Best of
Russia

2008

City of Thieves


David Benioff - 2008
    Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.

Child 44


Tom Rob Smith - 2008
    He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the horrific death of a young boy because he is told to, because he believes the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo is the perfect soldier of the regime. But suddenly his confidence that everything he does serves a great good is shaken. He is forced to watch a man he knows to be innocent be brutally tortured. And then he is told to arrest his own wife. Leo understands how the State works: Trust and check, but check particularly on those we trust. He faces a stark choice: his wife or his life. And still the killings of children continue...

Leningrad: State of Siege


Michael Jones - 2008
    “In this struggle for survival, we have no interest in keeping even a proportion of the city’s population alive.”During the famed 900-day siege of Leningrad, the German High Command deliberately planned to eradicate the city’s population through starvation. Viewing the Slavs as sub-human, Hitler embarked on a vicious program of ethnic cleansing. By the time the siege ended in January 1944, almost a million people had died. Those who survived would be marked permanently by what they endured as the city descended into chaos.In Leningrad, military historian Michael Jones chronicles the human story of this epic siege. Drawing on newly available eyewitness accounts and diaries, he reveals the true horrors of the ordeal—including stories long-suppressed by the Soviets of looting, criminal gangs, and cannibalism. But he also shows the immense psychological resources on which the citizens of Leningrad drew to survive against desperate odds. At the height of the siege, for instance, an extraordinary live performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony profoundly strengthened the city’s will to resist.A riveting account of one of the most harrowing sieges of world history, Leningrad also portrays the astonishing power of the human will in the face of even the direst catastrophe.

Sashenka


Simon Sebag Montefiore - 2008
    Outside the Smolny Institute for Noble Young Ladies, an English governess is waiting for her young charge to be released from school. But so are the Tsar’s secret police… Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her part in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction. Twenty years on, Sashenka has a powerful husband with whom she has two children. Around her people are disappearing, but her own family is safe. But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair which will have devastating consequences. Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heart-breaking tale of passion and betrayal, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism - and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice.

My Poems...: Selected Poetry


Marina Tsvetaeva - 2008
    Tsvetaeva's poetry was often of a very passionate and almost obsessive nature. She writes of unrequited love and heartbreak, of her admiration for other writers, of the devastation of war, and of her generally troubled life. Nonetheless, she is always able to contain this raw emotion in an extremely rigorous and disciplined form, unique only to her. Especially in her later poetry, frequent enjambments, inner rhymes, short lines, word play, and numerous allusions dominate her work. In this dual-language selection, Andrey Kneller offers his attempts to capture this distinctive style of Marina Tsvetaeva's poetry by preserving both the message and the music of the originals.

Moscow St. Petersburg 1900-1920: Art, Life, Culture of the Russian Silver Age


John E. Bowlt - 2008
    Petersburg 1900–1920 is the quintessential guide to Russia’s vibrant and influential Silver Age.   In this elegantly written narrative survey, John E. Bowlt sheds new light on Russia’s Silver Age, the period of artistic renaissance that flourished as Imperial Russia’s power waned. Much of the creative energy could be attributed to the Symbolist movement, whose proponents sought to transcend the barriers of bourgeois civility and whose unconventional lifestyles led some critics to label them Decadents and Degenerates. But, as Sergei Diaghilev declared, theirs was not a moral or artistic decline, but a voyage of inner discovery and a reinvention of a national culture.   Bowlt’s richly textured volume focuses not only on Russia’s best known artists from this period—Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, Igor Stravinsky, Anna Pavlova and poet Anna Akhmatova—but also on lesser known movements of the period—experimental theater, Nikolai Kalmakov’s innovative painting, and the free dance practiced by followers of Duncan and Dalcroze.   Praise for Moscow & St. Petersburg:   "This book will serve as a reference resource . . . . This ambitious English-language publication aims to cover not only every art group of the time but every aspect of the Russian culture. The pictorial layout of John Bowlt’s book renders the sheer proliferation of new ideas immediately apparent. The highly charged text charts the medley of productions, groups, and individuals, all loosely associated with the symbolist movement, that make up the vast canvas. As the leading specialist in the Russian 20th-century avant-garde, Professor Bowlt is well qualified to place the silver age in context." ~ The Art Newspaper"This lushly illustrated volume captures the artistic explosion that was Russia’s Silver Age." ~ Russian Life"(An) authoritative feast of a book." ~ The Irish Times"Splendidly illustrated, beautifully designed . . . ." ~ Shepherd Express"A truly seminal work . . . ." ~ Midwest Book Review"Lavishly illustrated and elegantly written narrative survey." ~ Panache Privée"A dazzling array of color illustrations and period photos displaying the glories of Russia’s art, architecture and scientific achievements." ~ California Literary Review

