soviet
Inside the Crumbling Apartments of the Former Soviet Union
Photographer Alex Schoelcher captures the inhabitants of these brutalist relics.
These Brothers Were Eavesdropping on Space Transmissions When They Heard Cries for Help
It's one of the strangest mysteries of the 20th century.
Two Canadian Provinces Pull Vodka With Soviet Symbol from Shelves Due to Protests
Ukrainian-Canadian citizen groups consider the hammer and sickle symbol offensive.
I Guarded an Arctic Base Against Polar Bears at the Frontline of the Apocalypse
The DEW Line was built in the fifties to warn of a nuclear threat. I guarded six workers there from polar bears.
How an Airline Tragedy Brought GPS to the Masses
The Soviet shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983 spurred Ronald Reagan to open the US military’s satellite-based Global Positioning System for civilian use.
Heineken Could Be Banned in Hungary for Use of Red Star in Logo
The Eastern European nation hopes to eradicate the usage of communist iconography and Nazi symbology, including the swastika and the red star.
A Soviet Film Predicted Our Robot Apocalypse—In 1977
‘Polygon’ was practically banned for subversion.
I Travelled to Russia’s Northernmost City to Be Its Only Tourist
No one really travels to Murmansk for fun. Except for me.
The First Time Humans Crashed a Probe on Mars
On November 27, 1971, Mars 2 became the first human-made object to reach the surface of the Red Planet.
‘On the Silver Globe’ Is the Best Sci-Fi Film Never Made
The story of how one of the most stunning sci-fi films ever made was (almost) swallowed by history.
The Ketwurst Is Germany’s Strangely Phallic Answer to the Hot Dog
The ketwurst is an East German hot-dog-not-hot-dog made by pushing a bread roll onto a hot spike, toasting the inside, swilling a sausage around in a tray of ketchup, and squeezing the resulting meat mess into the bread hole.
The Orbital Handshake That Changed Space History
What do you get when you mix the USA with the USSR in space? The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, of course.