Tag Archives: history

Online Course “The Road to Victory”

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The online course “The Road to Victory” is an educational project marking the 80th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.

The project explores the key events of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War, the role of the USSR in the defeat of Nazism, international diplomacy, the heroism of the Soviet people, and the preservation of historical memory.

The online course is intended to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War, promote academically grounded knowledge about the events of the Second World War, and foster a greater understanding of the decisive contribution made by the Soviet people to the Victory over Nazism.

The course was developed by the HSE University and the BRICS-Russia Expert Council, with support from the BRICS Civil Council.

Watch the series in English. 👇

Episode 1 – The World on the Eve of the Second World War. The USSR and the Struggle for Collective Security

Episode 2 – The Terrifying Face of Nazism: The Genocide of Peoples, Crimes Against Human Beings and Humanity

Episode 3 – The Sacred War: Mobilising the Soviet People to Fight the Invader

Episode 4 – The Unconquered: The Role of the Defenders of Leningrad and Moscow in Foiling Operation Barbarossa

Episode 5 – “My Part in the Front-Line Report”: Stalingrad, Kursk, and the Home Front

Episode 6 – The Childless Face of War: Children and Women During the Great Patriotic War

Episode 7 – Guerrilla Warfare: Operation Concert

Episode 8 – The Fronts of the Second World War. The Resistance Movement

Episode 9 – The Anti-Hitler Coalition and Its Contribution to the Defeat of Nazism

Episode 10 – The “Russian Soldier”: The Liberation of Europe and the Far East

Episode 11 – The Nuremberg Trials and the Post-War World Order

Episode 12 – The Legacy of the Second World War: Why Manipulate Memory?

📺 “The Road to Victory” – YouTube page
📂 Download the video files in HD

“Onwards, Comrades!”

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“Onwards, comrades!” is a Chinese cartoon capturing the essence of the last days of the USSR and what is to come next. This masterful animation was created in 2013 by a student of Beijing university, Wang Yilin, as her graduation work.


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You will see the title translated to English by the author as “Farewell, my comrades!” from the Russian “Вперёд!”, but that is not right, as the word “farewell” is associated nowadays with parting and not with wishing someone a steadfast journey ahead, which we have in the Russian title.

It’s difficult for a European to judge what the author wanted to say. It’s enough to know a little about Chinese culture to assume that the film contains many symbols and hidden meanings, and what a European might see as a meaningless, random fragment could actually carry a crucial semantic load. Another important feature of Chinese cultural tradition is that it’s not customary to express oneself “directly”, so a story can have multiple interpretations and layers of meaning. But which ones exactly, how many, and to what extent – it’s hard to judge. China is vast and diverse.

With that in mind, the cartoon has many levels of allegory and the viewer can perceive it as both simple and complex at the same time. There are some odd anachronisms, like the sat dish on the village house, while other imagery is true to its time.

Here is a comment by one viewer, Grigory Sinolitsky, who gives a good interpretation of the visual elements:

A very important point in the cartoon is the toy cubes, from which the girl built her house (her future plans). These are worldview, cultural, moral, etc. blocks that are formed during the upbringing of every person.

During the “Perestroika” (restructuring), the girl (essentially an image of the Soviet people) finds herself in new conditions and discovers that her old toy cubes (values) are being replaced by new bright “glamorous” toy-values, so as not to stand out from everyone else “or they’ll laugh at us”. This substitution is carried out by the girl’s mother (an image of the elite), who previously destroyed the house the girl-people was building, refused to communicate with her and forced her to move to new (civilised) conditions. The mother “sold” the books (an image of culture, ideology, and the education system – a Russian dictionary) for a pittance. The mother (the elite) continues to ignore the girl, not noticing her problems and concerns. She fixates on the unimportant (“shampoo… From America! It protects the skin very well…”).

When the girl (the people) rethought all this, she realised that her mother (the elite) had betrayed her – “I’ll tell everyone – mom betrayed us! They all betrayed us.” And she flees from the new (European-civilised) conditions and finds herself on the brink of war. She sees that those she thought were dead (symbolic images of power structures, the army, intelligence…) are alive and ready to perform their functions. She herself has to take up arms (rebuilding the army) and stand on a foundation of cubes (non-material values), including for their protection (a mountain of cubes behind the girl with an automatic weapon).

And then, there is more!

The one cube, hidden by Beriya (who, like Stalin, became demonised) can represent the hidden grain of Socialism, preserved within humanity, for it it come back after the wreck of flirting with Capitalism.

