Soviet Union

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Secret Cold War Project Revealed After 45 Years

Project Hexagon collected crucial intelligence on Soviets and Chinese

(Newser) - An ultra-secret clan of scientists and engineers who toiled in a gigantic enclave in Danbury, Conn., can finally reveal its covert activities. Declassified in September, project Hexagon launched the most successful spy satellite network of the Cold War and collected crucial data for decades that helped undermine the Soviet Union,...

Josef Stalin's Daughter Lana Peters Dies in Wisconsin
Josef Stalin's Daughter
Dies in Wisconsin
OBITUARY
Nov 29, 2011 12:15 AM CST

Josef Stalin's Daughter Dies in Wisconsin

Lana Peters defected from Soviet Union in 1967

(Newser) - Josef Stalin's only daughter has died in Wisconsin at the age of 85. Lana Peters—born Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalin—handed the US a massive Cold War publicity coup when she defected to the US in 1967, publicly burning her Soviet passport, and declaring: "I have come here to...

Putin: Time for 'Eurasian Union'

'Economic and currency' alliance wouldn't be new USSR: prime minister

(Newser) - Russia’s former—and likely next —president wants to join former Soviet countries in a “Eurasian Union.” The entity would be rooted in Russia’s Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, to allow labor, capital, and trade to flow freely among the countries beginning next year, Reuters...

Soviets Lied About Flawed '61 Space Flight

Yuri Gagarin's flight did not go perfectly, new book claims

(Newser) - When Yuri Gagarin took the first manned flight into space in 1961, the Soviet Union touted it as a major Cold War triumph for Communist ideology. But the flight wasn’t as perfect as Soviet officials claimed, a new book asserts. In truth, due to two miscalculations by scientists, Gagarin...

Saddam Sought Soviet Help in '91

Declassified records reveal attempt to head off US attack

(Newser) - A frustrated Saddam Hussein pleaded with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for diplomatic assistance as the Operation Desert Storm ground battle began in 1991, reveal newly declassified records from Iraqi archives. The records—part of a huge archive containing millions of documents and thousands of hours of video footage captured after...

Henry Kissinger Is a 'Vile Creature': Christopher Hitchens
Nixon Tapes: Kissinger
Is a 'Vile Creature'
Christopher HItchens
Dec 13, 2010 5:41 PM CST

Nixon Tapes: Kissinger Is a 'Vile Creature'

When will people stop paying to listen to him speak?

(Newser) - Ever since Watergate, Henry Kissinger has deserved to be “shamed, ostracized, and excluded”—yet, for some reason, people still pay him to speak and have “dinners in his honor,” complains Christopher Hitchens on Slate . Well, the new Nixon tapes should finally change that: quotes reveal that...

FBI Suspected Irving Kristol of Soviet Ties

5-month investigation ultimately cleared neo-con giant

(Newser) - During the late 1980s, the father of neoconservatism—who is also the father of Fox News commentator and Weekly Standard boss Bill Kristol—was investigated by the FBI over possible contact with a suspected Soviet agent, Gawker finds in a study of FBI documents. The much-redacted documents suggest contact information...

US Now in Afghanistan as Long as Soviets

9 years, 50 days: Same length, different fight, analysts say

(Newser) - As of today, the US military has been fighting in Afghanistan for 9 years and 50 days—exactly as long as the Soviets did during their doomed campaign to turn the country into a socialist state. Analysts say that while the Soviet invasion and the NATO campaign have very different...

Gorbachev: Russia Is Reverting to Bad Old Days

He writes critical op-ed on 25th anniversary of perestroika

(Newser) - Mikhail Gorbachev warns that Russia is in danger of backsliding into the dark days of the Soviet Union in a critical op-ed piece that seems aimed directly at Vladimir Putin. The country's parliament is no better than a rubber stamp, its courts lack independence, and there's still no real party...

Medvedev Blames Bureaucrats for Olympic Flop
 Medvedev Blames 
 Bureaucrats for 
 Olympic Flop 
VANCOUVER OLYMPICS
Mar 2, 2010 5:30 AM CST

Medvedev Blames Bureaucrats for Olympic Flop

President calls for overhaul of Soviet-era sports system

(Newser) - Russia's president on Monday demanded resignations from the "fat cat" sports bureaucrats behind his country's worst-ever Winter Olympic showing. "Unprecedented investments are being made in sports, but money is not everything," he says. Russia must focus on putting athletes, not "sports federations and their executives,"...

