Channel Title: A Day In History Channel Description: A Day In History brings to you the unsaid, weird, and ugly parts of history that are not taught in textbooks, along with some more hopeful sections of our past. With so much misinformation everywhere, our aim is to shed light on some of history's most suppressed but factual events. <video> The Darkest Side Of The Islamic Revolution In Iran Description: Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC or Mobile: 💥 https://con.onelink.me/kZW6/ADIH001 Receive 13K GOLD & 1 month premium subscription, only available for the next 30 days! The Iranian Revolution of 1979 established a harsh Islamic regime with tight restrictions of dissenters, women, and the economy that undid decades of progress. It achieved it all with a dominating control of the political system, aggressive laws controlling daily life, and a brutal legal system that dealt out death for the most insiginfcant of crimes. Today on A Day In History, we’ll look at how the Islamic Revolution changed Iran and rolled back the rights and freedoms of millions of its people. Iran Before the Revolution The regime’s story is inseparable from the events of the 1953 Iranian Revolution that preceded it. In 1953, US and UK intelligence services fermented a rebellion to overthrow the democratically-elected Socialist-leaning government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and replaced it with an authoritarian government under the Shahs of the Pahlavi dynasty. The Shah ruled with an iron first, cracking down on dissenters, banning rival parties, establishing a powerful security service, and funneling vast resources into military spending. Thousands of Iranians found themselves imprisoned under the Shah’s regime. Only the clergy were powerful enough to survive as prominent critics of the Shah, but many of them were harassed and intimidated by his forces. But the Shah’s regime wasn’t all misery and militarism. The Shah engaged in a sweeping secularization and modernisation campaign that uplifted his country’s living standards and ended many outdated practices. Prosperity increased across society, as did literacy rates and access to healthcare. Some of the most striking progress was made by women. From 1963, women were granted the vote and allowed to run for office, a rare privilege in the Islamic world. In 1968, a woman was appointed as Minister for Education, becoming the first woman to serve in the Cabinet, and high-profile female appointments in the judiciary and civil service followed. A 1967 law gave women the right to divorce, made it possible for them to claim custody of children, and raised the marriage age from 13 to 18. Iranian women were among the most free, educated, and empowered anywhere in the Islamic world. #iran #revolution #islamicrevolution #history Sources: Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History, (2017) Con Coughlin, Khomeini’s Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam, (2010) Joseph Krauss, ‘Explainer: What kept Iran protests going after first spark?’, Associated Press, 21st September 2022, https://apnews.com/article/iran-protests-morality-police-explainer-b53475eda867a4158ac5032fe1b3e62e Medea Benjamin, Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, (2018) ‘Ideology and Iran’s Revolution: How 1979 Changed the World’, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, 11th February 2019, https://institute.global/insights/geopolitics-and-security/ideology-and-irans-revolution-how-1979-changed-world ‘Iran: Happy video dancers sentenced to 91 lashes and jail’, BBC News, 19th SEptember 2014, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29272732 Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> History’s Darkest Rituals: What Really Happened to Inca Children Description: In 1999 archaeologists in Argentina came across an impressive and shocking finding. At an altitude of 6739m, high on the peaks of the Andes, there lay buried three children, four, six, and 15 years old. They died around 1500, at the high point of the Inca Empire, then the largest empire in the Americas and one of the largest in the world. Due to the extreme altitude, and the cold and dry climate, the children’s bodies were perfectly preserved even after 500 years, making them some of the best-preserved mummies in the world. More than 100 such bizarre burial sites have been found. But… what happened to these children and how did they end up there? Today, in A Day in History, we explore the ritual of Capacocha, a religious sacrifice that claimed the lives of young boys and girls from all around the Inca Empire: a story of pain and death accompanied by religious fervor and the ruthless need to establish imperial authority over vast territories and populations. Who were the Incas? The Inca Empire is best known today because of its rapid decline and extinction after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. It is associated with gold, civil strife, and the amazing Machu Picchu. The history of the Incas, however, started long before the Europeans set their foot on the newly discovered shores of the Americas. The Incas were the last of a series of pristine civilizations in the Andes that developed independently from other civilizations, even those in Mesoamerica. The first Inca King lived in the 13th century and ruled a kingdom around the capital city of Cusco. This small kingdom grew steadily over the next two centuries and in 1438 King Pachacuti founded the Realm of the Four Parts. He and his successors managed within a few decades to unite the Andean region under one rule. As its name indicates, the kingdom had a central government in the capital Cusco, and four provincial governments, the Four Parts. Following a long tradition of trade and administrative connections, the Inca state was highly centralized and controlled its territory effectively through laws, military and administrative presence, and a complex extensive road system covering thousands of kilometers that allowed easy communication between the different territories. This was indeed vital, as the empire was vast: almost two million square kilometers covering large areas of what is today Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Religion played a crucial role in Incan culture and was deeply intertwined with the state. The first Incan King, Manco Capac, was considered the son of the Sun god, Inti. The Incas sought to integrate newly acquired territories through cultural and religious assimilation, promoting the Sun god, Inti, as a superior deity. Alongside Inti, they also revered the Creator god Viracocha, the Thunder god Illapa, and the Moon goddess Mama Killa. As part of this process, which held both religious and civil importance, the Incas built more than a hundred ceremonial sites from 1470 until the Spanish conquest in 1532. #incas #history #aztecempire #theinca Sources: Andrushko, Valerie A.; Buzon, Michele R.; Gibaja, Arminda M.; McEwan, Gordon F.; Simonetti, Antonio; Creaser, Robert A. (February 2011), "Investigating a child sacrifice event from the Inca heartland", Journal of Archaeological Science. 