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Government

Post-Soviet population table
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Post-Soviet Population Table, 2006

This table provides population information for the fifteen successor states of the Soviet Union. While these figures do not provide a breakdown by national composition within each independent state, they do reveal the range in the sizes of these new states.

Commonwealth of Independent States Map
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Commonwealth of Independent States, Map 1994

This map outlines the political territories that took the place of the Soviet Union after 1991.

Chart of Arms Reduction in Eastern Europe
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Arms Reduction in Eastern Europe

Once in power, Mikhail Gorbachev began a reform process that followed two paths: perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost' (openness).

Food shortage chart
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Soviet Food Shortages

The 1980s posed many challenges for the everyday lives of the average citizens of East Europe countries, including daily difficulties created from shortages. Buying such necessities as food, clothing, and hygiene products was recurring obstacle to the average consumer.

Map of Soviet Nuclear Reactors in Eastern Europe
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Soviet Nuclear Reactors in Eastern Europe

On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine led to the radioactive contamination of the surrounding countryside and to radioactive fallout throughout Eastern and Western Europe.

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Day 1 of Prairial of the Year III

Men and women threaten the deputies on 20 May 1795. They demand "Bread and the Constitution of 1793." This day marked one of the last interventions of ordinary women into national politics.

Thumbnail of the print
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To Versailles, To Versailles!

The women who arrived, though lightly armed, were no shrinking violets. They insisted that the royal family return to Paris where, in fact, they would find themselves under virtual house arrest.

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Mea Culpa of the Pope

Although the revolutionaries long regarded the Pope as an enemy, their anger was stoked significantly by the papal decision to decree as unacceptable the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

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The Great Nausea of Monsignor

This engraving focuses on expurgating the clergy, this time with vomiting as the intended method. Here, the cleric spits up the unfair advantages enjoyed in the old regime.

Still image of interview subject
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Japanese American Incarceration at Manzanar, California, Interview Part 2

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga is a Nisei (2nd generation) Japanese American born in 1925 in Los Angeles. She was incarcerated at Manzanar, California, and later Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas.