Vladimir Putin and his minions continue to whitewash the Stalinist past

This past week, the Russian Military Historical Society — a government-affiliated body headed by Vladimir Putin’s culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky — concluded its second research expedition to the Sandarmokh forest in the northwestern region of Karelia. Its purported aim was to “find the remains of the prisoners of Finnish concentration camps and fallen Red Army soldiers” dating from the 1940s. (more…)

Russia builds “Stalin centres” to restore reputation of dictator

“Stalin centres” are popping up across Russia as Vladimir Putin tries to rehabilitate the reputation of the Soviet dictator. The centres are being built in Russia’s biggest cities to reposition… ∞

Traditions, rites, and holidays invented in the USSR

The Bolsheviks canceled the Church; however, at first, they appealed to old religious rites that people were used to, filling them with new, communist meanings. (more…)

The special ideological operation going according to plan

According to a famous Soviet joke, Stalin left his will in three envelopes. That is how it was in the original version. The first envelope – “open immediately after death”… ∞

How the Brits turned over the Cossacks who had fought for Hitler to the Soviet Union

At the very end of the war, tens of thousands of Cossacks who had fought for Germany surrendered to the British. They were certain that, in this way, they could… ∞

Plaques commemorating Gulag victims disappear around Moscow

Plaques honoring the victims of the Soviet gulag forced labor camps have started to disappear from buildings across Moscow, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. (more…)

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Sandarmokh

Vladimir Putin and his minions continue to whitewash the Stalinist past