New ruble notes begin circulation

Moldavian archival records document emergency relief measures as famine mortality rose, including soup kitchens and assistance for children. Such efforts were limited and uneven; people also relied on...

The U.S. Secretary of State proposed European recovery aid. Soviet leaders rejected the program and pressed governments in their sphere to do likewise, linking reconstruction to bloc competition and...

At the founding conference of the Communist Information Bureau, Andrei Zhdanov described a world divided into imperialist and anti-imperialist camps. The new body coordinated ruling communist...

Soviet security forces deported tens of thousands of people from western Ukraine to Siberia and other eastern regions, targeting families alleged to aid the Ukrainian nationalist underground....

A government and party decree exchanged old rubles for new ones and ended wartime rationing. The measure restructured household savings and cash holdings as the state sought to stabilize the currency;...

Mikhoels, a leading actor and wartime head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was killed in Minsk in an operation organized by Soviet security services; authorities presented his death as an...

After a government crisis, President Edvard Beneš accepted a cabinet dominated by the Communist Party. Soviet influence was decisive in the broader regional setting, though domestic actors and...

The Soviet Union recalled military and civilian advisers from Yugoslavia as relations deteriorated. The dispute concerned party autonomy, regional strategy, and Tito’s refusal to accept unquestioned...

Soviet authorities cut land and water access to the western sectors, responding to the Western currency reform and widening conflict over Germany. The blockade affected Berlin residents and turned the...

The Cominform resolution condemned the Yugoslav party and demanded a change in its leadership. Yugoslav resistance exposed the limits of Soviet control and gave a small socialist state room to...