In AD 789, three strange ships arrived at Portland on the southern coast of England. The "Reeve" or representative of the King of Wessex rode out to meet these visitors. He took with him only a small group of men under the impression that the strangers were traders. The strangers slew them. Ac...

The Cold War The irrational fear of Soviet invasion gripped our country for over 35 years. That fear led to the upper echelons of authority making decisions, which would create a feeling of near hysteria throughout the public. Americans feared that the Soviets were planning some nuclear attacks o...

Joseph Stalin was the soviet communist leader who's passing molded an era, and whose iron rule determined the lives of millions of people. Considering that he shaped the direction of post-World War II Europe, we may regard him as the most powerful person to live during the 20th c...

The persecution, deportation, and general abuse of those who call themselves Chechnyans, has been a heavy burden to bear over the last few centuries. Ethnically and religiously these people from the Caucasus are markedly different from their expansionist Russian neighbors. Centuries of miscommunicat...

What has been termed as "the long peace" by some has proven to be the most intense time period in world history. A historical rarity, two superpowers fought rigorously across the globe for support, each carving out their own sphere of influence. The bi-polar of international affairs resulted in ...

It seems like only yesterday that Russia was a strong, proud nation. It was also revered as one of the only two world superpowers, with the United States being the other. However, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, marking the failure of Communism. Today, Russia is on the brink of becoming a thir...

World War II in Europe Before dawn on September 1, 1939, German forces crossed into Poland in an attack so fast and brutal, they called it blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war. This time Britain and France decided to fight, and on September 3 they declared war on Germany. Roosevelt declared the Uni...

Nikita Khrushchev is undoubtedly one of the most important and interesting political figures of the twentieth century. Rising from a background of extreme poverty, he became an early supporter of the November 1917 bolshevik revolution. During the inter war years he joined the Communist Party, and ...