O n May 18, 1991, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev departed Earth for the Soviet space station Mir. While he was up there, the country that had sent him ceased to exist, making Krikalev – for a few months at ...

The cataclysmic collapse 20 years ago of the Soviet Union, an empire which bound republics from Europe to Asia for seven decades, unleashed conflict, instability and poverty that are still felt today.

The fall of the USSR wasn’t just economic decay—it was pressure from Reagan’s foreign policy, military buildup, and covert strategy. While often overlooked, these moves helped unravel the Soviet ...

The Soviet Union’s economy once stood as a symbol of strength and rapid progress. Under Stalin, the USSR industrialized at an unprecedented pace, rising from the ashes of the Russian Empire to become ...

In the free world, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a cause for celebration. In the United States, it was widely viewed as a victory for the American way of life — a free nation under God.

March 1989 - Soviet Union holds first competitive multi-candidate elections to choose a Congress of People's Deputies. Many prominent old guard Communists lose out to independents, and separatists win ...

“You’re next,” said a Russian historian I interviewed in 1993 about the Soviet Union’s collapse in late 1991. I was an American student in St. Petersburg, and he was referring to the United States.

So, the six year period of Gorbachev from 1985 leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 can be divided into two halves.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, it was supposed to be the beginning of a new era. Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen spent her early career covering what was expected to be the birth of ...

“You’re next,” said a Russian historian I interviewed in 1993 about the Soviet Union’s collapse in late 1991. I was an American student in St. Petersburg, and he was referring to the ...