The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century


Peter Pringle - 2008
    In a drama of love, revolution, and war that rivals Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago," Pringle tells the story of a young Russian scientist, Nikolai Vavilov, who had a dream of ending hunger and famine in the world. Vavilov's plan would use the emerging science of genetics to breed super plants that could grow anywhere, in any climate, in sandy deserts and freezing tundra, in drought and flood. He would launch botanical expeditions to find these vanishing genes, overlooked by early farmers ignorant of Mendel's laws of heredity. He called it a "mission for all humanity."To the leaders of the young Soviet state, Vavilov's dream fitted perfectly into their larger scheme for a socialist utopia. Lenin supported the adventurous Vavilov, a handsome and seductive young professor, as he became an Indiana Jones, hunting lost botanical treasures on five continents. In a former tsarist palace in what is now St. Petersburg, Vavilov built the world's first seed bank, a quarter of a million specimens, a magnificent living museum of plant diversity that was the envy of scientists everywhere and remains so today.But when Lenin died in 1924 and Stalin took over, Vavilov's dream turned into a nightmare. This son of science was from a bourgeois background, the class of society most despised and distrusted by the Bolsheviks. The new cadres of comrade scientists taunted and insulted him, and Stalin's dreaded secret police built up false charges of sabotage and espionage.Stalin's collectivization of farmland caused chaos in Soviet food production, and millions died in widespread famine. Vavilov's master plan for improving Soviet crops was designed to work over decades, not a few years, and he could not meet Stalin's impossible demands for immediate results.In Stalin's Terror of the 1930s, Russian geneticists were systematically repressed in favor of the peasant horticulturalist Trofim Lysenko, with his fraudulent claims and speculative theories. Vavilov was the most famous victim of this purge, which set back Russian biology by a generation and caused the country untold harm. He was sentenced to death, but unlike Galileo, he refused to recant his beliefs and, in the most cruel twist, this humanitarian pioneer scientist was starved to death in the gulag.Pringle uses newly opened Soviet archives, including Vavilov's secret police file, official correspondence, vivid expedition reports, previously unpublished family letters and diaries, and the reminiscences of eyewitnesses to bring us this intensely human story of a brilliant life cut short by anti-science demagogues, ideology, censorship, and political expedience.

Most Beautiful Princess


Christina Croft - 2008
    Petersburg to the back streets of Moscow. Through intrigues, assassination, war and revolution, to the tragedy of her own horrific murder, she remained true to her calling to bring beauty into the world. Based on the true story of 'the most beautiful princess in Europe', this novel is written in tribute to a remarkable and courageous woman.

Magnificence of the Tsars: Ceremonial Men's Dress of the Russian Imperial Court, 1721-1917


Svetlana Amelekhina - 2008
    The luxurious, opulent lifestyles enjoyed by the Russian tsars, their families, and courts were among the world’s most extravagant for nearly two centuries, continue to be a source of endless fascination today. In this exquisitely illustrated collection, the grandeur of Imperial Russia is displayed in full. Starting in the 1730s with exquisitely embroidered coats and elaborately patterned silks from the wardrobe of Tsar Peter II these resplendent garments document a unique dialogue between military uniform, court dress, European fashion, and traditional Russian dress.

