Tag Archives: Russia

Everything about Russia in all its incarnations through the centuries – Rus Tzardom, Russian Empire, USSR, Rusian Federation.

If you think the collapse of the Soviet Union was good for the people, you should think again

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In the previous publication we saw how Yeltsin was conquering America, on his warpath to destroy the Soviet past. But what future did his flirting with the West bring to Russia? The time to come became known as “The Wild ’90s”…

The following material from FKT – Geschichte der Sowjetunion (History of the Soviet Union), first translated at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

If you think the collapse of the Soviet Union was good for the people, you should think again

In the 1990s, the Soviet Union disintegrated and Russia began moving towards a market economy. However, this transition brought a severe economic collapse, widespread poverty, and a sharp rise in organised crime.

The plundering of an entire country

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the team of “young reformers” led by Anatoly Chubais skillfully facilitated the transfer of state assets into the hands of the so-called “most deserving.”
Of course, this process was presented under the banner of “universal equality and justice.” Conveniently, those who had close ties to Western companies turned out to be the “most deserving.”
For example, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, through his company Yukos and his connections to the Rockefeller family, was on the verge of transferring a significant portion of control over Russian oil reserves to foreign companies before his arrest stopped this process.

Here are the names of the oligarchs who made their fortunes by stealing from the naive Soviets who had just lost their country:

🔴Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Yukos) – connections to ExxonMobil, Chevron, and the Rockefeller Foundation;

🔴Boris Berezovsky – connections to British companies and offshore financial institutions;

🔴Roman Abramovich – dealings with Sibneft and owner of FC Chelsea;

🔴Vladimir Gusinsky (Media-Most) – partnerships with Credit Suisse and European banks;

🔴Vladimir Potanin (Interros) – cooperation with international investment funds and metallurgical companies;

🔴Mikhail Fridman (Alfa Group) – partnership with BP through TNK-BP and offshore companies in the UK and USA;

🔴Anatoly Chubais – supported by the IMF, World Bank, and foreign advisors in privatisation efforts.

The instrument for the “honest” expropriation of the population was the voucher. This document supposedly gave every Russian citizen the right to a small share of state property. Originally, it was said that one could buy two brand-new Volga cars with a voucher. Soon its value dropped to the equivalent of two cases of vodka. The depreciation continued until a voucher was worth no more than two bottles of spirits.

Meanwhile, privatised state assets began to concentrate in the hands of particularly cunning individuals. Thus, Russia witnessed the rise of its first oligarchs.
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Yeltsin declared communism defeated. Forgetting to clarify that there were still Communists left in his own country. June 20, 1992

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Such was the title of the “Independent Newspaper” on June 20, 1992, telling about Yeltisn’s speech at the US Congress on June 17.

It sounded almost like a declaration of opening of a witch-hunt on Communists, as the fascist forces — both domestically and abroad — were preparing to take revenge for the defeat in 1945. What awaited the Russian, Soviet people in 1992, was 8 years of the so-called “Wild ’90s”, with millions dead as a result of poverty and crime, while the industrial and intellectual might of Soviet Union was plundered and shipped to the West, to ensure prosperity of Europe and the USA.

A little over a year later, on October 5 1993, Yeltsin suspended the activities of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and other opposition parties in Russia.

The material is from June 17, posted by the “Vedomosty of the Muscovy State” TG channel. The newspaper article consists of three sub-articles. Below, we are presenting a complete translation of the first two, initially published at our TG channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”. The third sub-article “The visit to Canada was less noisy, but more realistic”, is not that significant despite what the title wants the reader to believe.

The president of Russia conquered America

Washington. The U.S. Congress. June 17. 11:00. The speech of the President of Russia. A triumph.

The speech was very precisely designed for the audience. Perhaps this is the first professionally prepared speech by the Russian Embassy for the country’s leader. The congressmen applauded like children, and only some ambassadors from some African countries greeted Yeltsin’s words with silence. From the speech:

“The communist idol has collapsed. We will not let him rise again on our ground. Freedom and communism are incompatible.” *

“We have stopped military supplies to Afghanistan. We eliminated the distortions in relations with Cuba.”

“We invite American capital to the Russian market and say: don’t be late!”

“The adoption of the law on support of freedoms in Russia by the Congress means more than dollar injections.”

“Irving Berlin ended his song like this: God bless America! I’d like to add: and Russia!” **

Yeltsin was more direct than one would expect in such a high-profile gathering. A man from insecure Eastern Europe felt freer than the lean American establishment. Maybe Yeltsin was even more understandable to the ordinary Americans.

Regarding American prisoners in the former Soviet Union:

“We will look through every document in all archives. If at least one person is alive, I will find him. I will return him to his family.”

At the final press conference at the White House, to the question “Do you think Gorbachev and Stalin did not know about the prisoners?” —  the president of the RF answered — “That’s the thing, they knew. They hid it. But the era of lies is over.”

Judging by the customary questions of Washington taxi drivers: who is better for you (Russians): Yeltsin or Gorbachev? —the former is becoming more and more interesting to the public. The Russian leader is popular with Americans (and especially in an election year) under the slogan: “We want changes!”

Yeltsin woke up the congressmen. The Congress exploded with applause. But this does not mean making a decision on the most favoured nation status for Russia. Boris Yeltsin is an optimist. He estimated the chances of help as 9 out of 10. Bush agreed with the forecast.

———
Notes:

* In this statement, Yeltsin eerily echoed one uttering from Adolf Hitler’s speech in Berlin for Heroes’ Memorial Day, March 15, 1942!

The Bolshevik colossus, whose cruel danger we only now realise, may never again touch the sacred fields of Europe – and this is our irrevocable resolve – but instead it should receive its final borders far from them!

** A video of Boris Yeltsin’s speech to the US Congress ending with the words “God bless America!” has been making rounds on YouTube. This caused ire among modern Russians. As can be seen from the quote above, the video was clipped, and he continued speaking, saying “I’d like to add: and Russia!” However, this clipped video managed to draw away attention from the more important, essential points in his speech — setting the stage for the plundering of Russia.

