Hopes were certainly high when Stalin declared a census be taken in 1937 across the entire Soviet Union. As the illustration above shows, gigantic success was anticipated for socialism in the USSR.…

Hopes were certainly high when Stalin declared a census be taken in 1937 across the entire Soviet Union. As the illustration above shows, gigantic success was anticipated for socialism in the USSR. But as the results started rolling in, Soviet leadership was in for a few surprises. One of the questions asked was whether or not the individuals being polled felt they were religious.

This wraps up (for now, pending additional document releases) our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For furt…

This wraps up (for now, pending additional document releases) our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For further information, please refer to our first report in the series here. Document 8: Memorandum from KGB Chairman Yu.V. Andropov to the CPSU Central Committee, 26 April 1968: TOP SECRET…

This continues our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For further information, please refer to our first repo…

This continues our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For further information, please refer to our first report in the series here. Additional information on the Intrepid sailors is easily found throughout the Internet. One declassified report that offers a bit of the American point of view (from diplomatic and covert sources) …

This continues our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For further information, please refer to our first repo…

This continues our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For further information, please refer to our first report in the series here. Document 4: A paper (from G.V. Shumeyko, head of the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee, November 22, 1967): "On the exchange of opinions in the department (November 21, 1967) on the implementation of measures in interviews with correspondents from the magazines Novoye Vremya, Sovetskiy Soyuz, Paris Match, and the newspaper Moscow News, for the meeting with Moscow State University students and Vietnamese correspondents (with the consent of the sailors), organizing material assistance, and transferring them to the West"

Desertion from war is as old as war itself. The US involvement in Vietnam saw desertion reach its newest heights, with more than half a million US service members fleeing its ranks, but it can be a…

Desertion from war is as old as war itself. The US involvement in Vietnam saw desertion reach its newest heights, with more than half a million US service members fleeing its ranks, but it can be argued that none were so public or pronounced as that of the so-called "Intrepid Four." On 23 October 1967, four US sailors (Richard D.

Unpublished Declassified Soviet Archives

The following is a translation of the four-page Top Secret covert activity plan of the Lithuanian Department of State Security, dated 7 July 1940, calling for the arrest and elimination of the lead…

The following is a translation of the four-page Top Secret covert activity plan of the Lithuanian Department of State Security, dated 7 July 1940, calling for the arrest and elimination of the leadership of "anti-state" parties. This would be the first of a series of repressive activities by Soviet internal affairs and state security agencies in Lithuania which led to the creation in the autumn of 1940 of the Lithuanian Activist Front (Lietuvių  Aktyvistų Frontas, LAF), an underground nationalist organization closely linked to German intelligence services.

In 1946, the head of the KGB First Directorate, Boris Vannikov, sent Lavrentiy Beria an appeal from Soviet Academy of Science physicists to help them conduct airborne experiments that would allow t…

In 1946, the head of the KGB First Directorate, Boris Vannikov, sent Lavrentiy Beria an appeal from Soviet Academy of Science physicists to help them conduct airborne experiments that would allow them to collect radioactive particles near nuclear testing sites associated with the US 'Operation Crossroads'. The concept would have Beria instruct Commander in Chief of the Soviet Navy, Admiral…

The following is a translation of a Top Secret encrypted telegram dated 25 November 1941 from unidentified Soviet agents in Tokyo regarding the potential for Japan being "forced to" seize the Dutch East Indies in the event of failure of Japanese-American negotiations. Note that, while the telegram was transmitted on 25 November, it wasn’t received until the 28th and deciphered on the 29th.

As early as 1 October, official Russian Federation Ministry of Defense publications began publishing information promoting an Armed Forces Mental Health Support Hotline. Specifically aimed at soldi…

As early as 1 October, official Russian Federation Ministry of Defense publications began publishing information promoting an Armed Forces Mental Health Support Hotline. Specifically aimed at soldiers returning from the so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine and their families, the announcement states that hotline operators will provide cost-free, around-the-clock mental health assistance and informational psychological support to all returning service members and their families.

On 8 October 2025, the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense published notification of “the suspension of right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of the Russian Federation&#…

On 8 October 2025, the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense published notification of "the suspension of right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of the Russian Federation" in the southeastern Baltic Sea "for foreign military ships and other state vessels operated for non-commercial purposes." This declaration, which is in effect through 31 December 2025, effectively seals off the Kaliningrad coast from unwanted or potentially hostile shipping activities.