Russia milestones | Good News for Humankind

Crane bird in the snow, for article on Siberian crane recovery

Critically endangered Siberian crane populations have increased by nearly 50% over last decade

By / January 9, 2025 / Good News For Humankind

Siberian crane numbers in the eastern flyway have nearly doubled over the past decade, climbing to an estimated 7,000 birds today. That’s a remarkable turnaround for a Critically Endangered species whose other migratory populations have already vanished. The recovery comes from patient, cross-border work between conservationists in Russia and China to protect the wetland stopovers these cranes rely on, including Lake Poyang, which hosts nearly the entire wintering population. Local partnerships, school programs, and careful habitat management all played a role. It’s a hopeful reminder that saving a long-distance migratory bird means protecting the whole chain of places it touches — a lesson that resonates far beyond one species, for flyways and ecosystems everywhere.

Toxic sulfur dioxide emissions fell across India, Russia, and China last year– dropping 6% globally

By Peter Schulte / October 30, 2020 / Good news links

In 2019, the levels of anthropogenic SO2 emissions fell worldwide by 6%. In only the second time ever, SO2 emissions fell in all three of the countries most responsible for emitting it: China, India, and Russia.

Azerbaijan flag|b f fbf z, for article on Azerbaijan independence referendum

Azerbaijani voters confirm independence in a nationwide referendum

By Peter Schulte / December 29, 1991 / Archive of Human Genius

Azerbaijan’s independence referendum on December 29, 1991 drew an overwhelming yes from voters, confirming a break from Soviet rule just days before the USSR itself dissolved. The result gave democratic weight to a declaration parliament had passed four months earlier, closing seven decades of Soviet control over a land with deep, layered roots in the Caucasus.

Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989, for article on Berlin Wall fall

East Germans breach the Berlin Wall after decades of division

By Peter Schulte / November 9, 1989 / Archive of Human Genius

The Berlin Wall began to open on November 9, 1989, when a muddled government announcement sent East Germans streaming toward checkpoints guards no longer tried to hold. What followed was stranger and more human than any single night: teachers, border officers, and ordinary citizens quietly negotiating a new reality, day by day, for weeks.

Approach view of the Mir Space Station viewed from Space Shuttle Endeavour during the STS-89 rendezvous., for article on Mir space station

USSR launches Mir, the world’s first modular space station

By Peter Schulte / February 19, 1986 / Archive of Human Genius

Mir launched on 19 February 1986, when a Proton-K rocket carried the core module of humanity’s first modular space station into orbit above Kazakhstan. Over the next decade, Soviet and later Russian engineers added six more modules piece by piece, hosting visitors from more than a dozen countries. Mir proved people could live and work in space for months at a time.

Mikhail Gorbachev, for article on glasnost and perestroika

Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms help end the Cold War

By Peter Schulte / May 1, 1985 / Archive of Human Genius

Perestroika began in the spring of 1985, when new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admitted publicly what no Communist Party chief had before: the Soviet economy wasn’t working. What followed was extraordinary — competitive elections, a freer press, and the 1987 INF Treaty with Reagan, the first ever to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.

Salyut, for article on Salyut space station

Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, humanity’s first crewed space station

By Peter Schulte / April 19, 1971 / Archive of Human Genius

Salyut 1 reached orbit on April 19, 1971, becoming the first crewed space station and opening the door to actually living in space, not just visiting. That June, the Soyuz 11 crew spent 23 days aboard — a breakthrough shadowed by their deaths on reentry. Every station since, from Mir to the ISS, traces its lineage here.

A replica of Sputnik 1, for article on Sputnik 1 satellite

Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite

By Peter Schulte / October 4, 1957 / Archive of Human Genius

Sputnik 1 lifted off on October 4, 1957, a polished metal sphere the size of a beach ball that became the first human-made object to orbit Earth. Built in months after Soviet engineers scrapped a heavier design, it beeped on frequencies any hobbyist could pick up. The space age began that evening, audible worldwide.

Soviet Russia becomes the first modern state to legalize abortion

By Peter Schulte / October 1, 1920 / Archive of Human Genius

Soviet Russia legalized abortion in October 1920, becoming the first modern government to permit the procedure without restriction, and often for free. The decree aimed to move women away from underground providers and into hospitals — by 1925, roughly three-quarters of abortions in Moscow were performed in medical facilities. It was an early, imperfect test of treating reproductive health as medicine rather than crime.

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky by Vasily Perov, for article on crime and punishment

Dostoevsky publishes Crime and Punishment, changing how novels explore the human mind

By Peter Schulte / January 1, 1866 / Archive of Human Genius

Crime and Punishment began appearing in The Russian Messenger in January 1866, unfolding across twelve monthly installments as readers followed a destitute ex-student named Raskolnikov murder a pawnbroker and slowly unravel under his own guilt. Dostoevsky, hounded by debt, had burned an earlier draft and rewritten it in third person — a shift that let fiction inhabit a mind coming apart, and quietly reshaped what novels could do.