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Historian with daily Alaska history posts & weekly column (https://www.adn.com/author/david-reamer/). Black Lives in Alaska (2022) co-author & 2023 co-Alaska Historian of the Year. Support at Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/davidreamer).
In 1982 Brian Slavens was a Marine stationed at Adak. While on leave, he decided to desert & walked into the Soviet embassy in DC offering info on Adak for $500-$1000. This genius was quickly arrested, confined for 2 years, & dishonorably discharged. #alaskahistory #alaska
1986 T-shirt commemorating the USS Constellation's visit to Anchorage. As the aircraft carrier traversed the Gulf of Alaska, a Soviet trawler picked up its garbage hoping for an intelligence coup. Via Anchorage Museum. #alaskahistory #anchoragehistory #alaska
There he is . . .
From the 1991 song "Don't Play the Fool, America" by Russian band Lyube, a call to take Alaska. "Give us back the land that is Alaska, Give us back our dear land." Lyube is a Putin favorite and has been reportedly played while dissidents are tortured. #alaskahistory #alaska
Aug 12, 1869 former Secretary of State William Seward spoke at Sitka. He set a standard for visiting politicians w/ vague promises & compliments. And comments on the weather, saying, "It is an honest climate, for it makes no pretensions to constancy." #alaskahistory #alaska
Feb 8, 1994 Weekly World Report on Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky: "I'll turn Alaska into a concentration camp!" Report was a tabloid, but he indeed called for military seizure of Alaska, which was where he wanted to dump inconvenient Ukrainians. #alaskahistory #alaska
Still from 1960 Soviet propaganda film "In the Year 2017," named for the centenary of the October Revolution. Film suggested a future where Alaska has been "liberated" from capitalism and connected to Siberia by a combination dam/railroad & nuclear-powered trains. #alaskahistory
March 20, 2014 editorial cartoon by Steve Sack for Minneapolis Star Tribune. Context: this is shortly after the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity & Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula. #alaskahistory #alaska
He had fingers in a few restaurants, most notably the Downtown Deli.
1973 Ski-doo "A Million Machines Can Teach You A Lot" snowmachine commercial. That slogan sounded a lot less threatening back then.