38 (2): 323–333. Besom, Thomas (2009), Of Summits and Sacrifice: An Ethnohistoric Study of Inka Religious Practices, University of Texas Press. Faux, Jennifer (2012), "Hail the Conquering Gods: Ritual Sacrifice of Children in Inca Society", Journal of Contemporary Anthropology, 3: 15. Molina, Cristóbal de; Bauer, Brian S.; Smith-Oka, Vania (2011), Account of the Fables and Rites of the Incas (Reprinted ed.). University of Texas Press. Reinhard, Johan; Ceruti, Constanza (June 2005), "Sacred Mountains, Ceremonial Sites, and Human Sacrifice Among the Incas", Archaeoastronomy, 19: 1–43 Socha, Dagmara M.; Reinhard, Johan; Chávez Perea, Ruddy (2020-12-11), "Inca Human Sacrifices on Misti Volcano (Peru)", Latin American Antiquity. 32 (1): 138–153. Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Disclosing NATO's Atrocities In Yugoslavia Description: When people think of the Balkans, stability and harmonious ethnic relations aren’t the first things that come to mind. A typical example of this was the conflict between the Serbs of Yugoslavia and the ethnically Albanian population of Kosovo which ignited into war in the late 1990s. This war would be different though when NATO forces stepped in to wield its aerial superiority against the accused war crimes of Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslav regime. Today on A Day in History, we’re going to look at the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia, how those bombs ended up falling on trains, apartments, and embassies, and the questions it raised about the moral position of NATO in a post-Cold War world. But before we do that, be sure to leave a like if you enjoy and subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one. Context Yugoslavia was a post-WW2 Communist state in the Balkans. Its original incarnation broke up in 1992 leaving Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Vojvodina to form the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This new nation was dominated by Serbia and led by a Serbian Communist Slobodan Milosevic. This being the Balkans, ethnic tensions were high. The previous century and a half had been filled with reciprocal violence and massacres between Serbs and Albanians that made victims and perpetrators out of both sides. Serbs considered Kosovo to be an ancestral piece of their homeland, while the Kosovar Albanians favored independence. Milosevic’s government enacted discriminatory and repressive policies against Albanians in Kosovo hoping to undermine any independence movement and drive them out of the region. In response, a Kosovar separatist militia called the Kosovo Liberation Army emerged in the mid-90s and by 1998 was in open conflict with Yugoslav government forces. This fighting escalated to include massacres, mass deportations, and burning of entire villages by the Yugoslav government. The rest of the world watched on in horror, especially NATO who were seeing an ethnic cleansing unfolding before their eyes on the very doorstep of some of its member states. Political and popular pressure for them to intervene was mounting. NATO spearheaded talks in late 1998 and early 1999 to try to get Milosevic to pull back, but Milosevic merely used the talks as a delaying tactic as his forces continued their brutal campaign. By late March though, it was obvious that diplomacy had failed. On March 23rd, NATO forces in Europe were given the go ahead to begin military operations to stop Milosevic’s attacks and halt the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. Operation Allied Force Begins Operation Allied Force was launched on March 24th using NATO forces based mostly out of Italy. A wave of cruise missiles opened the attack, targeting major airfields and knocking out the power grid for Kosovo’s capital of Pristina. Planes began their attacks the following day hitting a number of specific military targets across Serbia and Kosovo. Serbian defenses struggled to eliminate any NATO attackers while NATO aircraft successfully shot down several Serbian fighters who attempted to engage them. NATO was confident in its own technological superiority. The Serbian air force and surface-to-air defenses were decades out of date and badly outnumbered - an estimated 238 Serbian combat aircraft were up against over 1,000 NATO aircraft involved over the operation, which included the formidable F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers and the new B2 Spirit bombers which would see their first combat use in the skies over Serbia. #nato #yugoslavia #history Sources: Alastair Finlan, The Collapse of Yugoslavia, (2004) Benjamin S. Lambeth, NATO’s Air War for Kosovo: A Strategic and Operational Assessment, (2001) Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia, (2000) Michael Parenti, To Kill A Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, (2001) Stephen Hosmer, The Conflict Over Kosovo: Why Milosevic Decided to Settle When He Did, (2001) ‘Convoys of Kosovo Albanians bomber; 85 dead’, CNN, 14th April 1999, http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/14/refugees.02/index.html#:~:text=CNN%20%2D%20Convoys%20of%20Kosovo%20Albanians,85%20dead%20%2D%20April%2014%2C%201999 Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Things In History Military Personnel Wished They Could Unsee Description: Thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring. Exclusive! Grab the NordVPN deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/adayinhistory. Every purchase of the 2-year NordVPN plan will receive +4 bonus months on top, plus up to 20 GB Saily data voucher. Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Step back in time with "A Day in History" as we explore harrowing moments from three different continents and centuries where civilizations faced unimaginable horrors. Imagine 1519 Mexico, where the Spanish expedition led by Hernán Cortés clashed violently with the magnificent Aztec Empire, leaving Tenochtitlan a wasteland of ruins and corpses. Fast forward to Uganda in 1892, witness a brutal civil war in the kingdom of Buganda instigated by European colonial powers, shattering what was once seen as a paradise. Finally, we confront the grim realities of 1945 Germany, where Allied forces uncovered the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps. Join us as we delve into stories of betrayal, rage, vengeance, and sorrow that military personnel across history could never forget. Subscribe now and witness the poignant histories that shaped our world. Key Topics: - **Mexico 1519:** The Spanish-Aztec conflict and its devastating aftermath. - **Uganda 1892:** Colonial warfare and