F-YEAH HISTORY

U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signing the INF Treaty in the East Room at the White House in 1987 The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on 8 December 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on 27 May 1988 and came into force on 1 June of that year. The treaty is formally titled The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles.

Mikhail Kalinin, communist leader and statesman who was the formal head of the Soviet state from 1919 until 1946, pictured here c. 1920s

The photo shows the human chain that was formed by two million people on August 23, 1989, known as The Baltic Way

Demonstration in Šiauliai, Lithuania, 1989 - Baltic Way Meeting The coffins are decorated with national flags of the three Baltic states and are placed under Soviet and Nazi flags. The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain (also Chain of Freedom, Estonian: Balti kett, Latvian: Baltijas ceļš, Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias, Russian: Балтийский путь) was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on August 23, 1989. Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning over 600 kilometres (370 mi) across the three Baltic states – Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, and Lithuanian SSR, republics of the Soviet Union.

The Karabakh Committee in Liberty Square, Yerevan, 1988 Karabakh Committee was a group of Armenian intellectuals recognised by many Armenians as their de facto leaders in the late 1980s. The Committee was formed in 1988 with the stated objective of the reunification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Arrested by Soviet authorities on December 11, 1988 on charges of obstructing humanitarian aid from Azerbaijan after the December 7th 1988 Spitak earthquake, the leaders of Karabakh Committee were released on May 31, 1989 to form the Pan-Armenian National Movement.

ON THIS DAY: 24th August 1991 – Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

Photographs from the Polish-Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921) was an armed conflict that pitted Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic over the control of an area equivalent to today's Ukraine and parts of modern-day Belarus. At some points the war also threatened Poland's existence as an independent state.

Below left: Polish and Ukrainian troops in Kiev, Kiev Offensive (1920) Khreshchatyk, 7 May 1920. Top right: Polish Schwarzlose M.07/12 MG nest during the Battle of Radzymin,August 1920. Middle: Polish defences with a machine gun position near Miłosna, in the village of Janki, battle of Warsaw, August 1920. Bottom left: Russian prisoners on the road between Radzymin and Warsaw after the attack of the Red Army on Warsaw. Bottom right: Polish defensive fighting positions on Belarus, Battle of Niemen, September 1920.

Soviet postage stamp of 6 kopecks from 1977. Ice-breaker steamship "G. Sedov" The Sedov was a Soviet ice-breaker fitted with steam engines. She was originally the Newfoundland sealing steamer Beothic and was renamed after Russian Captain and Polar explorer Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov.

German soldiers photographing the hanging of a Soviet citizen (the original caption claims he was a partisan), 1941

Soviet cavalry in the winter of 1942–43

Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943

Soviet snipers Catherine Golovakha (left) and Nina Kovalenko (right), c. WWII

Roza Shanina in November 1944, wearing a male-issue wool field shirt and woollen skirt. The shirt was khaki, while the skirt was dark blue Roza Georgiyevna Shanina (3 April 1924 – 28 January 1945) was a Soviet sniper during World War II, credited with fifty-four confirmed hits, including twelve soldiers during the Battle of Vilnius. Praised for her shooting accuracy, Shanina was capable of precisely hitting moving enemy personnel and making doublets (two target hits by two rounds fired in quick succession). She volunteered to serve as a marksman on the front line.

Burial ceremony of January Events victims in Vilnius, 1991 The January Events (Lithuanian: Sausio įvykiai) took place in Lithuania between January 11 and 13, 1991 in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. As a result of Soviet military actions, 13 civilians were killed and around 140 injured. The events were centered in its capital, Vilnius, along with related actions in its suburbs and in the cities of Alytus, Šiauliai, Varėna, and Kaunas.

GULAG inmates constructing the White Sea Canal, 1932 The White Sea – Baltic Canal was the first major project constructed in the Soviet Union using forced labour.

Children in front of a synagogue sign in support of Soviet Jews, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1987

Mikhail Kalnin, president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, addressing a 1926 conference on Jewish agricultural settlement