But he still has to conquer Russia

The results of the Russian president’s visit to Washington, the numerous agreements he signed and his brilliant speech in the US Congress were, without a doubt, one of the main events of 1992 and will leave a deep imprint on the further development of international relations.
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A short history of Finnish-Russian relations

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A cornerstone in the official Finnish Russomania, is the claim that Russia wants to consume the whole of Finland.

Our subscriber came across a historic step-by-step summary demonstrating the absolute inconsistency of such an accusation, which we published in a two-part post at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”:

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They didn’t, at any point from 1809-1947. That is the hallucination that Finns have, that Russia wants their lands.

In 1945 Roosevelt insisted that Finland gives up all the territories that Soviet Union had suggested in negotiations of 1938 with Finland, just to secure their second largest city against Finnish aggression, with Nazi Germany alliance and their troops in Finland.

Remember, the secret clause in the Molotov-Rittentrop agreement dictated that Finland belonged to Soviet Union sphere of influence. That there is not to be German troops etc in there. And what did Germans and Finns do? Exactly the opposite!

As well, Finland was the country for Nazi Germany’s submarine design and research, that is why Finland had own submarines as it did the designs for Nazi Germany, that was denied having submarines according to WWI peace treaty. So having it in Finland made it possible to circumnavigate those treaty limitations.

The Soviet Union had all the legitimate reasons to worry about the Finnish agenda and objectives, seeing what Finns did in 5 years after getting independence from Soviet Union.

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The main attraction of Helsinki – Alexander II and the Cathedral, St Nicholas’s Church. Photo by Beorn, 2016.

🔹 Russia formed Finland in 1809 by defining its borders for the first time in history, when Sweden lost their eastern territory to Russia.

🔹 Russia gave Finns their language, by making Finnish the official language in the country, before that you only had Swedish language for everything.
And no, Russia didn’t even demand Russian language be used.
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“When Russians Are Coming”. Scandinavian satire.

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There was a time when the Scandinavians were not yet completely subjected to the russophobic fear-mongering, and could take the whole narrative with a wry smile. We have translated two skits – a Swedish and a Norwegian one – ponderingwhat they would be doing when the “Russians are coming”. The materials were published at our “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” channels on Telegram, Odysee and Rumble, but never made it to the Beehive!

It is something that we are going to rectify now.

The Norwegian Response Plan


Backup at Rumble.

This satirical skit from “Martin and Mikkelsen” was first shown on the NRK 1 state TV on the 23rd of March 2017 and later published on the Facebook of NRK Underholdning (NRK Entertainment) on the 25th of May 2020. It’s quite similar to the Swedish skit, in which the Swedes intend to run to Norway fast as hell.

It is not explained why the Russians would suddenly decide to come, but at least the planned reception is more sensible, than what is heard nowadays from the talking heads of NATO.

Out Russian translation of the skit can be found on Telegram, Odysee and Rumble.

First published on out Telegram channel here.

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We could not find a similar satirical skit from the Danish TV, however, the Danes were ahead of things as actual politics present something just as hilarious: The real thing!

In 1972, right wing liberalist politician Mogens Glistrup founded The Progress Party and presented quite an unconventional party programme.

Among other things, the income tax was to be abolished; the public sector had to be greatly reduced (abolition of “papirnusseriet”, ‘the paper-pushing’).

There were to be monthly elections for a greatly reduced Parliament, and, the Danish Defence was to be abolished all together and replaced by an answering machine repeating “We Surrender!” in Russian.

At the 1973 elections, the Progress Party became second largest with 15,9% of the votes and 28 members of parliament (out of 179).

Sweden’s Readiness for Russian Invasion – Satire, 2014


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A satirical SNN news program from Spring 2014, Sweden’s military readiness was debated during the National Conference “People and Defence”. Mikael Tornving interviews Lieutenant Colonel Erik Liljestål. Original video on YouTube.

Of special note is the implied attitude of the Swedes to the Finnish (military).

Out Russian translation of the skit can be found on Odysee and Rumble.

First published at our Telegram channel here on the occasion of Sweden joining NATO. Here is the text of that post:
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The new Finnish doctrine: Ignorance, deception, and ingratitude. An Article by Dmitry Medvedev

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The following article war written by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, and published by TASS.

UPDATE 15.09.2025: Russian MFA issued an official translation of the article on their Telegraph blog on September 13. We are updating this blog with the official text, making it a re-blog. All illustrations are ours.

👉 We are covering the “Finnish Question” in a series of posts at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”. The series “Finland’s Dirty Secret: From “Neutral” Ally to Hitler’s Partner” will be published at the Beehive later, upon its conclusion. Read the two publications by Maria Zaharova, in response to the Finnish PM Stubb’s ignoramous statements: part 1 and part 2.

👉 See also The Art of Timely Betrayal. Why the Finnish SS avoided punishment? and The European Genocide of the Russian People.

The new Finnish doctrine: Ignorance, deception, and ingratitude

Deputy Chairman of Security Council Dmitry Medvedev draws historical parallels between today’s Finnish leaders and their predecessors of nearly a century ago, and brings up the consequences of their past aggression against Russia.

Last week, I visited the Russian-Finnish border in the Leningrad Region and spoke with local authorities and our border guards. The border, once bustling, is now deserted. By Helsinki’s decision, decades of constructive and mutually beneficial relations have been ruined. Ordinary Finns are the first to feel the consequences. They had gained much from thriving trade and economic cooperation, and now they openly voice frustration with the misguided policies of their own government, which clearly go against their interests.

I would like to say a few words about the underlying causes of this situation. It is by no means accidental. Today’s turbulent geopolitics has brought to light the long-standing issues and revealed their true nature. This is what happened to Finland.