The cartoon was also prophetic. It came in 2013, a year before the US-backed Nazism reared it ugly head in the Ukraine, forewarning that in 2022 Russia will be forced to take up arms, drawing strength from the memory of the Great Patriotic War that the images in the final credits reference.

The cartoon with audio in Russian


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Raw video source on YouTube.

The images in the final credits and the photos from the Great Patriotic War that served as their models

The Hasty Withdrawal of the Soviet Troops from the GDR and the Warsaw Pact Countries. The Consequences.

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Before you is an account of the withdrawal of Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In a 2025 interview to State TV and Radio of Iran, Lavrov rightly called it a betrayal:

“The German authorities, as conquerors, took control of all the lands of the former GDR, and all political figures were “removed” from the road. No future was offered to them. It was a takeover, not a merger.”

This publication consists of four overlapping articles, which we decided to present as is, for each article gives additional insights. More photos from that fateful time can be viewed here.

But first, how it all began…

June 10, 1945 – Based on the Directive of the Supreme High Command No. 11095 of May 29, 1945, the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was established

May 9, 1945 — The Great Patriotic War ended victoriously. For the subsequent demilitarisation and denazification of Germany, as well as to protect the interests of the USSR in Europe, on June 10, 1945, the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was formed on the basis of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. The commander-in-chief of the GSOFG was Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. In addition, he led the Soviet Military Administration established by the USSR Council of People’s Commissars to manage the liberated territories.

The Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (from 1954 — Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, GSFG) carried out the protection of the border of the Soviet occupation zone, participated in measures to eliminate the fascist regime, and in the 1950s became the main unit of the Soviet Army, which was to deliver a crushing blow to NATO forces and liberate Western Europe in the event of a new war in Europe. The GSFG was the main guarantor of the inviolability of post-war borders in Europe and ensuring the security and peaceful life of socialist European states.

The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany existed until 1994. As a result of the betrayal of Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Union pledged in 1990 to withdraw troops from Germany. The final withdrawal of troops was carried out in August 1994. A significant part of military property, including real estate, was left in Germany by the Russian leadership and received compensation of about 385 million dollars, while the real value of the property was approximately 7.3 billion dollars. A huge number of small arms, tanks, aircraft, helicopters, armoured vehicles were looted and sold to foreign countries.

With the cessation of the existence of the GSFG, security in Europe was put at risk. Taking advantage of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany, the United States and its NATO allies began to implement a policy of “expanding the alliance to the east”. The accession of Eastern European states to the alliance significantly weakened Russia’s defence capability and its geopolitical positions.

Source: CPRF

The humiliating withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1994 from Germany into the open field

It was the last day of August 1994, when the last military units leaving Germany marched in Berlin’s Treptow Park in the presence of thousands of spectators, as well as German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The Russian leader was drunk, and he delivered a heartfelt speech in which he emphasised that “there were neither winners nor losers in the war between Russia and Germany”. But it didn’t seem enough to him – if you party, go all out. He came down from the podium, took the baton from the conductor of the police orchestra and while “conducting” made the musicians play “Kalinka-Malinka”, while soloing into the microphone loudest of all.

It was a bitter scene of humiliation, as the liberating and victorious army, through the fault of a short-sighted politician, left like an unwelcome guest.
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35 Years Without the Union – memories of the bygone time in the GDR

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As part of the project “35 Years without the USSR”, corresponded Georgy Zotov visited Germany, looking for the memories of the not so distant past. The article below appeared in “Argumenty i Fakty” on March 20, 2026.

“It was a nightmare and a murder.” The sad fate of beloved in the USSR goods from the GDR

Do you remember the Madonna tea set, the Florena cream, the toy railroad?

…About ten years ago, I visited the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt, which is now called Chemnitz. Once upon a time, the main industry of the GDR was concentrated there. I saw a center full of Arab immigrants, repainting the facades of panel houses (to make them look brighter and more cheerful), and dilapidated factories that used to produce products that were the pride of the socialist camp. Some of them were sold to new owners, then they went bankrupt, unable to withstand the competition. Some of them were abandoned immediately, the workers were fired, and all the equipment was stolen from them. A huge amount of goods from the GDR were sold in the USSR — I myself had a toy railway from the GDR as a child, and my mother used East German Florena cream, buying it in the Leipzig store. When I was in the former GDR, I tried to find out what was left of those brands, and whether the names of streets and cities had changed everywhere, as in the case of the well—known Karl-Marx-Stadt?

