For my last post, I decided to talk about The Americans, one of my favorite shows currently airing on television. The show follows Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, two undercover Soviet spies who live in Fall Church, VA (not only is that… Continue Reading →
Category: Red Star
No Sex in the USSR
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There’s actually quite a lot of sex going on in the USSR and without protection. Although the famous phrase “In the Soviet Union there is no sex” is just a misunderstanding on the part of a participant in a “Spacebridge,” a series … Continue reading →
The Warsaw Pact Ends
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One of the most significant events within the Cold War was the dissolution of the Soviet led Warsaw Pact. Created in 1955, the Warsaw Pact was the answer to West Germany’s admittance into NATO, which was seen as increasing the risk of war and threatening the security of “peaceable states” (The Warsaw Security Pact). Despite … Continue reading The Warsaw Pact Ends
Sober Up, Comrade!
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It’s common knowledge that Vodka is a Russian specialty, and the Russian’s knew how to have a good time no matter the time of day or reason to celebrate. Blogger Katelin writes in her post ‘War on…Alcohol?’ about the Soviet Union’s struggle with their population that was showing some unfortunate signs of alcoholism, such as … Continue reading Sober Up, Comrade! →
“We Came to Beat up Punks, Hippies, and Break Dancers, too”
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During the decline of the Soviet Union, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the theme of dissident and rebellious youth continued. As you can read about in my last blog post, the “stilyagi” emerged in the 1950s as a counter-culture, Western-style movement of rebellious youths. The older generations despised this new movement; they were… Continue reading “We Came to Beat up Punks, Hippies, and Break Dancers, too” →
The Olympics Got Political (Again)
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The 1980 Moscow Olympics were supposed to be the Soviet Union’s chance to show off their culture and athletic prowess on the international stage. An article in Pravda stated that the organizers intended for Muscovites to engage with visitors and “familiarize the Olympic guests… with the most noteworthy aspects of our life,” while at the same … Continue reading “The Olympics Got Political (Again)”
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
Blat Out Wrong
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Throughout the seventies and into the eighties, the black market had become “a fact of Soviet existence.” Seventeen Moments talks of the building of a car park and the different factors that went into the decision of whether to follow the law, which would lead to likely failure, or make use of the Soviet black market […]
Time Machine is (surprisingly) Not Just an Apple App
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Most people of our time, including Google, think of an Apple application when discussing (or searching) the term “Time Machine.” However, during the timeframe of the sixties in Soviet Russia,
