Soviet Union

What I Learned About Beauty by Interviewing Women Who'd Been Prisoners of the Soviet Gulag

By Monika Zgustova

Nikita Khrushchev’s Son Watched his Father Lose the Space Race. 50 Years After the Moon Landing, He Holds No Grudge

Vintage Kodachromes of Life in Russia and America In The 1980's

Clean Up Empty Lots to Reduce Shootings

By The Aspen Institute

Polish Photographer Justyna Mielnikiewicz Wins W. Eugene Smith Grant

Her photos bring to life a region still in disarray, nearly 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union

By Alexandra Genova October 13, 2016

The Surprisingly Wild and Crazy Summers of Young Soviets in the 1960s

How LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge captured a country in transition

By Yana Skorobogatov July 20, 2016

Why a Win in a Dutch Court Is Making Vladimir Putin So Happy

A court in the Hague has quashed a $50 billion judgment against the Russian state. But President Putin's enemies from the Yukos affair aren't giving up anytime soon

By Simon Shuster April 20, 2016

Discover Russia's Ghost Villages

Photographer Denis Sinyakov sailed Russian rivers to explore his country’s roots.

By Lucia De Stefani January 26, 2016

U.S. Thriller Banned for Depicting Russia as 'Sub-human' Nation

Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman fail to impress officials in Moscow

By Kevin McSpadden April 16, 2015

The Other Giant Leap: What Happened to the First Man to Walk in Space

Half a century ago, Russian legend Alexei Leonov took a perilous step into the void

By Jeffrey Kluger March 18, 2015

See Life in Eastern Ukraine's Underground Shelters

Fragile ceasefires in eastern Ukraine have resulted in a population trapped in underground shelters

By Ye Ming December 23, 2014

Why 'Aliens' 'Landed' in Russia 25 Years Ago

They had small heads and wore silver overalls, apparently

By Lily Rothman October 9, 2014

Civil War Hangs Over Ukraine on Its Independence Day

Marches in Kiev take place amid new reports of Russian hardware finding its way into rebel hands

By David Stout August 25, 2014

Strong Arm of the State: Alexander Chekmenev's Post-Independence Ukraine Passport Photos

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had to go through the process of issuing new passports to all of its citizens, roughly 50 million of them. As if that wasn’t enough of a problem, many of those citizens were shut-ins, elderly and bedridden, and in order to take their passport pictures someone had to go around making house calls with a camera.

By Simon Shuster May 13, 2014

Picturing Stalin: Tracking a Tyrant's Face Around the World

LIFE examines the way Stalin's portrait — the unsmiling face of a failed revolution — made its glacial, inexorable way around the globe.

By Ben Cosgrove May 6, 2014

The Descent: Inside Hitler's Bunker

Photos made after the Fall of Berlin illuminate the sordid underworld where Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun died

By Ben Cosgrove April 30, 2014

Ukrainian PM: Putin Wants to Restore USSR

'God knows where is the final destination.'

By Nolan Feeney and TIME Video April 20, 2014

America and Russia Are Stuck Together in Space

Two countries don't have to like each other to fly together; they just have to need each other

By Jeffrey Kluger March 25, 2014

A Rip in the Iron Curtain: Photos From the Hungarian Revolution, 1956

Recalling the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Soviet Union through photographs by the great Michael Rougier.

By Ben Cosgrove October 22, 2013

The Surreal World of Central Asia: Two Rivers by Carolyn Drake

For her new book, Carolyn Drake spent five years and 15 trips roaming the expanse of Central Asia, documenting the hardy people of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan who survived on the fringes of empires Russian and Chinese.

By Hannah Beech July 10, 2013