More than seventy years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, but the "People's Commissar's hundred grams" are still remembered to this day. There are many opinions about how and how much the Red Army men drank on the military fronts, and they are all contradictory. Some say that vodka almost helped the Russians defeat the Germans, while others are more conservative. So what really happened?
In the war of annihilation, which Adolf Hitler unleashed against the USSR, almost everyone fought with the Nazis: men, women, old people and even children. The latter were in no way inferior to adults in this. Tens of thousands of minors joined partisan detachments and the ranks of the active army, thousands were awarded various kinds of awards, and several even became Heroes of the Soviet Union
The Second World War became one of the largest armed conflicts in the history of mankind, in which millions of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment, including tens of thousands of tanks, took part. However, like any other war, the Second World War ended, and it was necessary to do something with a huge amount of various weapons and weapons that remained after it. Let's find out what fate befell Soviet tanks during the war
We are all accustomed to considering the representatives of this people as naive and peaceful inhabitants of the Far North. They say that throughout their history the Chukchi grazed herds of deer in permafrost conditions, hunted walruses, and as entertainment they beat tambourines together
Odessa is the pearl of the Black Sea. St. Petersburg is the pearl of the Neva. At first glance, these cities are very different, but this is only at first glance. In this article I will try to find out what these two magnificent cities were called on old maps, assuming that Peter was not built by Peter, but Odessa-Richelieu
Roman law has become the mainstream of modern jurisprudence. Everyone is obliged to know it: lawyers, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, everyone who deals with laws. At that time, it was the most developed and advanced state in the world. However, in Ancient Rome itself there were such laws that now seem not just savagery, but real barbarism
The works of Soviet scientists during the Great Patriotic War, who worked in all scientific areas - from mathematics to medicine, helped to solve a huge number of extremely difficult problems necessary for the front, and thus brought victory closer
Source section of the Criminal Code of Tsarist Russia "Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments" 1845. A facsimile copy of this text, as well as texts of later editions, can be downloaded from the website of the Russian State Library rsl.ru, where they are freely available in the universal repository
Generations of sponges, myriads of bacteria and algae are the real creators of the modern earth's crust, including the accumulated reserves of chalk, iron and even gold
Archaeologists began looking for Sodom and Gomorrah as early as the 19th century. The first results were disappointing. In 1847-1848. the expedition to the Jordan Valley was carried out by US Navy Lieutenant William Lynch. Having described the flora and fauna of the valley and the Dead Sea, he did not find a trace of ancient settlements that could somehow be connected with Sodom and Gomorrah
Our ancestors received the Christian religion from Byzantium. Most of the names popular in our area come from Byzantium. For more than a thousand years, the empire held back the Asian invasion of Europe, gave rise to rich traditions in art, literature and science, but today not everyone remembers this heritage
What happened in the education system in the 1920s? What caused harsh criticism not only from the foreign intelligentsia, including emigrants, but also from the Bolshevik-Leninist "guard"?
On January 1, the film of the same name about the legendary Soviet tank T-34, which in the first three days of the show, grossed a record cash register of 100 million rubles, was released on Russian cinema screens. The plot of the film revolves around the most massive WWII T-34 tank, recognized as the most advanced and effective combat vehicle of its era. In this article, we'll touch on five little-known but entertaining facts about one of the most recognizable symbols of World War II
At all times, the state needed spies, scouts and spies. The Soviet Union was no exception. Moreover, at the height of its power, the state had one of the best intelligence systems in the world. A huge arsenal of useful devices helped these specialists to work for the good of the Fatherland
On July 10, 1949, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale occurred in the vicinity of the large village of Khait in the Tajik SSR. Its source was located at a depth of about 20 km. Tremors were felt in this area two days earlier, after which the showers fell. As a result, the loose soil on the mountain slopes became saturated with water. This provoked a landslide and led to tragic consequences
It is believed that the personality cult of Joseph Stalin, who was born 140 years ago, was imposed from above and, after being exposed at the 20th Party Congress, came to naught. In fact, both among the people and among the intelligentsia there were many attempts to resist de-Stalinization. Although the state punished for this no less harshly than for liberal dissent
Comrade Stalin clearly explains why vodka was not banned in the USSR and why the state introduced a vodka monopoly
On September 9, 1947, millions of Pravda readers learned that Comrade Stalin had visited the Black Sea sailors on the Molotov cruiser. But in the face of increased secrecy since the beginning of the Cold War, no one understood why the Generalissimo ended up on a warship. Meanwhile, this trip from Crimea was not the last for the Soviet leader - in October 1948 he made a new voyage, this time from Feodosia to Sochi, but this was not reported in the press
American social anthropologist James Scott argues that Soviet collectivization in the 1930s had its roots in American agricultural industrialization. At the beginning of the twentieth century, farms with tens of thousands of hectares appeared in the United States, based on hired rather than farm labor. Looking at these farms, the Bolsheviks also wanted to set up "grain factories"
Often, the development of military equipment does not go beyond the prototype. However, the technologies of many experimental prototypes form the basis for the creation of new military equipment. It also happened with the prototypes of Soviet armored vehicles from our today's selection
The military at the beginning of the 20th century had a very strange fashion for pants. Everyone at least once had to see trousers of a frankly strange shape and wonder why breeches look like that. Of course, nothing in the military wardrobe is done for nothing. Let's figure out exactly when the strange pants appeared and who invented them
