The Soviet Union began the Cold War well behind the United States in submarine technology. Although the Soviets acquired several of the most advanced German submarine types towards the end of the war, the United States had amassed a wealth of experience in submarine and antisubmarine practice from the Pacific War and the Battle of…
Category: Soviet History
Military History: 5 Soviet “Super Weapons” That Were Disastorous
For nearly seven decades, the defense-industrial complex of the Soviet Union went toe-to-toe with the best firms that the West had to offer. In some cases, it surprised the West with cheap, innovative, effective systems. In others, it could barely manage to put together aircraft that could remain in the air, and ships that could…
Cold War Files: The Secret US/UK Plan To Bomb Middle East Oil Facilities
Recently uncovered documents shed further light on an ultra-secret plan, devised by the British and American governments, to destroy oil facilities in the Middle East in the event the region was invaded by Soviet troops. The documents, published on Thursday by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, were found in the British government archives and…
World War II History: The Anniversary Of The Great Patriotic War: June 22, 1941
For all you Fellow WW2 Historians out there understand this video was put out by RT, Russia Today, which is the Propaganda Machine of the Russian Federation. Now I am not disputing the facts of the video but I do take issue with it’s arrogance. Although the Soviet Union did suffer during WW2, if it…
World War II History: Barbarossa And It’s Lesson For The Living
75 years ago this morning at 0315 Central European Time, the valiant and ruthless German race was thrust into a war of annihilation against the Soviet empire, in what became the dominant theatre in the largest-scale conflict in world history, World War II. Named after Frederick I, the red-bearded King of Germany and Holy Roman…
World War II History: 8 Bad-Ass Women of WW2
Heroism — especially in times of war — tends to produce gendered associations. We think of men fighting (and dying) valiantly, while women wait passively at home for their spouses to return. The historical record produces a different picture, however. Among the many heroes of World War II are these bad-ass women. Spies, snipers, surgeons,…
World War II History: The Female Russian Sniper that Planted Over 300 Germans
The 2015 film Battle for Sevastopol is the true story of how Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a female Soviet sniper who killed more than 300 Axis soldiers during World War II, became a gal-pal of the first lady of the United States. That’s a topic so compelling in and of itself that it’s worth putting up with Battle…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Soviet 6P9 (PB) Pistol
Developed for Spetsnaz and the KGB Wet Teams, the PB was a Suppressed Pistol with some Serious Design Compromises Developed for Spetsnaz units and the KGB in the mid-1960s, the Soviet PB — also known as the 6P9 — took the proven Makarov PM design and incorporated a two-stage, integral suppressor. During World War II, the Soviet NKVD had…
World War II Movies Worth A Damn: Fortress of War
This movie is also called “The Brest Fortress”. -SF The film is a flawed depiction of the Brest Fortress siege, but rightly celebrates the defenders’ enormous courage. The 2010 Russian-Belarusian film Fortress of War tells the tale of the Soviet men and women defending an exposed, antiquated fortress. As the first to be hit…
Military History: The Four Worst War Crimes Imaginable
These horrific war crimes reveal a humanity that isn’t good or bad, but absolutely sadistic. Human nature is an amorphous thing: Optimists and pessimists can look at the same human history and present diametrically opposed assessments of the human spirit. The optimist will point to acts of selflessness and historical displays of a collective will…