soviet union

Pictures of Odesa, as it tangles with a complex web of Russian and Ukrainian heritage

6:00am January 06, 2025

Photographer Michael Robinson Chávez visits a city in Ukraine that was partly famous as a site for Russian travelers and intellectuals, but since 2022 has come under Russian attack.

World News

Opinion: Putin and Kim forge closer ties, resuscitating a defunct Stalinist alliance

5:01am June 19, 2024

by Sergey Radchenko

As Russia's leader visits North Korea, Johns Hopkins professor Sergey Radchenko offers insights into the fascinating history of twists and turns in relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.

'The Red Hotel' tells the story of Western journalists who were largely confined to Moscow's Metropol Hotel as they attempted to cover the Soviet side of World War II.

'The Red Hotel': Trying to cover World War II from a 'gilded cage' in Moscow

4:58pm June 05, 2023

by Greg Myre

When Russia's Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he clamped down on the media. In his new book, author Alan Philps sees parallels to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin who confined reporters in World War II.

Russian-born violinist Nataly Merezhuk's new album 'Jazz on Bones' explores the history of jazz in the former Soviet Union.

Music & Culture

Violinist's album honors the underground effort to keep jazz alive after Stalin's ban

3:14pm February 13, 2023

Russian-born violinist Nataly Merezhuk explores the history of jazz in the former Soviet Union in her new album: Jazz on Bones.

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A Belorusian tractor laden with harvested sugarcane idles outside a sugar mill.

The glam makeovers of Pakistan's tractors show how much farmers cherish them

6:09pm February 11, 2023

Marian Lewyeka's delightful novel, A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian spurred NPR correspondent Diaa Hadid to tell another tractor story — the history of Belarusian tractors in Pakistan.

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Yuriy Samoilenko stands for a portrait at the headquarters for Green World, an independent environmental advocacy group and the Ukrainian branch of Friends of the Earth International, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 18.

Ukraine still fears another Chernobyl-size disaster at Europe's largest nuclear plant

6:00am December 11, 2022

by Julian Hayda

International atomic experts have warned of a potential nuclear disaster with Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant in the middle of a war zone, bringing back terrifying memories of Chernobyl.

Residents hold a remembrance ceremony during the 90th anniversary of a great famine known as the Holodomor, at a museum in Drohobych, Ukraine, on Saturday.

World News

Ukraine remembers a famine under Stalin, and points to parallels with Putin

6:23pm November 28, 2022

by Greg Myre

Ukraine marked 90 years since a terrible famine that killed at least 4 million of its people. The event was especially poignant this year as Ukraine deals with its present crisis.

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A U-2 spy photo shows a medium-range ballistic missile base in San Cristobal, Cuba, with labels detailing various parts of the base in October 1962.

60 years after the Cuban missile crisis, Russia's threats reignite Cold War fears

7:00am October 16, 2022

by Scott Neuman

Over 13 days beginning on Oct. 16, 1962, the U.S. and Soviet Union were at the brink of a nuclear conflict. But since the Cold War ended, some historical assumptions about the crisis have changed.

Asher and David Cherkaskyi, Ukrainian Orthodox Jews who are father and son and have both been on the front lines in Ukraine's fight against Russian occupation, in Dnipro in July.

Jewish Ukrainian father and son soldiers mark holy days under cloud of Russia's war

5:09pm October 01, 2022

by Eleanor Beardsley

A father and son fighting for Ukraine against the Russian invasion say the war has heightened their Jewish identity.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1992.

World News

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91

7:31pm August 30, 2022

by NPR Staff

Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader and played a central role in ending the Cold War. The hospital that treated him said he died of a serious and protracted disease.