Standartenfuhrer von Stirlitz is a Soviet spy who was highlighted in the hit series, Seventeen Moments of Spring, which originally aired in 1973. His popularity in Russia is truly comparable to that of James Bond’s in the west. However, his character is starkly different other than the fact that he is a spy and likes …
Category: Greatest Hits
The Soviet’s Vietnam
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On May 26th, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed an agreement limiting the use of anti-ballistic missiles (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks). This agreement, known as the SALT I treaty, would mark the beginning of détente between the two superpowers. However, this thaw in the Cold War would not bring international … Continue reading The Soviet’s Vietnam
The Fall of the Denim Curtain
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Arguably the most significant and impactful event of the Brezhnev era was the legalization of the production of blue jeans (jk). Though many universities and workplaces had previously forbidden the wearing of jeans, the USSR embraced the denim craze, commissioning the companies Levi Strauss, Wrangler, and Lee to manufacture jeans in the Soviet Union in 1979. This […]
Aberration in Afghanistan
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The Soviet Union’s intervention in Afghanistan is widely seen as one of the most costly and misguided military decisions made in the 20th century, and it is often cited as one of the biggest reasons the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991. In his book Russia: A History, Gregory Freeze notes that the “coup de grace for detente was the … Continue reading Aberration in Afghanistan
Anekdoty: Quiet Pessimism
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As the systemic crises of economic failures and political inefficiency continued from the ‘reforms’ of Khrushchev to the ‘restoration’ of … More
Manuscripts Don’t Burn
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For my blog post of the week, I wanted briefly look at censorship in 1960’s Soviet Russia and how censorship effected The Master and Margarita, a book by that many consider to be one of the greatest pieces of literature of the… Continue Reading →
War On….. Alcohol?
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“Soviet society revealed signs of acute stress. One was hyper-alcoholism” (Freeze, 444). When we picture someone from Russia, I think many of us see a beer-bellied man with a 5:00 shadow, rosy cheeks, hazy eyes, and a half empty bottle of vodka next to him. At least that’s what I see. So I was curious […]
Can Soviets Predict the Future?
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In 1960, Diafilm, a Soviet movie studio, released this filmstrip entitled “In the Year of 2017,” seen below. It shows images of what they believed the world would be like in 2017, after the Western imperialists were destroyed and the Soviet’s had perfected their knowledge of science and technology. There are atomic trains and flying… Continue reading Can Soviets Predict the Future? →
The Soviet Students Clap Back, Letter-Style
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Well well, if it isn’t the youth making another noteworthy appearance on my blog. Pardon my language but we’re more than halfway through the 20th Century (and the spring semester) of studying Soviet history, and these youngins have a lot to say from their knowledge and experiences influenced by things outside the Stalinist USSR! I…
“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
