The "Latvija" (Latvia) minibuses, produced by the Riga Autobus Factory (RAF) from 1959 until 1997, were iconic Soviet vans widely used across the USSR in public transport, as ambulances, and for various state services. The Riga Autobus Factory (RAF) was founded in 1949 in Riga, Latvian SSR, initially producing bus bodies on the chassis of existing trucks, such as the GAZ-51. In 1955, it was reorganized as the Riga Experimental Bus Factory and became a central producer of mini

Speech by Lukas Haslwanter, Deputy Chair of the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA), at the liberation celebration at the former Mauthausen concentration camp, 10 May 2026 Speech by Lukas Haslwanter, Deputy Chair of the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA), at the liberation celebration at the former Mauthausen concentration camp, 10 May 2026 Dear comrades, Today, one day after 9 May – the day of the great anti-fascist victory of the peoples over fascism – we stand here in Mauthause

Lenin and Krupskaya in Gorky, late summer 1922 From the Soviet Sputnik Magazine, June 1969: Among reminiscences of Lenin appearing in the Press for the first time in connection with the approaching centenary of his birth, are what Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, called "My Answers to a Questionnaire from the Brain Institute in 1935". The questionnaire itself has been lost, but the questions can be reconstructed from the answers: He walked rapidly, without ever swaying or sw

The Cuban revolutionary and close confidant of Fidel Castro, Celia Sánchez Manduley was born on May 9, 1920, in Media Luna, Cuba. She grew up with eight siblings and was educated, though she never attended university. Early exposure to social issues and politics shaped her commitment to justice, motivating her participation in revolutionary activities against Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship. After Batista's military coup in 1952, Sánchez joined the struggle to overthrow his

The great American hero and revolutionary John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. He grew up in a deeply religious family that valued moral duty and social justice, which influenced his lifelong commitment to abolitionism. By adulthood, Brown was convinced that slavery was a moral evil that required immediate action to end rather than gradual reform. Brown became actively involved in anti-slavery efforts in the 1830s and 1840s. He provided support to e

By Elier Ramírez Cañedo and Mónica Corrieri, translated from the Spanish One of the most remarkable and enigmatic moments in Cuban history is the famous La Mejorana meeting on May 5, 1895, which brought together three iconic figures of the nineteenth century: José Martí, Antonio Maceo, and Máximo Gómez. The meeting between the three leaders of the Revolution took place at the house of the administrator of the old sugar cane mill of La Mejorana, Germán Álvarez; a site currentl

Pete Seeger at age 88 at the Clearwater Festival 2007 - Dxede5x Photo taken by Anthony Pepitone, via Wikimedia Commons Iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger was born May 3, 1919. Seeger was widely recognized not only for his music but also for his lifelong advocacy of progressive and leftist political causes. Early in his life, Seeger became involved with socialist and communist movements; in the 1930s, he joined the Young Communist League and later the Communist Party betw

Socialist-era Ikarus buses represented a blend of utility, robust engineering, and mass production efficiency. Their widespread deployment across the Socialist Bloc and longevity have cemented their place as historic symbols of public transit in socialist states. Ikarus 180 in Berlin, 1970 -- Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J0904-0202-001 / Mittelstädt, Rainer / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons Ikarus buses were iconic vehicles of socialist Hungary, widely exported

Crop of a Spanish Civil War poster In Defense of Historical Truth and International Solidarity On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia warns of the increasingly present anti-communist hysteria and the systematic falsification of history aimed at relativizing the struggle of peoples for freedom and erasing revolutionary heritage from collective memory. The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was not mere

Emancipation and Freedom Monument on Brown's Island, Richmond Virginia -- WomenArtistUpdates, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Guillermo Barreto When one person hurts another, common sense dictates that the person should apologize and, preferably, make amends for the harm they may have caused. Apologize, make amends, and ensure it won’t happen again. These seem like basic rules of coexistence. Coexistence among people, but also among sectors of a society and among entir

