did so with signal heroism under conditions of unspeakable deprivation”- William C. Fuller, … Continue reading Hero of the Soviet Union →
Factory Evacuees
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What do you do when the Germans invade from the West? You move to the East and South. Something that … More
The Girl with the Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle.
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From a western perspective, female roles during wartime are kept nearly exclusively to the home front. Women are placed in temporary industry jobs in order to advance the war effort, which is where iconic personas such as Rosie the Riveter emerge. However, this concept of females roles vary on the eastern front. During World War … Continue reading The Girl with the Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle. →
Innocence Lost: The Great Fatherland War in “Ivan’s Childhood”
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Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1962 debut film, Ivan’s Childhood (available on Kanopy), follows a 12 year old boy serving as a scout in the Soviet military during World War II. Although it was made a couple decades after the war, this film not only portrays the mental and physical destruction wrought by the war, but also raises fascinating…
