In the Soviet Union only the party was owed obedience. 13-year-old Pavlik Morozov had learned this well. According to Soviet historiography, which made him a hero, Morozov belonged to the Pioneers childrens party organization. Stalinist history states that little Morozov, born in Gerasimovka in t
In 1970, Egypt and Israel were not, typically, at war. In fact, however, the hostilities had not ceased after the Six Day War. This phase, called the War of Attrition, continued for years on land, air and sea. Having been defeated state by state and having lost the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptians
Egypts Antiquities Minister Khaled El Enani announced, from Giza, the discovery of an Old Kingdom necropolis, approximately 4,500 years old. According to Mustafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and director of the team of the Egyptian Archaeological Mission that made
Dmitry Ofharenko was born in Eastern Ukraine, near Kharkiv. His father was a carpenter and he himself had no appeal to learning until he reached the fifth grade. However, what he learned well from his father was how to handle the axe... In July 1941, the Soviet Union was going through dramatic ti
A small ship is extremely difficult to escape from the enemy when he is overwhelmingly superior in sea and air. This was also the case in World War II. On February 27, 1942, in the Java Sea, the Japanese crushed the allied naval forces. Only four small Dutch vessels survived the disaster. But thr
On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists attacked Israels Olympic team in Munich and killed 11 of its members. Of course one would have to be naive to believe that the Israelis would let such a challenge go unanswered. Two days after the massacre, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir formed Com
A rare video from 1962 shows the intense activity on the deck of the USS “Shangri La” (CVA-38), one of the US Navy’s 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers. The aircraft carrier then belonged to the force of the 6th Fleet and was on a mission in the Mediterranean. The video features rare aircraft such
At dawn on December 18, 1961, Indian aircraft crossed the border and bombed an airfield and various other positions. At the same time Indian paratroopers supported by tanks and artillery were crossing that border. Did they invade Pakistan or China? In neither country. The territory they invaded belo
Stephen the Great of Moldavia, cousin of the famous Vlad Dracul, was one of the great personalities of the late Middle Ages and a fanatical opponent of the Turks. The area of Bessarabia was a point of friction between the Moldavian ruler and the Ottoman sultan Mohammed II. The Moldavian-Turkish co
Ludmila Pavlichenko was born on July 12, 1916. She was Ukrainian and everything seemed to lead a life like all girls her age. But fate had decided otherwise for her. She was to become the leading Soviet female sniper with 309 hits. Pavlichenko had learned to aim from an early age, being a member
On June 22, 1944, the Soviets launched Operation Bagration, their largest offensive on the Eastern Front to date, with the aim of crushing the German forces in Belorussia. By July 15, the Soviets had reached Grodno, in what is now western Belarus, on the border with Poland. The next day they occu
In 1095 Pope Urvanos proclaimed the crusade to expel the Muslims from the Holy Land. For the following years the crusades continued. In 1212 a 12-year-old, Stephen of Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, was received by the French king in Paris. Stephanos was followed by 30,000 children who started with the visio
Human tissue from prisoners executed by the Nazi regime and used in anatomy experiments will be buried in Berlin on Monday after three years of research on samples handed over by descendants of Dr. Hermann Steeve, the director of the Anatomy Institute of the University of Berlin during the Third Rei
The Brusilov Offensive was the greatest Russian military success in World War I. However, it too managed to be tarnished by the incompetence of some Russian generals. The offensive of General Brusilov, admittedly the best Russian commander-in-chief during World War I, began brilliantly on June 4, 19
At Mainta in Calabria the British and French clashed once more during the Napoleonic Wars. There, once again, British supremacy was demonstrated, but also the horrors of war were demonstrated through the mens personal stories. At first light on the 4th of July 1806 the two opposing forces moved
The Soviet offensive in the sector of the German 4th Army began on June 23, 1944, as part of the larger offensive in Belorussia (Operation Bagration). Forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front acted on its northern flank, which broke through the German XXVII Army Corps (SS) of the German 4th Army. The
The successful test of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 in August 1949 inspired the countrys leadership to proceed with the acquisition of a thermonuclear weapon, better known as a hydrogen bomb. The Soviets had access to the American plans thanks to the German scientist Klaus Fuchs. The projec
The Soviet 63rd Rifle Division (MT) was one of the major units of the 5th Army, forming the extreme right of its formation. The 63rd MT had three infantry regiments, one artillery regiment and was reinforced with an assault gun battalion. Before the attack he was reinforced with an additional as
The Tatars of Kazan, together with their fellow-citizens of Astrakhan and Crimea, were, for centuries, the main rivals of Russia. The Tatars, descendants of the Mongols of the Golden Horde, who conquered Russia, for about two centuries, raided Russian lands at regular intervals, spreading terror and
Germany was one of the pioneers in jet aircraft technology. In the fall of 1940 the Air Ministry issued a specification for a high-speed, long-range jet-powered aircraft. Of all the German aircraft manufacturers, only Arado responded. Arado presented the E.370 design which was a twin-engine jet a
(Versailles, 1805 - La Chênaie, Indre, 1894.) Diplomat. He entered the Carrière in 1825 and was a member of the Consulate General in Lisbon. Employed in the offices of the commercial department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1827, he was appointed, on October 19, 1828, student-consul then, sh
May 13, 1763 (Brive-la-Gaillarde) - August 2, 1815 (Avignon) Brune, Guillaume-Marie-Anne A printer and journalist in Paris at the start of the Revolution, a friend of Danton, Brune was adjutant-major in the 21 battalion of Seine-et Oise volunteers in October 1791. Thanks to his political suppor
Statue representing Bastet, an Egyptian deity with the head of a cat • ISTOCKPHOTO In ancient Egypt, the most diverse animals, both tiny insects and snakes, fish, birds or mammals such as the hippopotamus were likely to be divine manifestations. Observing with great acuity the very rich fauna th
Rats eating a fish head, Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889), Musée Guimet • RMN/SERVICE DE PRESSE Contrary to popular belief, the isolation of Japan from 1639 to 1854 was not absolute. In 1641, the Dutch received exclusive European commercial presence in the country, thanks to the construction of an ar