Russian health collapsed with the Soviet state, worsening during the political instability of the 1990′s, and continuing to suffer in the 21st century. In 1991, Russia’s Ministry of Health reported a negative rate of population change for the first time in the nation’s records. Unheard of for a world power, Russia’s dire state of public health…
The Farmers’ Flight
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The period of economic stagnation experienced by the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev began with poor agricultural performance. Though Russia was recently industrialized, the suffering breadbasket took a toll on the economy as whole and caused massive demographic shifts. Brezhnev’s 1978 speech, “On the Further Development of Agriculture”, was full of savory statistics and improbable…
Dasvidaniya China
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Besides domestic political issues, Stalin’s death changed the Soviet Union’s relationship with China as Nikita Khrushchev’s ideological differences and anti-Stalinist reforms drove a wedge between the two communist neighbors. After the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, China developed a very close relationship with Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Mao Zedong and the…
Soaring Above the Glass Ceiling
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While the Soviet Union still lagged behind Western nations in areas like technology and industry during World War II, their advances in gender equality were internationally innovative. The female call to civil and national duty was fulfilled in flight, surpassing conventional positions in fields, factories, and homes. The army included 800,000 women, but the Soviet Union was the first…
Between a Rock and a Red Place
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Opera censorship in 1936The cultural reformation in Soviet culture during 1936 caused controversy and contradictions, as the government castigated the creativity and innovation that it once supported. The primary victims of this artistic purge included poet Demyan Bedny and avant-garde composer Dmitri Shostakovitch, as their personal lives and creative work suffered because of the Soviets’ lack of…
The Slippery Slope to the Soviet Revolution
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Due to decades of distant monarchs, economic hardship, unchecked social tensions, and military disappointments, the Russian royals’ ruling days were numbered. The monarchy’s lack of attention to the needs of the peasants and workers allowed deep sentiments of distrust and dissatisfaction to fester. At the height of unrest and revolts in 1905, total revolution was…
Game of Thrones: Lenin’s Succession
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“There is nothing higher than the title of member of the party whose founder and leader was Comrade Lenin…He always looked on it as an essential link for strengthening the revolutionary movement in the countries of the West and the … Continue reading →
13 Days Difference
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On February 14th, 1918, Soviet leadership reconstituted an entity greater than politics or economics or society- they altered time. The Council of People’s Commissars, or Sovnarkom, was the governing body that made this decision to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar … Continue reading →
Our Father, Who Art in Heaven
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While Czar Nicholas was beloved by the people and reverently called ‘our father’, a new rival patriarch entered the Russian economic-political scene in 1904. Father Gapon, an Orthodox priest, retracted from his religious duties in order to organize the “Assembly of Russia … Continue reading →