Despite being an ardent Marxist he began moves towards introducing a multiparty political system and, on 1 November 1956, announced Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and its status as a neutral country.
Rust approached Moscow in the early evening and, after passing the city’s ‘Ring of Steel’ anti-aircraft defences, touched down on a bridge next to St Basil’s Cathedral and taxied his aircraft into Red Square.
The Moscow–Washington hotline entered operation, providing a direct link between the Kremlin and the Pentagon.
By the time Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 1989, it had become one of the CIA’s longest and most expensive covert operations.
The sensational defection of Stalin’s only surviving child made international news and four days later, at a press conference in the Plaza Hotel, she denounced the Soviet Communist regime and her father’s leadership.
On the 27th January 1945, Soviet soldiers from the 322nd Rifle Division liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp near the Polish city of Oświęcim.
On the 26th December 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union met for the last time to formally dissolve itself and the Soviet Union.
On the 6th December 1956, the “Blood in the Water” water polo match took place between the USSR and Hungary.
When news of the incident reached the Soviet Union, party leader Leonid Brezhnev wrote to Carter condemning the ‘tremendous danger’ caused by the error.
Shortly after midnight in Moscow, the Soviets became the first to successfully send a human-made object to the Moon.
28th June 2015
11th November 2020
11th November 2020
9th November 2019
1st September 2018
