Russian Studies Documents

For about 70 years of its long history, Russia was part of the Soviet Union. Explore before-and-after stories about the country and its people, writers, artists, culture, rulers and worldwide influence.

This document, written in Russian, is the Agreement by which the United States purchased Alaska from Russia.  To some individuals, this purchase ...

This image depicts a Russian-language, two-volume set of Brothers Karamazov.  Fyodor Dostoevsky, its author, died four months after finishing the...

This image depicts a farewell letter which Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote to his brother, Mikhail, before he left for the penal colony in Siberia. Click on ...

Fyodor Dostoevsky had a close encounter with a firing squad before he became a famous writer.  At the last minute, Nicholas I (the Russian Tsar a...

Bookcover image of Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, by William Craig.

  On the 20th of February, 1962, Brigadier General Edward G. Lansdale prepared a memo addressing how the United States government could "help th...

Magazine cover image of Vremya ("Time"), an 1863 edition of the monthly journal which Dostoevsky founded (in 1861) with his brother Mikhail.

This image depicts the cover of a book by Anna Dostoevsky (Anna Dostoyevskaya), the wife (then widow) of the famous Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky....

In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff considered whether America should launch a military invasion of Cuba. This image depicts a top-secret, now-declassi...

This image depicts the second page of a formerly top-secret, now-declassified draft document which considers the reasons why America would be justifie...

  The U.S. federal government considered a "body of secrets" which could justify an American military invasion of Cuba. Those items, set forth i...

  The U.S. federal government considered implementing various terrorist activities to justify an American military invasion of Cuba. The top-sec...

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