Russia
Why Catherine the Great's Enemies Turned Her into a Sex Fiend
She ruled over all of Russia for more than three decades, expanding its borders and making it one of the most powerful players in global politics. But that power is what made Catherine the Great the victim of notorious misogynistic myths ever since. Nymphomania, bestiality, ...read more
How a Five-Day War With Georgia Allowed Russia to Reassert Its Military Might
In early August 2008, after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops into the rebellious province of South Ossetia, Russia came to its defense, beginning a five-day-long conflict that ended with Russian troops within striking distance of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. ...read more
Did Perestroika Cause the Fall of the Soviet Union?
Just six years after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party and introduced reforms, the Soviet Union collapsed and newly formed independent nations arose from the ashes. What went wrong? In 1985, even many of the most conservative hardliners ...read more
Why Russia Wants Crimea
When Russia signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856, accepting defeat in the Crimean War—which had decimated its military and ruined its economy—it agreed to dismantle its naval base in the port city of Sevastopol. These were the terms demanded by Britain, France and their allies, who ...read more
How Opioids Were Used as Weapons During the Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis
In October 2002, after Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater and trapped more than 800 people for 57 hours, it seemed like it couldn’t get much worse. Then Russian troops released a mysterious gas into the theater. The gas was intended to incapacitate the rebels—which it ...read more
The Chernobyl Cover-Up: How Officials Botched Evacuating an Irradiated City
In the early hours of April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the worst nuclear catastrophe in history. A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine exploded, spreading radioactive clouds all over Europe and a large part of the globe. In all, 50 million curies of ...read more
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan from 1904 to 1905. Much of the fighting took place in what is now northeastern China. The Russo-Japanese War was also a naval conflict, with ships exchanging fire in the ...read more
KGB
The KGB was the primary security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its collapse in 1991. The KGB served a multi-faceted role outside of and within the Soviet Union, working as both an intelligence agency and a force of “secret police.” It was also tasked with some of ...read more
The Humiliation that Pushed Putin to Try and Recapture Russian Glory
Dominant at home and feared abroad, Vladimir Putin has come a long way since 2000, when he took over an ailing Russia still traumatized from the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade previously. Then, Putin was seen as a gray nobody, another technocrat that Boris Yeltsin had made ...read more
The California Activists Who Scared the Soviets Away From the 1984 Olympics
The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics have been the first Games in 34 years that Russia has not, technically, attended. After a years-long doping scandal, the International Olympic Committee stripped Russia of 41 medals and formally banned them from this year’s games, leaving ...read more
These Historic Military Parades Turned Heads
Whether a victory march, a commemoration of past conflict or a showy flexing of military muscle, the tradition of soldiers publicly parading with their weapons goes back for millennia. Long designed to stir flag-waving fervor and impress enemies, such lockstep ...read more
2017 Events
From the inauguration of Donald Trump to the first total solar eclipse to traverse the Lower 48 in nearly a century, 2017 was a year for the history books. Here we review the biggest news in politics, culture and science this year. Politics Trump’s inauguration: After a ...read more
Russia Isn’t the First Country to be Banned from the Olympics
The Olympic Games come just every two years. But what never ceases is the Olympic Movement, a philosophy based on striving to create a peaceful, better world. So when nations have historically run afoul of that mission, they have been subsequently banished from the games. ...read more