Clancy Tucker's Blog: RUSSIA

Showing posts with label RUSSIA. Show all posts

6 January 2023 - COLD WAR FORTRESS BENEATH MOSCOW

COLD WAR FORTRESS

BENEATH MOSCOW

G'day folks,

There’s an amazing tunnel system snaking beneath the streets of Moscow, leading to a secret cold war fortress once code named “Bunker-42.”

Designed and built after the first series of nuclear tests by the Soviet Union, these tests revealed that the optimum depth for the bunker’s silo must be no higher than 165 feet beneath ground in order to survive nuclear fallout intact. The task for the builders was enormous: construct a gigantic structure beneath the city streets without damaging Moscow’s existing infrastructure of streets and communication pathways. To do so would alert the public and innumerable unknown spies to the existence of the bunker, thereby rendering the entire (read: top-secret) thing useless.

Strategically located inside a hill in the Tagansky district due to its proximity to the Kremlin, allowing quick access to the bunker for Stalin and the premier tier of government officials within the USSR, Bunker-42 wasn’t completed until 1956 and was thankfully never put into use in its full capacity. Rather, it spent the subsequent three decades as an airstrike command base, communicating with aircraft transporting strategic bombers carrying nuclear weapons until the political climate began to shift in 1986.

Today, the space exists as a historical monument that is equal parts museum to what life was like on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War era and tour of the previously top-secret bunker itself, bringing visitors below ground to a time when the world lived on the constant brink of nuclear annihilation. A variety of tour packages are available at all hours of the day, catering to a range of ages, some of which focus more on the historical aspects of the space, while other take a nearly comic angle on the tangible threat of nuclear annihilation for all humankind.

24 July 2022 - MYSTERY BLAST IN SIBERIA IN 1908

MYSTERY BLAST

IN SIBERIA IN 1908

G'day folks,

A huge mysterious blast rocked eastern Siberia in 1908, leaving millions of trees lying on the ground, mostly pointing in the same direction, over an area of many kilometres.

It was a difficult area to reach at the time and it was not until 1927, nearly 20 years later, that the first Soviet research expedition arrived at the scene.

They found millions of fallen trees and evidence that a huge number of reindeer had been killed. The first conclusion was that a meteor had struck, though scientists were baffled by the absence of a crater.

Over the years, a number of theories were put forward to explain what became known as the Tunguska Event – the explosion that occurred around Siberia’s Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.

They included claims of an alien spacecraft colliding with Earth, and the sudden appearance of a mini black hole.

Today, scientists believe they know the answer. It is thought that an incoming meteor or comet exploded on contact with our atmosphere, causing what is known as an air burst five to ten kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

It released enough energy to devastate any lifeform in the area – including all those trees.

That’s the theory. But nobody knows for sure.

21 October 2021 - WHAT WAS 'RED OCTOBER'?

WHAT WAS

'RED OCTOBER'?

G'day folks,

No doubt, you have heard this term before, but what does it signify?

After the February Revolution in 1917 overthrew Russia's centuries-old monarchy, the conflict between the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky and the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin intensified around the country.

On 7 November (25 October in Old Style) Bolshevik forces under Lenin's command seized government buildings in Petrograd (or St. Petersburg) and the following day the Winter Palace. This began the Soviet rise to power, and on 9 November the Bolsheviks proclaimed the creation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the first socialist state so created.

The revolution did not end the struggles. Over the next 5 years the country descended into the chaos and anarchy of the Russian Civil War; the Soviets would triumph, leading to the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Clancy's comment: Now you know. My personal experiences in Russia were delightful. That's all I will say.

I'm ...

25 August 2021 - THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOVIET UNION

THE ESTABLISHMENT

OF THE SOVIET UNION

G'day folks,

In October 1918 the Bolsheviks in Russia overthrew the provisional government that had been established through a revolution in February that year. Almost immediately, an extremely devastating and deadly civil war erupted throughout the country.

By 1922 the Bolsheviks had destroyed their counter-revolutionary enemies, various independence movements and non-Bolshevik socialist foes. This had allowed them to create and sign the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, which formed a union of the various Soviet republics - Russia, Ukraine, Transcaucasia and Byelorussia - into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union.

This communist union would endure for almost seventy years and would greatly expand beyond its original four republics into fifteen. By the late 1980s however, economic and political pressure for an end to the dictatorship led to the gradual disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The leaders of three of the founding republics met on December 9, 1991, in Belarus, and agreed to dissolve the Union on December 26 by denouncing the Treaty and declaring it void. Thus the communist flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time that night and the various republics became independent states.

