MetaFilter posts tagged with Russia and coldwar

Keeping an eye on and old friend

Burhanistan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:47:55 -0800

Russian strategic nuclear forces - an online watchdog of the movements of Russia's nuclear forces. With informed comments, a book, and six years of archives. Also, the Russians are going to name a ballistic missile submarine after Santa.

Well there goes Reykjavik

blahblah — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:29:06 -0800

More subprime collateral damage. Iceland's now getting a $5B bailout from Russia. What does Russia want in return? Access to shipping lanes? The old US base? via

Better red than dead

infini — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:01:32 -0800

With the potential 'crisis' with Russia, Georgia, Europe et al, the BBC tries to imagine what a new Cold War would be like starting with a tour of the budding Moscow tourist attraction called the Confrontation Cold War Museum. Sold off in an auction last year, the underground bunker now belongs to a private company that plans to turn it into an entertainment complex with a museum about the Cold War, a restaurant and even a spa. But it is already possible to hold fashion shows around the 600-meter-long network of bare, cavernous tunnels.

A Tale of Two Airplanes

kurmbox — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:35:34 -0800

"Once Upon A Time... there were two very special airplanes that lived.... far.... far.... away on a tiny island in the Bering Sea. One was named Rivet Ball and the other was named Rivet Amber. Very few people knew anything about these two planes or the men that flew them. Even family members knew very little. That's because their mission was... TOP SECRET." (some photos and language within are NSFW) [via the wonderful PointNiner]

There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

KokuRyu — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:28:10 -0800

Russian car magazine "Autoreview" has posted photos of a 1978 Korean Air Lines (KAL) forced landing to accompany an article about the Land Rover Defender pickup that was used to haul equipment at that time. Apparently, Korean Air Lines is not amused (Korean) by this effort to dig up the past. More photos. Via the always awesome Marmot's Hole. The KAL 707 airliner heading to Seoul from Paris was forced down on a frozen lake 200 miles south of Murmansk after it strayed off course into Soviet airspace on April 21, 1978. During the forced landing, a missile fired from a Soviet fighter killed two and wounded 13.

Canada's Russian Revolution

amyms — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:25:51 -0800

It stands as one of the more unusual turning points of the Cold War, thanks mostly to the surprise appearance of several naked middle-aged women. Taking The Cure: How a group of British Columbian anarchists inspired democracy in Russia. More information on the Doukhobors at the Doukhobor Discovery Centre and the Doukhobor Genealogy Website. Alexander Yakovlev died in 2005. Here's his obituary as presented by the BBC. For more information about his place in history, see Alexander Yakovlev and the Roots of Soviet Reforms, a collection of documents housed at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. And for those who can read Russian, The Alexander Yakovlev Foundation.

Тхундербирдс являются дороге!

Artw — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:28:50 -0800

Russian cold war bombers - The Tu 95 Bear and Tu 160 Blackjack, based in central Russia, which resumed long range patrols in August.

Союз нерушимый...

Krrrlson — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:13:15 -0800

Newsfilter: Someone is clearly nostalgic for the good old days of the Iron Curtain.

Cold War back on.

reklaw — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:46:27 -0800

Cold War back on.

Samantha Smith

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 08:20:52 -0800

In 1982, ten-year old Samantha Smith from Maine wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov asking whether there was going to be a nuclear war. Andropov responded, and Samantha accepted his invitation to stay at a Russian pioneer camp with Soviet children. Tragically, within the following two years both the young Samantha and Secretary Andropov passed away. (wmv)

The Kremlin minutes

Gyan — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 07:48:20 -0800

Diary of a Collapsing Superpower - "Seventeen years ago, the Berlin Wall fell, and two years later the Soviet Union broke apart. More than 1,400 minutes published earlier this month in Russia from meetings that took place behind the closed doors of the Politburo in Moscow read like a thriller from the highest levels of the Kremlin. They reveal Mikhail Gorbachev as a party chief who had to fight bitterly for his reforms and ultimately lost his battle. But in doing so, he changed the course of history and helped bring an end to the Cold War."

At least the Cold War made sense.

imperium — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 02:00:04 -0800

Now we're faced with a supposedly democratic Russia where the opposition parties are established, crushed, united, their leadership changed, all at the behest of the president. China, now clearly a capitalist state, albeit one without the democratic trimmings, still calls itself communist. Vietnam has gone much the same way.

Some things remain the same, though. America's still meddling in Latin America, just like it did during the Cold War. The US Army is also fighting a guerilla resistance in Iraq, its leaders apparently ignorant of the lessons of history, yet accusing others of exactly that. It's just like the 60s, when it was just as obvious who had learnt lessons and who hadn't.

im in ur sub base killin ur d00dz

dersins — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 14:04:39 -0800

im in ur sub base killin ur d00dz. Eerie photos of a decomissioned Russian submarine base. [via]

One of the world's greatest unsung heroes?

ramakrishna — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 08:39:34 -0800

You may owe your life to this man If it weren't for Stanislav Petrov, many or even most of us reading this might be dead now - or never born, for the teens among us. At least according to this article, and the other links above.

Stalin killed to prevent nuclear war?

mcwetboy — Thu, 06 Mar 2003 10:33:29 -0800

Was Stalin assassinated to prevent him from launching a nuclear attack on the United States? "'The circumstantial evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of non-fortuitous death,' said Jonathan Brent, a professor of Russian history at Yale University. 'And to support this further, we now have solid evidence, non-circumstantial evidence, of a cover-up at the highest level.'"

moz — Fri, 07 Dec 2001 12:55:37 -0800

Secrets of the Cold War in Space. Deep Cold is an website with detailed renderings, quicktime movies and information about the ideas and concepts being developed for both U.S. and Soviet presences in space during the cold war.

rdr — Fri, 13 Jul 2001 12:28:16 -0800

The cold war is over so we can just relax. The russians don't lose track of nuclear material because they still use archaic manual methods rather than buggy software the United States gave them. [via comp.risks]