Women in the Soviet Army in World War II? Let Me Count the Ways

Recently a fascinating story about a real life woman warrior appeared in the Wall Street Journal. To summarize the story: Ukranian-born Olha Tverdokhlibova fought against the Germans in World War Two. She was a skilled markswoman, served as a scout behind German lines, fought her way to Berlin with the Red Army, and was highly…

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Déjà Vu All Over Again: Long Before Textspeak, There was Cablese

  One of the things foreign correspondents juggled in the days before the internet rendered long-distance charges meaningless was the eternal trade-off between time and money in turning in a story. The mail was slow and (relatively) cheap. Cables and telephones* were fast and expensive. Reporters were torn between the desire to scoop other papers…

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Civilian Internment Camps in World War I (Not a Typo)

  Until recently, I thought of internment camps only in terms of the shameful removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans by the United States government, which saw concentrated populations of people of Japanese descent as a security risk, based on no evidence what so ever.* Several years ago, thanks to the excellent BBC mystery series…

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