Soviet Union

Gorbachev's Sermon on the Mount

Robert Scheer | Posted 11.11.2009 | World


Robert Scheer

When Gorbachev came to power he, like Obama, inherited a war that was not in the interest of his nation. If the response of a Soviet dictator was to end it, might we not be justified in doing the same?

An Open Letter to President Obama About Afghanistan From William R. Polk

The Nation | Posted 11.11.2009 | World


I was an early supporter of yours. So I hope you will accept the following analysis and proposals as being from a friend as well as a person with cons...

20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Will Another Superpower Meet Its End in Afghanistan?

Loretta Napoleoni | Posted 11.10.2009 | World


Loretta Napoleoni

Remarkably, Afghanistan seems once again to be shaping our future. It is paradoxical that the graveyard of one superpower should become a battlefield for the other.

Cold War's End -- The Wall Comes Down

Chris Weigant | Posted 11.10.2009 | Politics


Chris Weigant

The fall of The Wall signified the fall of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War. And while this was of enormous historical import, I fear that future generations won't really pay much attention to it.

Who Caused the End of the Cold War?

Joseph Nye | Posted 11.10.2009 | World


Joseph Nye

The end of the Cold War was a greater historical transformation than 9/11, but controversy persists about its causes.

Mikhail Gorbachev Supports US Withdrawal From Afghanistan (Video)

Posted 11.08.2009 | World


Mikhail Gorbachev supports a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The former president of the Soviet Union spoke to CNN's John King Sunday on State Of ...

John Reid: The enduring implications of the fall of the Berlin Wall

The Independent | Independent | Posted 11.08.2009 | Home


The fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989, was one of history's truly epochal moments. During what became a revolutionary wave sweeping ac...

When Will the U.S. and Russia Stop Acting Like It's Still the Cold War?

Russ Wellen | Posted 11.04.2009 | World


Russ Wellen

Unless nuclear states can shed the Cold War mentality once and for all, it's hard to be optimistic about the long-terms prospects for disarmament.

Keeping Afghanistan Safe from Democracy

Robert Scheer | Posted 11.04.2009 | World


Robert Scheer

The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.

From The Pentagon To Monty Python: The Internet Turns 40

Chris Weigant | Posted 10.29.2009 | Technology


Chris Weigant

Technology has grown by such leaps and bounds since 1969 that it's hard to conceive how things were before we all had access to computers.

Women at Work: Insights From Women on the Front Lines of Polish Design

Chauncey Zalkin | Posted 10.22.2009 | Style


Chauncey Zalkin

Design is about people -- the handiwork of the creator, human ingenuity, and the social ramifications of design in use.

Obama in the Thicket of "Afghaniranistan"

William Bradley | Posted 10.21.2009 | World


William Bradley

Obama is in a multi-faceted complex of geopolitical crises. He is actively using military force in two of the countries, and has threatened, at the least, tough sanctions in the third.

Getting the Vietnam Analogy Right in Afghanistan

Leon T. Hadar | Posted 10.21.2009 | World


Leon T. Hadar

The ghosts of the Vietnam War seem to be hanging around the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his national security aides debate a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

Stalin Libel Suit: Josef Stalin's Grandson Loses Case Against Newspaper

AP | Posted 10.13.2009 | World


MOSCOW (AP)- A Russian court ruled against Josef Stalin's grandson Tuesday in a libel suit over a newspaper article that said the Soviet dictator sent...

Mich. man denies WWII crimes in deportation case

AP | ED WHITE | Posted 10.13.2009 | Home


DETROIT — An 88-year-old retired auto engineer told a judge Tuesday that he never shot Jews while serving in a Nazi-controlled police force during World War II, during an initial hearing over whether the government can deport him.

Speaking through his lawyer, John Kalymon, of suburban Detroit, denied the U.S. Justice Department's assertion that he claimed to have fired his gun at least eight times and killed a Jew in August 1942, when Jews were being rounded up and removed from what is now Lviv, Ukraine.