civil strife in the Buganda Kingdom. - **Germany 1945:** Liberation of Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust horrors. Explore these chilling narratives that remind us of humanity's darkest hours and the resilience of the human spirit. Don't miss out—hit subscribe and never miss an episode of "A Day in #aztec #holocaust #nazi #ww2 #history Sources: Cocker Mar, Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe’s Conflict with Tribal Peoples, Jonathan Cape 1998. Friedländer Saul, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945, HarperCollins 2007. Goodell, Stephen, Mahoney A. Kevin; Milton Sybil, 1945: The Year of Liberation, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 1995 Holocaust Encyclopedia, “Liberation of Nazi Camps”, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/liberation-of-nazi-camps Pakenham Thomas, The Scramble for Africa, Abacus 1991. Copyright © 2024 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Ukraine’s Darkest Secret: The Holocaust They Don’t Teach You In Schools Description: Among the many things that the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine did was bring two groups of people together who, nearly 80 years before, had been at each other's throats - literally. Today, Poland and Ukraine are close allies, and Poland has supplied Ukraine with billions of dollars of supplies, equipment, and weapons to help it fight off Putin's invasion. There are very few people alive who experienced the events we're going to tell you about today, but if they were, they would likely be shocked that Poland and Ukraine are so close. What's more, they would be amazed that though it took 80 years to happen, the President of Ukraine recognized that during the last half of WWII and for a time after the was over, his Ukrainian countrymen ran amok through the northwestern part of the country and parts of southeastern Poland trying to exterminate every ethnic Pole living in what they believed should be part of a Ukrainian state – made up of Ukrainians – only. No country lost a higher percentage of its population in WWII than Poland. Nearly 1 in 5 Poles lost their lives during the war, including ethnic Poles, Polish Jews, and others. Almost six million Poles lost their lives during the war out of a pre-war population of 34 million. When you then consider the number of people sent to the Nazi death camps during the war, approximately 10-12 million people were killed in Poland from 1939-45. Poland is about the size of New Mexico, and it became a graveyard.Unfortunately for Poland, its geographic location has put it in the path of many other nations, kings and empires. To the north is Sweden, which occupied large swathes of northern Poland for many years in the 17th and 18th centuries. To the west is Germany, and before 1871, the most powerful German kingdom, Prussia. To the south were the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian empires, and to the east – the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union – which sometimes included the territory of today's Ukraine.From 1772 to 1918, Poland's territory was divided between Prussia/Germany, Austria, and Russia. When World War One ended, the Poles, aided by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, won their independence. In the southeastern region of Eastern Galicia, a large part of the population was ethnic Ukrainian. In the province just to the north, known as Volhynia in English and "Volyn'sko" in Ukrainian and Polish, a slight majority of the people were ethnic Ukrainians. Before the Holocaust, about 30% of the people in Volhynia were Jews. Most of the rest were Poles, along with some Roma and a small ethnic group called the Lemko.Until WWII, most Poles and Ukrainians in Volhynia got along. So many ethnicities had lived, shared, and governed the region for so long that a sense of shared history and interdependence had developed, making the outbreak of violence all the more shocking and tragic. #ukraine #holocaust #history Music: Epidemic music Copyright © 2024 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> The US Government Hid This About The Iraq War (Warning* Mature Audiences Only) Description: On March 19th 2003, US forces led an invasion of Iraq to topple the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein. The list of monstrous things Saddam had done was long, and allegations that he had new chemical weapons offered easy justification of America’s intervention. Saddam’s regime fell within a month, but a stubborn insurgency soon erupted that made the US extend its occupation of the country for another 8 long years. Throughout the invasion and occupation, the US would rack up its own list of abuses, crimes, and massacres to rival Saddam’s and which continue to haunt the US and Iraq to this day. Join us as we explore the intricate and controversial events of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. This video delves into the historical backdrop, key events, and the ongoing impact of the conflict on both American and Iraqi communities. Overview of the Iraq Invasion: On March 19, 2003, the United States, along with its allies, launched a military invasion intended to dismantle the regime of Saddam Hussein, a dictator accused of numerous human rights abuses and of harboring weapons of mass destruction. While the initial objective to topple Saddam was achieved swiftly, the aftermath unfolded into a prolonged and challenging occupation, leading to significant repercussions. 1. **Historical Context**: We set the stage by examining the background and motivations behind the invasion, including geopolitical factors and international perspectives on Iraq's governance. 2. **Military Strategy and Challenges**: Gain insights into the military techniques employed, including precision bombing and the challenges faced with time-sensitive targets, which aimed to minimize civilian casualties but often faced critical scrutiny. 3. **Impact on Civilians**: The collateral impact on Iraq’s civilians, including unintended casualties and the humanitarian crisis that ensued, highlighting stories of survival, loss, and resilience. 4. **Long-term Repercussions**: Explore the enduring effects of the occupation on Iraq's sociopolitical landscape and the legacy of the invasion in U.S. foreign policy. 