The 45-year-long Cold War of protracted geopolitical contention between two global powerhouses helped determine the unprecedented magnitude of nuclear weapons…
Negotiating the Helsinki Final Act—Soviet Style
Following Allied victory in World War II, the world plunged headfirst into a bitter rivalry lasting decades between the two…
Looking through the American Lens: Photography USA Exhibit in the Soviet Union
During the prolonged years of the Cold War, USIA [United States Information Agency] executed over a dozen exhibits highlighting components…
Ceaușescu and the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia: The Early Years of Dealing with a Dictator
The Romanian Führer. The West’s “favorite communist.” Both of these descriptions have been used to describe Nicolae Ceaușescu, the rapacious…
Living Through History with a Historian—Witnessing Monumental Societal Change in the Soviet Union from the 60s to the 90s
American diplomats and their families abroad become accustomed to living through exciting or harrowing events; but occasionally their lives provide…
A Precursor to the Downfall: Living Through Soviet Perestroika and Glasnost
The international community hoped great changes would come to the Soviet Union after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in March…
From the Ground Up: USAID in Post-Soviet Russia
Six months after the fall of the Soviet Union, James (Jim) Norris became the USAID mission director in Russia. Not…
Atomic Age Uncertainty—Tension Between the United States and the Soviet Union
One of the most defining moments of the twentieth century was the detonation of an atomic bomb over the Japanese…
“Encouraging” Soviet Workmen in 1984—Vodka, Cigarettes, and Snow Plowing in Soviet Russia
The currency of Soviet Russia was the ruble—or was it? When General Services Officer Robert Weisberg was posted to the…
How Soviet Astronauts Met Stars in America
Two Soviet astronauts—a general and a scientist—come to visit the United States. They ride roller coasters at Disneyland, donkeys at…