All Among the Watchtowers
A new book claims to be the definitive history of the GDR. Is it? And don’t we have those already?
Cold War
Stealing a Living in East Germany
Theft in East Germany was so common as to be nicknamed ‘the people’s sport’. Why were citizens of the GDR so light-fingered?
Cuban Missile Crisis: the View from Havana
For 13 days in October 1962 the world watched Cuba with bated breath. What was the view like from the epicentre of the missile crisis?
Was the Cold War the Biggest Change in Russia’s Relationship with the West?
Announced on 12 March 1947 with the intention of containing Soviet expansion, the Truman Doctrine is sometimes seen as the first declaration of the Cold War. Four experts ask whether the conflict’s legacy is a defining one.
Ultimate Sacrifice
Ethel Rosenberg is revealed as a loving mother, a committed communist and a talented performer.
The Velvet Revolution In The Regions
Viewed from Prague, the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia was ‘joyful’. But, as some Czechs would discover, not all revolutions are equal.
Kazakhstan’s Nuclear Nightmare
During the Cold War, nearly a quarter of all the world’s nuclear testing took place in Kazakhstan, in secret. In 1986, a high-profile disaster in Ukraine changed that.
When the World Went Cold
Just two years after victory in the most murderous war in history, the divisions between the Soviet Union and the Western powers became unbridgeable.
‘The Doomsday Machine’ by Daniel Ellsberg review
Revelations about the US nuclear codes during the Cold War from the man who helped draft the policy.
Why the Prague Spring was Doomed to Failure
‘Socialism with a human face’ came head to head with the realities of Soviet communism during the Prague Spring of 1968.