5. **Controversies and Public Perception**: Analyze the controversies surrounding intelligence reports, military strategies, and differing narratives between U.S. and Iraqi accounts of key incidents.: We welcome you to share your thoughts and insights in the comments section. Please subscribe for more videos that provide thoughtful analysis on global historical events and their contemporary relevance. Sources:https://shrib.com/#Emmalynn-orNweZ #iraqwar #history #usiraq #desertstorm Copyright © 2024 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Joseph Kony | Africa's MOST Twisted Warlord Description: Lets look into the harrowing history of Joseph Kony, the infamous leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in this comprehensive YouTube video. Discover the chilling realities of his brutal regime, characterized by heinous crimes against humanity, including forced labor, and widespread violence. This insightful video explores the impact of Kony's terror on thousands of innocent people, detailing the international efforts to capture him and bring justice to the victims. Gain a deeper understanding of the geopolitical and social factors that allowed his reign of terror to persist for decades. Join us in raising awareness and sharing this crucial narrative as we seek to educate and inspire action against global injustices. Perfect for students, educators, and anyone interested in human rights and modern history, this video is a crucial resource for those looking to understand one of Africa's most notorious warlords. During the Ugandan Civil War, which is usually called "The Ugandan Bush War," the Acholi people of central northern Uganda suffered greatly. The Acholi live not only in northern Uganda but also in the southern tip of South Sudan, which, until 2011, was part of Sudan. Like many other tribes in the area, the Acholi aspired and still aspire to a greater degree of autonomy within Uganda, something Museveni strongly opposes. It was that way during the Ugandan Bush War as well, and Museveni's forces committed countless atrocities in their attempts to suppress the Acholi people and culture. One of the early leaders of the Acholi in the Bush War was Alice Auma, who became the leader of the "Holy Spirit Movement" and believed herself to be a channel for a deceased army officer called Lakwena - "The Messenger." The Holy Spirit Movement was defeated in 1987, and Auma went into exile in Kenya, where she died in a refugee camp having been, as she claimed, "abandoned by Lakwena" or the spirits in general. She was also implicated in the trafficking of children and claimed to have found a cure for HIV/AIDs, which ravaged Uganda for many years and, to a large extent, still does. Enter Joseph Kony, who claimed to be Alice Auma's cousin and like her, claimed to have supernatural powers and the ability to speak with and for the dead. And God. He talked to God – which is doubtful because the voice he was hearing was telling him, among other things, to kidnap and use children for cannon fodder and abuse. Uganda is one of the most solidly Christian countries in sub-Saharan Africa. About 85% of the country is one form of Christian or another, but in some cases, that Christian belief is mixed with indigenous beliefs about spirits and magic. Both male and female shamans are still respected throughout Uganda, especially outside the cities. #josephkony #history #uganda Sources: "HIV Rates by Country 2023." World Population by Country 2023 (Live). Accessed June 19, 2024. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/hiv-rates-by-country. "Lord Kony in Northern Uganda." Candace Scharsu Photography. Accessed June 19, 2024. https://www.candacescharsu.com/ "Reuters.com." Reuters.com. Accessed June 19, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2A4240/. SOFLETE. "An End To Child Soldiers: Mick Mulroy's Life Mission." SOFLETE. Last modified May 28, 2019. https://soflete.com/blogs/knowledge/mick-mulroy-interview Copyright © 2024 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> The Shocking Vatican Document That Changes History Description: Pope Pius XII took his place upon the papal throne mere months before the Second World War erupted. Under his watch, Europe and the world was plunged into the greatest conflict in history, and with it came crimes and atrocities beyond anything seen before. The Pope has been accused of silence, cowardice, even sympathy with the Nazis. His critics say he abdicated his moral duty and stood silent as millions were marched to their graves. His actions allowed the Nazis to get away with the Holocaust and he chose not to use his power to save those who needed it. But Pius XII has many defenders who insist that he was as staunch a protector of the persecuted as anyone could be. Behind the seemingly neutral facade, they claim that the Pope did more than anyone else to save Europe’s Jews and that hundreds of thousands of survivors owe their lives to his actions. Today on A Day In History, we’ll try to find the truth. Was Pius XII Hitler’s Pope? Or was he really one the Nazis’ most formidable opponents? Eugenio Pacelli Our story of Pius XII must begin before he ascended to the papacy. His real name was Eugenio Pacelli and he had a long career in the church as a diplomat. From 1917 to 1929 he served as the Papal nuncio, or ambassador, to Germany where he saw the rise of the Nazis first hand. Pacelli had been in Munich during Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and criticised them for their violent methods and extreme views in letters to colleagues. Pacelli had no reason to expect what they would become. In 1929, he was recalled to Rome to act as Secretary of State to Pope Pius XI. In this role, Pacelli was the second most powerful man in the Vatican. He paid close attention to the rise of the Nazis and did not lose his scepticism of them. On April 4th 1933, mere weeks after Hitler took power, Pacelli wrote to the papal nuncio in Berlin, Cesare Orsenigo, to, quote, “ask for his intervention against the danger of anti-semitic excesses in Germany.” He was one of the first, if not the very first, foreign diplomats to make such interventions against Nazi anti-semitism. Soon after, it was Pacelli who negotiated the 1933 Concordat between Germany and the Vatican. Concordats were a standard piece of Vatican diplomacy - they’d signed 38 of them with different countries between 1919 and 1933 - and it was by no means a special alliance or sign of special favour as critics have charged. In the Concordat, Hitler promised not to persecute the church and allowed its organisations to continue, but in exchange the church would not become involved in political affairs. Naturally, Hitler broke his promises immediately, banning Catholic youth groups, putting vocal clergy on trial, and cutting off funding to Catholic private schools. In 1934, during the Night of the Long Knives, several leading German Catholics were wiped out in the SS purge. The Vatican privately protested these offences but they did not openly condemn the regime. This often seems confusing to people, but the Vatican had long sworn out of political affairs. These were not the Middle Ages. Neither the Vatican nor the other nations of Europe believed the Pope had the authority to take sides in political events. There was also the issue of Germany’s 30 million Catholics, who could be targeted if the Pope made an enemy of the Nazis, while the