Soviet Union
The unsung Soviet officer who averted nuclear war
Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov committed an act of bravery in 1983 that probably prevented a nuclear conflict. Yet he was largely unheralded in Russia.
Is Russia's romance with Cuba coming to an end?
The guy who supplied the soundtrack for Boris Yeltsin's Rock the Vote
Rescuing Cold War History Before It Disappears
The only Afghan to ever fly in space almost didn't make it back to Earth
When a Russian plane vanished without a trace, conspiracy theories filled the void
It's completely baffling how a large aircraft, like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, could disappear. It's no less disturbing when a small plane vanishes. That happened in Russia two years ago.
This photographer has found the beauty in Soviet bus stops
When you see his photos, you can understand why Christopher Herwig spent 12 years traveling through the former Soviet Union, taking pictures of Soviet-era bus stops.
This Soviet-born émigré remembers working at the Kharkov zoo
Kharkov's Zoo in eastern Ukraine has been in the news over a shortage of funding and food. But when Kharkov-born writer Alina Simone saw the news, it hit even closer to home. Her dad worked as a night watchman at the zoo.
Here's a rare glimpse of JFK's assassin, from his co-workers in Minsk, Belarus
The man who shot JFK in Dallas — Lee Harvey Oswald — first defected to the former Soviet Union and worked in a factory in Minsk. He married there and was under the watchful eye of Soviet intelligence, before he decided to return to the US. His former co-workers remember him fondly and refuse to believe he shot President Kennedy.
Growing up without religion in the Soviet Union, believing in jazz
Igor Butman grew up in the Soviet Union, where he learned jazz from listening to nightly broadcasts of the Voice of America on shortwave radio, and from bootleg records.