A visit to our northwestern regions in early autumn inevitably brings to mind one of the most tragic dates in the history of St Petersburg, which is the onset of the siege on September 8, 1941. Yet, it seems that we are the only ones to remember those dark days. The direct perpetrators of those events are making every effort to erase the traces of their crimes from historical memory, or at least to avoid “inconvenient” parallels with their current policies. And this concerns not only Germany, which at the official level refuses to recognise the siege of Leningrad as a crime against humanity.

Death to the German-Finnish Occupiers!
This is TASS Window #11 from Leningrad, created in July of 1944 by Vasily Selivanov.
The poster shows the Finns taking Hitler’s baits of the “Greater Finland to Urals and Leningrad”. It is accompanied by a verse by K. Vysokovsky.
— I’ll take the Urals! – the bandit cried,
Accepting Hitler’s bait at face value,
The Russian “Hurra!” was then heard,
Turning the bandits into dust and feathers!
Source: Beorn And The Shieldmaiden

We should not forget that it would have been impossible to impose the siege of Leningrad, a siege that took hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, without the involvement of the Finnish armed forces. Succumbing to revenge-seeking moods and striving to revise the outcomes of the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish standoff, the Finnish leadership recklessly plunged into the furnace of war alongside Nazi Germany. At that time, ultra-nationalist propaganda narratives prevailed in Finnish society. With the approval of their Nazi brethren, Helsinki seriously discussed the idea of Finnlands Lebensraum (Finland’s Living Space). The country’s military-political authorities intended to reclaim territories ceded to the Soviet Union under the Moscow Peace Treaty of March 12, 1940 and to reach “natural borders of Greater Finland” from the Gulf of Finland to the Barents Sea, including East Karelia, Leningrad and its environs, and the Kola Peninsula freeing these lands from the hated Russians. In their wildest fantasies, the Finns wanted to advance beyond the Ural Mountains all the way to the Ob River. Back in the day, these territorial claims (in proportion to the country’s actual size) were among the greediest in Europe. They even surpassed territorial claims to neighbouring states voiced by other Axis countries, including Italy, Romania, and Hungary.
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USSR and China: United in Victory | RT Documentary

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Victory in the Second World War was won through the efforts of millions of people from different nations – both on the front line and behind it. In 2025, Russia and China mark the 80th anniversary of the war’s end.


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In 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, advancing towards the country’s largest cities. Within six weeks of capturing Nanjing, Japanese forces had killed more than 300,000 civilians. The atrocity became known as the Nanjing Massacre. Around the same time, Unit 731 was established– a secret Japanese military unit based near Harbin that subjected prisoners to inhumane experiments and developed biological weapons.

The Soviet Union was the first to come to China’s aid. Shipments of weapons, fuel, and ammunition were sent, while Soviet pilots and thousands of military advisers joined the fight against the Japanese invaders. By 1941 alone, China had received hundreds of aircraft and tens of thousands of pieces of weaponry.

By the final stage of the war, the two nations were fighting side by side. Chinese cadets trained at Soviet military academies, while Mao Zedong’s son, Mao Anying, served with the Red Army as it helped to liberate Europe from fascism. In August of 1945, Soviet troops dealt a decisive blow to the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria along with their Chinese allies. The victory over Japan in 1945 became a shared chapter of history for both Moscow and Beijing.

Systemic sabotage – Maria Zaharova’s response to Mark Rutte

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Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zaharova responded on the pages of newspaper “Izvestia” to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s statement on the refusal to recognise new territories within Russia. 11.08.2025

Demolition of ‘Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders’ in 2022.

Mark Rutte demanded in an interview with CBS to abandon the legal recognition of new territories within Russia and recalled a funny historical incident:

“We all remember that Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia had embassies in Washington from 1940 to 1991, which meant recognition of the actual control of the USSR over their territories, but never legally acceptance of this fact.”

The very case when misfortune helped: Rutte himself built the historical chain of the rebirth of Nazism into neo-Nazism…

Let’s begin.

In the 1920s and 1930s, as a result of anti-state coup, local fascist governments came to power in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the support of Germany and Italy. In 1940, they fled to the West and the democratic left forces came to power, which, having received a mandate from the people in the conditions of the outbreak of World War II, decided to join the USSR as national republics, that is, on equal terms with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and others.

Moscow responded favourably to the request of the people’s representatives of the Baltic countries who found themselves on the front line of the global confrontation. By the decisions of the VII session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (https://www.prlib.ru/item/716539) in August 1940, the Soviet Union took the Baltic peoples under its protection. When the Great Patriotic War began, many Soviet soldiers from all over the Union gave their lives for the freedom of the Baltic States from Nazism.

However, in Europe and the United States at that time, the democratic and free choice of the Balts was ignored. When the Nazis fled Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, they settled in the West.

The Estonian Nazis, with the support of the Hitlerites, formed their own pocket government in Oslo, and the Lithuanian and Latvian ones set up embassies in Washington, where they sat throughout the Cold War. They existed with the money of American taxpayers and with the support of the US Congress (Kersten Committee) and the State Department headed by First Deputy Secretary of State Sumner Welles.

For half a century, Americans supported these parasites while Soviet Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia developed (see also below), organised their lives, advanced their economies, enriched their culture, held festivals, competitions, and simply enjoyed life.

The Americans were not at all embarrassed that the heirs of the pro-fascist leftovers were being kept at their side and with their money, despite the fact that the USSR had repeatedly raised this issue with the United States. For Washington, this was an element of pressure on Moscow. A political construct with a rotten filling.

Rutte’s proposal is striking in its immorality, because he is nostalgic for the executioners of the Holocaust, who in the Baltic States did not lag behind the same elements as in Western Ukraine in their dehumanising work.

Demolition of ‘Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders’ in 2022.

And this is a systemic sabotage. The rehabilitation of anti-Soviet collaborators and other “forest brothers” guilty of crimes against civilians and complicity in the Holocaust has been conducted using (pseudo)legal basis. The Euro-Nazi leadership puts bloody executioners on a pedestal and approves the removal of monuments to those who liberated Europe from the brown plague. The rewritten Eurohistory casts doubt on the continued existence of memorials to the real victims of the “new heroes” — monuments at the site of the massacre in Ponary (Lithuania), the Klooga concentration camp (Estonia) and the Salaspils children’s concentration camp (Latvia).