Catholics who sympathised with the Nazis might break away from the Vatican if forced to choose between them. There was also the obvious fact that the Vatican sat in the heart of Rome, surrounded by the forces of Mussolini’s fascist Italy. History offered a long list of Popes who had been deposed or even killed by their enemies. Uncover the truth about Pope Pius XII and Adolf Hitler in these Vatican documents. Learn about the relationship between the Catholic Church and Nazi Germany during World War II. #hitler #pope #vatican #holocaust Sources: David I. Kertzer, ‘The Pope’s Secret Back Channel to Hitler’, The Atlantic, 31st May 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/pope-pius-xii-negotiation-hitler-catholic-church/639435/ John Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, (1999) Michael Phayer, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1936, (2000) Rabbi David G. Dalin, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, (2005) Ronald J. Rychlak, Hitler, the War, and the Pope, (2000) Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Exposing The Dark American History Of Eugenics Description: When the Nazis designed their eugenics program to sterilize and abort those they deemed inferior or undesirable, they looked to one nation as their example: the United States of America. For decades, the United States was a world leader in applying eugenics to its own population. Politicians passed laws to prevent entire races from entering the country, universities taught their students the benefits of selective human breeding, and activists were hailed as heroes for calling for the sterilization of the poor, sick, and mentally ill. Today on A Day In History, we’ll look at the rise of the eugenics movement in the US, what it believed, who promoted it, and the consequences that so many innocent people suffered before it was wiped away. The Ideology of Eugenics Eugenics, meaning ‘good genes’, was a movement that hoped to improve the genetic health of humanity by promoting the breeding of good or desirable people while limiting or preventing that of undesirables. It is a scientific fact that genes can influence physical health and that certain conditions can be passed between parent and child. However, genetics was still in its infancy when eugenics emerged, and many false beliefs became embedded in the movement. Behavioral genetics, a field coined by Francis Galton in the 1880s, believed that a range of behaviors including criminality and alcoholism were also genetic, and this became accepted wisdom among eugenicists. A number of other negative traits, such as mental health issues, were also attributed to bad genes. Galton was actually a cousin of Charles Darwin and the eugenicists were quick to apply Darwin’s evolutionary theory and survival of the fittest idea to humanity. Eugenicists believed that society should ‘weed out’ the sick, ill, poor, and those deemed ‘inferior’ and try to ensure only those with good genes reproduced. Inevitably, eugenics became deeply associated with racism. From the outset, Galton and early eugenicists assumed the innate superiority of Northern Europeans. Those of Nordic, Germanic, or Anlgo-Saxon heritage were believed to be genetically superior in terms of intelligence, morality, and physical prowess, with other races spread out on a scale far below them. It followed that breeding between the superior races and the inferior ones was to be avoided, that superior races should be encouraged to breed among themselves as much as possible, and that the inferior races have their numbers limited as much as possible. Not all eugenics was race-based. Black eugenicists rejected the racist conclusion of some eugenicists but still targeted the physically, mentally, and morally unfit within the Black community. This included Thomas Wyatt Turner, the first Black American to receive a PHd, and W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the greatest intellectuals of his day, who famously argued that, quote, “only fit blacks should procreate to eradicate the race's heritage of moral iniquity.” #history #eugenics #nazi #nazieugenics #americaneugenics #plannedparenthood Sources: "Birth Control or Race Control? Sanger and the Negro Project", The Margaret Sanger Papers Project, Fall 2011, https://web.archive.org/web/20141129060006/http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/articles/bc_or_race_control.php Andrea DenHoed, ‘The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement’, 27th April 2016, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-forgotten-lessons-of-the-american-eugenics-movement Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought, (1993) Julie Rose, ‘A Brutal Chapter In North Carolina's Eugenics Past’, 28th December 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/12/28/144375339/a-brutal-chapter-in-north-carolinas-eugenics-past Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization, (1950) Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race, (1920) Nancy Ordover, American Eugenics, (2003) Paul Lombardo, ‘Eugenic Laws Against Race Mixing’, http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay7text.html Stefan Kuhl, The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism, (1994) Wendy Kline, ‘Eugenics in the United States’, Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, (2010) Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Nazi Experiments SO EVIL They Hid Them From History Description: Get the “big picture” with Ground News. Go to https://ground.news/adayinhistory and subscribe for 40% off their unlimited access Vantage plan this month only. The Nazis are today justifiably regarded as the epitome of evil. Their policies, their ideology, the way they conducted war and occupation, and, most notably, the Holocaust are all proof of the criminal genocidal character of their regime It is, however, a common misconception that all this murderous sadism was part of one master plan of destruction. The reality is, as usual, more complicated. Today, on A Day in History, we explore some of the lesser-known horrendous programs born from the Nazis' sick imagination. Through these programs, we'll also glimpse the evolution of their killing frenzy as World War II unfolded.. Nazi policies before and after WWII In most stories about Nazi Germany, we are used to viewing the rise and fall of Hitler and his followers as a comprehensive continuum: the rise to power, the repression of political opponents, the anti-Jewish measures, and the reversal of the Versailles obligations all led to the invasion of Poland and the murderous chaos of the world war. While this narrative is enlightening, it obscures the important fact that the Nazi policies acquired qualitatively AND quantitatively very different features after the autumn of 1939. This was because, starting in 1939 and until at least 1942, the