By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 April 2024
The Petrov Affair: Soviet Spies and Australian Reaction in the Early Cold War
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: NKVD
Remembering Korea: The First “Hot War” of the Cold War
The First Proxy War of the Cold War in Greece
NKVD Order No. 00447 (English Translation)
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 6 August 2023
The head of the Soviet NKVD, Nikolai Yezhov, issued Prikaz (Order) Number 00447 on 30 July 1937, a secret instruction soon signed-off by Joseph Stalin, which vastly expanded the scope and scale of the Great Terror within the Soviet Union. The 2008 book, The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939, by J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov, as translated by Benjamin Sher, contains nearly the full text of the order (pp. 473-80), which is reproduced below.
A Flawed Film Brings Attention to the Soviet Terror-Famine in Ukraine
The Soviet Role and (the Lack of) “Justice” At Nuremberg
A Prop of Autocracy and a Nest of Spies: The Russian Orthodox Church
Christianity, the West, and Russia’s War on Ukraine
“Socialism With A Human Face” Was Always Impossible
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 21 August 2022
It was on this day in 1968, fifty-four years ago, that the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, one of its colonies in the “Warsaw Pact”, which had embarked on a program of liberalising reforms. The Czech leadership did not intend to depart from the socialist path, merely to soften its edges—and ran into the brute fact that this was not possible. Continue reading
A Case of Red Terror in Spain: The Cárcel Modelo Massacre
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 October 2021
Cárcel Modelo, 1937 || MINISTERIO DE CULTURA. ESPAÑA
A fire was started at the Cárcel Modelo (Model Jail) in Madrid on 22 August 1936 by “common” criminals displeased with the pace of releases promised by the Republican government. The Republicans convinced themselves that the Carcel Modelo fire was a “fascist” uprising, brought about by conspiracy with General Franco’s forces outside the prison walls, who had initiated their rebellion a month earlier. The fire was used as a pretext by the Republicans to carry out a massacre of prisoners that lasted into the early hours of 23 August, in scenes reminiscent of the French Revolution’s September 1792 atrocities that signalled the onset of the Terror. There were Rightist among the victims and some military men; there were also many liberals and non-Soviet Leftists. Continue reading
Kyle Orton's Blog 