When I’ve finished occupying the Soviet Union,” quipped a relaxed Adolf Hitler at dinner one night in 1941, “I’ll put that man Stalin back in charge. He’s the only person who knows how to deal with Russians.” Stalin was the biggest murderer of modern history – and maybe in of all mankind’s past. His number…
Category: Soviet History
Military Weapons from the Past: The DP Machine Gun aka “Stalin’s Phonograph”
Since 1928, the battlefields of the world have seen an oddball Soviet-era weapon that proves the truth of the old saying, “Looks aren’t everything.” Its nickname was once “Stalin’s phonograph” — and the staccato tune it plays is the sound of automatic fire. Used by the Russians to gun down both the Finns and the Nazis,…
Cold War Files: The Soviet’s Secret Moon Base That Never Was
The earliest plans for the Soviet outpost on the Moon sported a soil-drilling habitat and rocket-fuel-burning internal combustion engine. A quarter-century after the Soviet space program dropped its thick veil of secrecy, many fascinating details about the enormous scope of the USSR’s space ambitions are still trickling in. The latest treasure trove of information quietly…
The Bad Ass Files: Russian Soldier Jacob Pavlov
“Pavlov’s small group of men, defending one house, killed more enemy soldiers than the Germans lost in taking Paris.” – Lt. Gen. Vasily Chuikov The Battle of Stalingrad is the single bloodiest battle in human history. Over the course of sixth months of non-stop, ultra over-the-top-in-a-bad-way combat, this unfathomably-violent blood fiesta ended the lives of…
Russian Sub Activity Topping Cold War Levels
Key Points NATO is seeing Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic return to Cold War levels Russian submarines have also made a major jump in technical capability, according to NATO’s top naval commander Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic is currently equalling or even surpassing Cold War levels, according to NATO’s top naval…
Soviet History: Coping with Reality, Alcohol in the Gulags
Two weeks ago while speaking to my grandfather, who had just arrived from Moscow for his annual six-month stay stateside, I asked him about the current sanctions ravaging the Russian economy. Sensing the question was too broad, I asked about the price of groceries, about decreasing pensions, and if he had noticed any discontent amongst…