The Museum of the GDR

Sold, fired, closed

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“The USSR was the Sun.” Interview with the last Secretary General of the GDR, Egon Krenz, by Georgy Zotov

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As part of the project “35 Years without the USSR” (#ZotovUSSR35), Georgy Zotov interviewed the last Secretary General of the GDR, Egon Krenz. In leu of introduction, here is the greeting from Egon Krenz, posted by Georgy Zotov a few days before the interview itself was published:

– Dear friends! I am sending you from Germany the most sincere greetings and wishes of all the best.
I was often in the Soviet Union, even studied for three and a half years in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union for me was always like a second homeland, and you can say it was like the Sun for me. I am very sorry that the Soviet Union is gone, but my friendly feelings for the people of the Russian Federation are very close to me and I love Russia. All the best!

– Thank you very much.

Kirill Brenner acted as a translator, and commented thus his impression of the interview at his Telegram channel:

…I was also present in this room at that moment and helped with the translation (Krenz spoke most of the time in German, sometimes switching to Russian). But despite the fact that Krenz is slightly confused in endings and cases – it’s been a long time since he had a conversational practice – he speaks Russian better than I do in German…

In an interview with the columnist of the DarkZotovLand Telegram channel, the former leader of the German Democratic Republic, 89-year-old Egon Krenz, expressed amazing things about the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

– Comrade Krenz, what exactly did you feel when you came to the USSR for the first time in your life?

– The best feeling was that I was treated with great kindness. I just turned 18, and I got to the Soviet Union on the Friendship train. People were so happy to see us! But I am a German, I belong to a nation of former enemies: only ten years have passed since the bloody war, the year is 1955. But we were greeted with joy, as if we were old friends, and this made a great impression on me and other young Germans.

– What surprised you most about the Soviet Union then?
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The Unknown Cold War. Film 3. The Abduction of Europe… and the world. An RT documentary

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This film looks into the key events that kicked off the Cold War.


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After the Second World War, US President Harry Truman wanted to establish America as the world’s leading power and contain the spread of communism. Consequently, the US launched a large-scale economic aid programme for the devastated countries of Western Europe dubbed ‘The Marshall Plan’, but the aid came with strings attached that primarily benefited the United States.

America’s post-war strategy was unacceptable to the Soviet Union. It violated earlier Allied agreements on the demilitarisation of Germany and the restoration of European sovereignty. Furthermore, Moscow was unwilling to lose its own influence in the region. Stalin warned that the new US plan would only divide Europe and could provoke further conflicts around the world.

Driven by an intense fear of communism, the United States went on to fuel several other conflicts. One after another, wars broke out in Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East – all of which turned into bloody and prolonged struggles due to US involvement. The Berlin Wall was built, separating Germany into US and Soviet zones, and an Iron Curtain descended between Western and Eastern Europe.

👉 Watch also “Film 1 — The Unthinkable Allies”.
👉 Watch also “Film 2 — The Truman Delay”.

By their death they death averted. Remembering June 22, 1941

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The following article was written by Nikolai Dolgopolov and published in “Rossijskaya Gazeta” on the 85th anniversary of the most tragic day in the Soviet Union’s, and now, Russia’s, history – June 22, 1941.

While all that is written in the article is historically correct, it is vital to remember the wider context while reading it. In the days before the War, not only correct reports about Nazi German invasion were coming to Moscow, but also numerous false reports from reputable source. Not because those sources has some ill intentions, but because the fog of war had already descended.

From our article The pre-War sabotage of the Soviet peace efforts by Britain and France, seen through the memoirs of Georgy Zhukov and the modern British press, Marshal Georgy Zhukov recalled in his memoirs:

The spring of 1941 was marked by a new wave of false rumours in Western countries about large-scale Soviet war preparations against Germany. The German press raised a howl about them and complained that such information tended to throw a cloud on German-Soviet relations.

“Don’t you see?” Stalin would say. “They are trying to frighten us with the Germans and to frighten the Germans with us, setting us one against the other.”

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For example, on June 13, 1941, Admiral Kuznetsov proposed to recall Soviet ships from German ports.

Navy Commissar Admiral Nikolay Kuznetsov attended a meeting with Stalin on June 13 and reported that German ships were leaving Soviet ports, and requested permission to recall Soviet ships from German ports.

The admiral also reported that on June 13, Captain 1st Rank Vorontsov had informed Moscow from Berlin that “the Germans planned a surprise attack against the USSR between June 21 and 24, 1941. The attack would target airfields, railway junctions, industrial centers, and the Baku region.”

On May 6, Kuznetsov, based on information from Vorontsov, had already reported about an impending attack on May 14. Stalin remembered this previous report. “The boss,” wrote Stalin’s secretariat chief Poskrebyshev, “threw him out.”

