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unusual facts about Soviet



Aleksandr Zakharov

Aleksandr Viktorovich Zakharov (b. 1969), Soviet Russian football (soccer) player

Aleksey Belyakov

Aleksei Stepanovich Belyakov (born 1917) was a Soviet diplomat and ambassador to Finland 1970–71 and the leader of the European section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Arvid Jacobson

Jacobson was arrested in October 1933, along with his wife, and he promptly confessed to his role as an agent and revealed the existence of another Soviet apparatus working in Paris which included Lydia Stahl and Robert Gordon Switz.

Bagnoli

An appalling atrocity by the Western Allies was knowingly committed at the refugee camp after World War II as part of "Operation Keelhaul" which was the last forced repatriation from Bagnoli as well as other refugee camps at Aversa, Pisa, and Riccione, of about one thousand displaced people who were categorized correctly, or incorrectly, as ex-Soviet citizens.

Black Tulip

Black Tulip (plane), the Soviet military transport Antonov An-12 plane which was taking away corpses of the lost Soviet military personnel ("cargo 200") from the territory of Afghanistan during the Afghan—Soviet war (1979–1989)

Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street

New city administration preferred to keep the open area and installed the monument to Kliment Timiryazev (1923), one of the oldest extant monuments of Soviet age.

Byron Randall

Randall’s activism also led him and Packard to the Soviet Union, in 1964, where they had a show of 48 prints in Moscow’s Pushkin Museum, which was featured on Soviet television.

Clarence Max Fowler

(The research of the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov at Sarov was more advanced, but for a long time the whole field of megagauss research was covered by military secrecy).

Daniel Yergin

His next book was Russia 2010 and What It Means for the World, written with Thane Gustafson, which provided scenarios for the development of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

David Chavchavadze

He spent more than two decades of his career as a CIA officer in the Soviet Union Division.

Dresba

It was intended to be a strategic bomber air base along the shore of the Arctic Ocean, giving it access to northern resupply ship routes, and was presumably for either forward deployment or weather diversion for the Soviet Union's Tupolev Tu-95 and Tupolev Tu-22 bomber force.

East Turkestan Republic

Second East Turkestan Republic (1944–1949), Soviet-backed Turkic people's republic in northern Xinjiang

FC Ararat Yerevan

In 1974-75, after their title in the Soviet league, Ararat played in the European Cup, reaching the quarterfinals, losing to defending and future champion Bayern Munich with a 2-1 aggregate (0-2 in Munich and 1-0 in Yerevan).

First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union

At a Central Committee plenum in June 1980, the Soviet economic development plan was outlined by Tikhonov, and not Kosygin.

Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews

Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews was the title of a national march and political rally that was held on December 6, 1987 in Washington, D.C. An estimated 250,000 participants gathered on the National Mall, calling for U.S.S.R. President Gorbachev to extend his policy of Glasnost to Soviet Jews by putting an end to their forced assimilation and allowing their emigration from the Soviet Union.

Fyodor Reshetnikov

Fyodor Grigoryevich Reshetnikov (1919 - 2011) - Soviet physicist and metallurgist

Gail Sheehy

Sheehy has written biographies and character studies of major twentieth-century leaders, including Hillary Clinton, both Presidents Bush, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gakovo

In 1944, Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav partisans expelled Axis forces from the region and village was included into new socialist Yugoslavia.

German encounter of Soviet T-34 and KV tanks

Prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, the German armed forces were not aware of two newly developed Soviet tanks, the T-34 and the KV.

Ignaty Krachkovsky

Ignaty Yulianovich Krachkovsky (Russian: Игна́тий Юлиа́нович Крачко́вский (4 (16) March 1883, Vilnius — 24 January 1951, Leningrad) was a Russian and Soviet Arabist, academician of the Russian Academy of Science (since 1921; since 1925 Academy of Science of the USSR).

Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party

However, the Soviet occupation of the country, the Hungarian Communist Party's salami tactic to break up opponent parties and widespread election fraud in 1947 led to a communist government.

Interhotel

5-star hotels were exclusively for guests from non-socialist states, 4-star hotels were mainly for guests from Comecon countries, for example, Park Inn Berlin (then Stadt Berlin) was built for Soviet people.

Jane's IAF: Israeli Air Force

The aircraft you will be flying against consist of a wide range of Soviet aircraft exported to Arab states such as the MiG-17, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-29, Su-17, Su-24.

Jonas Žemaitis

Jonas Žemaitis (also known under his codename Vytautas; March 15, 1909 in Palanga – November 26, 1954 in Moscow) was one of the leaders of armed resistance against the Soviet occupation in Lithuania and acknowledged as the Head of State of contemporary occupied Lithuania.

Josef Špaček

Following World War II, liberated Czechoslovakia became increasingly subject to political pressure from the Soviet Union.

