This day in history

1926: Date of birth of Yevhen Hrytsiak, OUN activist, physician/faith healer involved in and with Norilsk rebellion.

1928: The world’s first Circus and Variety Museum opens in Leningrad [currently: St. Petersburg].

1942: Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony is performed in Nazi-besieged Leningrad.

1943: The Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR urge the Ukrainian people to step up struggle against the “German fascist occupier.”

1945: Soviet troops launch the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, jointly with units of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Army, liberating Manchuria and North Korea.

1949: Date of Soviet turbojet interceptor Yak-50’s maiden flight. 1959: Novy Kryvy Rih Steel Combine starts producing.

1973: Official census points to 250 million residents of the USSR.

1991: The Russian Federation is recognized as a legal successor to the USSR.