Source: WWII Day by Day, translate by Beorn And The Shieldmaiden.

By their death they death averted

Our border guards saw, felt, and were ready. Photo: Social Media

I bow with a low to those, who 85 years ago warned of the coming war, and in its first hours disrupted the fascist blitzkrieg.

There is no date in the annals of the country more tragic than June 22, 1941. We often talk about Stalingrad, the Kursk Bulge, and the shattered Reichstag. Of course, it’s more pleasant to remember the victories than the hard first days. And we also knew less about that time: the June hours of the first military dawn seemed to be just a black nightmare, they were heard by the footsteps of the fascist horde, they were reverberated by huge losses.

But world history, which has always been harsh towards Russia, has turned towards us in such a way that our slumbering and forgiving memory has awakened. Not for everyone, but for many. In recent years, an interest in the truth has awakened, a desire to understand how it was at the most terrible beginning. Even the children of front-line soldiers are now over 70. And if we missed the chance to ask, to hear first-hand accounts, now that the thirst for truth has been revived, careful research by scientists and newly declassified documents that seemed to be buried alive in archives, have come to the rescue. The cradle of Victory, achieved after the 1418 days of the Great Patriotic War, originate in the forgotten first battles.
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Ukraine to erect a monument to traitor Ivan Mazepa. As the heroes so is the state.

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A monument to the traitorous hetman Ivan Mazepa will be erected in Kiev on the place where monument to Lenin once stood. This was announced by Volodymyr Zelensky.

At the unveiling of the traitor’s bust in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, he added: “Where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand firm”.

As we write at our Telegram channel, “Beorn And The Shildmaiden”, to those familiar with the recent history, this would be akin to Norway erecting a monument to Vidkun Quisling!

Ivan Mazepa (1639-1709) was the hetman of the Zaporizhian Host on both banks of the Dnieper River. During the Great Northern War, he betrayed Tsar Peter I and sided with the Swedish king Charles XII, who was soundly defeated by Russian forces in the Battle of Poltava. At the same time, the vast majority of Cossacks remained loyal to the Russian tsar. Mazepa was excommunicated from the church. A symbolic “Judas Order” was made for him, in a single copy.

It seems that soon a monument to Judas Iscariot will be erected in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

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The monument to Mazepa in Kiev will be installed on Taras Shevchenko Street, despite the fact that the writer hated the Hetman.

Zelenksy announced that a monument to Mazepa will be erected on Shevchenko Boulevard. This is both sad and funny, writes Maria Zaharova. Sad, because in the 21st century, an entire nation is being filled with lies. Funny, because Taras Shevchenko hated Mazepa.

Here’s how the poet as well as the people, whose folklore Shevchenko collected during his trips to the provinces and later recorded, referred to him:

– “The Swedes once made a great glory: they fled with Mazepa to Bendery from Poltava” (Ukrainian “Наробили колись шведи великої слави: утікали з Мазепою в Бендери з Полтави”) – poem “Irzavets”, 1847.

– “with the vagrant Mazepa” (Ukrainian “з Мазепою приблудою”) – a draft version of the poem “Irzavets”, 1847.

– “Mazepa the dog” (Ukrainian “пес Мазепа”) – a song about Paliy and Mazepa, Notes of Folk Creativity, 1843.

– “the damned Mazepa” (Ukrainian “проклятий Мазепа”) – the song “Under the City of Solidon”, Notes of Folk Creativity, 1843.

– “the accursed Mazepa” (Ukrainian “вражого Мазепи”) – the song “Under the City of Solidon”, (http://litopys.org.ua/shevchenko/shev512.htm) Notes of Folk Creativity, 1843.

– “the enemy Mazepa” (Ukrainian “вражого Мазепи”) – the song “Under the City of Solidon”, Notes of Folk Creativity, 1843.

– “the famous anathema Ivan Mazepa” – the novel “Twins”, 1855–1856.

– “the cursed Ivan Mazepa” – the novel “Twins”, 1855–1856.

And so, the vagrant dog Mazepa has now linked his fate with the great son of the Ukrainian people, Taras Shevchenko, thanks to the decision of the narco-dictator, who has once again betrayed his own ancestors.

