It was not customary to talk about accidents and disasters, especially man-made ones, in the Soviet Union. Data on the events themselves, their causes and the number of people killed or injured were almost always hidden. Fortunately, in the absence of the Internet and other fast means of communication, it was relatively easy to do this. As a result, even today, many years later, few people know about these tragic events
The Russian estate is an amazing phenomenon, one of the symbols of national culture. Born in the 18th century, it reached its zenith after the Manifesto on the Liberty of the Russian Nobility. The style of manor life, its charm are reflected in all types of art - primarily in fiction
A completely different lend-lease. Conscience versus money
Those who remember the USSR with nostalgia constantly insist that food products in those days, when compared with ours, were very cheap. But no one remembers that most of these very goods were very problematic to acquire at the state price in the seventies and eighties. There was a chronic shortage of them, as evidenced by the empty store counters
This happened at the end of October 1941 in Ivanovo - the famous "city of brides" and a major center of the textile industry of the USSR. Of course, this event was not reported in the newspapers
The food shortage arose in 1927 and has since become invincible. Historians name many reasons for this phenomenon, but the main one is only one
A modern person gets so used to everyday things that he does not even think about what path one or another device, equipment or technique had to go through so that they become constant helpers in every home. Literally 80-100 years ago, our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers did not even know about the existence of many things
On June 1, 1971, hundreds of Moscow hippies gathered for an anti-American rally. Protest against US aggression in Vietnam ended badly for Soviet pacifists
Everyone has heard about our slaves in the Sultan's harems, but few people know about the huge number of Russian girls bought not by Turks, but by Christian Europeans
30 years ago, on August 1, 1989, sugar in Moscow began to be dispensed with coupons. “The moonshiners bought everything,” the authorities briefly explained to the residents of the capital. But they just shrugged indifferently. In Moscow, food rationing has already been introduced, and in the provinces this happened even earlier. The people have lost the habit of being surprised - everything in the vast country has turned upside down. I had not to live, but to survive
Even those who are not at all interested in history must have heard of such a mysterious people who “buried” Ancient Rome as the Huns. Furious barbarians-nomads who came from the east and became one of the reasons for the Great Migration of Peoples in Eurasia. In their movement to the west, the Huns became one of the main catalysts of historical processes for several centuries
If in the past there was a developed industry, then where are the artifacts of the past, where are the factories, machinery, machine tools, any kind of equipment in general? Here it is important to understand that a false stereotype is imposed on us, that since we do not see something, then it does not exist at all, and never happened. The fact that this stereotype is false is easy to understand using the example of air - the fact that we do not see air does not mean at all that it does not exist
Striving for justice is one of the most important human aspirations. In any social organization of any complexity, the need for a moral assessment of interactions with other people has always been extremely great. Justice is the most important incentive for people to act, to assess what is happening, the most important element of perception of themselves and the world
A well-known Russian historian, a leading specialist in the history of Ancient Rus, chronicle studies, the history of social thought, the author of many books on Russian history and the methodology of historical knowledge
During the Caucasian War, Russian soldiers for the first time saw the cold weapon of the mountaineers - checkers. It was used instead of traditional sabers, which the Caucasians also used earlier, but eventually ceased. And after the unification of weapons in the Russian army, sabers disappeared from use there too
On the eve of Victory Day, the KP correspondent spoke with Western Europeans, Chinese, Americans, Australians … To find out what they know about World War II. It is terrible that the majority stated unequivocally: "The USA has won"
The published book "Memories of the Children of War Stalingrad" has become a real revelation not only for the current generation, but also for war veterans
200 years after the death of Bonaparte, he remains one of the main figures on the stage of the Russian historical past. How did it happen?
The Tsar Cannon has long become one of the symbols of Russia. Almost no foreign tourist leaves Moscow without seeing the miracle of our technology. She entered dozens of anecdotes where the Tsar Cannon never fired, the Tsar Bell never rang, and some non-working miracle Yudo such as the N-3 lunar rocket appear
From ancient times to the first third of the New Age, chain mail remained the main protective tool for a huge number of peoples of the world. Russia in this respect was no exception. Chain mail was used by vigilantes practically everywhere. She was loved and appreciated. That is why it is strange to find out that periodically knights in Russia put their chain mail in barrels of sand. What kind of ritual is this?
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are one of the many crimes of the United States in World War II A stunning material about the reasons for the surrender of Japan in World War II, about the atrocities of the Americans in Japan and how the US and Japanese authorities used the atomic bombings of Hiroshima for their own purposes, and Nagasaki
Operation Veil by the US intelligence services began 75 years ago
The harmonious relationship based on faith and love, which set the tone for the church organization, was something incredible in the Middle Ages. What was the nature of the deviant behavior of the average European and how did a person step on a crooked path in times of general humility before the will of the creator?
