The beginning of “destalinization” put an end to many things, but the Soviet Union’s development of nuclear weapons wasn’t one of them. Given priority by Stalin, nuclear arms development was also continued by his successors, including Nikita Khrushchev. The soviets considered the nuclear program of very high importance, and in 1953, the directors were even … Continue reading The Semipalatinsk Test Site: A Bomb on Nation
Month: March 2017
Work at Home,Work at Work, Always Stressed
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•In the 1950s, a Soviet housewife was expected, first and foremost, to be a provider for her family. She was expected to take care of her children, keep her husband happy, prepare meals, make sure the house was cleaned, wash… Continue Reading →
The first crack in the Iron Wall
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•Soviet Tanks in Budapest (1956) The Hungarian Crisis was the first major threat to Soviet domination of half of Europe since the end of WWII. The Revolution began following several years of political infighting between different factions that led to the public’s grievances being ignored. Having seen some of the success that the Polish public …
“In This Way, Literature becomes the Living Memory of a Nation.”
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•When the Stalin was taken out of Stalinism, the mold of the Soviet Union began to disintegrate. This disintegration meant that many elements of the Union that Stalin put into
The Soviet Super-Bomb
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•According to the subject essay by Lewis Siegelbaum, three years before the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949, work on the “super-bomb” began. Differing from the recent atomic bomb the world had been experimenting with at the time, the hydrogen bomb was a nuclear weapon which used fusion in a 2-step chain reaction rather than fission. The […]
Brain Drain Is Prohibited!
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•Though Khrushchev’s Thaw brought about significant political and social changes in Russia, many academics and scientists continued to view the Soviet bureaucracy as an impediment to their work. With newfound political freedom and a re-emphasis on technological advancement, Soviet scientists looked for ways to organize themselves into a physically close community in order to be able […]
Russia Launches Into The Final Frontier
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•By the mid-1950s, the Cold War was in full swing in both the United States and the Soviet Union. The growing threat of nuclear weapons and an arms race the likes of which the world had never seen before fueled the conflict between the two nations. On October 4th, 1957, The Soviet Union launched itself … Continue reading Russia Launches Into The Final Frontier
Joe-4 Soviet H-Bomb
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•The successful test of RDS-1 in August of 1949 inspired the Soviet government to institute a major, high-priority program to develop the hydrogen bomb. The Soviets, who received information from Klaus Fuchs regarding the American hydrogen bomb program throughout the late 1940s, knew that thermonuclear weapons were theoretically possible. They also knew that the hydrogen … More Joe-4 Soviet H-Bomb
Make Abortion Legal Again
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•Despite the fact that the 1936 ban on abortions was lifted in 1955, this did not signify a societal change in the way that abortions were ultimately viewed. With the ban being repealed, the government strived to make abortions safer for women by preventing illegal and unsafe abortions from occurring as commonly as they did … Continue reading Make Abortion Legal Again
“Happiness of Motherhood”
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•Last week, I read a post about gender roles and it talked about how Stalin made abortion illegal because of the negative impact he thought it would have on the population. When I was looking at the events of 1956, … Continue reading →