Russian Studies Story Briefs

For about 70 years of its long history, Russia was part of the Soviet Union. Explore before-and-after stories about the country and its people, writers, artists, culture, rulers and worldwide influence.

Meet Laika, the first living creature to fly in space 60 years ago, on November 3, 1957. Learn what really happened to her.

This image depicts the R-12 / SS-4 "Sandal" Soviet-made missile. It was a key component of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Ukrainian farmers and their families die, by the millions, as a result of Stalin's policies enforced against them. They are left with no grain to sell...

In late July, of 1942, Stalin issued an order (Number 227). The Soviet leader told the people of the city named after him to resist the coming German ...

On the 23rd of August, 1942, German bombs devastated the city of Stalingrad.

Following the orders of Joseph Stalin, a young Soviet sergeant named Yakov Pavlov bravely resisted German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Georgi Zelma (1906-1984) was born in the town of Tashkent in Uzbekistan (which, for a time, was one of the fifteen Republics of the Soviet Union).

Peter the Great decided to build a summer palace near the Gulf of Finland (part of the Baltic Sea). It is a sensational place.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, during the Russian Revolution, they were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

In 1968, the idea of Glasnost (openness and transparency within government institutions) and Perestroika (restructuring of Soviet economic and politic...

When Joseph Stalin came to power, after the death of Vladimir Lenin, he decided to force a monumental change in the way people in the Soviet Union rai...

If the real name of Rudolf Abel, a main character in "Bridge of Spies," is William ("Willy") Fisher, then who was the real Rudolf Abel?

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