Multiple sources: 1 & 2

Main achievements of Mazepa

Re-issue of the medal on 300 years of Mazepa’s betrayal.
“Thrice be cursed death-bringing son Judas, if he chokes for his love of silver”. 1709

  • be Ivan Mazepa
  • be born into a noble Cossack family in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
  • enter Polish service and go on the missions against Russia
  • betray Poland and join Cossacks loyal to Ottoman Empire
  • fight against both Poland and Russia
  • get captured by Russian Cossacks
  • betray the Ottoman empire and enter the service of Russia
  • rise to power under the patronage of a Russian Cossack
  • betray him by accusations of treason and get your patron deposed
  • consolidate the power
  • gain full trust from Peter I
  • serve Russia
  • get accused of treason for conspiring with Sweden
  • claim innocence and get the accusers deposed
  • betray Russia anyway and join Sweden
  • get a single copy of Order of Judas released by Peter I to commemorate your betrayal
  • get absolutely crushed during the Battle of Poltava
  • run away to Bandery in Ottoman Empire (sic.)
  • die miserably in poverty
  • get your mug printed on modern Ukrainian currency
  • get a statue built to you in Kiev on the Avenue of Taras Shevchenko who absolutely hated your guts

Ukrainian heroes either consist of traitors or cruel bloodthirsty barbarians, and thus we see what we see today.

Source: @BazaFromOlga

Alfred Rosenberg — The Failed Coloniser of the East. A documentary by Aleksey Denisov, 2021

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Alfred Rosenberg is one of the most sinister figures of the Third Reich. It is believed that he is the author of the concepts of “racial theory” and “the final solution to the Jewish question.” Having become head of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories on Hitler’s orders in 1941, Rosenberg had the opportunity to put his theory into practice. The task of Rosenberg’s department was to colonise the entire European part of the Soviet Union.

No “independent states” were supposed to be established in these territories. The Nazis planned to partially exterminate and partially evict the indigenous population, and “Germanise” the remaining ones. After the final victory of the Reich, the ideologists of Nazism planned to make those inhabitants of the USSR whom they decided to leave alive slaves serving the German colonists and “Greater Germany.”

This film is another reminder of the future that was in store for the big and small nations of Europe in the event of the victory of Hitler and his satellites. The film uses rare footage of captured German newsreels, photographs from the personal archives of Nazi leaders captured during the storming of Berlin by soldiers of the Red Army. Many of them have never been shown on the air.


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Raw video source at the site of the VGTRK

Additional strokes to Rosenberg’s portrait

An uplifting caricature by Boris Yefimov from 1936, depicting the Ukrainian nationalists marching right from an important appointment with a mug of “Beer”.

Their banner, carrying the proud symbol of Ukraine — with a cherry on top — has the words in a mix of Ukrainian and German:

“Long live our father Rosenberg!”

The words are addressed to Rosenberg — whom Hitler called “the church Father of National Socialism” — standing on the drums of the German Nazi propaganda – the “Völkischer Beobachter”.

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‼️ Both Beobachter and Rosenberg made appearance on the pages of the Danish underground publication “2 Years”, where we can find many a pearl of the German propaganda.

Alfred Rosenberg (1893 – 1946). Top Nazi and the party’s leading racial ideologist, incarnate anti-communist and anti-Semite. Born in Estonia, sentenced to death and executed in Nuremberg for, among other, crimes against humanity.

In the early years, he exercised a decisive influence on the development of Hitler’s thinking and nurtured his visions of his own divine significance.

Rosenberg held powerful political posts in the party and state. He was an influential figure in the occult Thule Society of the nazi elites. He published anti-Semitic literature and was the holder of the Nazi “Blood Order”.

Völkischer Beobachter (“People’s Observer”) – the official newspaper of the Nazis, published by the Eher Verlag, owned by the Nazi Party NSDAP (Nationalsocialistische Deutche Arbeiterpartei), appeared as a weekly from late 1920 to 1923. From 8. February 1923 to the end of april 1945 the newspaper was published as a daily with Alfred Rosenberg as editor.

All Is in the Past — Adolf Rosenberg in His Domain

The caricature by Boris Yefimov appeared in the combined issue №11-12 of the Soviet satirical magazine “Krokodil” in April of 1944.
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When the War Is at the Doorstep. Interview with Nikolai Patrushev

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Interview of the Assistant to the President of Russia, Chairman of the Maritime Board of the Russian Federation N.P.Patrushev to Rossijskaya Gazeta on June 15, 2026.

Nikolai Patrushev: In Ukraine, we are saving our brothers who have fallen under the neo-Nazi occupation

On the lessons of the Second World War, forgotten today by politicians in Europe, who are leading their countries to a new catastrophe. On the role of Russia as a great maritime power. And also, for the first time, about something deeply personal – Nikolai Patrushev, Aide to the President of Russia and Chairman of the Maritime Board, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview about his parents who were front-line soldiers, his sister who did not survive the siege of Leningrad, childhood friends in Lithuania, and the undisclosed episodes of his service as director of the FSB.