Nazi policies had to be implemented on vast new territories and populations. For instance, the Jews in Germany numbered less than half a million when the Nazis took power in 1933 and were, as known, subjected to extremely racial yet non-murderous policies until 1939. When 3.500.000 more Polish Jews fell into the Nazis’ hands in 1939, however, these same policies no longer applied and were quickly transformed into genocidal. The new realities that the war in the East after 1941 also necessitated new practical policies that did not always align well with the stubbornly inflexible Nazi ideology. Nonetheless, the Nazis did attempt to balance their hateful ideas with the practical need to win the war. Here are six programs they implemented to achieve this balance in their own inhumane way. Action T4: The Euthanasia Program #nazi #history #nazigermany #naziprograms #darkhistory Sources: Arad Yitzhak (1987/1999), Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Indiana University Press. Beer Matthias (1987), „Die Entwicklung der Gaswagen beim Mord an den Juden" Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 37 (3), pp. 403-417. (English Translation: https://pages.ucsd.edu/~lzamosc/chelm10.htm) Browning Christopher (1992), Ordinary Men: Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, HarperCollins. Browning Christopher (2004), The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942, University of Nebraska Press. Helm Sarah (2015), If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women, Little, Brown. Spector Shmuel (1990), "Aktion 1005—effacing the murder of millions", Oxford Journals, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 5 (2), pp. 157–173. Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Tamil Tigers: History's MOST Dangerous Militants Description: What happens when a terrorist group becomes a better military force than the army? That was the horrifying reality faced by Sri Lanka as it contended with the legendary Tamil Tigers. The Tigers were prolific assassins and bombers, but at their height they commanded whole districts, a navy, and even an air force which allowed them to conquer military bases and even fend off India’s military might. Today on A Day In History, we look at the history of the Tamil Tigers, what made them so powerful and so feared, and how they were finally defeated. Rise of the Tigers Two ethnic groups dominate Sri Lanka: the Sinhalaese in the South, and the Tamils to the north. After decolonisation, the Sinhalaese dominated Sri Lankan politics and society which resulted in discrimination and inequality for the Tamils. Ethnic tensions flared, which the Sri Lankan government made worse by trying to stamp out Tamil art, language, and culture, and even forcing Tamils to swear an oath of allegiance denouncing Tamil identity. Unsurprisingly, Tamil separatism grew and soon militant groups emerged fighting for that cause. In 1976, Velupillai Prabhakaran founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - better known as the Tamil Tigers - and quickly supplanted the rival groups to become the dominant Tamil-separatist militant organization. The Tigers were potentially linked to several small attacks and low-level political assassinations in the 1970s. In 1977, they were probably responsible for the assassination of a Tamil MP, but it wasn’t until July 1983 that the Tigers made a deadly entry onto the center stage. On July 23rd 1983, Prabhakaran and a group of Tigers ambushed the Sri Lankan army patrol 4-4-Bravo outside of the town of Tirunelveli. 13 soldiers were gunned down and the Tigers slipped away. The blatant attack triggered an angry response with trucks of Sri Lankan soldiers riding into Tirunelveli and attacking the Tamil residents there, killing around 60 people. The anger spread throughout Sri Lanka leading to ethnic riots that killed at least another 300 Tamils in what became known as Black July. Both sides took the events of Black July as just cause to step up attacks against each other. Thus began the First Eelam War (Eelam being the Tamil name for Sri Lanka). The brutal treatment of the Tamil minority earned the Tigers a great amount of international sympathy at the start. India with its large Tamil population was an obvious source of support. As well as donations from sympathetic Indians, the Indian government even trained some Tamil fighters in the 1980s to help their fight. The Tamils also enjoyed support from the global Tamil diaspora, mainly in Canada, Australia, and Britain, who donated money and curried support for the Tigers in the Western world. #tamiltigers #history #srilanka #historydocumentary Music: Epidemic music Sources: Ahmed S. Hashim, When Counterinsurgency Wins: Sri Lanka’s Defeat of the Tamil Tigers, (2013) Gordon Weiss, The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers, (2012) John Curtis and Tim Robinson, Sri Lankan Tamils and Human Rights, House of Commons Library, (2023) Paul Moorcraft, Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers: The Rare Victory of Sri Lanka’s Long War, (2012) Copyright © 2024 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Marocchinate: The Darkest Event of WWII *WARNING Mature Audiences Only Description: Today, we are going to tell you about a horrific event – the "Marocchinate" - or "The deeds of the Moroccans." Those "deeds" were r@pe and murder on a mass scale – mostly r@pe What might be even more shocking for people is that the Moroccans were part of the Allied armies moving up the Italian Peninsula in 1944. Background In the spring of 1944, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers were slowly advancing up the Italian peninsula toward Rome. In September 1943, the Allies crossed the Straits of Messina from recently conquered Sicily to mainland Italy. In the far south of the country, it was mostly British and British Imperial troops doing the fighting. To the north, mainly American forces landed at Salerno, some 140 miles south of Rome. The intention was to catch German troops in a trap from north and south, forcing their surrender. Another aspect of the plan was to capture Rome, one of the capital cities of the "Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis," an enemy the Allies had been fighting since 1939. Shortly after the Allied landings in their country, the king and the politicians around him made secret overtures to the Allies. They would overthrow and detain Mussolini and make peace in the hope of sparing their country the destruction they knew would come. That's exactly what happened. Mussolini was taken to a deserted hotel in the mountains, and King Victor Emanuel III and his closest adviser, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, formed a new government. There were Algerians, Moroccans, and Tunisians, countries that today are considered "Arab." They speak forms of Arabic, write Arabic, and are overwhelmingly Muslim. However, among the North African troops, an outsized percentage were Berbers. The Berbers are the indigenous people of North-West Africa, having lived there far longer than the Arabs who arrived in the mid to late 7th and early 8th centuries, bringing the new religion of Islam. Today, being "Berber" or at least counted as Berber by the government is difficult because of urbanization and intermingling in these countries. Berber traditions, customs, and languages differ from region to region. Still, it's estimated that half or over half of Morocco today is Berber, between 15-40% of Algeria, and about 10% of the population of Tunisia. Most Berbers are Muslims, though there are Berber Christians and a small number of Berber Jews. The culture also includes long, age-old traditions that bear some similarities to the belief systems of tribal people around the world. #Marocchinate #wwiicrimes #history #wwiihistory #italianhistory Music: Epidemic Music Sources: "Don Alberto Terrilli." Santiebeati.it. