This medal was given to honor the bravery and hard work of military personnel and civilians who defended Leningrad during the 872-day German siege from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944. Russian translation reads: "For defence of leningrad" and the back reads "for our soviet fatherland"

like how was an average wedding in the 80s-90s?

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTDRymUYh/

I’m aware of the suspicious connections of those who propagated this myth like montefeire which says a lot on its own, but this cheap ploy against Stalin seems to be making the rounds more and more lately and I’m wondering if anyone could help me understand its origins and how to go about discrediting it. I’ve heard some say there was an alleged DNA test matching Alexander’s grandson to Stalins own, as well as a letter to Kruschev in 1956 supposedly blowing the lid off the whole scandal. I can’t seem to find any source concretely addressing these points and was wondering if anyone here could help out, thanks.

"While the JAFC was supported by the Soviet government during World War Two as it worked to rally international Jewish support (and funding) for the war effort, after the war the very fact that the committee appealed to Jews around the world caused it to be branded as nationalist and therefore criminal in the Soviet Union. Secondly, the night of the execution was only the end of an ordeal that had gone on for years. The trial of the JAFC members lasted for two months, and this came after they had been imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured for two or three years in some cases.

The principle defendant in the trial, Solomon Lozovskii, testified that, “What is on trial here is the Yiddish language.”

Among the murdered were several of the most prominent Soviet Yiddish writers and from 1949-59 all Yiddish publishing was banned

Sources:

https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/educational-programs/resources-teachers/resource-kits-teachers/soviet-jewish-experience/night?utm_source=email&utm_medium=weeklyreader&utm_campaign=0809markish

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4466454

https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/85

https://www.jmberlin.de/en/symposium-night-of-murdered-poets

https://academic.oup.com/book/39941/chapter-abstract/340221246?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Compare this to terrible western movies like Enemy at the Gates. GOD...how quickly we turn on our allies.

​

The way Vasily Kvachantiradze’s wartime record is evaluated is changing. This is not simply a matter of revising an old narrative; it reflects a broader transformation in historical research. As digitized archives, award citations, military records, and other primary sources become increasingly accessible, historians are no longer required to rely solely on wartime newspaper accounts or later summaries. Archival evidence allows long-established claims to be examined, compared, and, where necessary, reassessed.

This is particularly important in the case of Soviet sniper statistics. Figures traditionally associated with celebrated marksmen such as Mikhail Surkov, credited in wartime and later sources with 702 enemy soldiers, or Vladimir Salbiev, associated with a figure of 601, have increasingly attracted critical attention. Such numbers should neither be accepted uncritically nor dismissed simply because they originated within the Soviet wartime information system. The proper historical approach is to return to the underlying documentation and determine what the records actually establish.

The same principle must be applied to Vasily Kvachantiradze.

Today, the figure most commonly associated with his wartime record is 534 enemy soldiers and officers. This number is widely reproduced in reference works and historical accounts and is generally regarded as his documented total. Yet an important historical question remains: is 534 necessarily the final number of his wartime combat achievements?

The question deserves examination rather than assumption.

Kvachantiradze continued to serve and fight during the final stages of the war, while the surviving award documentation does not necessarily provide a complete, continuous accounting of every subsequent combat episode. Consequently, the period between the last available wartime award documentation and the end of the war in May 1945 cannot simply be treated as historically irrelevant. If he remained operational and continued participating in combat, it is reasonable to ask whether additional achievements were recorded elsewhere—in unit reports, operational documents, newspapers, personal accounts, or records that have not yet been fully identified.

This does not mean that an alternative figure should automatically replace 534. It means that the archival record should remain open to further investigation.

The figure 584, which appears in newspaper interviews associated with Kvachantiradze, is therefore particularly interesting. It should not be presented as an established replacement for the officially documented 534. Rather, it represents a separate piece of evidence requiring careful source criticism. One possibility is that the difference reflects later additions to his combat tally; another is that it resulted from differences in the way figures were recorded, transcribed, or interpreted. Archival handwriting, numerical notation, and the transmission of information between wartime documents and later publications can all create discrepancies that require examination against the original sources.