US Dominates New Sports, Old Soviet Strongholds
  US Dominates New Sports, 
  Old Soviet Strongholds 
NATE SILVER on medal count
Mar 1, 2010 11:44 AM CST

US Dominates New Sports, Old Soviet Strongholds

US, Asia make radical gains over former Soviet Union in classic events

(Newser) - Nate Silver hears the “cynical perspectives” on the US’ record take of 37 medals at the Vancouver Olympics: that newfound dominance is based on the inclusion of “new-fangled sports" like snowboarding and short-track. It’s not particularly valid. If you look only at events contested in the 1988...

Team USA Frosts Canada, 5-3
 Team USA Frosts Canada, 5-3 
vancouver olympics
Feb 22, 2010 5:22 AM CST

Team USA Frosts Canada, 5-3

Americans stun hosts, clinch quarterfinal berth

(Newser) - The United States pulled off its biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice tonight, stunning Canada, 5-3, to advance to the quarterfinals of an already mixed-up tournament. Brian Rafalski scored two goals and set up another, and Ryan Miller held off a flurry of shots to lead the...

Why Scandinavia Stinks at Figure Skating
 Why Scandinavia Stinks 
 at Figure Skating 
VANCOUVER OLYMPICS
Feb 18, 2010 8:39 PM CST

Why Scandinavia Stinks at Figure Skating

Fault the Soviets, and other reasons for no medals since 1936

(Newser) - Though the Scandinavian nations generally fare well in the Winter Olympics, there’s a gaping hole in their success when it comes to figure skating (no medals since 1936), leading some bloggers to try to figure why. Some theories:
  • Blame the Soviets. During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc sunk
...

Chinese Skaters Break Russia's 50-Year Winning Streak
 Chinese Skaters Break Russia's 
 50-Year Winning Streak 
VANCOUVER OLYMPICS
Feb 16, 2010 7:12 AM CST

Chinese Skaters Break Russia's 50-Year Winning Streak

Couple back from retirement take the gold

(Newser) - A Chinese couple in a comeback from retirement 3 years ago took the gold in Olympic pairs skating last night, breaking a Russian winning streak that stretched back to 1960. China won gold and silver, Germany bronze. Russia's Kavaguti and Smirnov placed fourth. “We were prepared for this sad...

Russians Claim Avatar Rips Off Soviet Sci-Fi

Critics say Cameron owes a debt to the Strugatsky brothers

(Newser) - Avatar has prompted cries of plagiarism from Russians who say similarities between the 3D blockbuster and the Soviet-era works of the Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are more than just coincidence. James Cameron's movie and the Strugatsky brothers' World of Noon cycle of sci-fi novels both take place in the 22nd...

Russians Aim to Send Monkey to Mars

Robot would look after primate during 520-day round trip

(Newser) - The first Earthling to reach Mars may be a Russian monkey, according to scientists at an ex-Soviet facility. The director of an institute that supplied monkeys to the Soviet space program in the '80s says the facility is in talks with Russia's Cosmonautics Academy over supplying animals for a simulated...

The Best of Cold War Cinema
 The Best of 
 Cold War Cinema 
OLD RELEASES
Nov 9, 2009 2:30 PM CST

The Best of Cold War Cinema

With the Evil Empire as the bad guy, Hollywood made some great flicks

(Newser) - Maybe the reason Betsy Sharkey is feeling nostalgic about Cold War flicks is that the era offered a clear, if flawed, idea that we were the good guys. Regardless, it made for some good movies. The Los Angeles Times critic's faves, by "capricious category":
  • Aliens: With "subtexts rich
...

Post-1989 Germany an Unexpected Success
 Post-1989 Germany 
 an Unexpected Success 

opinion
Nov 9, 2009 12:42 PM CST

Post-1989 Germany an Unexpected Success

Successes in Europe would boggle a 1989 mind: Applebaum

(Newser) - As “the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations” of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall unfold, Anne Applebaum has a bone to pick. The festivities are “focusing on what didn’t happen rather than what did,” she writes, treating “the past two decades...

'Tear Down This Wall' Not So Confrontational

Reagan 'defeated' Soviets with diplomacy, not bravado

(Newser) - Prepare to see a lot of clips in the coming days of Ronald Reagan declaring, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall’s fall is days away, and in our collective memory, Reagan brought it down with sheer bravado. But that’s...

'Screw' Those Soviet Hockey Players: Kid
'Screw' Those Soviet Hockey Players: Kid
VIRAL VIDEO
Oct 6, 2009 10:46 AM CDT

'Screw' Those Soviet Hockey Players: Kid

Pint-sized coach recites Kurt Russell's speech from Miracle

(Newser) - What’s more inspiring than watching Kurt Russell speak the words of legendary hockey coach Herb Brooks to the 1980 men’s Olympic team before they played—and beat—the Russians in the film Miracle? Try the same words coming from a 5-year-old. Well, maybe it’s just cuter, but...

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