Confessions of the Creature


Gary Inbinder - 2008
    In the Arctic waters of the Barents Sea, the creature has taken the ultimate revenge on his creator, Frankenstein. He travels south, where a chance meeting with a witch gives him the opportunity to overcome what he is, and perhaps become who he was meant to be. Transformed into a normal-looking man, but retaining his superhuman strength, the creature journeys to Moscow, where he becomes the protege of a wealthy natural philosopher and the lover of his daughter, Sabrina. Taking the name Viktor Suvorin, the creature wins acclaim as a military hero while Napoleon rages across Europe. Following the wars, Viktor and Sabrina travel to Switzerland, where they meet Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who bases her novel on Viktor's memoirs. Viktor faces a final challenge to his hard-won humanity when tragedy strikes his family and he returns to the Arctic. There, on a frozen sea under the shimmering Northern Lights, the creature must confront the meaning of his creation and his life. ..". a compelling, thought-provoking novel with an undercurrent that made me always a little anxious about what will happen next to the characters." Camellia, Long and Short Reviews "This wonderfully written novel will have any reader hooked right from the beginning. It is an enjoyable and extraordinary story! I hope this will not be the last we see of this author, who obviously has a wonderful talent." Ann Marie Chalmers, Front Street Reviews"

The Volga Germans


Sigrid Weidenweber - 2008
    They dreamed of the faraway place awaiting them. They colored the soil beneath the vast steppe rich and black in their minds ready to be tilled. And there would be a neat little house ready to receive them. In their wildest dreams, they could not have imagined what actually awaited their arrival. There were no houses, no fields nothing but grass as far as the eye could see. It was almost evening; they were hungry, wet and cold and felt like orphaned children. These German immigrants and their descendants civilized this bleak Russian frontier, converted the harsh steppe into fields of waving grain dotted with wind-driven flour mills, and in this isolated place, developed a culture that was uniquely their own. They survived savage attacks of marauding tribes, the unpredictable often harsh climate, and the vagaries of tsarist edicts. Sigrid tells the fascinating story of these remarkable people in The Volga Germans. The Volga Germans is the second volume in Sigrid Weidenweber s trilogy The Volga Flows Forever. Catherine, the first volume, brings to life the fascinating historical character of Catherine the Great who invited her native countrymen to settle the Russian frontier. In the final volume, From Gulag to Freedom, she follows the Volga Germans through the hardships of collectivization and deportation during the Soviet years to finally immigrate to the San Joaquin Valley of Central California.

On Russian Music


Richard Taruskin - 2008
    The author's pre-eminent stature in this field of studies is justification enough for issuing such a collection, and the range of materials is considerable."—Laurel E. Fay, author of Shostakovich: A Life"The scholarship and writing style in this book are up to Taruskin's usual superior standard. It is especially impressive to see the assurance and acute sense for the important issues at the heart of the topic in the earliest essays."—Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma

Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, the Global New Left, and Radical Islam


Robert Chandler - 2008
    The fight is not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a global contest between the United States, radical Islam, a resurgent Russia, and a virulent New Left that is coming to power in Latin America and stalking the corridors of power around the world, including the United States. These three enemies of America are separate but they cooperate--and in his stunning new book, Shadow World, Robert Chandler shows how. In Shadow World you'll learn:* Why "post-Communist" Russia is not really "post-Communist" at all, but represents an insidious new strategic threat to the United States* How "cultural communism" has rejuvenated the radical Left's prospects around the world* Why American-style democracy is losing out to Castro and Hugo Chavez-style communism in Latin America* How radical Islam has allied itself to the New Left--and why this makes radical Islam even more dangerous than beforeShadow World reveals, in a way no other book has done, the new strategic realities of the post-Cold War, post-9/11 world. Provocative, insightful, thorough, it is essential reading for those who want to see the 21st century as America's century, and not the century of her enemies.

