National Archives and Records Administration The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union stepped up a gear on May 25, 1961, when American President John F. Kennedy announced that his country would land an astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade.

The Ilyushin Il-62, developed by the Ilyushin Design Bureau in the early 1960s, was the Soviet Union's first long-haul jet airliner and a crucial part of Soviet aviation history. With its narrow-body design and innovative features,

In Soviet times, being a pro-Ukrainian artist was dangerous. The Soviet secret police were particularly brutal in Ukraine, given that it was a country with a long history of resistance to Russian rule.

Developed by the Mil Design Bureau, the Soviet Mil Mi-1 is the first helicopter produced by the Soviet Union. Having first entered service in 1950, the Mi-1 (NATO reporting name “Hare”) was a pioneering design that marked the Soviet Union’s entry into helicopter production.

When the Soviet Union crumbled, so did control over its nuclear arsenal. With weapons-grade material suddenly vulnerable, a dangerous black market emerged. This is the story of how geopolitical collapse gave rise to one of the world’s deadliest criminal trades.

If tragedy plus time is comedy, then what does comedy become? Insight? Farce? Revelation? It depends on what and who is writing about it. If the anglophone world’s best historian of the Soviet Union takes over from Britain’s sharpest satirist to deal with the death of a dictator,

In 1987 Uunied States President Ronald Reagan spoke at the Berlin Wall. In his speech he called on the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall". The famous words were met with applause and cheers by the large crowd of West Berliners who had lived in a divided city since 1961 when the wall was built.

Behind the Iron Curtain, millions were imprisoned in Soviet gulags—forced labor camps that fueled Stalin’s rise and kept the USSR running. Torture, starvation, and death defined daily life. This is the chilling truth about the Soviet Union’s hidden empire.