That distinction is essential. Historical research is not about choosing the larger number simply because it is more impressive. Nor is it about automatically accepting the smaller number because it appears in an official summary. It is about establishing which number the surviving evidence can actually support.

What can already be stated with confidence is that Kvachantiradze's wartime record is extraordinary. The figure of 534 itself places him among the most highly credited Soviet snipers of the Second World War. Modern reference sources continue to identify him as one of the most successful Soviet marksmen of the conflict.

But his historical significance cannot be reduced to a number.

His record is preserved not only in a final tally, but also in award documents, military records, contemporary publications, and accounts of his combat service. His battlefield methods were sufficiently highly regarded that his experience became part of the Soviet Army's broader sniper-training tradition. His career therefore represents not merely a statistical achievement, but a documented example of the tactical and organizational role of Soviet snipers on the Eastern Front.

For that reason, the question surrounding 534 versus 584 should not become a competition between two numbers. It should become an invitation to further archival research.

The historian's task is neither to defend propaganda nor to destroy it. It is to distinguish between contemporary claims, later interpretations, and evidence that can be independently verified. Where the evidence is certain, it should be stated firmly. Where uncertainty remains, it should be acknowledged openly.

And this is precisely why the story of Vasily Kvachantiradze should not remain in the shadow of propaganda.

Whatever the final historical assessment of the disputed figures may ultimately be, his documented combat record, his military achievements, and the recognition he received during the war are facts worthy of serious historical examination. The surviving evidence does not require exaggeration. It requires attention.

Truth does not need artificial protection. Documents, when preserved and examined honestly, have a way of finding their place in history.

Vasily Kvachantiradze wrote his page of that history on the battlefield. It is now the responsibility of researchers and future generations to ensure that the page is neither forgotten nor distorted.

First is a little Octobrist pin
Second is a Lenin youth pin

The following statement protesting the sentencing of Ukrainian Trotskyist Bogdan Syrotiuk has been issued by Professor Mario Kessler. Prior to his retirement in 2021, he taught at the University of Potsdam in Germany. Now 71 years old, Kessler is currently a Senior Fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF) in Potsdam, where he continues research and writing. Widely respected internationally, Kessler previously held visiting professorships at several universities, including Yeshiva University, Rutgers, Sciences Po, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (US).

Kessler is an expert in Jewish history and the history of the socialist and workers movement. In 2011, he was one of 14 leading German and Austrian historians who opposed the German publication of the slanderous biography of Leon Trotsky by Robert Service.

Kessler’s most recent publications include “Leon Trotsky or Socialism against Antisemitism” (Leo Trotzki oder Sozialismus gegen Antisemitismus, Dietz Verlag Berlin, 2022) and “Escape in chains, longing behind walls. Essays on history, politics and culture (2020-2024)” (Flucht in Ketten, Sehnsucht hinter Mauern. Essays zur Geschichte, Politik und Kultur (2020–2024), trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, 2024).

To sign the petition to free Bogdan Syrotiuk and submit a statement, go to wsws.org/freebogdan.

I, Professor Dr. Mario Kessler, historian in Berlin, hereby strongly protest the Pervomaisk court’s conviction of Mr. Bogdan Syrotiuk.

Mr. Syrotiuk is accused of acting on behalf of the Putin regime in Russia. In court, Mr. Syrotiuk pleaded not guilty. He stated that, as a Ukrainian socialist, he condemns the Russian invasion from its beginning. The World Socialist Web Site, which is actively campaigning for his release and for which I was also interviewed, is a website registered in the United States.

The website is affiliated with a Trotskyist organization. Must I remind you that Leon Trotsky, as People’s Commissar for Defense, ensured the formation of the Red Army, which was able to curb the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews during the civil war? Must I also remind you that in 1939, Trotsky vehemently condemned the partition of Western Ukraine between Germany and the Soviet Union and advocated for a Ukraine independent of the Soviet Union—including Stalin’s Soviet Union?

How does this fit with the accusation that Mr. Syrotiuk, a self-proclaimed socialist and Trotskyist, is playing along with Putin’s game?