Lonely Planet St Petersburg


Lonely Planet - 2008
    Experience the white nights during the summer months, see the Rembrandts housed in the Hermitage, or climb up St Isaac's for a panoramic view; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of St Petersburg and begin your journey now!Inside Lonely Planet St Petersburg Travel Guide:Colour maps and images throughoutHighlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interestsInsider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spotsEssential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and pricesHonest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks missCultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including history, art, literature, cinema, music, architecture, and politicsFree, convenient pull-out St Petersburg map (included in print version), plus over 28 neighbourhood mapsUseful features - including With Kids, Day Trips, and Month-by-Month (annual festival calendar)Coverage of Petrograd & Vyborg Sides, Vasilyevsky Island, Sennaya, Kolomna, Historic Heart, Smolny, Vosstaniya, and moreeBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices)Zoom-in maps and images bring it all up close and in greater detailDownloadable PDF and offline maps let you stay offline to avoid roaming and data chargesSeamlessly flip between pagesEasily navigate and jump effortlessly between maps and reviewsSpeedy search capabilities get you to what you need and want to seeUse bookmarks to help you shoot back to key pages in a flashVisit the websites of our recommendations by touching embedded linksAdding notes with the tap of a finger offers a way to personalise your guidebook experienceInbuilt dictionary to translate unfamiliar languages and decode site-specific local termsThe Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet St Petersburg, our most comprehensive guide to St Petersburg, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled.Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Russia guide for a comprehensive look at all the country has to offer. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Tom Masters, and Simon Richmond.About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in.TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

The Last of the Shor Shamans


Alexander Arbachakov - 2008
    An engrossing exploration of the vanishing way of life of the Shor Shamans of Siberia.

Wave of Terror


Theodore Odrach - 2008
    Ivan Kulik has just become Headmaster of school number 7 in Hlaby, a rural village in the Pinsk Marshes. Through his eyes we witness the tragedy of Stalinist domination where people are randomly deported to labour camps or tortured in Zovty Prison in Pinsk. The author's individual gift that sets him apart from his contemporaries is the range of his sympathies and his unromantic, unsentimental approach to the sensual lives of females. His debt to Chekhov is obvious in his ability to capture the internal drama of his characters with psychological concision.

Top 10 St. Petersburg


Marc Bennetts - 2008
    Petersburg will lead you straight to the very best this city has to offer. The guide is divided by area with restaurant reviews for each, as well as recommendations for hotels, bars, and places to shop. Rely on dozens of Top 10 lists, from the Top 10 sights in St. Petersburg to the Top 10 museums, events and festivals, and much more. There's even a list of the Top 10 things to avoid. Drawing on the same standards of accuracy as the acclaimed DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 St. Petersburg uses colorful photography and maps to create a reliable and useful pocket-sized travel guide that includes a pull-out map.You'll find the insider knowledge you need to explore every corner of the city with DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 St. Petersburg and its pull-out map.

Russian Legends: Folk Tales and Fairy Tales


Patty Wageman - 2008
    Painted in 1880, it evidences the influence that Russian fairytales (in which magic carpets figure heavily) had on Russian painters and illustrators of the time. These stories were not only, as is often thought, used in traditional crafts like lacquer work and embroidery. Nineteenth-century artists blended imagery from fairytales and legends with references to what was happening politically, economically and socially in Russia and the rest of the world--creating a unique picture of the Russian psyche. An engaging survey of an under-explored phenomenon, Russian Legends, Folk Tales and Fairy Tales includes more than 80 works by artists like Vasnetsov, Nicholas Roerich, Ivan Bilibin, Vasili Kandinsky, Elena Polenova and Michail Vroebel alongside summaries of the depicted fairytales. Some of the works included are book illustrations, others large paintings on canvas. A great resource for understanding how and why Russian artists utilized fairytale imagery, this book also serves as an introduction to the repeating themes and humor in the stories.

The Steel Barons


Alex Frishberg - 2008
    With a loan from Sergei, Jack opens a law office and transforms himself from a naive American to a steel baron with a personal army of ex-KGB mercenaries. Even Lena, Jack's new girlfriend, worries about his growing involvement in the criminal world. When his partner is murdered, Jack is given a choice: sell his interests to a competing Russian steel company or die. Based on real life events.