Clancy's comment: And, now we have Vladimir Putin at the helm.

I'm ...

24 March 2021 - ANCIENT BOOT FOUND IN SIBERIA

ANCIENT BOOT

FOUND IN SIBERIA

G'day folks,

This exquisitely-designed women’s boot was discovered in Siberia's Altai mountains in 1948.

This stunning shoe is believed to be 2,300 years old and was worn by a Scythian woman around 300–290 BC. Ancient Scythians, also called Scyth, Saka, and Sacae, were nomadic people who traveled through the Eurasian continent. This shoe features elaborately bedazzled patterns and is made of leather, textile, tin, and gold. The immaculate condition of the shoe has mystified historians.

Many believe that this might be because such shoes were particularly made for Scythian burial mounds. Scythians were known to construct wooded structures deep in the ground to place their dead. Each body was placed inside a log coffin, along with many of their essentials, which they thought their dead needed for the eternal rides of the afterlife. This red cloth-wrapped leather boot, now a part of the State Hermitage Museum‘s collection in St Petersburg, Russia, is likely to have belonged to a high-ranking woman.

Clancy's comment: That is one flash boot. Nike would be proud of it.

I'm ...

16 March 2021 - ANASTASIA THE FAKE

ANASTASIA THE FAKE

G'day folks,

In July of 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks in a basement in Ekaterinburg. However, rumors soon started to spread that Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter had managed to escape. These rumors were exploited by several imposters, but one of them went down in history as one of the greatest con artists ever - Anna Anderson.

In 1920, a nameless woman was pulled out of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin after a failed suicide attempt. She had no identifying documents and refused to talk, so the authorities sent her to a mental institution, where she stayed for 2 years. It was there that people started pointing out her physical resemblance to Grand Dutchess Anastasia, as well as her aloof demeanor and strange scars. When she finally started speaking again, it turned out that she also had a barely noticeable Russian accent.

Many former aides and relatives of the Russian Royal Family came to visit Anderson to see if there was any truth to these claims. When she was shown old photographs of the family, her face would always turn red and she would become increasingly upset while refusing to speak. Only later that night she told one of the nurses: "The gentleman has a photo of my grandmother." She appeared to know many small details of the royal family's personal life. Though there were numerous inconsistencies in her stories and many doubted her legitimacy, word started to spread that Anderson was, in fact, Anastasia.

Upon her release from the asylum, Anderson’s circle of supporters grew, and they even began a long battle to win her legal recognition as Anastasia. By 1927, an alleged former roommate of Anderson claimed that her name was Franziska Schanzkowska, not Anna and certainly not Anastasia. This didn’t stop Anderson from indulging in her celebrity life and trying to get hold of the royal inheritance.

She ultimately lost her case in the legal proceedings that dragged on for decades, but she stuck to her story until her death in 1984. Years later, the bodies of the Royal Family were recovered and a posthumous DNA test finally proved that Anderson was indeed a fraud. If anything, she was likely Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker who had gone missing in 1920.

Clancy's comment: Interesting story, eh?

I'm ...

13 December 2020 - UNIQUE BUS STOPS IN ABKHAZI

UNIQUE BUS STOPS

IN ABKHAZI

G'day folks,

You might have never heard of Abkhazia – it’s a small plot of land between Georgia and Russia along the Black Sea. It’s surprisingly beautiful and populated by friendly people.

Nevertheless, it’s a disputed region. This de facto state has been struggling for international recognition for many years, and the conflict is still not resolved yet, sadly.

In many countries, these stops are just a place where you wait, a shelter from the weather elements. However, Abkhazia’s stops have extraordinary designs and are so unique. These surreal places are very uncommon for Soviet times. Architectural freedom was not allowed into the Soviet Union, the regulations were very strict, and the technology was limited. You’ll find specially designed shelters everywhere across the former Soviet Union, but the ones at the Black Sea in Abkhazia are the most peculiar and unique.

You’ll find most of them on the highway between Gagra, Pitsunda and New Athos. One man was responsible for these amazing designs – an architect, a painter, and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. Since he got his inspiration from the Black Sea, several stops are shaped like giant seashells, waves or fishes. Back in the day, local people were surprised and intimidated by this style and creativity, it was too western. Most of them didn’t like the shelters but now those places are landmarks and tourist sites.