Concrete Plans
The architects who adapted to the demands, whims and chicanery of the Stalinist state.
Soviet Union
Do You Exist?
The nightmarish power of the Soviet passport.
![kolkhoz [collective farm] women working in a field, 1930s.](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_list/public/2021-12/Soviet-Letters.jpg?itok=0CGaEXAm)
Loveless Letters
In 1935 Stalin declared ‘life has become better’. This was clearly not the case for everyone, but feelings had to be expressed very carefully.
Can’t Go On
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, had aimed to bring new life to a system in which he believed until the last.
One Giant Leap for Tortoise-Kind
The first of Earth’s creatures to hurtle into the Moon’s orbit were slow and sedentary residents of the Great Steppe.
Revolution in the air
Those who control the media control the state. Lenin knew this, but by 1991 his Soviet successors had forgotten, to their ultimate cost.
The Spy, The Enigma
The motives and damage inflicted by George Blake.
Stakhanovite Shopping
Even the retail sector became part of the second Five Year Plan imposed on the Soviet Union by Stalin.
Soviet Super Sniper: A Woman at War
The ‘Guerrilla Queen’ of Soviet Russia became a role model for women in combat.
Kazakhstan’s Bloody December
Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika triggered an outpouring of resentment across the USSR. In 1986, young Kazakhs made their voices heard, but the Soviet regime was not ready to listen.