For about 70 years of its long history, Russia was part of the Soviet Union. Explore before-and-after stories about the country and its people, writers, artists, culture, rulers and worldwide influence.
During the first part of his reign, Tsar Ivan IV was not known as "Ivan the Terrible." That moniker came later, after his first wife died and he emplo...
During July of 1917, demonstrators in Petrograd (including sailors from Kronstadt) were met with fierce opposition by soldiers of the provisional gove...
The charismatic Bolshevik leader, born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, helped to overthrow four hundred years of tsarist rule in Russia.
Born on September 9, 1828, Leo Tolstoy was the writer of still-famous 19th-century Russian masterpieces. See him in this rare video from the Russian S...
This image depicts the book-cover of Man is Wolf to Man, an important work on surviving the GULAG by Janus Bardach.
This image depicts a MiG-17, a Soviet-era fighter jet. It was the first Soviet-era fighter with an after-burning engine.
This plane was the Soviet Union's first supersonic fighter. It was the USSR's primary fighter jet during the last half of the 1950s.
Flying at about 68,000 feet, Francis Gary Powers thought he was invulnerable to any Soviet surface-to-air missile. To his surprise, and that of the Am...
Mollie Steimer was born in Russia on the 21st of November, 1897. Living in New York, she protest America's involvement in WWI and was deported, by the...
Learn about the origination of Muscovy and its earliest leader, Daniel Aleksandrovich.
Nicholas II, Tsar of all the Russians, was so worried about his son's health that he failed to pay attention to military affairs. Meanwhile, his subje...
In October of 1960, the leader of the Soviet delegation to the United Nations is upset and will not be ignored. To get attention, he ignores protocol ...
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