Curated playlist
Joseph Stalin
- Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin once trained to be a Russian Orthodox priest. He later led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death.
- German–Soviet Axis talksIn November 1940, Berlin greeted Molotov with an orchestra playing The Internationale.
- Soviet offensive plans controversyA former Soviet intelligence officer claimed Stalin planned to attack Germany first.
- Tito–Stalin splitStalin's letter meant to trigger a purge in Yugoslavia instead set off a break that reshaped the Cold War.
- Tehran ConferenceStalin let a gift sword fall to the floor at the 1943 Tehran Conference. Churchill had just presented it.
- Vyacheslav MolotovFinns named the Molotov cocktail after Vyacheslav Molotov, who called bombing raids food deliveries.
- Potsdam ConferenceMid-conference at Potsdam in 1945, British voters replaced Winston Churchill with Clement Attlee.
- Yalta ConferenceStalin refused every meeting site Roosevelt suggested, so the Yalta Conference met on Soviet soil.
- Death and state funeral of Joseph StalinNo sound came from Joseph Stalin's room all day before his housekeeper found him on the floor.
- Battle of StalingradHitler promoted Paulus to field marshal at Stalingrad, since no German field marshal had ever surrendered.
- GulagThe Soviet Gulag began as the name of one secret police office. English later used it for the whole camp system.
- Population transfer in the Soviet UnionIn October 1937, Soviet authorities moved almost all 171,781 Soviet Koreans out of the Russian Far East.
- Iron CurtainWinston Churchill did not coin the phrase iron curtain. Queen Elisabeth of Belgium used it first, in 1914.
- RDS-1The first Soviet atomic bomb, RDS-1, went off years before Western analysts expected.
- Katyn massacreIn spring 1940, Soviet secret police executed nearly 22,000 Polish officers and other prisoners.
- Stalinist architectureStalin managed Moscow's skyscraper project directly, with no open competition. Eight teams produced draft after draft.
- Soviet famine of 1946–1947In 1946, the Soviet Union kept exporting grain while a famine spread. Drought hit, but ration cuts made it worse.