Nikolai Platonovich, we are talking a few days before the anniversary of the most tragic date for our Motherland. The Great Patriotic War began 85 years ago. Do you think our great-grandchildren and their children will be as sensitive to the memory of the war as the generations whose parents still saw it?

Nikolai Patrushev: The Great Patriotic War is the cornerstone of national historical memory, an integral part of our culture. It is impossible to imagine a normal Russian citizen of any nationality who would not consider the memory of the War sacred. It is everyone’s task to fight uncompromisingly for the preservation of this memory. This is the best antidote to the new wars that are being unleashed on Earth today. I am sure that if people in the West were sufficiently deeply immersed in the history of World War II and knew the whole truth about the atrocities of Hitlerism, they would recoil in horror from their governments, which today support neo-Nazism.

There is anopinion that the number of citizens loyal to the Nazis and their active supporters in Europe was an order of magnitude greater than the number of resistance participants…

Nikolai Patrushev: Not an opinion, but a fact that even European historians recognise. Of the forty million French, about three and a half served the occupiers. I emphasise that they did not just sympathise, but actively served. About two hundred and fifty thousand French participated in the Resistance. The numbers are not comparable. The last defenders of the Reichstag were the French SS. Nevertheless, France became one of the victorious powers and won a seat on the UN Security Council thanks to the French anti-fascist movement and Stalin’s personal respect for General de Gaulle.

Storming of the Reichstag during the Berlin offensive. Troops of the 150th and 171st Rifle divisions of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front are fighting near the central sector of the building. Photo: Ivan Shagin / RIA Novosti

Few people know about the German occupation of the Normandy Islands in the English Channel, which belonged to the British. There, such mutual understanding was established between the British and the Germans that British police even patrolled the territory together with German soldiers. At the same time, many ordinary residents of the islands turned out to be more courageous than the British authorities and sheltered Soviet prisoners of war brought for forced labour by the Germans.

In general, it’s long been necessary to understand that the whole of Europe consciously fought against the USSR. Almost half of the SS divisions were staffed by representatives of other countries – Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, France, Croatia, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and several others.
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The Unknown Cold War. Film 2. The Truman Delay. An RT Documentary

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This film looks at the final months of the Second World War and shows how Harry Truman’s presidency changed the dynamic between the United States and Soviet Union.


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Truman’s predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had been elected four times and was widely popular with the American public. When Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Vice President Truman stepped into the Oval Office.

FDR’s successor took a much tougher stance towards Moscow from the start, having made his position on the USSR clear in the very beginning of WW2 : “If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I do not want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.”

Under Truman, the relationship between the two powers soured. After the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Soviet scientists pushed ahead with their own nuclear programme, determined to protect their country and create strategic balance.

Truman’s foreign policy centred on containing the Soviet Union and pushing back against communism. The Truman Doctrine became a key pillar in that approach and later contributed to the founding of NATO.

👉 Watch also “Film 1 — The Unthinkable Allies”.

The mystery of the death of the first commandant of Berlin, Nikolai Berzarin

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June 16 marks the 81st anniversary of the death of the first commander of Berlin, Colonel-General Nikolay Erastovich Berzarin.

On April 24th, 1945, as the Soviet troops were still in the process of taking Berlin, three-star General Nikolai Berzarin was appointed as the commandant of the city, by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, and tasked with restoring order in the former capital of the Third Reich.

A million and a half civilians still remained in the ruined city with no water, electricity, food, public transportation or anything else. Following an order of his command, General Berzarin brought the German city back to life and gave hope to its exhausted by the war inhabitants.

Soviet Colonel-General Nikolai Berzarin was in charge of the 5th Shock Army that took Berlin during the final push for victory that started on April 16th, 1945, and ended with the capitulation of Nazi Germany. He was appointed the first commandant of Berlin, and did a spectacular job bringing the city back to life.

Fifty-four days later, on June 16th, 1945, Nikolai Berzarin’s life was cut short in a terrible crash. But was it just an unfortunate road accident or something much more sinister?

Watch this great documentary, translated by Putinger’s Cat, showing some aspects of what was going on in East Germany immediately before the end of the Third Reich and right after.


