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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Last week, few people remembered Vladimir Ulyanov’s (Lenin’s) birthday. Among those who did mark the date was the Turgenev Library in Paris: on April 22, the complete 55-volume collected works of the leader of the Russian Revolution were ceremoniously carried out from its shelves. In the past 30 years, not a single reader of the Turgenev Library had requested Lenin’s works—so the staff of the oldest Russian émigré library decided to bid a cheerful farewell to the Soviet past, making room for new books. Parisian supporters of Lenin tried to intervene in the process.

#Twoleggedbelt #europe #historicalmemory #lenin #society #Paris #aftertheUSSR #protests #reportage #Russia #TheTurgenevLibraryinParis #Emigration

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In the place of the closed GULAG Museum in Moscow, a «Museum of the Genocide of the Soviet People» is being created. If we didn't know what a kingdom of crooked mirrors Russia is today, this could even be welcomed — after all, there really was genocide in the USSR. However, it was not at all the kind that the Russian authorities mean today.

#WorldWarII #genocide #Hitler #Twoleggedbelt #industrialization #historicalmemory #historicalmyths #collectivization #leftandright #propaganda #repressionsintheUSSR #Russia #Stalin #statistics #Trotsky #theeconomyisalmost #essay

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On December 5th in California, Frank Gehry passed away—a fearless experimenter and visionary who changed perceptions of his profession and invented new tools for it. He broke the rules, followed his own desires and imagination, and transformed the world around him. And now, with sorrow, we speak of him in the past tense.

#architecture #Germany #Twoleggedbelt #deconstructivism #Jews #historicalmemory #freedom #art #USA #ridingweight #painter #Emigration

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