This question was addressed by me, a young Soviet schoolgirl, to my grandmother in 1975. It was a school assignment: to ask your relatives about their difficult life under the king and to compose a story. In those years, many still had grandfathers and grandmothers who remembered pre-revolutionary life
On August 1, 1944, an uprising began in Warsaw, organized against the Germans and Russians by armed supporters of the Polish government in exile, hoping with the help of the Red Army to create an anti-Russian regime in Poland
In the capital of Russia, underground there is not only the metro and numerous communication tunnels. Back in Soviet times, a bunker-class underground complex was built there. In the post-war years, this shelter began to be called "Stalin's Bunker". It's time to figure out why this shelter was actually built, what it is today and what functions it performed
In the winter of 1943, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin ordered the return of shoulder straps to the Red Army, which were abolished in the troops after the revolution. Why did the leader of the peoples make such a decision and was it really done to raise the morale, as many today write? Let's try to understand the issue in order to understand how everything really was in those years that were troubling for the Fatherland
60 years ago, Soviet polar explorers were the first in the world to reach the South Pole of Inaccessibility in Antarctica and set up a temporary station there. They were able to repeat their feat only in 2007. According to experts, the achievement of Russian researchers was of colossal importance not only from a scientific, but also from a geopolitical point of view - by starting the active development of this territory, the USSR confirmed that it is a superpower. Specialists from Russia continue to work successfully in Antarctica, carrying out the most important scientific
An anonymous French intelligence officer left notes about the USSR in 1957. Mentally, Soviet people matched Western children at the age of 12, but at the same time, the Soviet elites were the best graduates of Cambridge
Most people remember the Soviet years with joy and gratitude. Nostalgic for how wonderful it used to be. But in addition to high-quality products, a well-coordinated social order and a good education, there were many things in the USSR that had to be abandoned. Now such prohibitions seem wild and would cause a storm of indignation, but in those days the refusal of some benefits was considered the norm. You didn't have to argue, but can you dream?
New cities needed supplies of a wide variety of goods. The huge distances separating the new territories from the capital of the Russian Empire complicated logistics and trade links with the central part of the country. Enterprising merchants from neighboring countries, primarily China, helped fill the niche
There are two opposing points of view regarding the question posed in the title of the question: the adherents of the first believe that the Russian worker eked out a miserable existence, while the supporters of the second argue that the Russian worker lived much better than the Russian. Which of these versions is correct, this material will help you figure it out
Rabbit meat is a tasty and healthy meat recommended by nutritionists and doctors. It contains many substances necessary for the human body: nicotinic acid, vitamins C and B, cobalt, phosphorus, lecithin, manganese, iron, fluorine. For a number of qualities, this meat is much better than beef or pork
A distinctive feature of Russian scientists is the breadth of scientific interests and the universalism of knowledge, a holistic perception of the picture of the world, the coverage of the entire subject under study and the depth of penetration into it, the high quality of the research carried out in combination with the relatively modest costs of conducting it, the independent production of original laboratory instruments, active participation in educational process
You can still read in our history textbooks that in the 19th century the Russian Empire was a "backward country". However, this opinion does not fundamentally coincide with the opinion of the expert jury of the International Exhibitions of Industry, Science and Culture
According to statistics from the Russian Economic Society, published at the beginning of each year in the Birzhevye Novosti newspaper, by the beginning of 1913, 62% of large domestic industry was in the hands of foreigners
Yes, there was an admiral-polar explorer, there was an admiral - an innovator of mines, but there was also a failed commander of the Black Sea Fleet, an admiral - a punisher in the vastness of Siberia, a shameful hireling of the Entente and a puppet in their hands. But the creators of the books, the film and the TV serial are silent about that, as if they do not know
Actual heritage - this is how it is customary in the scientific world to call the statements of the greats that are put on the agenda of today after centuries. We offer quotes from the outstanding statesman Pyotr Arkadievich Stolypin, which sound no less poignant today
In the spring of 1896, during a trip to Russia for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, professional photographer František Kratka managed to create a whole series of interesting photographs that captured Russian life at the end of the 19th century. The photographer managed to visit Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, finding interesting shots in each of these cities. Unfortunately, only a small part of the photographs of pre-revolutionary Russia from this trip has survived to this day
In the first half of the 20th century, designers and generals from different countries and armies were literally obsessed with the idea of creating large tanks. However, for all the time that has passed, no one has managed to create a huge and at the same time well protected so. That the awkward Tsar-tank of Nicholas II, that the French giant FCM 1A - all these and many other similar projects turned out to be a waste of resources. Today we will talk about the German combat vehicle "Maus", which never found a place on the battlefield
The US military nicknamed him the "Concrete Battleship" and considered him their pride, although he never sailed. In fact, the unsinkable Drum Fort is an island turned into a military fortress, although it looks like a ship. And the unique structure fully justified its impregnable status. After all, the fort was repeatedly besieged, stormed and blown up, but it never surrendered
The Second World War actually split the world into two large camps - the countries of the Axis and the Allies. And although Axis lost the war, the fate of the Allies was no less sad. Almost immediately after the end of one war, another broke out - a cold one, which placed former comrades on opposite sides of the barricades. However, history shows that not everything went smoothly inside the "Axis" itself. This is indicated by the following precedent