The Food & Cooking of Russia: Discover the rich and varied character of Russian cuising, in 60 authentic recipes and 300 glorious photographs (The Food and Cooking of)


Elena Makhonko - 2008
    Book annotation not available for this title.Title: The Food & Cooking of RussiaAuthor: Makhonko, Elena/ Whitaker, Jon (PHT)Publisher: Natl Book NetworkPublication Date: 2009/09/15Number of Pages: 128Binding Type: HARDCOVERLibrary of Congress:

Riding Icarus


Lily Hyde - 2008
    One stormy night Icarus takes off, transporting Masha to an enchanted place. Masha has the chance to make a wish, but will she make the right wish so she and her mother can escape Uncle Igor's clutches?

Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past


Serhii Plokhy - 2008
    This book shows how history has been constructed, used, and misused in order to justify the existence of imperial and modern national projects, and how those projects have influenced the interpretation of history in Russia and Ukraine.

93 Untranslatable Russian Words


Natalia Gogolitsyna - 2008
    Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This new book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. A key to understanding another language, another culture, is figuring out what cannot be "known," but only "felt." In this compact and useful volume, difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context. Added bonus: Includes an extensive chart of Old Russian Measurements you may meet in literature -- from the common arshin, to the less known charka -- with modern conversions. An invaluable reference tool. - Publisher.

The Singing Revolution


Priit J. Vesilind - 2008
    But in Estonia song was the weapon of choice when the Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation.The Singing Revolution tells the moving story of a people's non-violent and dramatic march to regain their freedom--while helping to topple an empire along the way.Based on the acclaimed film, and written by noted National Geographic author Priit Vesilind with filmmakers James and Maureen Tusty. Includes more than 150 photographsThis is a must read for people interested in seeing how change can be manifested through peaceful methods--in rejection of violent means.

The Works of Maxim Gorky


Maxim Gorky - 2008
    This comprehensive eBook presents a range of Gorky’s works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Gorky’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * Five novels, with individual contents tables * Rare novels like THE SPY and A CONFESSION appearing in digital publishing for the first time * Excellent formatting of the texts * Easily locate the poems or short stories you want to read * Includes a selection of Gorky’s non-fiction – including a sample of the author’s personal correspondence * Features two of Gorky’s autobiographies * Features a bonus biography - discover Gorky’s literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please note: we regret that translations of many of Gorky’s novels and plays are not available in the public domain. When new texts become available, they will be added to the eBook as a free update. Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Novels THE MAN WHO WAS AFRAID THREE OF THEM THE MOTHER THE SPY A CONFESSION The Shorter Fiction THROUGH RUSSIA TWENTY-SIX AND ONE AND OTHER STORIES CREATURES THAT ONCE WERE MEN, AND OTHER STORIES MISCELLANEOUS STORIES The Short Stories LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Poetry LIST OF POEMS The Non-Fiction REMINISCENCES OF ANTON CHEKHOV REMINISCENCES OF LEO NIKOLAEVICH TOLSTOY THE MARCH OF MAN MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS The Autobiographies MY CHILDHOOD IN THE WORLD The Biography MAXIM GORKI by Hans Ostwald Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles

A Sportsman's Sketches: Volume 2


Ivan Turgenev - 2008
    As Turgenev's first major piece of writing they brought him instant recognition.Based on his own observations riding around his family's estate the stories explore the difficult lives of the peasants and the Russian system of serfdom. This system came into effect during the 11th century and required the dependency of the peasants on the state. Peasants' mobility was severely restricted and it was made illegal for them to run away from the estates where they worked - they belonged, in essence, to the landowners who could move them to another estate under another landowner while retaining the serf's personal property and family.While there were many rebellions against serfdom it was only in 1861 that it was finally abolished and all serfs were freed by the Tsar, Alexander II. Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches influenced the Tsar's decision to abolish the system of serfdom in Russia.Volume Two includes:Tatyana Borisovna and her NephewDeathThe SingersPyotr Petrovich KarataevThe TrystThe Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky DistrictChertopkhanov and NedopyuskinThe End of ChertopkhanovLiving RelicThe Rattling of WheelsThe Forest and the Steppe

Saint Seraphim: Wonderworker of Sarov and his Spiritual Inheritance


Helen Kontsevitch - 2008
    

The Avant-Garde Icon: Russian Avant-Garde Art and the Icon Painting Tradition


Andrew Spira - 2008
    Although artists repudiated their heritage in line with the political and social climate, their work shows the unmistakable influence of iconic paintings. Important artists such as Malevich and Tatlin are considered and their oeuvres examined to identify the stylistic borrowing from icons. It includes a history of the avant-garde in Russia, the psychology between 1917 and the 1950s and the impact of the spirituality of Russian orthodoxy.

