Soviet Union

How should we interpret the Bolshevik Revolution, in the light of later events? Michael Lynch explains the issues with which we have to grapple and gives tips on how to impress the examiners.

Martin McCauley reviews Stalin's foreign policy, paying special attention to his covert involvement in the Korean war. He shows that, despite short-term successes, his record can be seen as one of long-term failure.

Vladimir Batyuk describes how the Gorbachev reforms, and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union, changed Moscow’s view of the world.

Ronald Kowalski and Dilwyn Porter place a famous series of football matches into the context of sports history, politics and international relations.

In reviewing the career of one of the key figures in modern Russian history, Michael Lynch rejects the notion that Trotsky would have been a more humane leader than Stalin.

Mikhail Gorbachev's period as President of the Soviet Union, 1985-91, was truly revolutionary. But Steven Morewood argues that he failed to understand or control the forces he unleashed.

Richard Cavendish remembers the events of February 11th, 1948

Mariya Sevela gathers oral recollections from the people of Karafuto, a Japanese colony on the island of Sakhalin from 1905 until the arrival of the Soviet army forty years later.

Clive Foss tells how the airship phenomenon caught the imagination of the Soviet Union – becoming a key propaganda tool to Stalin, both at home and abroad.