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Source of the video: SMERSH. The mystery of the death of the first commandant of Berlin Nikolai Berzarin

As a sidenote, in case you’ve never heard of it before or are not sure of what it means, SMERSH was a Soviet counter-intelligence organization that officially started working in April 1943 and was dissolved in May 1946. Coined by Joseph Stalin, the name “SMERSH” is a portmanteau formed by combining the first letters of two Russian words “смерть шпионам” meaning “death to spies”. SMERSH was tasked with subverting attempts of nazi forces to infiltrate the Red Army on the Eastern Front and perform subversive activities.

A Hero of the Soviet Union, an outstanding military commander and a man who played a key role in the post-war reconstruction of Berlin. It was he who organized food supplies, opened field kitchens, provided children with milk, delivered scarce medicines to the city and prevented a humanitarian catastrophe.

Under his leadership, the reconstruction of the infrastructure began: a power station was launched, bridges, roads, power lines and the city’s life-support systems were repaired. In just 54 days, he laid the foundation for the future peaceful Berlin.

Nikolay Berzarin tragically died in a car accident on June 16, 1945, in the streets of the liberated city.

On April 19, 2024, the name of Colonel-General Berzarin was officially assigned to a school at the Russian Embassy in Germany — in recognition of his heroism and historical significance.

👉 More information about his life, feats, as well as photo and video materials – on the dedicated website.

Source: Russian Embassy in Germany

The Unknown Cold War. Film 1. ‘Unthinkable’ Allies. An RT Documentary

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‘Unthinkable’ Allies is the first documentary in The Unknown Cold War series. The film explores how decisions made by Western leaders in the 1940s led to an era of nuclear tension.


Backup at Rumble.
Watch the feature on the RT.Doc website.

In the summer of 1945, the leaders of World War II’s victorious powers – the USSR, US, and UK – convened in Potsdam to formalize agreements that would determine how the postwar world was to function after the defeat of Nazism. The leaders sat at the negotiating table, while reporters described the triumphant atmosphere – it seemed like the beginning of a new era, in which the great powers would live in peace. But it was precisely these agreements that became the starting point of a new war – the Cold War.

The cooperative image concealed a growing alienation. The new US president, Harry Truman, viewed the Soviet Union with distrust. While smiling at Stalin, Winston Churchill was discussing plans for a possible strike against the USSR. Instead of mutual understanding between former allies, a latent hostility was growing that would transform into a prolonged confrontation, step by step. The outcome was a world divided into opposing poles.

A review by the Russian Foreign Ministry

The film explores how the Western allies of the Soviet Union in the anti-Hitler coalition — whose peoples, side-by-side with our nation crushed Nazism — eventually abandoned allied solidarity forged in fire of WW2. Under the pressure of ideological differences and their profound rejection of the post-war model of development promoted by Moscow, the Allies embarked on the path of confrontation and containment of the USSR.

The evidence, files and testimonies presented in this feature elucidate facts behind some pivotal political decisions by the UK and US leaders driven by the determination to “defeat”, as they put it, the ‘Red Menace’. Those political superstitions reigning in the minds of the Western leaders and hostility toward the Soviet ideology effectively put the world into an era of bipolar confrontation with the unprecedented risks of mankind descending into nuclear catastrophe.

In the summer of 1945, the Potsdam Conference was held on the defeated Nazi German soil.

The Leaders of the victorious powers — the USSR, the United States, and UK — framed together the post-war world order and reached the final settlement of the German issue by dismantling Nazi military and industry, having eradicated Hitler’s ideology.

Nazism was defeated. The Reich was no more.

In the aftermath of the Great Victory, it seemed that a new era was upcoming — the final and, seemingly, long-awaited moment when the Great Powers, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, would build their relations upon the principles of constructive cooperation, mutual trust and respect, cemented by the common background of years of the allied fight against the evil of Nazism.

Yet, the Western block, emboldened by the successful testing of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos (at first, designed as a means of deterring Nazi Germany, but, following its final surrender, the bomb was further seen by US leadership as the deadliest instrument of blackmail) and by the bomb’s subsequent use against the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the hostility toward the Soviet Union and Soviet people was just increasingly growing and seemed implacable.

👉 In the UK government, the discussions were held on the possibility of a pre-emptive strike against Moscow — the infamous plan later exposed as the top secret Operation ‘Unthinkable’.

Instead of seeking better understanding and trust, the former WWII Western allies were nurturing aggressive plans that further evolved into dangerous Cold War confrontation.

Ukrainian Nazis, with their US-NATO backers, destroy panorama “The Defence of Sevastopol 1854 -1855”. Just like what the German Nazis had done in 1942

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Defence of Sevastopol panorama destruction in 2026

There’s nothing left of the panorama canvas and the interior decoration of the “Defence of Sevastopol” museum, reported the city’s governor, Razvozhayev.

