In the mid 1930′s the works of a certain composer by the name of Dimitrii Shostakovitch continued to catch the eye and heart of the public with his opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. This opera was centered around a woman who has an affair, due to her loveless marriage, ends up causing the death of […]
Red Star
Deficiencies can Cause Blood
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The Great Terror refers to the bloodshed that overwhelmed the Communist Party and Soviet society during the years 1936-1938. The victims ranged from Internal Affairs Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, Lev Kamenev, Grigorii Zinoviev, and fourteen others were convicted of having organized a Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist center that allegedly had been formed in 1932 and was held responsible […]
Final Blows to the Церковь (Orthodox Church)
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Pictured above is the destruction of Church Belles for the valuable metal that they were made of. In the standard Russian home prior to the revolution, no matter how big or small, there was one thing that was almost always present on the wall. An Icon corner was somewhere that you could go to pray, …read more
The ‘Zations– Collectivization and Dekulakization
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The city of Magnitogorsk, “the celebrated socialist ‘planned’ city” was founded on a model that’s main goal was to out-do the extremely successful steel mills of Gary, Indiana . The construction of a huge steel mill was an integral part of the First Five-Year Plan and the city soon became a symbol of revolutionary transformation. […]
Magnitogorsk: A Mine Field of “Opportunity”
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Stalin’s Five Year Plan, introduced in 1928, was essentially Russia playing a game of catch-up with the Western world. It was designed to strengthen Russia’s economy and to encourage the nation’s self-sufficiency. Rather than let nature take its’ own course, … Continue reading →
Let There Be Light
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In February 1920 the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets set out to provide the entire nation with electrical power with the introduction of the State Electrification Commission (GOELRO). The commission proposed a network of about 30 regional power stations.The plan was intended to increase the total national power output per year to 8.8 billion kWh. The […]
1917: An UnOrthodox Revolution
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As the Romanovs abdicated the throne in the beginning breaths of 1917, and the new governing bodies took their places in this shaky society, many things changed. The Provisional Government was doing its best to sort out the ocean of affairs that were left untouched by the Autocrats preceding them, while still working with the […]
Mutiny on the Black Sea
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Rotten Borsch? That sounds like something that prisoners in Siberia should be eating. In 1905 though, that was the standard food for enlisted soldiers on board the Battleship Potemkin. Most would be so inclined that sailors in the Tzar’s Imperial Fleet would be given top of the line food, considering there past supremacy on the …read more
The Rise and Fall of the Kadets
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The revolutionary era that tore through Russia at the start of the 20th century gave rise to a plethora of solutions to the burning questions surrounding industrialization, autocracy, minorities, and the role of the peasants, a midst many other things. Continue reading →
Education Reform Under Alexander II
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This image taken by famous Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii depicts a group of students in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Prokudin-Gorskii was particularly interested in recently acquired territories of the Russian Empire such as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan), which he visited on a number of occasions, including a trip in 1907 that focused on the ancient cities of […]