Raisa Semenovna, 89, former employee of the USSR Ministry of the Chemical Industry At the Ministry of the Chemical Industry I was in charge of the oversight of the state technical standards (known ...

During the 70 years of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the number of constituent parts changed, but most of the time there were 15 of them. Here is the list.

The Russian president has declared his love for classical music on more than one occasion. In particular, he has mentioned Pyotr Tchaikovsky - according to Putin, the composer’s First Piano ...

According to one theory, ‘Russian roulette’ emerged in the Tsarist army as a relatively “safe” trick that easily impressed onlookers.

On the streets of the post-war USSR, it was often possible to meet disabled people on “gurneys”. They were simple boards on four wheels made of bearings. Legless invalids rode them, starting ...

In 1996, Kasparov decided to challenge an IBM custom-built chess computer, known as ’Deep Blue’. Kasparov came out the winner in the first battle between humans and machines. During a rematch ...

The first of the Bolsheviks that Molotov got to know was Stalin. And so naturally, after Lenin's death, he supported the moustachioed one in the internal party power struggle that ensued. In turn ...

Throughout the filming of Come and See, real bullets were used. At times, they flew just above the heads of actors, making their terrified looks genuine. And the scene where machine gun fire takes ...

In 1940, a new era had arrived. After becoming a self-dependent organisation 5 years earlier, KIM had been through a large-scale reconstruction and began making its own models of cars. So, in 1940 ...

The three hierarchs, led by Sergius (Stragorodsky), the Patriarchal locum tenens in 1925-1943 and de facto head of the Church, thanked Stalin after their meeting in a very servile letter: “In ...

Since the Middle Ages, (with the exception of the years 1712 to 1917), the Moscow Kremlin was the main official residence of Russian leaders. The President’s office is located in the Kremlin ...

Internal politics, however, would come in the way of a promising career as a swimmer. He eventually turned to finswimming and started to gain worldwide attention in this non-Olympic sport. His ...