The 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident is a reason to talk about many things. About the fatal flaws in the design of Soviet high-power reactors and the mistakes made by Anatoly Dyatlov’s ill-fated shift at Reactor No. 4. About the heroism of firefighters like Vladimir Pravik, who battled the flames at the plant, and the courage of hundreds of others involved in the cleanup. About the debates among Soviet bureaucrats and scientists regarding what really happened in Pripyat. Finally, about the construction of the one-of-a-kind sarcophagus over the explosion-ravaged Chernobyl reactor. But most importantly, it’s worth recalling how the Kremlin first denied the disaster on April 26, 1986, then concealed its true scale—and ultimately lost the battle against reality in less than three weeks.

#nuclearenergy #Belarus #state #Twoleggedbelt #historicalmemory #catastrophe #MikhailGorbachev #society #Restructuring #PolitburooftheCentralCommitteeoftheCPSU #theUSSR #Ukraine #censorship #Chernobyl #nuclearexplosion

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In April 2026, in Vilnius, on the right bank of the Neris, next to the National Art Gallery, the cherry blossoms bloomed once again. Two hundred Japanese cherry trees, planted here a quarter of a century ago in the Chiune Sugihara Park, turned the riverbank into a cloud of white and pink. The name of the Japanese diplomat inscribed on a stone at the park entrance connects the history of this small Baltic country with the history of a Jewish community that was almost entirely destroyed. And it is also the story of a man who saved thousands of desperate people, defying bureaucratic orders.

#Vilnius #WorldWarII #diplomacy #Jews #Israel #History #Lithuania #reportage #sakura #resistance #theUSSR #holocaust #ChiuneSugihara

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She was imprisoned for her beliefs, refused to perform in the USSR in solidarity with dissident Natalia Gorbanevskaya, donated most of her earnings to charity, sang Bob Dylan's songs better than he did himself, and this year plans a farewell tour with him.

#1960s #America #BobDylan #JoanBaez #dictatorship #culturalhero #leftandright #music #NataliaGorbanevskaya #politicalactivism #humanrights #protests #theUSSR #feminism #folkrock #hippie

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The story of how the Soviet Grinch stole Christmas is telling in many ways. At first, the totalitarian regime shamelessly declared established family traditions to be barbaric. Then, after failing, Stalinism retreated a bit and, as a compromise, offered Soviet citizens a new holiday—with recognizable trappings, but stripped of its original meaning. Soon, the next generation came to perceive the Soviet New Year as an unshakable custom from time immemorial.

#householdandchildren #state #ideology #History #everydayculture #lenin #newYear #society #holidays #religion #theUSSR #Stalin #traditions

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Teachers are being fired, students expelled from universities, schoolchildren interrogated by the FSB, and criminal cases are being opened against their parents. Since February 2022, all this has been happening thanks to informing within educational institutions. The scale of today’s persecutions cannot be compared to Stalin-era purges: millions suffered then, while now it’s hundreds and thousands. But the logic of today’s repressions in Russia increasingly resembles that of the 1930s and 1940s in the USSR.

#Rhombus #WarinUkraine #state #childrenandparents #lifeinRussia #education #society #repressions #specialservices #theUSSR #Stalinism #school

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On November 30, 1939, the USSR attacked Finland. On the anniversary of the start of the «uncelebrated war,» we explain how Stalin turned a peaceful neighbor into a fierce enemy.

#WinterWar #History #Myths #theUSSR #Stalin #Finland

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The story of how to seize a foreign country in three days and convince its people that their lives have improved

#20thcentury #America #Grenada #History #asmallvictoriouswar #putsch #RonaldReagan #theUSSR #USA #ColdWar

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The brief period of the rise of Ukrainian literature and art in the 1920s-30s is called the «Executed Renaissance.» The intellectual and creative atmosphere of those years was so enticing that emigrants fleeing the Civil War began moving to Ukraine. But the golden age ended as abruptly as it began. «Most.Media» recalls the tragic biographies of the participants in this movement.

#20thcentury #Holodomor #CivilWar #dictatorship #historicalmemory #History #literature #poetry #repressions #Sandarmokh #freedom #theUSSR #Stalinism #Ukraine #Kharkov #Emigration #language

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«Most» columnist Dmitry Khmelnitsky has been trying for 50 years to reconstruct the life story of the outstanding artist Viktor Lobachev. All that is known about him so far is his name and the period of his work: the late 1930s.

#1930s #graphics #Zeitgeist #art #History #personalexperience #investigation #repressions #theUSSR #artists

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Centuries changed, but the old pattern remained. It was not so much dangerous criminals who ended up with the executioners, but rather random people and disgraced members of the elite.

#1937 #state #dictatorship #Empire #History #worldwideisolation #monarchy #society #executionersandvictims #PetertheGreat #Putin #torture #repressions #Russia #MiddleAges #theUSSR #Stalin

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The forested Sandarmokh tract seems to threaten the Russian authorities by its very existence. From their point of view, since people do not forget about it, their memory must be reformatted—by any means and at any cost.

#thecaseofYuriDmitriev #dictatorship #historicalmemory #Karelia #NKVD #Putin #repressions #Sandarmokh #theUSSR #Stalin #FSB

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In recent years, some in the Russian public have been strongly tempted to engage in victim-blaming regarding the events of 1939-1940. The idea goes that the Baltic peoples chose their own fate: they signed the treaties, let the Red Army in, and voted for pro-Soviet candidates in elections. Who else can they blame for this but their own short-sighted and cowardly governments? Indeed, formally the Stalinist regime at the time did nothing that the authorities of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia did not allow. But in reality, the Soviet leadership fully understood the true meaning of these documents and procedures.

#Baltics #East #WorldWarII #dictatorship #west #historicalmemory #History #Latvia #Lithuania #MolotovRibbentropPact #Poland #repressions #theUSSR #Stalinism #Estonia

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