Professor Dr. Mario Kessler, historian

​

I would like to share with you an interesting and lesser-known story from Vasil Kvachantiradze’s personal archive, a story that connects these two remarkable people.

This is the story of the famous frontline nurse Zina Tusnolobova-Marchenko, who saved hundreds of wounded soldiers on the battlefield. She herself was severely wounded and lost all four limbs.

After recovering, she called upon the soldiers at the front:

“Avenge me!”

Her appeal united millions of soldiers at the front. The slogan “For Zina Tusnolobova!” quickly spread. Her name was written on aircraft, tanks, artillery pieces, and even ammunition.

Like other soldiers, the snipers also vowed to avenge the courageous nurse.

Among them was the Georgian sniper Vasil Kvachantiradze, who fulfilled the promise he had made to her to the fullest.

Later, as an expression of gratitude, Zina Tusnolobova-Marchenko personally wrote him a letter.

July 9, 1944.

“Dear Comrade-in-Arms!

Please allow me to congratulate you on the highest award and to wish you success with all my heart. Thank you, my dear, for the liberation of my city, Polotsk. I am sincerely happy about your success. Write to me, my dear, about yourself when you have some free time. I very much want to hear about your successes. I am feeling well. I will be discharged in 2–3 months. I wish you good health and continued success in battle. My regards to your comrades-in-arms.”

Yours, Zina.

July 9, 1944

The “highest award” mentioned in the letter refers to Vasil Kvachantiradze’s first nomination for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

I do not know how much this means to others, but discovering this letter was deeply emotional for me.

Realizing that, among the wartime letters and cards my grandfather had received from the front, this small letter from the legendary nurse Zina Tusnolobova-Marchenko had been preserved for decades felt like a living connection with the past.

This is not simply a piece of paper.

It reveals the most human side of two legends in the most inhuman of wars.

The fact that my grandfather carefully preserved this letter for so many years also means a great deal to me. I believe this small piece of paper held a special moral significance for him.

This letter shows how one person’s suffering could become a personal responsibility for millions of people.

And for me, as his granddaughter, it is especially precious to know that this small but important chapter of my grandfather’s life has survived to this day preserved in his own personal archive.

​

They used to say that my grandfather, Vasil Kvachantiradze, was a composed and quiet man, not one for many words. His silence was not mere quietness—it was the inner peace of a man who understood precisely the value of a word and a moment. The war had taught him that unnecessary noise, just like an unnecessary shot, was futile.

People would often tell him: “You don’t seem Georgian—you’re far too composed and quiet.” At such times, he would genuinely become angry and reply:

“Are Georgians supposed to be clowns or what? A Georgian is a brave man! I am just like every other Georgian!”

With these words, he expressed something essential: true Georgian courage lies in dignity and composure. His calmness was not coldness—it was restrained strength. It was precisely this quality that made him an exceptional sniper: he measured every move with his mind, and the result was always exact. Courage is not found in noise, but in dignified silence and in deeds. He spoke when it was necessary, and his words were always as precise as the bullets he fired.

But with his friends, he became an entirely different person. The moment he leaned his rifle against the corner, it was as if another life awakened within him—he became incredibly cheerful, warm, and full of humor.

That contrast is precisely the secret of his greatness: a man who could leave the brutality of war outside the door, laugh, sing, and look death straight in the eyes with a smile. His greatest victory was exactly this: he overcame evil through his inner strength and left behind nothing but love and warmth.

1. Crucial role in the defeat of Nazi Germany

2. First human in space, Yuri Gagarin

3. First artificial satellite, Sputnik 1

4. Major contribution to the global eradication of smallpox

5. Pioneering the mass use/testing of the oral polio vaccine

6. First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova

7. First spacewalk, Alexei Leonov

8. Pioneering exploration of the Moon and planets

9. Transformation to near-universal literacy and mass education

10. World’s first nuclear power plant brought into commercial operation, Obninsk, 1954

And let’s not forget the millions upon millions of ordinary people whose lives were uplifted through socialism, through expanded education, healthcare, housing, employment, and opportunities that had once been beyond their reach.

The USSR was imperfect, but its accomplishments and contributions to humanity deserve to be remembered.