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Finnish soldiers ambushing Red Army troops during the Winter War. (Pinterest) On this day in 1940, the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed in Russia. The agreement marked the end of the Winter War, a 105-day conflict between Finland and the USSR. Intent on acquiring portions of Eastern Finnish territory for themselves, the Soviets had invaded…
Gorbachev (R) meeting with American president George H. W. Bush in 1991. (The Times of Israel) On this day in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Soviet Union (USSR). A former tractor driver, Gorbachev joined the Communist Party in his youth and attained a law degree during the Khrushchev Thaw of the…
Soldiers and women who formed in Petrograd during the uprising. (Daily Mail) On this day in 1917 (or February 23rd according to the Old Calendar), riots broke out in Petrograd, then-capital of Russia. As WWI wore on in the East, a series of spectacular military failures weakened Russian morale, damaged the economy and increased frustration…
Continue reading ➞ 03/08 – International Womens Day & The February Revolution
Troops on the Eastern Front during a gas attack. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the fighting there after years of brutal, mobile combat. (Reddit) On this day in 1918, Russia and the Central Powers signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a territorial agreement that closed WWI's Eastern Front and brought an end to hostilities there. Signed…
"The Battle of Sinop" by Ivan Konstantinovič Ajvazovskij. (Wikipedia) On this day in 1853, the naval Battle of Sinop took place between ships from the Ottoman Empire and the Imperial Russian Navy. The engagement was part of the Crimean War; the conflict was a result of the Ottoman Empire (or, the Turkish Empire) falling into…
"Dostoevsky" by Vasili Perov, 1872. (source: Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1849 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky and fellow members of the Petrashevsky Circle were sentenced to death for "dangerous" political speech. The Circle, composed of intellectuals and writers, shared radical ideas about government and religion. Gogol's Letter, a written statement denouncing Ukrainian playwright Nikolai…
Leon Trotsky in 1918. (source: Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1927 Ukrainian politician Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party. Trotsky and a colleague, Ukrainian Grigory Zinoviev, had attempted to stage a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik victory during the October Revolution in November 1917; Joseph Stalin and Trotsky's…
Bolshevik, a 1920 work by Boris Kustodiev. The imagery embodies the Bolshevik idea that the masses had to be lead effectively in order to channel their energies into productive action. (source: Wikimedia Commons) On November 7th, 1917 the October Revolution began in Petrograd, Russia. An armed uprising lead by the Bolshevik Party helped kick off…
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