Dostoevsky and the Russian People


Linda J. Ivanits - 2008
    Dostoevsky and the Russian People is a comprehensive study of the people and folklore in his art. Linda Ivanits investigates the integration of Dostoevsky's religious ideas and his use of folklore in his major fiction. She surveys the shifts in Dostoevsky's thinking about the Russian people throughout his life and offers comprehensive studies of the people and folklore in Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Devils, and The Brothers Karamazov. This important study will illuminate this unexplored aspect of his work, and will be of great interest to scholars and students of Russian and of comparative literature.

Modern Russian Grammar: A Practical Guide


John A. Dunn - 2008
    Part A covers traditional grammatical categories such as agreement, nouns, verbs and adjectives. Part B is carefully organized around language functions covering all major communication situations.With a strong emphasis on contemporary usage, all grammar points and functions are richly illustrated with examples. Main features of the Grammar include:clear explanationsemphasis on areas of particular difficulty for learners of Russian, such as numerals and verbs of motionextensive cross-referencing between the different sections. This is the ideal reference grammar for learners of Russian at all levels, from beginner to advanced. No prior knowledge of grammatical terminology is assumed and a glossary of grammatical terms is provided.

Europe's Last Frontier? Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine between Russia and the European Union


Oliver Schmidtke - 2008
    This volume examines the foreign and domestic policies of these republics with an eye to the lasting legacy of Russian domination and the growing attraction of Europe.

The Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish, 1903-1917


Barry Trachtenberg - 2008
    Yet, by 1917, it was the dominant language of the Russian Jewish press, a medium for modern literary criticism, a vehicle for science and learning, and the foundation of an ideology of Jewish liberation. Challenging many longstanding historical conceptions about the founding of modern Yiddish, The Revolutionary Roots of Yiddish Scholarship, 1903-1917 investigates the origins of contemporary Yiddish scholarship. Trachtenberg reveals how, following the model set by other nationalist movements that were developing in the Russian empire, one-time revolutionaries such as the literary critic Shmuel Niger, the Marxist Zionist leader Ber Borochov, and the linguist Nokhem Shtif, dedicated themselves to the creation of a new branch of Jewish scholarship dedicated to their native language. The new Yiddish science was concerned with the tasks of standardizing Yiddish grammar, orthography, and word corpus, establishing a Yiddish literary tradition, exploring Jewish folk traditions, and creating an institutional structure to support their language's development. In doing so, the author argues, they hoped to reimagine Russian Jewry as a modern nation with a mature language and culture, and which deserved the same collective rights and autonomy that were being demanded by other nations in the empire.

Rise and Fall of the Leninist State; A Marxist History of the Soviet Union


Lenny Frank Jr. - 2008
    It is in the economics of the Leninist state, not its politics or ideology, that we find the seeds of its destruction. By examining the economics of the USSR, we can see not only why the Russian Revolution took the course that it did, but why it could not have taken any other path.

Yiddish in the Cold War


Gennady Estraikh - 2008
    The sacrificial role of the Red Army, and the Soviet Union as a whole, reinforced the Left movement in the post-Holocaust Jewish world. Apart from card-careering devotees, such groups attracted numerous sympathisers, including the artist Marc Chagall and the writer Sholem Asch. But the suppression of Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union radically changed the climate in Jewish leftwing circles. Former Communists and sympathisers turned away, while the attention of Yiddish commentators in the West turned to the conditions for Jewish cultural and religious life in the Soviet Union and Poland, Jewish emigration and the situation in the Middle East. Ideological confrontations between Communist Yiddish literati in the Soviet Union, United States, Canada, Poland, France and Israel are in the centre of Gennady Estraikh's pioneering study Yiddish in the Cold War. This ground-breaking book recreates the intellectual environments of the Moscow literary journal Sovetish Heymland (the author was its managing editor in 1988-91), the New York newspaper Morgn-Frayhayt and the Warsaw newspaper Folks-Shtime.

