A river cruise from Rostov to Ulyanovsk, 1975 via Wikimedia Commons

Workers of the World, Take PTO!

Vacations in the Soviet Union were hardly idylls spent with one’s dearest. Everything about them—from whom you traveled with to what you ate—was state determined.
Statue of Ostap Bender, Elista, Russia

The Red Sting: Conmen in the USSR

The Soviets loved a good confidence game, as was made evident by the popularity of the fictional character of Ostap Bender after Russian Revolution.
Olivier salad in a red plate on the table

The USSR’s “Invisible Cuisine”

Unofficial cookbooks—handwritten recipes passed from kitchen to kitchen—provided their owners with social and cultural capital within the Soviet system.
Photograph: A Russian soldier waves a flag while standing on a balcony overlooking a square, where military trucks gather, during the Battle of Stalingrad, World War II, and the cover of Life and Fate

Source: Getty/Wikimedia Commons

How a Forbidden Russian Epic Finally Got Published

Soviet dissident Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate was "arrested" by the KGB in 1961. Here's how it finally saw the light of day.
Stalin poster

What Do We Really Know about Joseph Stalin?

It took three more decades of Soviet rule before the archives dealing with Stalin and his times could be explored. And then the doors were shut again.
Stalingrad flag

How the Nazis Created the Myth of Stalingrad

The battle of Stalingrad was the first major defeat of the Nazis in World War II, and presented the Nazis with a propaganda quandary.
Aral Sea Ships

The Agonizing Death of the Aral Sea

After decades of environmental disaster, fish and wildlife may rebound to Central Asia's Aral Sea, but the lake will never be restored to its former glory.
Siege of Leningrad

The Nazis’ Nightmarish Plan to Starve the Soviet Union

Before the infamous Wannsee conference, Nazis had another meeting during which they planned the mass starvation of millions of Eastern Europeans.
Nikita Khrushchev

The Power of Anecdotes in Politics

The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev famously pounded his shoe at a United Nations meeting in 1960. Anecdotes of erratic behavior like this are unsettling.
Soviet Hippie

The Unlikely Hippies of the USSR

On the little-known hippie youth culture of the USSR.