Newly revealed documents reveal that MI5 taught Brazilian secret police the techniques deployed by the 1964-85 military dictatorship in horrific prisons like Rio de Janeiro’s House of Death. SARA VIVACQUA reports
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The aims of Barbarossa
The unflinching heroism and sacrifice of the USSR in stopping the Nazis’ genocide on the Eastern Front must never be diminished by those trying to score political points, writes PHIL KATZ in the final part of his anniversary article
A battery of Katyusha rocket launchers firing at the enemy, German forces, during the Battle of Stalingrad in 6 October 1942
CHRISTOPHE DOMEC speaks to the France Insoumise politician facing constant persecution from French authorities
It can be hard to discern conspiracy theory from reality and under the Trump regime the two might just be the same thing, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
ALAN SIMPSON says responses to the Golders Green attacks risk deepening divides across our country
Capturing the general strikes history is a vital part of our struggles today, posits HENRY FOWLER
On a tumultuous day in Welsh politics DAVID NICHOLSON looks at the key issues for progressives in Wales to grapple with the rise of the far right
THE Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union 80 years ago was based on three strategic objectives — Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the centre and the oilfields of Baku in the south. It was to be a war of extermination. The specific battle order to ordinary soldiers includes the word “annihilation.”
Moscow was to be flooded and covered over. A research group attached to Barbarossa was calculating how long it would take to starve all the inhabitants of Leningrad to death. One million died, 90 per cent through starvation.
Up to 30 million Ukrainians were to be starved to death with their land and property given over to resettled Germans. This was the reality of Lebensraum. All Jews would be killed. With the notorious Commissar Order all communist officials would be killed.
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As Britain marks 80 years since defeating fascism, it finds itself in a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine — DANIEL POWELL examines Churchill’s secret plan to attack our Soviet allies in 1945 and traces how Nato expansion, a Western-backed coup and neo-nazi activism contributed to todays' devastating conflict