JustaFontaine

Take time off. That program sounds pretty interesting- it'd be just good as having work experience. The time away from academia is really meant to broaden your view and give you an opportunity to understand who you really are as a person. It wasn't really until almost a year after my MA graduation until I realized that the path I thought I wanted to take was not what I really wanted. Now I am very happy pursuing my PhD on this path that I really wanted. Sometimes our professors and peers influence us so much that it's hard to take an objective look at your interests and personality unless you step far away from that realm. When I made this epiphany, I was actually in Germany and not in contact with anyone in the US.

The "work" experience is really designed to help you get out of that "student" mode and into a "colleague" mode. Many, many graduate students find this mental transition extremely difficult and it takes them years. I treat all of my professors in my PhD program and subfield as colleagues who can serve as mentors, not authority figures as most graduate students perceive them to be and treat them as so. It's just a carry over from my work experience where I dealt with former and current academics all the time and thus, called everyone by their first names. Also, it's amazing how much after working 10-6 for a year can carry over to your graduate school experiences- I actually prefer to get up and get work done so I can relax in the evening rather than sleeping in and working late as I did in my MA program. I feel much saner!

As for Russian history programs and languages, you'd be surprised how shoddy people's language skills are unless they're native speakers. A couple of our PhD students came in with only 3-4 years of Russian and have had to continue their Russian during the PhD. And find time to take a reading course in French or German. The Ukrainian would be a bonus, especially if you have any interest in involving Ukraine in your dissertation project.

But be careful about choosing that particular period. It's been perceived as "done to death." So take a moment and read up the literature more in a variety of themes and perspectives- religion, race/ethnicity, nationalism, gender, immigration, etc. I'd do more of your reading in any works published after 2000 when historians started publishing works using recently opened Soviet archives that they examined since the fall of the Soviet Union. In doing so, you should be able to get a sense of Russian historiography prior to 1990 and figure out what still needs to be "corrected" using the recently opened archives.

If you wind up adjuncting for $2000 a course (which is a realistic possibility in this field) even a deal that pegs your $100k debt repayment to 10-15% of your income will be financially debilitating and leave you with tens of thousands of dollars in debt piled up on your deathbed even if you die very old. The adjuncting lifestyle is hard enough without such worries dogging you to the grave.
 
It is more than worth the investment of another year's wait and reapplication not to put oneself in this situation for life.

Don't let grad school consume you. Have lots of hobbies, play sports, and hang out with friends. Put in a good 40 hour work week, rather than a loose 60 hour work week, and never work from home to keep work and play separate. Just do the work and everything will be fine. Remember that everyone is going to seem more knowledgable than you because they are always going to know more about the topics that they study, and therefore talk about, than you do. 
 
Be product oriented and get in and get out. Be upfront with your boss what the expectations are to get your Ph.D. and just hammer out those products. An 8 year Ph.D. is excessive. 
 
Play to your lab's strengths. Your boss is likely a (world class?) expert in a specific field, so do what she/he is the best at, and you will produce the best products and receive the highest quality education. 

It means it's currently under consideration. Until the school sends out decision everyone is currently under consideration. Even the files they threw out at the first cut. It sounds like you had a positive interview, but you are reading tea leaves. That way is madness.

You should mention it. They can read your records and see something happened and without your narrative of what happened they can come up with many others less favorable to you. Show them that you have some self awareness.