for questions regarding the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union
Questions tagged [soviet-union]
42 questions
174
votes
1 answer
Did NASA invest a million dollars in the research of a space pen, when the USSR simply used a pencil?
I encountered this picture of the "Russian space pen" from the MIT Museum gift shop
When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they realized that the ball-point pen would not work at zero gravity.
A million dollar investment and two…
SIMEL
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36
votes
1 answer
Did the Soviet Union murder over 20M people under its control after the war?
Richard Rumelt (business professor at UCLA, 2011):
During the whole post-WWII period, the Soviet Union murdered upward of 20 million people, its own citizens and others under its control
True?
user17967
30
votes
3 answers
Did a Soviet nail factory produce useless nails to improve metrics?
We've all heard the story, which sounds for all the world like a typical urban legend. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time, there was a factory in the Soviet Union that made
nails. Unfortunately, Moscow set quotas on their nail…
Mason Wheeler
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25
votes
1 answer
Is this video of the Soviet Dog Revival Experiment real?
In this video a dog's head is brought back to life by artificially injecting blood and air. The dog's head reacted to sound and touch and used its tongue to taste.
I am not skeptic about its possibility, but I am skeptic if it was possible in 1940. …
smUsamaShah
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24
votes
0 answers
Was there a Soviet anti-motorcycle-helmet campaign in the late 1950s and early 1960s?
Lessig (1995, pp. 964–965) writes:
Before the 1960s, motorcyclists in Soviet Russia did not wear helmets. In part this was because of a lack of any perceived need to wear helmets; in part it was because the Soviet economy failed to produce any…
user17967
22
votes
1 answer
Did the Soviet Union ban microwave ovens in 1976?
Some anti-microwave evangelists make the claim that the USSR banned microwave ovens in 1976 following a study which raised health concerns. Sometimes an additional claim is made that the ban lasted into the 90s. This sounds like an urban legend to…
James
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21
votes
3 answers
Was the KGB using leftists to "destabilize" nations?
In 1984, a former KGB agent, Yuri Bezmenov, claimed in a lengthy interview that:
@32:11: [...] progressive intellectuals; writers, journalists, publishers, professors of colleges [...] For us they were just a bunch of political prostitutes to be…
Maria check profile
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21
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1 answer
Was Oppenheimer a spy passing nuclear secrets to Soviet agents?
From Los Angeles Times:
A Soviet spy chief's memoirs published here today claim that the late J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the U.S. atomic bomb project during and after World War II, passed nuclear secrets to Soviet agents.
Was Oppenheimer a spy…
Carlo Alterego
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20
votes
1 answer
Did 57% of people in France believe that the USSR contributed the most to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945?
The following image is frequently circulating when WWII is discussed:
Poll in France: "In your opinion, which country contributed most to the defeat of Germany in 1945?" (Source: polls IFOP 1945, 1994, 2004, 2015)
According to the image, 57% of…
JonathanReez
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20
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1 answer
Did Stalin kill more than 10 million People?
There are many sources claiming that Stalin killed between 20 and 60 million people. A few articles with this claim:
In February 1989, two years before the fall of the Soviet Union, a research paper by Georgian historian Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev…
Nutomic
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16
votes
4 answers
Did Lenin say "destroy the family, you destroy the country", and if so in what context?
Various publications e.g. "The Parent Care Conversation" (which seems to be a religiously inspired book in some parts at least) attribute the saying "destroy the family, you destroy the country" to Lenin.
The book "The Marxist Goliath Among Us"…
Fizz
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16
votes
1 answer
Was very little or no new medication developed in the USSR?
Prof. Robert (Haim) Belmaker, head of the Israeli Psychiatric Association, spoke today (2018-01-05) on the סדר יום / Daily Agenda radio program (Note this is a program in Hebrew).
At some point in the conversation he claimed that "during the USSR's…
einpoklum
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14
votes
2 answers
Was this Communist Party Directive from 1943 genuine?
When certain obstructionists become too irritating, label them after
suitable buildups as fascist or Nazi or anti-Semitic and used the
prestige of anti-fascist and tolerance organisations to discredit
them. In the public mind constantly…
Andrew
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14
votes
1 answer
Did secret police in the Eastern Bloc use X-ray machines to give people cancer?
This Reddit thread claims that the Soviet secret police used hidden x-ray machines to give people cancer in order to remove them quitely from power.
I've heard that claim colloquially before but have hard time believing it.
Apparently, in the…
ventsyv
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14
votes
2 answers
Did the USSR have 21 thousand tanks at the beginning of WW2?
In the Icebreaker series by Viktor Suvorov, he says that at the beginning of World War 2, the Soviet Union had roughly 7 times as many tanks as Nazi Germany, which had 3000-4000 tanks.
I can't remember the exact figures, but according to him the…
sashoalm
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