Part 2 of 2. The two doctors making their rounds. TLC Editor's Note: The barefoot doctor program emerged in response to a severe shortage of doctors in rural China, where most physicians were concentrated in urban areas. Before 1949 and the triumph of the Revolution, there were only about 40,000 doctors for a population of roughly 540 million, leaving rural communities vulnerable to diseases such as schistosomiasis. The program was formalized after Mao Zedong’s 1965 directive

Kim Il Sung Monument in Pyongyang -- Roman Harak, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Jason Cohen, Friends of Swazi Freedom April 15th marked a glorious day in the history of the Korean nation’s struggle for national liberation and socialist construction and for the worldwide revolutionary movement writ large. On April 15, 1912 the future Great Leader and emancipator of the Korean nation, Kim Il Sung was born. We send warm greetings and militant solidarity to the Korean wo

Sixty-five years since the heroic victory of the Cuban Revolution at the Bay of Pigs Statement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) In April 1961, the armed people of Cuba, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, crushed the attempted landing of US mercenary forces, inflicting a humiliating defeat on North American imperialism. The revolutionaries, led by the communists, delivered a decisive response to imperialist plans, halting the United States’..

By Lissel Pino Ceballos, Communist Party of Cuba On April 16, 1961, at the bustling intersection of 23rd and 12th in Havana, the Cuban Revolution was defined in words that would forever shape the nation’s destiny. Fidel Castro, the Commander in Chief, stood before a crowd mourning the victims of the bombings that took place before the mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs and declared that the Revolution would be socialist. With rifles held high and the people's anger raging,

Lenin Reading Pravda, oil on canvas Vsevolod Medvedev (1912-1985), USSR 1965 From The Workers Monthly Magazine in April, 1926 this is a translation of an article by V. I. Lenin from 1905. The translation is interesting as it is somewhat different from other translations of the same article and it has a different title as it is elsewhere often called something along the lines of Party Organisation and Party Literature: THE socialist proletariat must consider the basic principl

Via Granma and the Communist Party of Cuba, translated from the Spanish Sixty-five years after that April of courage under fire, the Fidel Castro Ruz Center will hold the workshop "Girón, 65 Years After the Great Victory Against Imperialism" on April 14 and 15. As part of the Centennial of the Commander in Chief, the event aims to analyze the significance of the April 19, 1961 victory, which showed the world the Cuban people's determination to defend the Revolution with arms.

Part 1 of 2. Preventive inoculations. TLC Editor's Note: The barefoot doctor program emerged in response to a severe shortage of doctors in rural China, where most physicians were concentrated in urban areas. Before 1949 and the triumph of the Revolution, there were only about 40,000 doctors for a population of roughly 540 million, leaving rural communities vulnerable to diseases such as schistosomiasis. The program was formalized after Mao Zedong’s 1965 directive, which emph

From Arthurian epics to submerged cities, Lyonesse shows how folklore and history intertwine to shape a region’s cultural identity. Tristan and Isolde, miniature of the XV century, cropped -- public domain image By Samantha Sudol For centuries, the waters off Cornwall’s Atlantic coast have kept a secret: the legendary drowned land of Lyonesse. Stories of a prosperous kingdom swallowed overnight by the sea have persisted in Arthurian tales, medieval manuscripts, and Cornish fo

Image via the PCC By Katherin Hormigó Rubio, translated from the Spanish In the early hours of April 11, 1895, beneath a relentless downpour, a small boat reached the rocky shore of Playita de Cajobabo, in what is now the municipality of Imías, Guantánamo. In it came José Martí and Máximo Gómez, accompanied by Francisco Borrero, Ángel Guerra, César Salas and Marcos del Rosario. Martí, the Apostle, noted it in his Campaign Diary with three words that still echo today like a tr

Çatalhöyük, 7400 BC, Konya, Turkey - UNESCO World Heritage Site. A very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, 7400 BC (photo 2019) -- Murat Özsoy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Erdem Denk Standing in the dust of Çatalhöyük —a 9,000-year-old Neolithic site known to archaeology since the 1960s, yet virtually non-existent in discussions about political science and law—a question haunted me: “How come no one told us about it?” My tr