The Latest Breaking News from the Soviet Union

A routine scientific rocket launch from Norway in January 1995 triggered one of the most serious nuclear alerts of the post Cold War era, as reported by the BBC. For several tense minutes, Russian military systems identified the object as a possible incoming missile. The alert reached the highest level…

At the outset of the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, a singer bemoans his separation from a beloved friend who grew up beside him. Today, the friends rarely meet “näillä raukoilla rajoilla, poloisilla Pohjan mailla” – lines which translator Keith Bosley renders “on these poor borders, the luckless lands of the…

When we think of space exploration names like Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong dominate the narrative. But long before humans ever strapped themselves into rockets animals were sent into space as living test subjects. Their missions were risky, one way and driven by a simple question scientists could not answer…

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization began in 1949 as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, but has expanded in size in the decades since