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/99377. "Mass of Italians by Moroccans WW2." YouTube. Last modified August 12, 2014. https://youtu.be/QVBPG6eX3dI. "Two Women." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Last modified June 3, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Women. "Violentata a 27 Anni Viene Risarcita Quando Ne Ha Quasi 100." Corriere Della Sera. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.corriere.it/cronache/15_settembre_23/violentata-27-anni-viene-risarcita-quando-ne-ha-quasi-100-0852be0c-61ba-11e5-a22c-898dd609436f.shtml. "Waiting for the Redirectiron..." Waiting for the Redirectiron... Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.cassino2000.com/cdsc/studi/archivio/n07/n07p09.html. "«Elle Avait 17 ans Et Elle a été Violée Par 40 soldats»." Libération. Last modified May 15, 2015. https://www.liberation.fr/societe/2015/05/15/elle-avait-17-ans-et-elle-a-ete-violee-par-40-soldats_1310075/. Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> The Azov Battalion: Ukraine's Neo-Nazi Brigade? Description: Denazification.’ Ever since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, this word has been repeated endlessly in Russian propaganda as the central goal of the ‘Special Military Operation.’ It sounds absurd - Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy is a Jew and Nazism is seemingly nowhere to be seen in Ukrainian government, politics, or society - but Putin’s crusade against Nazism rests upon the continued existence of a tiny section of the Ukrainian military known as the Azov Regiment. One glance at their history makes it obvious why they earned the label: a militia formed by radical fascists and white-supremacists, operating under Nazi symbols, and credibly accused of abuses and outrages upon civilians and captives. But what is the truth behind Azov? How did it go from extremist militia to an official part of the Ukrainian military? And does it represent the rise of Nazism in Ukraine? Today on A Day In History, we’ll explore the history of the Azov Regiments, its origins, foundation, military role, and transformation into the force currently fighting in Ukraine today. If that sounds interesting to you, then feel free to leave a like on this video and check out our other content for more insightful historical topics. The Origins of Azov To understand Azov, we must begin with Ukraine’s wider far-right movement. Like any nation, Ukrainian nationalism can attract extremist elements. In the early 2000s, this was represented by groups such as the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) and its splinter group Patriot of Ukraine (PU). Some of these groups espoused fascist and pro-Nazi views, invoked Naiz symbols, and made heroes out of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators. Andriy Biletsky, who was a prominent leader in the PU, allegedly declared that Ukraine’s national mission should be to, “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade...against Semite-led Untermenschen.” #azovbattalion #ukraine #history #ukrainevsrussia Sources: Alasdair McCallum, ‘Much Azov about nothing: How the ‘Ukrainian neo-Nazis’ canard fooled the world’, Monash University, 19th August 2022, https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2022/08/19/1384992/much-azov-about-nothing-how-the-ukrainian-neo-nazis-canard-fooled-the-world Andres Umland, ‘Irregular Militias and Radical Nationalism in Post-Euromaydan Ukraine: The Prehistory and Emergence of the “Azov” Battalion in 2014’, Terrorism and Political Violence, 31, (2019) Christopher Miller, ‘In Ukraine, Ultranationalist Militia Strikes Fear In Some Quarters’, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 30th January 2018, https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-azov-right-wing-militia-to-patrol-kyiv/29008036.htmll Ivan Gomza, ‘Too Much Ado About Ukrainian Nationalists: the Azov Movement and the War in Ukraine’, Krytyka, April 2022, https://krytyka.com/en/articles/too-much-ado-about-ukrainian-nationalists-the-azov-movement-and-the-war-in-ukraine Lev Glonkin, Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine’, The Nation, 22nd February 2019, https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/ Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine 16 February to 15 May 2016’, (2016) Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine 16 November 2015 to 15 February 2016’, (2016) Oren Dorell, ‘Volunteer Ukrainian Unit Includes Nazis’, USA Today, 10th March 2015, https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/10/ukraine-azov-brigade-nazis-abuses-separatists/24664937/ Shaun Walker, ‘Azov Fighters Are Ukraine’s Greatest Weapon And Maybe Its Greatest Threat’, The Guardian, 10th September 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis Tara John and Tim Listener, ‘A far-right battalion has a key role in Ukraine’s resistance. Its neo-Nazi history has been exploited by Putin‘, CNN, 30th March 2022, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/29/europe/ukraine-azov-movement-far-right-intl-cmd/index.html ‘Profile: Who Are Ukraine’s far-right Azov Regiment?’, Al Jazeera, 1st March 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/1/who-are-the-azov-regiment ‘Ukrainian fighters grease bullets against Chechens with pig fat’, Al Jazeera, 28th February 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/28/ukrainian-fighters-grease-bullets-against-chechens-with-pig-fat Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> This Soviet Union Event Shocked EVEN The Nazis Description: Get the “big picture” with Ground News. Go to https://ground.news/adayinhistory and subscribe for 50% off their unlimited access Vantage plan May 2nd 1945. Hitler is dead. Berlin has been captured. The Nazis have fallen. The war in Europe is finally over. The propaganda said it