Soviet Union 
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SOURCE: New York Review of Books
1/22/2023
How the Russian Jews Became Soviet
The novelist Gary Shteyngart, who emigrated from the USSR to the US as a child, reviews Sasha Senderovich's "How the Soviet Jew was Made," a work that gives short shrift to neither the "Soviet" nor "Jewish" sides of the question.
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1/22/2023
What's Hiding in Putin's Family History?
by Chris Monday
The details of Vladimir Putin's personal and family life are surprisingly (and by design) difficult to pin down. A historian suggests that his grandfather was more powerful, and more influential on the future Russian leader's fortunes, than Putin's common man mythology suggests.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
10/7/2022
Look to Russia's Civil War to Explain Current Carnage in Ukraine
by Adam Hochshild
The brutality of the Russian war against Ukraine shows few of the linguistic, ethnic, or religious markers that have often accompanied human rights abuses by armies. Thinking of the conflict as a war to maintain empire explains the scope and nature of violence.
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9/11/2022
Russians' Disapproval of Gorbachev Shouldn't Dominate How He is Remembered
by Walter G. Moss
The combination of post-Soviet hardship, resurgent nationalism, and the destructiveness of the Ukraine war have led many Americans to embrace Russians' dim view of Mikhail Gorbachev. A historian of Russia says the leader had his faults, but his furtherance of humane values has been underrated.
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SOURCE: The Editorial Board
8/30/2022
Gorbachev Became a Hero to the West Through Massive Failure
by Erik Loomis
Americans need to evaluate Gorbachev outside of their own nationalist perspective, despite feeling that the end of the Cold War was a good thing. The people he affected most see him as a failure.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
8/31/2022
The Contradictory Legacy of Gorbachev and "Revolution From Above"
by Ronald Suny
"A great emancipator, Gorbachev left a mixed legacy. He expanded freedom for millions but at the same time unleashed roiling waves of nationalism and left the upturned soil for renewed authoritarianism."
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
8/31/2022
Gorbachev Never Understood What He Set in Motion
by Anne Applebaum
Sometimes seen as a visionary reformer, Gorbachev may have started the USSR's economic death spiral by restricting the sale of vodka to increase worker productivity.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
8/31/2022
Gorbachev's Greatness Was in His Failure
by Tom Nichols
Gorbachev's personal decency made him the wrong man for his chosen task of saving Soviet Communism from collapse; today his reputation is far higher in the west than in the former USSR.
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SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
8/31/2022
Gorbachev's Vacuum: His Legacy and Russia's Wars
by Michael Kimmage
The last Soviet leader failed to intuit the ultimate consequences of the changes he unleashed, from the collapse of the USSR to the revival of Russian imperialsm.
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SOURCE: NPR
8/23/2022
80 Years Ago, the Soviet Defense of Stalingrad Began
Jochen Hellbeck explains that both Hitler and Stalin identified the city as a critical battle, committing both armies to the carnage that turned the course of the Eastern Front.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
6/13/2022
Ukraine's Struggle for Independence is a Century Old, Despite Putin's Claims
by Joshua D. Zimmerman
Ukrainian nationalists have worked for independence since the upheaval of the first world war.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
4/4/2022
A Soviet Retreat from a Danish Island after World War II Suggests how Putin Could Find an "Off Ramp"
by Caroline Kennedy Pipe and James Rogers
Red Army troops remained on the strategically significant island of Bornholm until 1946, when Stalin negotiated a withdrawal in exchange for a pledge that foreign troops would not be stationed on the island. It's likely that a similar concession will be needed to end fighting in Ukraine.
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SOURCE: Jewish Currents
3/28/2022
"We Need New Stories of Post-Soviet Jews"
A team of historians and Jewish and Russian Studies scholars introduce a project to examine the more recent history of Jews in the former Soviet Union.
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3/27/2022
Putin is Carrying on Stalin's War on Self-Determination
by Uriel Abulof
Before Woodrow Wilson, Lenin advanced the ideal of national self-determination as part of communist revolution. Stalin made the term a cynical tool of Russian imperialism, a move Putin's approach to Ukraine emulates.
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SOURCE: Puck
3/8/2022
The Anniversary of Stalin's Death Shows Authoritarianism is Bigger than One Authoritarian
by Julia Ioffe
Liberal Russians reflect on Stalin's death 69 years later and observe parallels with Putin's approach to internal dissent.
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SOURCE: New Statesman
3/9/2022
A Tale of Two Dictators: Putin's Relationship to Stalin's Legacy
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Despite their ideological incompatibility, Putin's nationalism depends on the cult of fear and repressive apparatus of the Stalinist era, which was never comprehensively demolished after the fall of Communism.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
3/2/2022
The Long History of Russian Empire Behind Putin's Territorial Goals
by Lynne Hartnett
"Putin understands the post-Soviet global order through the prism of Russia’s long history. And that history is inextricably tied to Russia’s dynamic imperial mission both in the past and today."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
1/25/2022
Will Putin Learn from Stalin's Mistakes over Korea?
by Gregory Mitrovich
Stalin's support for the North Korean invasion of the south galvanized Western opposition and ensured that the Cold War would be militarized, instead of remaining a diplomatic and economic conflict. In the long run, the Soviets lost.
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SOURCE: The Baffler
8/19/2021
How Empires Fall
by Matt Wehmeier
"Decisive political moments are rarely expected, and even more rarely planned. Governments change all the time. But every once in a while, empires fall."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
8/18/2021
The US Repeated Mistakes of the Past in Afghanistan
by Ali A. Olomi
"By flooding Afghanistan with payoffs, bribes and aid, the British created a system of endemic corruption in which local chieftains and favorable bureaucrats would enrich themselves while the rest of the country remained relatively poor."
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