When mobs stormed government buildings and hounded the president from office in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan after disputed elections last month, Vladimir Putin seemed unimpressed.

In 1945, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow received a carved wooden seal from Soviet schoolchildren. Hidden inside was “The Thing” - a spy device that transmitted every word in his office for seven years.

This video examines the First Soviet Five-Year Plan, launched in 1928 under Joseph Stalin to transform the USSR from a rural society into an industrial power. We explore how rapid industrialization, ...