The history of the first days of January starts with the first Soviet attempt to stop the Nazi army. In addition, Time magazine chooses Stalin as Man of the Year and the USSR changed its anthem. In the space race, the Soviet Union launched the first spacecraft that leaves Earth's orbit. And in 2011, the tallest professional basketball player in history dies. 

Behind the curious name of Arzamas-16 an incredible story hides. Arzamas-16 was the codename of a Russian city (today called Sarov) then in the 1940s ceased to exist, at least officially. The Soviet government removed it from all maps, and its name disappeared from every document. This happened in 1946, when it became the Russian research centre to develop a nuclear bomb to compete against the Americans.

The last week of the year is marked by two historical events of the twentieth century: the transformation of Imperial Russia in the Soviet Union and, years later, its dissolution and conversion into the Russian Federation. Also, in December there was one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, to liberate Ukraine from the Nazis. In this week of December one of the most mysterious figures in Russian history disappeared. In the scientific side of history, we will talk about the first Soviet nuclear reactor and the first supersonic airliner. Also, we will find out more about the book “Gulag Archipelago “and the dissident Sakharov, who returned to Moscow one day in December.

We are always ready and happy to go for a beer, meet friends, watch a movie… But when it’s time to learn Russian, the alarms go off, and we run away. Are we lazy learners? Maybe we are, but there’s always a solution to every problem.

This week, Russian history brings a fact that changed the course of World War II. We will learn more about an operation that marked the lives of Europeans forever, and more especially, that of Russians. We will also talk about the Order the Red Star and also about the meaning of that red star. Finally, we will read about the calendar changes Russia went through, and we will learn more about the biggest plane in the world.

All kind of events took place during this week in history: in the military chapter, we will talk about the first Chechen war between this province and the rest of Russia. We will see an exciting Cold War episode, the so-called “Second Red Scare”, unleashed against the communists. In politics, the current Russian constitution was adopted. In a more historical page, we will remember one of the few failures of the Russian space race. Also, we will visit the opening day of one of the largest commercial galleries in the world and read about its different uses. Finally, we will learn about the appointment of Tsar Paul I as Grand Master of the Order of Malta.

If you haven’t tried kasha yet, you haven’t tasted an important part of Russia. We’re talking about a dish more than thousand years old, so you’d better take it seriously. Do you want to know more about it?

This week in Russia’s history interesting events happened: We’ll learn about Napoleon's victory at the battle of Austerlitz, Finland’s declaration of independence during the October Revolution or the burial of the Unknown Soldier in the Kremlin. Moving into politics, we’ll read about Gorbachev’s historical visit to the Vatican city. Culture and sports bring us the Premiere of Eisenstein’s film, "Battleship Potemkin" and the day pole vaulter Sergei Bubka was born.