Juhan Viiding

It is not known whether Viiding intended to develop a second poetic voice in addition to that of Jüri Üdi, or that he simply realized that the Soviet era of ideological symbols—as described in his "Jüri’s Yarn"—was coming to an end and the actor Jüri Üdi could drop the mask to reveal Juhan Viiding’s true literary face.

Karimov

Ayrat Karimov, a retired Russian professional footballer who made his professional debut in the Soviet First League in 1987 for FC Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don.

Karl Hanke

During the waning months of World War II, as the Soviet army advanced into Silesia and encircled Fortress (Festung) Breslau, Hanke was named by Hitler to be the city's "Battle Commander" (Kampfkommandant).

Kommersant

To make the point that the publication had outlasted the Soviet regime, "Kommersant" is spelled in Russian with a terminal hard sign (ъ) – a letter that is silent at the end of a word in modern Russian, and was thus abolished by the post-revolution Russian spelling reform.

Leisurama house

The precursor to the final design was shown at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, which provoked the noted Kitchen Debate between Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Leonid Tsypkin

Leonid Borisovich Tsypkin (Леонид Борисович Цыпкин) (March 20, 1926 — March 20, 1982) was a Soviet writer and medical doctor, best known for his book Summer in Baden-Baden.

Lithuanian resistance

Lithuanian partisans, resistance against Soviet regime after World War II

Military history of the Soviet Union

Soviet participation in the Spanish Civil War was greatly influenced by the growing tension between Stalin and Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany and an avid supporter of the fascist forces of Francisco Franco.

Mistel

As part of Operation Iron Hammer in late 1943 and early 1944, Mistels were selected to carry out key raids against Soviet weapons-manufacturing facilities—specifically, electricity-generating power stations around Moscow and Gorky.

Mohammed al Janahi

The film, which stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, tells the story of a Texas congressman (Hanks) who works to help the Mujahideen defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan using an unlikely alliance of lawmakers, Israelis, Pakistanis, arms dealers and Egyptians.

My Best Friend, General Vasili, Son of Joseph Stalin

Biopic film, based on a true story of friendship between Vasili Stalin, the son of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and the famous Russian sports star Vsevolod Bobrov.

Myrzakan Subanov

Myrzakan Usurkanovich Subanov (Kyrgyz and Russian: Мырзакан Усурканович Субанов; born 15 October 1944) is a Soviet and Kyrgyzstani military leader who served as post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan's chairman of the State Defense Committee in 1992-1993 and first Minister of Defense in 1993-1999.

PPRU

PPRU-1 is a Soviet/Russian mobile air target reconnaissance and command center

Pyongyang FC

Pyongyang FC was the highest ranked club in Pyongyang during the latter stages of Japanese colonial rule up to 1945 and the club still existed after the Soviet liberation.

Riad Ahmadov

In that year he attended the Higher School of the Soviet Committee for State Security (also known as KGB) in Minsk and completed his training at the Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov KGB Academy in Moscow.

Savela

Efraim Savela, alternate spelling of Efraim Sevela, a Soviet-Russian-Israeli screenwriter, director, producer, and writer.

SKS

Many military surplus Soviet SKS were converted into hunting weapons by the "Hammer" factory in Vyatskiye Polyany (Russian: Вятско-Полянский машиностроительный завод «Молот»); these were labeled OP (OP = охотничье-промысловый, "hunting and fishing").

Tatyana Vedeneyeva

She became well known amongst the Soviet children of 70s and 80s for her leading role in children programs Good Night, Little Ones!, and Visiting a Fairy Land (V gostiakh u skazki) as "Aunt Tania".

Thanks to My Mother

Two days after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, when Suzanne was eight years old, Germans occupied Vilnius and Suzanne’s father, Isak Weksler was arrested as a Jew and was eventually sent to his death at Paneriai - Ponary.

Third Ministry of Machine-Building of the PRC

At the close cooperation with the Soviet Union ministry was responsible for launching the production supplied by Soviet fighters F-2 (MiG-15), J-4 (MiG-17), JS (MiG-17PF) and J-6 (MiG-19) and bombers, H-5 (Il-28) and H-6 (Tu-16).

Trevor Fahey

Following his playing career, Fahey published two hockey books entitled "All About Hockey" (1974) and "Hockey: Canadian/Soviet" (1977).

Vanora Bennett

She also studied Russian at Voronezh State University in the former Soviet Union and at Le Centre d'Études Russes du Potager du Dauphin, a centre established by White Russian emigres outside Paris, at Meudon.

Vasily Lanovoy

Lanovoy is married to Irina Kupchenko, herself a famous Soviet actress and a fellow Ukrainian educated in Kiev.

Vozhd

In Russian it often referring to the Soviet leaders such as Joseph Stalin or Lenin.

Yanis

Yanis Smits, a Latvian theologian active against the Soviet rule over Latvia during 1956–1976


see also