A February 2013 public opinion poll of citizens in the Russian Federation found that 36 percent of respondents considered the Soviet political system better than all others, a 7 percent rise over last year. Such data should make researchers want to analyze more closely the political development of the Russian Federation since 1991, in particular the continuing appeal of the Soviet form of government among a growing sector of the population.

The Hoover Institution Library and Archives have recently acquired the personal papers of Sha Fei (1912–50), a well-known Chinese communist photographer in the 1930s and the 1940s. Born in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Sha joined the Nationalist Revolutionary Army under Chiang Kai-shek in 1925, working as a military radio operator in Southwest China. He then left the Kuomintang Army to become a professional photographer in the 1930s. In October 1937, Sha Fei joined the Chinese Communist Red Army and became a journalist, editor, and photographer in the communist-governed Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region in North China.