Curated playlist
Germany–Soviet Union relations
- Molotov PlanInside the Soviet Union, the Molotov Plan went by a warmer name: the Brother Plan. It was Moscow's system for rebuilding the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned with it. It can be seen as…
- Soviet–Japanese Neutrality PactStalin personally saw off Japan's foreign minister at a train station.
- Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)In January 1945, a Soviet submarine sank the liner Wilhelm Gustloff, killing about 9,000 fleeing Germans.
- Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was a communiqué, not a peace treaty, yet it shaped Germany until 1990.
- Vega programEach Vega spacecraft launched in December 1984 carried a hidden helium balloon for Venus.
- Stalin NoteIn March 1952, Stalin offered to reunify Germany if it stayed neutral. Konrad Adenauer refused to test the offer.
- Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to GermanyThe Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed in Moscow on the 12th of September 1990. Most people know it by a shorter name, the Two Plus Four Agreement. The two were West Germany and East Germany. The four were…
- Potsdam ConferenceMid-conference at Potsdam in 1945, British voters replaced Winston Churchill with Clement Attlee.
- German prisoners of war in the Soviet UnionAfter Stalingrad, 91,000 German survivors became Soviet prisoners. Only approximately 6,000 of them lived to go home.
- Tear down this wall!Aides called Reagan's Berlin Wall line "unpresidential", but he kept it. He told them, "I think we'll leave it in."
- Berlin Crisis of 1961American and Soviet tanks once sat loaded with live ammunition at Checkpoint Charlie. It happened in Berlin in 1961.
- OstpolitikIn 1987, Erich Honecker became the first East German head of state to visit West Germany.
- Occupation of the Baltic statesIn August 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were absorbed into the Soviet Union. Sham elections came first.
- Kaliningrad OblastKaliningrad Oblast is part of Russia, but no Russian land touches it.