was a noble victory. Red Army soldiers marching into Berlin and delivering the final blow to the fascist Reich. The evil vanquished, the Motherland avenged, the future bright and hopeful. We know that it wasn’t that simple. The Allies’ moment of triumph after 6 years of war was stained with stories of horrific abuse upon innocent people. The Naizs had turned Europe and beyond red with innocent blood, but the Allies had done their part to spill it too. Not least of all the Red Army whose brutal march into Germany was filled with massacres, looting, and unspeakable amounts of rape. When they reached Berlin, the Soviet soldiers inflicted sexual violence upon civilian women on a massive scale that changed their victims lives’ forever. What happened? How could it be allowed to happen? How did the victims deal with it? Stick with us to the end of the video to learn the entire shameful story. The Crimes Let’s get right to the point: what exactly did the Soviets do? Simply, the Soviets did what so many armies had done before them and what they’d already been doing since pushing the Nazis out of Russia itself. Hundreds of thousands, probably millions, in Eastern Europe had already suffered at their hands. In Hungary, even the mental patients at an asylum at Nagy-Kall weren’t spared. In East Prussia, an area treated with special brutality by the Soviets, half of the known women who survived had been victims of rape. Berliners knew what awaited them. Many fled to the West into the more merciful arms of the Americans and British. But many had no hope of escape. #berlin #wwii #nazis #sovietunion Sources: Alexander Hill, The Red Army and the Second World War, (2017) Antony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, (2007) Catherine Merridale, Ivan’s War: The Red Army, 1939-45, (2006) Daniel Johnson, ‘Red Army Troops Raped Even Russian Women As They Freed Them From Camps’, The Telegraph, 24th January 2002, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1382565/Red-Army-troops-raped-even-Russian-women-as-they-freed-them-from-camps.html Krishna Ignalaga Thomas, ‘Politics of History and Memory: The Russian Rape of Germany in Berlin, 1945’, Historia Vol 16, (2007) Theodore A. Wilson (ed.), When Titans Clashed: How The Read Army Stopped Hitler, (Rev. Ed., 2015) Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video> <video> Exposing Soviet Union's War Crimes In Afghanistan *WARNING Mature Audiences Only Description: ‘The Graveyard of Empires.’ This is a nickname given to Afghanistan for the failures of so many imperial powers to succeed there. The Soviet Union was no different. Between 1979 and 1989, the Soviet Union sent hundreds of thousands of men to crush Islamist and anti-Communist forces of the Mujahideen. Unpopular, unproductive, and unspeakably brutal, the Soviet occupation was despised by the Afghans, condemned by the global community, and helped to bring about the ultimate collapse of the USSR. Today on A Day In History, we look at the awful things the Soviets did in Afghanistan and the terrible costs the Afghan people paid for their government’s alliance with the declining superpower. If this is interesting to you, consider leaving a like on the video, and subscribing to our channel for more videos like this one. Soviet Invasion As a staunchly neutral country, Afghanistan had enjoyed the benefits of both US and Soviet friendship for most of the Cold War. This ended in April 1978, when Communist revolutionaries led by Nur Mohammad Taraki overthrew the government and placed themselves firmly in the Soviet camp. Taraki’s brutal reign was short-lived and he was ousted in another coup the following year, this time by his own Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin. Both regimes shared Communist ideals and were deeply unpopular with the Afghan people. Afghan society was still deeply religious and tribal, at least in rural areas, while Communism was favoured among the urbanites and the political, military, or academic elite. This tension soon spilled over into violence as radical Islamist groups emerged, consciouso f the threat that atheistic Communist rule posed to their religious way of life. By 1979, Afghanistan was gripped by civil strife with whole areas of the country declaring themselves for the rebel factions collectively dubbed the Mujahideen. For the USSR, this unrest didn’t just threaten a potential allied regime, it challenged the presumptions of Soviet foreign policy. For decades, the Communists had assumed that, once Communism gained a foothold somewhere, it would never fall. Afghanistan shattered that illusion, rallying the common people of the country against Communist rule. Eager to suppress this unrest, the Soviets intervened to support the regimes. In March 1978, anti-Communist demonstrations erupted in Herat. Even the local soldiers defected to the rebels. The Afghan government turned to the Soviets for support, who responded with characteristic brutality: they sent bombers to put down the rebels, killing 5,000 people. It was an outrage for the Afghan people and only fuelled further unrest, with more military units revolting against the government through 1978 and 79. The following April, Soviet helicopters had a similar brutal response to the rebellious village of Kerala, which claimed another 1,000 lives. By the end of 1979, Moscow decided they needed a firmer hand. On December 24th, paratroopers dropped into Afghanistan and occupied key strategic points. The Afghan government believed they were here to help, but got a nasty surprise on December 27th when Spetsnaz forces stormed the President’s palace in Kabul, killed President Amin, and appointed the puppet Babrak Karmal in his place. This began a nearly decade-long Soviet presence in the country, facing down the coalition of Islamist Afghan rebels calling themselves the Mujahideen. Cold War politics meant that the USA and its allies were quick to fund the Mujahideen in a proxy war against the Soviets. #sovietunion #sovietafghanwar #sovietunionhistory Sources: Gregory Feifer, The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan, (2009) Gregory Fremont-Barnes, The Soviet-Afghan War 1979-89, (2012) Lester W. Garu, The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan, (1996) Mohammed Hassan Kakar, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982, (1995) Rodric Braithwaite, Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89, (2011) Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com </video>

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A Day In History brings to you the unsaid, weird, and ugly parts of history that are not taught in textbooks, along with some more hopeful sections of our past. With so much misinformation everywhere, our aim is to shed light on some of history's most suppressed but factual events.

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