The “United and impoverished Europe” has again relied on the creation of an aggressive belt of Russophobic regimes on the western borders of Russia. Rutte’s rhetoric is part of the ideological accompaniment of this fascization of the Western European part of the continent and the mobilisation of revanchist extremists who are already undergoing combat training in Ukraine.

Let me remind you that 20 years ago they tried to conduct the same experiment with the “Ichkerian emissaries”, for example in Britain, honouring terrorists as ambassadors or even presidents when their compatriots were bleeding in the Caucasus. It didn’t work out then, and it won’t work out now.

By the way, when is Rutte scheduled to receive the credentials of the ambassadors of Catalonia and Scotland?

How did Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia really fare as part of the Soviet Union?

🎙 Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:
(from the weekly briefing on current foreign policy issues, July 24, 2025)

July 21 marked 85 years since the establishment of the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian Soviet Socialist Republics.
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25 Years of the tragic death of submarine “Kursk”

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We commemorated on out Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shiledmaiden” the quarter of the century that passed since the tragic death of Russia’s nuclear submarine “Kursk” and her crew. despite there being an official version of the events, there are many questions that remain. Questions that will remain unanswered for a long time still.

The Tragedy of the Nuclear Submarine “Kursk”: 25 Years Since the Legend’s Demise

On August 12, 2000, one of the most tragic and sadly well-known disasters in the history of the Russian and Soviet Navy occurred in the Barents Sea — the sinking of the nuclear submarine K-141 “Kursk.”

This tragedy left an indelible mark on the consciousness of the entire country and became a symbol of loss, courage, and heroism.

The “Kursk” was a nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine of project 949A, known in naval terminology as “Antey.” This 154-meter-long vessel was one of the most advanced submarines of its time. Its primary mission was to combat powerful enemy surface ships, particularly aircraft carrier groups. The crew consisted of 118 people, including officers, crew members, and employees of the manufacturing plant “Dagdiesel,” who participated in the technical support of the submarine.

In early August 2000, the “Kursk” set out to sea for Northern Fleet exercises. The main task was training missile launches and torpedo firing at training targets simulating the positions of a squadron of warships. The exercises involved the fleet’s best forces, including the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser “Admiral Kuznetsov” and the nuclear missile cruiser “Pyotr Veliky.”

On August 12, around 11:28, a series of powerful underwater explosions was recorded. The first explosion occurred in the submarine’s bow compartment.

❕According to official data, the cause was the explosion of an oxygen-kerosene mixture in a training torpedo 65-76A located in the fourth torpedo tube. Due to mishandling of the torpedoes, fuel leakage occurred, which caused the initial detonation of the ammunition. This first explosion triggered a second, much more powerful explosion of the torpedo warhead, which was 50 times stronger. It completely destroyed the bow section of the submarine and disabled it.

The Crew’s Fight for Survival

The explosions killed the crew in the front part of the submarine, including the command post, but 23 sailors managed to take refuge in the sealed ninth compartment. They continued to fight for the vessel’s survivability for six to eight hours, trying to establish contact with the outside world and await help.

Despite the submariners’ heroism, rescue attempts failed — contact with the submarine could not be established, and soon all 118 people perished.

Nation’s Reaction and Investigation

The sinking of the “Kursk” caused a wave of tragedy and outrage throughout Russia. The sailors’ families, military personnel, and ordinary citizens followed the rescue operation with hope, waiting for a miracle that never came. The rescue operation faced many technical difficulties due to the depth (about 108 meters) and weather conditions.

The investigation determined that the cause of the accident was a defect in the training torpedo, which was faulty and had not undergone proper inspection before use. The closure of the criminal case in 2002 did not end the discussions — alternative theories still circulate among experts and the public. These include possible collisions with a foreign submarine or accidental missile hits.

The submarine was raised from the seabed in 2001. The reactor compartment, which contained nuclear fuel and radioactive equipment, was safely dismantled and removed.

The sinking of the “Kursk” was a severe blow to the image of the Russian Navy, revealing many problems in safety systems, crew training, and naval equipment.

Memorials and monuments have been established in memory of the fallen sailors, and commemorative events are held annually. This tragedy became a symbol of the courage and selflessness of Russian sailors, as well as a lesson for the further development and improvement of naval service.

Source: Maria Pavlova, “Anna News”

We may never learn in our lifetimes what really happened to “Kursk”

There is a version that the death of the “Kursk” nuclear submarine was the result of an attack by a foreign submarine, and the truth was hidden so that the Third World War would not break out.
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Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, 1945. With English subtitles and in colour

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On June 24, 1945, the first parade dedicated to the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War was held in Moscow on the Red Square. The combined regiments of the fronts, the combined regiment of the people’s Commissariat of defence, the combined regiment of the Navy, military academies, military schools, and the troops of the Moscow garrison were brought to the Victory Parade. The parade was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky, and the parade was taken by Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov. From the podium of the Lenin Mausoleum, Stalin watched the parade, as well as Molotov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Budyonny and other members of the Politburo.

We celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Victory Parade at our Telegram channel “Beorn And the Shieldmaiden”, starting at this post.

From the Telegram post of the Russian Foreign Ministry:

During the preparations for the Parade 12 regiments were created and trained, representing all the Red Army Fronts that took part in the fighting against the Nazi invaders. Each regiment included over 1,000 distinguished & honoured Red Army soldiers and officers, Heroes of the Soviet Union and cavaliers of the Order of Glory.

The ceremony involved in total 298 infantry platoons, 13 cavalry squadrons, and 350 artillery batteries, including 386 guns and 613 armoured vehicles. Commander of the Moscow Military District, Colonel General Pavel Artemyev, was in charge of organising and overseeing the Parade.