Judge Elizabeth Hacker told the Justice Department to file a brief detailing its case by early 2010. Xenos would have until Feb. 26 to respond to the brief. A trial date has not been set.

Kalymon was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 2007, and the government is seeking to deport him. It hasn't been determined where he would go.

"My heart is pounding a little bit harder. I'm too old and sick," Kalymon told The Associated Press after the brief hearing.

Court rules against Stalin grandson in libel suit

AP | DAVID NOWAK | Posted 10.13.2009 | Home


MOSCOW — A Russian court ruled against Josef Stalin's grandson Tuesday in a libel suit over a newspaper article that said the Soviet dictator sent thousands of people to their deaths.

A judge at a Moscow district court rejected Yevgeny Dzhugashvili's claim that Novaya Gazeta damaged Stalin's honor and dignity in an April article that referred to him as a "bloodthirsty cannibal."

The case essentially put Stalin on trial more than 50 years after his death. A ruling against the newspaper would have been seen as an exoneration one of the 20th century's most notorious autocrats.

And it would have dealt a blow to beleaguered Russian liberals, who accuse the Kremlin of whitewashing history.

The late-evening ruling was a rare victory for Stalin's critics in their fight against efforts to rehabilitate the dictator, who according to the rights group Memorial ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 people during a series of purges that peaked in the late 1930s. But defendants said that having the case even make it to court was evidence of a chilling tendency to question the dark side of Soviet history.

Republican Leaders Join In Honoring New Rotunda Statue Of Radical Socialist Woman

Chris Weigant | Posted 10.07.2009 | Politics


Chris Weigant

A woman whose name we all know was a proud Red, a committed Socialist, and an unapologetic Wobbly. And now she's not only buried in the National Cathedral, she's got her own statue in the Capitol.

Our Best Way Forward in Afghanistan is Out

Mary Ellen McNish | Posted 10.06.2009 | Politics


Mary Ellen McNish

Afghans and Americans deserve is a full, public discussion of the policy choices looming in the next weeks. We must choose to demonstrate a commitment to the rule of law, and not violence.

Sam Tanenhaus, The Death of Conservatism (Review)

Joseph A. Palermo | Posted 10.06.2009 | Books


Joseph A. Palermo

Although a masterful writer, Tanenhaus gives his readers disembodied voices plucked from historical context, where the nexus of thought and action, theory and praxis, is either broken or simply ignored.

Fidel Castro Suggested Nuclear Strike On U.S.: Documents

nytimes.com | WILLIAM J. BROAD | Posted 09.22.2009 | World


In the early 1980s, according to newly released documents, Fidel Castro was suggesting a Soviet nuclear strike against the United States, until Moscow...

This Film is an Idiot's Version of Naomi Klein's Masterpiece

Johann Hari | Posted 10.22.2009 | World


Johann Hari

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine is one of the most important political books of the past decade. But Michael Winterbottom's "adaptation" for film is garbled and mumbled to the point of meaninglessness.

I Agree With George Will

John Burton | Posted 10.21.2009 | Politics


John Burton

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton announces his organization's desire for a speedy American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

34 Years

Yoani Sanchez | Posted 10.20.2009 | World


Yoani Sanchez

Since I left home in Cuba, I have learned to value autonomy, to distrust the subsidies and all these "gifts" that they constantly throw in the faces of citizens.

Death of a Superpower: Twenty Years After

David Calleo | Posted 09.29.2009 | Politics


David Calleo

The root cause of our present predicament lies in our failure to understand that the end of the Soviet Union pointed not toward a "unipolar" world under American hegemony but toward a plural world of several great powers.

Reigniting America's Human Rights Mojo

Rabbi Abraham Cooper | Posted 09.27.2009 | Politics


Rabbi Abraham Cooper

In Cairo, President Obama rightly said that the U.S. should not be in the business of imposing democracy, but can we be indifferent to those who seek to embrace it?