Organized crime had been rampant in the dying Soviet Union for years, fueled by economic shortages and corruption. Around the time Burkard was documenting the Soviet mafia, there were up to 5,000 gangs plundering the state, and every 22 minutes a person was murdered.
Tag: Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns, 1991
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, ending the USSR. The AP Moscow photo chief, Liu Heung Shing, was the only foreign photographer who captured the moment.
Chernobyl by Robert Gale, 1986
Dr. Robert Gale, a bone-marrow transplant expert from Bel Air became one of the first Westerners to witness the nuclear diaster at Chernobyl and a tool for the Soviet misinformation campaign.
Lenin and Stalin
. Even today, photographers who attempt to take pictures inside the mausoleum on the Red […]
Friend of the Little Children
In the Soviet Union, the 1930s unfolded dismally. Collectivisation was not going very well, and rumors […]
Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev (1937 – 2010)
Along with Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank, it was one of the iconic images […]
de Gaulle in USSR
In July 1966, De Gaulle made an 11-day, 6,200 mile trip across Russia. Elliot Erwitt was the only American photographer covering de Gaulle’s visit.
Charlie Wilson’s War
Flamboyant playboy Texan Congressman, Charlie Wilson, who died earlier today was perhaps the last of […]
Kozakiewicz’s gesture
So I was reading this strange article by Christopher Hitchens (who else?) while I saw […]
The View From Lenin’s Tomb
As I mentioned before somewhere, Lenin didn’t wish to have a mausoleum to him, but […]