Back in the USSR: the Soviet Sixties

Have women been relegated to the footnotes of French history? Katherine Pangonis – whose latest book is A History of France in 21 Women – tells Charlotte Vosper about why their stories have been pushed to the sidelines, and highlights some of the pioneering personalities who dese ...  Show more

Few people had as much impact on the course of the 20th century as Vladimir Lenin – from his years as an émigré across the capitals of western Europe, to his role in the October Revolution of 1917 and the inception of the world’s first self-described ‘socialist’ state. In this ep ...  Show more

In August 1991 there was an attempted coup in the Soviet Union as communist hard-liners sought to re-establish the dominance of Soviet rule in Russia and its satellite states. The coup attempt collapsed after three days and it eventually led to the collapse of communism. Mikhail ...  Show more

[Episode 2 of 4] This episode of The Rest Is History marks the second instalment in our four part series on the Soviet Union, Russia and the rise of Vladimir Putin. From the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1987 to the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991 ...  Show more

The Cold War was defined by the antagonism between two world superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. They relied on proxy wars, espionage, disinformation, assassinations and sabotage to undermine one another as part of a greater ideological battle between Western ...

From its initial creation in 1922, the Soviet Union was perhaps the most ambitious political experiment in human history. But how did this superpower come about? And in its first decades, how did its founding principles of equality transform to fit a nation that became synonymous ...  Show more