The Victory Parade began at 10 am and lasted for two hours. Soviet Union Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky commanded the units, while Marshal Georgy Zhukov reviewed the parade teams. The Parade was in many aspects highly symbolic, even as regards the breeds and colours of the horses rode by the two great Soviet Marshals — Zhukov rode a light grey Tersk horse as a symbol of glory and victory, while Rokossovsky rode a black horse symbolising honour and grace.

After the Marshals reviewed the units and greeted the participants, a military orchestra with 1,400 musicians marched into the centre of Red Square to perform “Glory,” a patriotic song composed by Mikhail Glinka. Georgy Zhukov then ascended the podium on the Lenin Mausoleum to deliver his famous address:

“Mankind has been liberated from German Nazism — humanity’s deadliest enemy.

For three years, the Red Army had to fight against Germany and its satellites on its own. Throughout the entire war, the Nazi army had to keep its main forces on the Soviet-German front — this is where the Reich’s war machine was crushed, and this is where the victorious ending of the war in Europe came from.”

When Marshal Zhukov concluded his remarks, the state orchestra performed the national anthem, and 50 rounds of fireworks were fired from the Kremlin walls. This is when the Red Army columns — over 40’000 soldiers and officers and 1,850 units of armour vehicles and military equipment.

At the end of the celebrations, to the sound of 80 drums beating, a column of Soviet soldiers threw 200 banners of the defeated Nazi Wehrmacht onto the ground near the Mausoleum. These banners had been selected by a special commission from among 900 trophy banners brought from Germany.

The Parade ended at noon to the tune of the Moscow Garrison’s composite brass orchestra. Overall, 24 marshals, 249 generals, 2,536 officers, and 31,116 non-commissioned officers and soldiers took part in the procession. The celebrations culminated with an image of the Order of Victory floating in the sky.

After the June 24, 1945, the Victory Day parades were held in the USSR 3 more times – at the anniversary dates on the May 9, 1965, 1985 and 1990. Next time it was conducted in already Russia on the 9th of May 1995, and then annually after that date. In the USSR military parades were customarily held annually on the 7th of November, commemorating the October Revolution.

While translating Zhukov’s speech, based on the Russian transcript here, we found a disconcerting detail: the B/W documentary was edited to remove any reference to Stalin’s contribution and guidance! It seems the editing was done during the time, when Hrushev waged his personal vendetta against Stalin’s memory. The colour version, though it does not include Zhukov’s speech, has Stalin “rehabilitated” and properly referenced.

‼️ It was only on the 75th anniversary of the Victory, that Georgy Zhukov’s speech could be heard for the first time without redactions — in the two and a half reconstructed video of the Day of the Victory Parade, presented in a separate article.


Backup at Rumble. An older version on YouTube

This film was the first colour film in the USSR, shot on single tape (previously, a three-colour method was used for colour films). The Victory parade on June 24, 1945 was filmed on German trophy film from the warehouse of “Agfa”. After the film was shot, it turned out that most of the tape had colour defects. As the colour films were not made in the USSR, there was not enough experience in working on colour correction. Therefore, the entire film was transferred to B/W film, and a 19-minute film was edited from the material that was of suitable quality. And many years later, in 2004, the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents restored the colour version of the film. The film was restored, removing all mechanical damage to the film, restoring the colour and transferring the image to modern colour film.


Backup at Rumble. An older version on YouTube

👉 Source of the B/W is the USSR State Television and Radio Fund via the Russian MFA.

The article was originally published on May 9, 2020 with video uploaded to YouTube Back then, in order to re-upload the film the subtitles, the footage of the B/W film was downloaded from the Classics of the Soviet Cinema YouTube channel. There was one quote in a viewer comment there, which was especially poignant (note that 9 million is the number of combatant losses according to the early estimates after the war, the total number of the Soviet citizens who lost their lives during the Great Patriotic War is 27 million people):

Once my father expressed a piercing and terrible thought: “Ten thousand soldiers and officers of the armies and fronts participated at the principal Parade in honour of the Victory Day on June 24, 1945. The passage of the parade “boxes” of troops lasted thirty minutes. And you know what I thought? During the four years of the war, the losses of our army amounted to almost nine million dead. And each one of them, who gave the most precious thing to Victory – their lives! – is worthy to walk in that parade on the Red Square. So, if all the dead were put in parade formation, then these “boxes” would go through Red Square for nineteen days… ” and I suddenly, as if in reality, imagined this parade. Parade “boxes” of twenty by ten. One hundred and twenty steps a minute. In windings and boots, overcoats, and jackets, in caps, earflaps, “budenovki”, helmets, caps. And for nineteen days and nights this continuous stream of fallen battalions, regiments, and divisions would have passed through the Red Square. Parade of the heroes, parade of the winners. Think about it! Nineteen days!
— V. Shurygin

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June 22 is the Day Of Memory And Sorrow in Russia – statement from the Foreign Ministry of the RF

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June 22 is the Day Of Memory And Sorrow in Russia, the the most tragic date in the modern history of our country.

From the statement at the Telegram channel of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation.

On this day 8️⃣4️⃣ years ago — on June 22, 1941 — the Soviet Union was attacked, unprovoked and without a declaration of war, by the Nazi Germany and its European cronies, which unleashed the full might of its vicious war machine. For our people on that day the Great Patriotic War began — the bloodiest and most brutal, devastating and terrible war, which lasted 1418 days and claimed lives of some 27 million Soviet citizens.

Obsessed with the ideas of racial superiority, the Hitlerites and their henchmen in Europe planned to wipe entire nations off the face of the Earth, and the survivors left — to turn into slaves of the Third Reich. The Germans invaded our country with one goal — to physically annihilate the Soviet people, to destroy our nation’s centuries-old cultural and spiritual heritage — the Nazis and their allies carried out a genocide.

2️⃣2️⃣.0️⃣6️⃣.1️⃣9️⃣4️⃣1️⃣

At dawn at 4 am, the enemy aviation launched massive strikes on airfields, railway stations, Soviet naval bases, deployments of the Red Army forces and cities along the entire western state border of the USSR to a depth of up to 250-300 km. Together with Nazi Germany, Romania, Italy, Finland and other states allied to the Third Reich took part in the aggression. The industries of almost the entire continental Europe served the aggressors.