The first Opium War smoothly spilled over into a civil war, which suited foreigners very much, as it further weakened the already plundered country and reduced the likelihood of success of the liberation movement
Americans are very offended when they are told that socialism was invented in Europe. In fact, the first half of the 19th century passed in the United States under the sign of a multitude of socialist ideas and practices. True, it was agrarian anarcho-socialism. It was based on the very principles of the creation of the United States - autonomy and assistance to the poor with "assets", land, which was then in abundance in America. Also at the heart of these ideas was the struggle against cities, monopolies and banks
It is widely believed that the common people in Russia have always lived hard, constantly starving, and endured all kinds of oppression from the boyars and landowners. However, was it really so? Of course, for objective reasons, we now have almost no statistical data on pre-revolutionary Russia, such as GDP per capita, the cost of the consumer basket, the cost of living, etc
The lodges, which consisted of Germans, French, and British, worked according to different rituals, and the few Russians who were initiated into them found themselves involved in different Masonic systems. Russian nobles joined Masonic lodges abroad, as, for example, Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov, who was admitted to the Berlin Lodge of Three Globes on March 16, 1761
The topic of money in football is discussed no less enthusiastically than the game itself. Among the various ratings is the "cost" of the national teams. At the European Football Championship in 2021, the national team of England turned out to be the most "expensive", the price of contracts of all players of which exceeded 1 billion euros, and the "cheapest" of all - the national team of Finland, "only" 44.6 million euros
In the first half of the 19th century, a gold rush began in Russia. Merchants and industrialists from all over the country, as well as from abroad, rushed to the Urals to mine gold. It was then that the famous "Big Triangle" was found - a huge nugget worth tens of thousands of the then rubles
The Berlin Reichstag is the most important symbol of the Third Reich. There is hardly anything more touching and symbolic about the victory in World War II than the proletarian red banner erected on the main state building of Nazi Germany. The victorious Soviet soldiers left on the Reichstag not only their banners, but also autographs
We know little about the life of the legendary poet of Ancient Greece. The nine biographies known to us, compiled by various ancient authors, including Plutarch, Herodotus and Plato, are contradictory and in many ways implausible. The ancestors of Homer are called the mythological heroes - the singers Mussey and Orpheus
Strange not very large pillars installed near the arches can be observed by residents and guests of St. Petersburg. To be more precise, these were in almost all Russian cities at a certain time, but most of them have survived here. Today, few people are already aware of their real purpose
They terrified everyone who was not lucky enough to collide with them during the battle: they roared, rushed at opponents without chain mail and sometimes without weapons at all, bite their shields in rage, and most importantly, they did not feel pain and often won victories in battles. Berserker warriors, as if turning into some kind of wild beasts, gave birth to many myths and legends
Just some 3 centuries ago, the profession of a chumak gave its owner material prosperity, respect and prestige in society, as well as liberation from feudal dependence - panshchina. However, along with this, it was also deadly: the fault was the steppe robbers and various diseases
More than a hundred years ago, one of the largest sea tragedies occurred, which claimed the lives of at least 1,500 people. The unsinkable Titanic left the British port of Southampton, but in the waters of the North Atlantic hit an iceberg and wrecked. In this article we will tell you about the amazing facts associated with the legendary "Titanic"
Our ancestors were very fond of having fun, so not a single holiday could do without folk festivities and fun. And sometimes the leisure time was different for men and women, for noble persons and commoners, but absolutely everyone loved to have fun. There were also forbidden amusements, which from this attracted people even more. So how did you have fun in Russia?
For a long time, historians believed that in the days of Ancient Russia, the ability to write and read was the prerogative of exclusively the highest strata of society - the boyars and the clergy. However, after the discovery of the first birch bark letters
In the history of the USSR, it happened that some events of the country's power
Speaking about the military-technical readiness of the USSR for war, it is difficult to find accurate data on the quantity and quality of weapons. Assessments of the development of the country's military-industrial complex differ: from the widespread "war caught the USSR by surprise" to "the forces of the parties were approximately equal." Neither one nor the second is true: both the USSR and Germany, of course, were preparing for war
In the mountains of North Ossetia there is a mysterious place with charming houses on the slopes of the mountain, which attract with their color. But not everyone will risk not only entering them, but also approaching them. As it turned out, this settlement is nothing more than a necropolis with crypt houses that have been guarding the sleep of the dead for more than 600 years