This ad appeared fifty years ago this month, August 1966, in the British magazine Practical Electronics. Details are lacking in the ad (such as the exact frequency coverage), but this import from the Soviet Union is probably one of the first shortwave transistor portables. The ad proclaims “another gold for Russia,” and that “the impossible […]
Today marks the 75th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, which began on June 22, 1941. Hitler had stated his desire to conquer the Soviets in his 1925 Mein Kampf, but in the years leading up to the invasion, the two countries had signed political and economic pacts. But Hitler had […]
Today is the 70th anniversary of Elbe Day, April 25, 1945. On that day, U.S. Army Lt. Albert Kotzebue and three other men in his reconnaissance platoon crossed the Riber Elbe. There, they met forward elements of the Red Army under the command of Lt. Col. Alexander Gardiev. The arranged photo shown above was taken […]
In 1940 and 1941, more than 1.2 million Poles were forcibly deported from Poland to remote areas of the Soviet Union. Those deportations began in earnest 75 years ago today, when more than 220,000 Poles, mostly women and children, were rounded up and sent to northern European Russia. While the USSR never declared war on […]
A recent batch of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by GovernmentAttic.org paints a fascinating picture of U.S. Government plans to deal with the possibility of a Soviet invasion of Alaska in the 1950’s. The 701 pages of formerly secret documents are available at this link. The program, code named Operation Washtub, was put […]
Seventy-five years ago today, only a quarter century after the start of the First World War, the Second was falling into place. Today, August 22, 1939, the papers were reporting the non-aggression pact between between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, that German guns were moving toward the Polish border, and that the Nazis considered […]
Shown here on the cover of Life Magazine 80 years ago today, August 9, 1943, is steelworker Ann Zarik. She had been employed by the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Works at Gary, Indiana, for five months as a flame burner. Her job was to cut out pieces of armor plate for ballistics tests. Her father worked there […]
Eighty years ago, this couple owned a home recorder, visible in the background, for cutting their own 78 RPM records. It was probably a Wilcox-Gay Recordio like the one we previously featured. The problem, however, was that you had to pay for the blank discs, and you could only use them once. The least expensive […]
We’ve previously reported that in the late 1950s, the Soviets led the free world not only in space, but also in kerosene powered radios. They produced a 7-tube set powered by kerosene, a thermocouple, and vibrator power supply. But it turns out that the Americans were close on their heels, and were producing a superior product […]
Fifty years ago this month, the November 1971 issue of Electronics Illustrated carried the story of Ivan The Terrible, the Soviet interloper who interfered with Nazi broadcasts during the war. Deutschlandsender broadcast its German home service on 191 kHz, with broadcasts including the news. One day in 1941, listeners were able to hear additions to the […]