By the end of 1940 Hitler had authorised the invasion of the USSR, with the intention of securing agricultural land and raw materials, alongside the eradication of communism.
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.
Instigated on 24 June the previous year, the Soviet blockade prevented all rail, road, and water transport between Berlin and the West of the Germany.
Khrushchev had already been elected First Secretary of the Communist Party, and his later rise to Chairman of the Council of Ministers placed both the party leadership and the government administration under his direct control.
At approximately 10:34 a.m. Moscow time, Alexei Leonov floated outside the spacecraft Voskhod 2 and remained there for just over twelve minutes.
In 1922 the USSR consisted of just four Soviet republics – the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR.
As it became obvious that the USSR was falling apart, on 25 December Gorbachev resigned as President and the Soviet Union was formally dissolved the next day.
The authorities claimed that the murder was part of a broader conspiracy involving former oppositionists,, and used it as a catalyst for the purges that began in 1935 and escalated into mass arrests, show trials, and executions.
Under Yezhov’s leadership the NKVD launched a campaign of arrests targeting party members, military officers, and civilians that saw widespread purges, forced confessions, and executions. Estimates of those killed range into the hundreds of thousands.
The Reykjavík Summit quickly developed into one of the most significant negotiations of the era, with both sides beginning to address the escalating nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
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