“Everything has been digitised, all the materials are available, and everything will be recreated in the best possible way.”

Source: ANNA NEWS

Ukrainian Nazis with their US-NATO backers destroy panorama “The Defence of Sevastopol 1854 -1855”

The epic panorama “The Defence of Sevastopol 1854 -1855”, now destroyed by the Ukrainian US-backed Nazis.
Click on the image for high-resolution view.

Maria Zaharova writes:

We have now witnessed an attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the panorama “The Defense of Sevastopol 1854 – 1855”. According to media reports, it has been almost completely destroyed. Let me remind you that Franz Roubaud’s panorama “The Defense of Sevastopol 1854 – 1855” is a world-famous work of battle painting, dedicated to the key battle of the Crimean War* — the assault on Malakhov Hill on June 6, 1855, when the Russian troops managed to repel the attack of the superior forces of the Anglo-French army.

This is yet another proof of why Westerners are using the Kiev regime for their own interests. They need, among other things, to destroy evidence of their crimes and defeats.

They have already become adept at destroying historical monuments in their own territory, and now they want to destroy monuments in the post-Soviet space as well. They tried to destroy them with our own hands by spreading pseudoscientific materials and pseudo-historical textbooks, trying to influence our domestic politics. It didn’t work.
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Booby traps used by the Dushmans bear traces of American “technology”. Radio-controlled mines for adults, mines-toys for children

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Another case of US-backed Ukrainian terrorists booby trapping everyday objects has come to light. This time it is water bottles. Previously, ever since 2022, there had been reports of Ukraine dropping booby trapped everyday objects in Donetsk.

Afghan women choose LP records in a music store, before the Taliban came to power. Afghanistan, 1960.

Today, in the age of Internet, it is easy to ascertain who stands behind these atrocities, and we are not speaking about Ukraine, but about its handler – the USA. In light of this development, another era comes to mind – the war in Afghanistan, where USA also created and used a proxy, Taliban, and applied the same insidious “technologies” – planting bombs and then shifting the blame for them on to the USSR.

Let us first read an admission coming from the mass murderer, Zbigniew Brzezinski, admitting to the crime of terrorism, all in the name of breaking up the USSR, which in turn was the largest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century, after WWII. The collapse of the USSR, directly and indirectly, resulted in about 30 million Soviet people losing their lives due to poverty, malnutrition, crime, wars and conflicts. Today’s civil war in Ukraine, fuelled by the USA, is also a direct consequence of Zbigniew Brzezinski actions and the collapse of the USSR.

From a 1998 interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski on Afghanistan in Le Nouvel Observateur

Q : When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret US involvement in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.” Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B : What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

And now, let us move on to an article with an interview, published by “Argumenty i Fakty” on February 6, 1988, debunking the projected accusations directed by the murderer at its victim:

Booby traps used by the Dushmans bear traces of American “technology.” Radio-controlled mines for adults, mines-toys for children

Recently, the “Voice of America” program once again claimed that Soviet troops in Afghanistan continue to allegedly use mines disguised as children’s toys. Our correspondent asked a group of internationalist soldiers who served there over the years to comment on such reports: colonels A. GREBENYUK and A. LOGACHEV, officers of the engineering troops; A. DAVYDOV and S. VERASHCHAGIN, now students of the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute; S. VISLOYAN, V. KARIMOV, S. CHIKIN, workers of the AZLK; V. KARASEV, now a student at MGIMO.

CORRESPONDENT. Who uses mines more often in Afghanistan: Soviet troops or Dushman (Taliban) groups?

GREBENYUK. Our and Afghan troops are not in a defensive position, they have no military need for widespread use of mines. The dushmans defend themselves: striking from around the corner, stealthily, in order to escape from pursuit, they set up minefields, masking them very carefully.

But, in addition, mines are insidious and terrible sabotage weapons, automatic weapons of destruction, which make it possible to inflict losses without putting themselves in danger. Every year, thousands of mines are planted by Dushmans on roads and in populated areas.

DAVIDOV. This is not to say that mines are found in Afghanistan at every turn, but during my year and a half of service there, I was blown up in transport twice. The commander of my guard company, Captain E. Dymov, died, covering a land mine with his body. Last summer, while working in Kabul as part of a student medical team, our group almost fell victim to a motorcycle bomb explosion, we did not reach it by only forty meters.

CORRESPONDENT. Which mines do Dushmans prefer to use?
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