Soviet Blitzkrieg: The Battle for White Russia, 1944


Walter S. Dunn Jr. - 2008
    In one of the largest military campaigns of all time, involving 2 million Soviets and 800,000 Germans, the Red Army advanced 170 miles in two weeks and destroyed German Army Group Center. Using recently declassified Soviet documents as well as German and Soviet unit histories, Dunn recounts this landmark operation of World War II.

Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia


John Garrard - 2008
    John and Carol Garrard tell the story of how the Orthodox Church's moral weight helped defeat the 1991 coup against Gorbachev launched by Communist Party hardliners. The Soviet Union disintegrated, leaving Russians searching for a usable past. The Garrards reveal how Patriarch Aleksy II--a former KGB officer and the man behind the church's successful defeat of the coup--is reconstituting a new national idea in the church's own image.In the new Russia, the former KGB who run the country--Vladimir Putin among them--proclaim the cross, not the hammer and sickle. Meanwhile, a majority of Russians now embrace the Orthodox faith with unprecedented fervor. The Garrards trace how Aleksy orchestrated this transformation, positioning his church to inherit power once held by the Communist Party and to become the dominant ethos of the military and government. They show how the revived church under Aleksy prevented mass violence during the post-Soviet turmoil, and how Aleksy astutely linked the church with the army and melded Russian patriotism and faith. Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent argues that the West must come to grips with this complex and contradictory resurgence of the Orthodox faith, because it is the hidden force behind Russia's domestic and foreign policies today.

Children’s World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890-1991


Catriona Kelly - 2008
    This landmark history of childhood in twentieth-century Russia presents an enthralling and detailed picture of a society where childhood was celebrated everywhere but children’s real needs were often neglected by the state. Catriona Kelly, one of the foremost cultural historians of modern Russia, explores every aspect of children’s lives, including the stresses and joys of ordinary family life, friendships, sports and games, first love, clothing, and schools. She examines the experiences of children in institutions, orphanages, and Stalin’s camps, as well as the impact on their lives of such historical tragedies as revolution, civil and world war, and political purges. Based on unprecedented research in archives, hundreds of interviews, and the study of a huge range of newspapers, books, and pamphlets, the book has an immediacy which is startling. Over 100 illustrations sharpen the focus still more. Kelly weaves together information about the relationships between children and adults, prevailing ideas about childhood, and the actual experiences of children to create an unforgettable account of the intimate workings of Russian and Soviet society.

Understanding Contemporary Russia


Michael L. Bressler - 2008
    Offers an introduction to contemporary Russian politics, economics, society, and culture.

Bandits and Partisans: The Antonov Movement in the Russian Civil War


Erik C. Landis - 2008
    Yet by the summer of 1921, the revolt had been crushed, and popular support for the movement had all but disappeared. Until now, details of this conflict have remained hidden. Erik Landis mines recently opened provincial and central Soviet archives and international collections to provide a depth of detail and historical analysis never before possible in this definitive account of the uprising. Landis examines both sides of the conflict, probing the testimonies of the insurgents, their opponents, and those caught in between. We witness firsthand the frustrations, failures, and internal conflicts of the Bolsheviks and the spirit of rebellion that drove the insurgents and helped drive a localized dispute into a well-organized mass rebellion that struck fear in the hearts of Communist leaders. This political and military threat was influential in bringing about Lenin's conciliatory New Economic Policy, which allowed farmers and villages to sustain themselves in a quasi-market economy. Bandits and Partisans presents a gripping tale of brutality, domination, and revolt, placing readers at the frontlines of the complex and rich history of the Russian civil war and the consolidation of the new Soviet state.

The Post-Soviet Russian Media: Conflicting Signals


Birgit Beumers - 2008
    Presenting original research from a number of well-known international specialists, this book is a detailed investigation of the development of mass media in Russia since the end of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union.