The people of the USSR were informed on the radio about the attack by the Nazis and, thus, the beginning of the war. At noon on June 22, 1941, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, on behalf of the Soviet leadership addressed the nation:

🎙 “Today, at 4 a.m. in the morning, the German troops have invaded our country, without making any demands on the Soviet Union and without a declaration of war. They have attacked our borders in many places and have subjected our towns to aerial bombardments.

This unheard-of attack on our nation, despite the non-aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany, is unprecedented in the history of civilized nations.”<...>

Our cause is right. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours!”

It was the Soviet Union that bore the main burden of the Nazi aggression in Europe. It was the Soviet Victorious People who showed unparalleled heroism, courage and fortitude, fighting to the last drop of blood for the freedom of our Motherland, crushed Nazism and saved Europe from the Nazi ‘plague’. It was on the Eastern Front of the European theater of #WWII that the Nazis and their henchmen lost more than 75% of their forces fighting the Red Army.

The Great Victory was achieved at a high price. The Soviet Union’s losses amounted to 40% of all human casualties during WWII — almost 27 million people. Of these, more than 8.7 million perished on the battlefield, 7.42 million people were deliberately and cold-bloodedly killed by the Nazis. Over 5 million Soviet citizens were taken into slavery and moved to Germany and Reich-occupied European countries.

To this day June 22 still echoes in the hearts of all Russians with grief, sorrow and pain for the lives lost and fates of entire generations broken. There is no family in our country and in the former Republics of the Soviet Union that was not affected by that terrible war. There is #NoStatuteOfLimitations for the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators on our land. On this day, we bow our heads in memory of our ancestors who perished during the Great Patriotic War.

🎙 Excerpt from the comment by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the occasion of the Day of Memory and Sorrow (June 21, 2025):

💬 “Unlike the “collective West”, we do not divide the victims of the Nazis into categories — they all deserve justice and for their executioners to be punished.

We, regardless of race, nationality and religion, mourn the 2.6 million Jewish citizens of the USSR, millions of Slavs and representatives of other ethnic groups of the multinational Soviet people who became victims of genocide“.

The first reunification of Donbass and Russia

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Without understanding the history of Donbass in the early XX century, it is impossible to understand the civil war that is taking place in Ukraine now. We have raised this topic in a 2016 article “Short History of Creation of Ukraine and Donetsk-Krivorog Republics after the 1917 Revolution in Russia”. However, that article was not as systematic as the one you are about to read now – “The first reunification of Donbass and Russia”. It was published in Regnum on June 17, 2017.

After reading this article, we will have a solid foundation for understanding the topic of forced ukrainisation, which was taking place in 1920s, a topic which we wil return to in a later publication.

The problem of Donbass is not new to Russia. Few people know, but in the early twenties of the last century, Russia and Ukraine were already in a very serious conflict over this region. Moreover, the tensions around that territorial dispute were very high. It almost came to a direct military confrontation. It worked out that time. Russia won then. However, the conflict itself was hushed up for a very long time, for obvious reasons. But as they say, there are never permanently resolved conflicts, especially if these conflicts are linguistic and regional in nature. And perhaps, having read the history of the territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia over the Eastern Donbass, it will be easier to understand the processes taking place now in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The signing of the Brest Peace by the Ukrainian Central Rada on February 9, 1918, according to which the territory of Ukraine (including Donbass) was to be occupied by German troops can be considered as a kind of a start to that conflict. In response, on February 12, 1918, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic (DKR) was proclaimed in Harkov at the regional congress of Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, which declared its independence and, accordingly, did not recognise the Brest Peace. The government of the new republic included representatives of the all—Russian left-wing parties, while the DKR was headed by the Bolshevik comrade Artyom (Fyodor Sergeev). After the proclamation of the republic, he sent a telegram to the leader of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin:

“The Regional Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution on the creation of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog basin as part of the All-Russian Federation of Soviets.”

According to the leadership of the new republic, it was created primarily based on the territorial and economic principle and was supposed to include the territories of three basins: coal, iron ore and salt. The coal basin (Donbass), divided in the imperial period of Russian history between several administrative units (Yekaterinoslav and Harkov provinces, as well as the Donskoy Army Region, also known as Don Host Region), according to the republican leadership, was supposed to become a single entity within one administrative unit. Therefore, not only Yekaterinoslav province (on the territory of which the Central or, as it was also called, Old Donbass was located) was included in the DKR, but also, as “comrade Artyom” wrote in a note to the heads of foreign states, describing the eastern borders of the DKR: “The Sea of Azov to Taganrog and the borders of the Soviet coal districts of the Don region along the railway line Rostov — Voronezh to Lihaya station.” And in the future, it is these “coal Soviet districts” that will become a stumbling block in the border dispute between the two Soviet republics.

German troops on the Sophia square in Kiev in April of 1918

However, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic could not cope with the German offensive, and by the end of May 1918, the Germans had occupied all of Ukraine (including Donbass) and part of the territory of the Donskoy Army Region. The Government of the DKR was forced to evacuate.

After the revolution in Germany, in the autumn of 1918, the Bolsheviks began the liberation of Ukraine from the German occupiers. At the end of January 1919, the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) of Ukraine was established in liberated Harkov under the leadership of Christian Rakovsky. The Government of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic has also returned to Harkov. However, the Soviet leadership in Moscow decided that strategically, the existence of Soviet Ukraine is now more important than the existence of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic. Therefore, the Central Committee (CC) of the Bolshevik Party decided to annex the territory of the DKR to the territory of Ukraine (which at that time was understood by the majority of the population of the former Russian Empire as the Middle Dnieper and the Right Bank of the Dnieper). On February 17, 1919, Vladimir Lenin signed a decree: “Ask comrade Stalin, through the Bureau of the Central Committee, to carry out the decommissioning of Krivdonbass”. The leadership of the DKR, dominated by the Bolsheviks, albeit with a heavy heart, but obeyed the decision of the party. In March 1919, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) was proclaimed in Harkov. And since the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic became part of the Ukrainian SSR, the eastern border of the DKR automatically became the eastern border of Soviet Ukraine. To a certain extent, this came as a surprise to many residents of both Taganrog and Eastern Donbass (Alexandro-Hrushevsky (Shakhtinsky) and Yekaterinenskoe-Kamensky districts), who began to write mass appeals to the central authorities, opposing their annexation to the Ukrainian SSR. Because joining the Soviet Donbass was one thing, but joining Ukraine was quite another. After all, at that moment the Soviet Union had not yet been established. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Soviet Ukraine were de jure considered independent states, even if they entered into a military and economic alliance with each other.

