The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, known in the West as Joe-1, on Aug. 29, 1949, at Semipalatinsk Test Site, in Kazakhstan. The Soviets called their first atomic test "First Lightning." ...

Analysis: 100 years after his death, Lenin seems to be an afterthought in modern Russia A century after the death of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union is largely an afterthought in ...