The Soviets also founded the town of Volzhskiy, on the left bank of the River Volga, to house the builders of what was called the Great Site of Communism.

Today, nearly half-a-century later, the power station is still the largest in Europe.

Great Anarchist of Russia

"A man with a soul of that beautiful white Christ which seems to be coming out of Russia" – these are the words of Oscar Wilde about Pyotr Kropotkin.

Russia's romantic anarchists celebrate his birthday on December 9.

Kropotkin was born in 1842 and tried to develop a model of an anarchist communist society free from central government.

“Law and Authority” was one of his most-renowned works. Kropotkin claimed we don't need regulations or power, and that society should be free to decide what to do.

Although described as a revolutionary, Kropotkin failed to capitalize on his idea.

The Bolsheviks seized all the power, he exclaimed, and their revolution is an example of how things should not be.

Revolution in Russia’s media

After a lapse of 74 years, the Kommersant newspaper relaunched December 9, 1989, the paper once banned by the Bolsheviks for being “bourgeois.”

The initial idea of Kommersant was to develop the first alternative media source completely independent from the Soviet journalistic tradition.

Those behind the newspaper's resurrection now claim they didn't hire journalism graduates because they wanted to wipe the slate clean.

The paper introduced Western reporting principles in its coverage, many of which were revolutionary for Russia's media at the time.

Read more about this day in history on Russia Now