At the same time, it is necessary to understand what processes were taking place inside Ukraine itself in order to understand why the residents of Eastern Donbass were far from enthusiastic about the prospect of becoming “Ukrainians”.
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“Situation in several European countries with the desecration and destruction of monuments dedicated to those who fought against Nazism during World War II” – Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s report

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Read the full report at the site of the MFA!

Since the end of the World War II, approximately 4’000 monuments to Soviet soldiers have been erected in Europe. A total of more than one million Red Army soldiers are buried in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. In general, the peoples of the USSR and Europe paid a much higher price for the Victory over Nazism, measured in tens of millions of lives.

Vandalised Soviet soldier graves in Germany

The Soviet army liberated Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria (the eastern part of the country and Vienna), Romania, Yugoslavia and a number of other European countries from Nazism.

The majority of Soviet monuments were erected specifically in these countries. There are also monuments to the Soviet soldier in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and France.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many memorials ended up on the territory of states bordering Russia that emerged from the former Soviet republics. In several of these countries, the chosen course toward reviving Nazism and rewriting history has had a serious impact on the memorial legacy of the Great Patriotic War.

❌ Decommunisation, the destruction of monuments to our common history and culture, the desecration of the graves of fallen Soviet soldiers, neo-Nazi torch marches, the glorification of Nazis and their collaborators, the physical elimination of ideological opponents — many of these practices, and often all of them at once, have become commonplace in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as in Poland, the Czech Republic and a number of other European countries.

These very countries are the focus of this report. Under the guise of “decommunisation” laws and by dismantling monuments to Soviet soldiers, the governments of these countries are attempting to “reinforce an anti-Russian front”.

At the same time, monuments to Nazi criminals are being erected, their protection is being enshrined in law, and rare acts of activists opposing Nazi memorials are harshly prosecuted. The key objective of such steps is the complete erasure of historical memory.

This report has been prepared as part of the Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s efforts to draw attention to the manifestations of various forms of Nazi glorification, neo-Nazism, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance in foreign countries.

The report focuses on the actions of certain countries, primarily the Baltic states, Poland, and Ukraine, which, using Russia’s special military operation aimed at denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine, as well as the protection of the peaceful population of Donbass, as a pretext, have sharply escalated a long-standing practice of destroying Soviet, Russian, and often their own memorial heritage on their territories.

📄 Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s report on the “Situation in several European countries with the desecration and destruction of monuments dedicated to those who fought against Nazism during World War II” contains a detailed account of the unlawful actions by authorities of Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland, Finland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, targeting Russian and Soviet monuments.

The report can also be downloaded as a PDF file.

The report is long, but should be read, or at least skimmed through, by all – including its 262 soure references!

👉 In July of 2023, documents were leaked from the NATO summit in Lithuania, where one of NATO’s action points was the targeted destruction of Soviet monuments. Tsargrad reported back then:

The destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers and generals in Europe is not just the whim of individual Western politicians, but the official course of NATO. Hackers have declassified the alliance’s documents, revealing the conspiracy.

The hacker group “From Russia with Love” has gained access to documents collected by the organisers of the NATO summit, which is taking place in Vilnius these days.

It follows from them that the systematic destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators, which began before their time, is not the Russophobic manifestations of individual Young Europeans, but the official course of the West, adopted at the NATO level.

The documents say that the destruction of Soviet monuments is an extremely important job. This vandalism allows us to destroy the “Russian narrative” that Europe was freed from fascism thanks to Moscow.

In addition, the destruction of monuments, according to the NATO leadership, contributes to the international isolation of Russia.

How Russia created Romania

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Now that the “correct” president was selected for the Romanian, while the point of “the last Ukrainian” is quickly approaching, the time has come to take a closer look at that country, as well as its neighbouring, far order Moldavia. Below is a translation of an historiographic article from New Izvestiya, taking a quick tour into the very short history of Roimania.

A certain historical parallel to Finland emerges, where in both cases Russia played the key role in creating the statehood of these states, yet, the states turned on their creator with a rabidly russophobic/racist hatred.

In the context of this article, read also our recent translation The text of Hitler’s statement on the extermination of Slavic peoples has been published in Russia for the first time.

How Russia created Romania

Once upon a time, during the early Middle Ages, Romanians, like Russians, became Christian – Orthodox Christians. However, at that time Romania, as a country bearing such name, did not exist: there were disparate principalities united only by faith.

Even then, our peoples were linked by a common past: Romanians had long used Church Slavonic in worship and Cyrillic for communication and writing texts.

The Prut Campaign of 1711. Peter I and Gospodar of Moldavia, Dmitry Cantemir in the battle for Moldavia against the Turks and Tatars, 1911. Painter: Victor Arseni.

So how did Romania appear on the world map?

