Conspiracy theories fly decades after South Korean pro-democracy massacre In 1980, protesters in the city of Gwangju were met with a brutal military crackdown, but the far right tells another story brief Chaewon Chung
Boris Johnson's spin doctors were no match for the coronavirus The government’s downplaying of the British prime minister’s Covid-19 symptoms follows a long-established pattern dispatch Michael Cockerell
Far-right European politicians help India push an image of normalcy in isolated Kashmir A tightly controlled October visit set a precedent for how India wants the world to view the situation in the restive state dispatch Atul Dev
Generation Gulag: The Kremlin is airbrushing away one of the darkest chapters of the Russian past Eyewitnesses to Soviet authoritarianism respond to Russia’s campaign to rewrite their history essay Katia Patin
Decoding China’s claims about Uyghur identity A new government white paper says Islam was introduced to Uyghur culture by force. Scholars and activists say the claims mark an attempt to rewrite history feature Isobel Cockerell
When Soviet workers rose up and troops opened fire: a history Russian authorities try to conceal A search for the facts behind the 1962 Novocherkassk workers’ strike leads to locked doors, empty walls and tearful memories dispatch Polina Efimova and Margaret Coker
A Different Country An offer to play for Russia’s rugby team triggers a reckoning with Soviet history and the discovery of a Georgian identity feature Matthew Janney
Russian Afghan vets try to preserve tragic lessons of war In 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the nation was at the height of its power. A decade later it was on its knees. Now, the Duma wants to change this perception. feature Maria Georgieva
Postcard from Auschwitz In a world where phrases like “post-truth” are used so freely, the site of the Nazis’ largest death camp has more meaning than ever. essay Andrew North
Who were the 27,000 victims of Russia’s worst Holocaust-era crime? feature Polina Efimova and Katia Patin
Digging up a new story for Stalin Kremlin-backed historians are trying to link Finland to a mass grave of thousands of victims of the Great Terror feature Maria Georgieva
Russia, Hollywood’s mirror Can American filmmakers find a new script for the latest round of East-West tension? feature David Klion
The unwanted history of a Russian base The deaths of 9,000 Soviet POWs in a former Nazi prison camp don’t fit the narrative of Russia today feature Polina Efimova
Has Russia perfected multi-media patriotism? A high-tech, Kremlin-backed history exhibition has been a huge hit, but some Russian historians say it’s corrupting young minds feature Matthew Luxmoore
