A Soviet woman hero who fought in World War II and the main political figure of the turbulent 1990s are recalled in tonight’s Historama.
People march for Yeltsin
On this day 20 years ago, more than 100,000 Yeltsin supporters demonstrated on the streets of Moscow.
This was against the law of the day, so the then-president Mikhail Gorbachev ordered military intervention.
Later that year, Boris Yeltsin was elected president – he stayed in power until 1999.
Many see his dismantling of the Soviet Union and economic reforms as his main achievements.
At the same time, he is blamed for the appearance of the oligarchs class, the Chechen conflicts, corruption and the mass deterioration in the quality of life in Russia.
USSR’s first women aviation navigator
A very special woman was born on this day in 1912.
If you are familiar with northern Moscow, you might have wondered once or twice who Marina Raskova was as there is a street bearing her name just off the third ring-road.
Marina Raskova was the first woman to become a military aviation navigator in the USSR.
She set quite a few world records for lengthy flights. During World War II, she put together women-only squadrons.
Her remains are interred in the Kremlin Walls.