The Gospodars (rulers) of Wallachia and Moldavia (on the territory of the present-day Romania) have long sought friendship and protection from the Russian monarchs. The rulers, Orthodox Christians, were burdened by the fate of the vassals of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. They also did not like the need to leave their children and loved ones hostage in Istanbul, where many of them, and sometimes the rulers themselves, were martyred at the hands of the sultans. The poll tax, which all non-Muslim subjects had to pay to the sultan, was also a heavy burden, and on top of that, there were numerous levies and tributes that had to be collected annually and sent to the Ottoman Turks. Already in the 18th century, the gospodars and boyars saw Russia as a patron and protector. Fleeing from the Turks, many found shelter and fame at the royal court. In 1711, Dmitry Cantemir, the exiled ruler of Moldavia, arrived at the court of Peter the Great with a thousand boyars. He became the most serene Knyaz of Russia, along with illustrious comrade of Peter’s, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. His son, the first Russian satirical poet Antioh Dmitrievich Cantemir, was Russian ambassador to England and France.

The map depicts the borders of the Principality of Moldavia, Principality of Wallachia before the Union (orange lines).
After 1711, the part of the Principality of Moldavia residing between rivers Dniester and Prut came under Russian protection, while what remained under the Ottoman Empire, formed a Union of Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (light-green area with the black border).
Ater 1866 this union began to be called “Romania”.

The historical task of Russia

Russia considered it its historical task to get rid of the Turkish threat, and saw itself as a defender of the rights and freedoms of the Christian peoples who lived under Turkish rule. The power of the latter gradually weakened, and the Romanians sought to get out from under its influence. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire took a direct part in the liberation of Orthodox Romania. A significant part of the territory of the future Romania, at the insistence of Russia, was transferred by the Turks to Russian protection following the war of 1828-1829. The first constitutions of Moldavia and Wallachia were adopted, allowing the future Romanian lands to develop in the same way as other European countries of that time. Romanians were becoming really Romanians, and not just residents of villages and towns of different territories. Schools with native language teaching were opened. Historians have praised these laws: “The first Romanian constitutions that introduced fixed and stable laws that replaced momentary and arbitrary decisions.”

A series of wars and final independence

Even then, the Romanians’ dream of independence was being “crippled” by the Western European powers, who did not want Turkey to weaken as as counterweight to Russia. It all started with Napoleon, who encouraged the Romanians to “limit Russian expansion”. After the Crimean War, Romanians came under the influence of Western powers, which did not aim to liberate Romania from the Ottoman yoke: the principalities continued to pay exhausting tribute to the Ottoman Empire.

Romania appeared as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars, and became a sovereign country by the will of Russia in 1877-1878, after the final liberation of Romania from the Turkish–Ottoman rule, which had lasted from the 16th century. Russian losses in this war amounted to 16,000 killed and 7,000 dead from wounds (there are other estimates – up to 36,500 killed and 81,000 dead from wounds and diseases). These figures of losses are huge in themselves, but it is worth considering that, for example, 71 thousand people lived in Yaroslavl at the end of the 19th century, that is, either a quarter or half of the inhabitants of a large Russian city died in this war. Romanians, allied with the Russians, lost 1.5 thousand people. Yes, Romanian troops then took a direct part in the fighting – of course, on the side of Russia. Russian-Romanian troops participated together in the siege of Bulgarian Plevna, during the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish rule, and the first Romanian king even became marshal of the united Russian-Romanian troops.
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Victory Parade. Moscow. 09.05.2010. Joint parade fragment

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Backup at Rumble.

One has to be invited to march across the Red Square, and not so long ago, on the 65th anniversary of the Victory, many military formations of the Soviet republics (including Ukraine), as well as American, British and French ones participated in the Victory parade.

From our telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

The repeat of Ukrainian-German incursion into Kursk

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With Kursk newly liberated, it is fitting to take a look at the past Ukro-“future-NATO” incursions into Kursk. From our August 2024 post at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Kursk region has become a historical singularity point. One might draw a parallel to the Battle of Kursk in 1943, when thinking of the present-day Western-backed incursion into Kursk. But there is an even earlier precedent, with an eerie similarity to today’s events.

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The dissolvement of the Russian Empire resulted in appearance of a number of states, proxy-states and lawless areas on its outskirts, which the foreign «interventionists» sought to use as springboards for further partitioning of Russia.

Baltics almost immediately fell under German control. Further south there appeared a Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR), which initially manifested the aspirations of the Ukrainian nationalists (Petlyura was one of its leaders), but later came under German control. Here is a fragment from the Big Russian Encyclopedia.

The UKRAINIAN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC (UPR), in 1917-20 (with a pause) a state entity, autonomous within the RSFSR, since 2.1.1918 independent. Proclaimed 20.11.1917 on the territory of Kiev, Podolsk, Volyn, Chernigov, Poltava, Harkov, Yekaterinoslav, Herson and Taurida (northern counties, without Crimea) provinces. The center is in Kiev.

The UPR was liquidated as a result of a coup organized by P. P. Skoropadsky on 29.4.1918 with the help of Germany. The command, Central Rada and the government were dissolved, the Ukrainian state was proclaimed instead of the UPR.

The UPR was restored on 14.12.1918 by the Ukrainian Directory, which became the highest authority of the republic.

With the beginning of the Soviet-Polish war of 1920, the UPR concluded a military agreement on the union with Poland on 21.4.1920.

It ceased to exist after the end of the war and the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921 between the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, on the one hand, and Poland on the other. The government of the UPR (presided by A. N. Livitsky) fled to Poland.

If one looks at the attached map, one will notice how UPR lay claim on a much larger territory than it actually controlled – it desired the territory of the Donetsk-Krivorozhie People’s Republic.

However, they did not lay claim to the Kursk region. Nevertheless, a few days before Germany conducted a coup in UPR, a joint incursion into Kursk area was made, as can be read in the telegram, preserved In the «Documents of the Foreign Policy of the USSR», volume 1, 7th of November 1917 – 31st of December 1918, page 224:

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106. Telegram from the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs to the Council of People’s Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany

April 3, 1918.

A message has just been received that Ukrainian-German troops have entered the Kursk province. The People’s Committee for Foreign Affairs protests against the occupation of the undisputedly Russian territory; even according to the unilateral statement of the Ukrainian delegation, Kursk province is located outside the borders of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.

— People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, Chicherin

Printed according to the archived publication of newspaper «Izvestia» No. 65(329), April 3, 1918