Russia

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Linda Colley explores how written constitutions, together with warfare, forged the modern world. (Image by Getty Images)

How constitutions changed the world . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Jonathan Dimbleby revisits the dramatic, murderous struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union

Barbarossa: Hitler’s greatest gamble . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov

Vladimir Lenin and his lust for power

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Sean McMeekin discusses his revisionist new history of the Second World War, which places Josef Stalin at the centre of the conflict. (Image by Getty Images)

Stalin: the real victor of WW2 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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In 1961 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into space. Stephen Walker delves into the supercharged battle between the Soviets and Americans to reach this milestone. (Image by Getty Images)

Sending the first man into space . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Police lead away a suffragettes, arrested for chaining herself to the railings of Buckingham Palace

Female activism: 10 remarkable protests from around the world

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Michael Goodman responds to your questions on the decades of geopolitical tension that shaped relations between east and west in the second half of the 20th century. (Image by Getty Images)

The Cold War: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A photograph of the battle of Moscow, 1942, first printed in Signal, a magazine published by the German Third Reich from 1940 to 1945. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Second World War

Operation Barbarossa: why Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union was his greatest mistake

Mary Seacole is best known for her work during the Crimean War, where she cared for injured soldiers. But she was also well-known as a hotelier, traveller and author – a celebrity of the Victorian era. This is a contemporary painting of her

Mary Seacole Victorian celebrity, joyful hotelier and Crimean nurse

An engraving of the thin Red Line, depicting the 93rd Regiment at the battle of Balaklava

Q&A What was the Thin Red Line?

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The space race: everything you wanted to know

The space race: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

English cavalry attacking the Sikh at the Battle of Aliwal

Victoria the warrior queen

Illustration of the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava during the Crimean War

Victorians and war: which conflicts were fought during the Victorian era?

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Catherine Merridale on Lenin. (Image by Getty Images)

Editor’s pick: Lenin’s revolutionary train journey . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Monument to Prince Vladimir the Great in Moscow

Q&A Who were the Kievan Rus and what do they have to do with the Vikings?