Devastated and desperate, he sets out on a journey in search of redemption. But this is no ordinary journey: it is one that spans ages and countries, and which brings him face-to-face with a host of unforgettable, eccentric characters and legendary creatures from the strangest medieval bestiaries. Laurus’s travels take him from the Middle Ages to the Plague of 1771, where as a holy fool he displays miraculous healing powers, to the political upheavals of the late-twentieth century. At each transformative stage of his journey he becomes more revered by the church and the people, until he decides, one day, to return to his home village to lead the life of a monastic hermit – not realizing that it is here that he will face his most difficult trial yet.Laurus is a remarkably rich novel about the eternal themes of love, loss, self-sacrifice and faith, from one of Russia’s most exciting and critically acclaimed novelists.

    The public recitation of his 1933 poem known in English as "The Stalin Epigram" led to his arrest, exile, and eventual imprisonment in a Siberian transit camp, where he died, presumably in 1938. Mandelstam's work, much of it written under extreme duress, is an extraordinary testament to the enduring power of art in the face of oppression and terror.Stolen Air spans Mandelstam's entire poetic career, from his early highly formal poems in which he reacted against Russian Symbolism to the poems of anguish and defiant abundance written in exile, when Mandelstam became a truly great poet. Aside from the famous early poems, which have a sharp new vitality in Wiman's versions, Stolen Air includes large selections from The Moscow Notebooks and The Voronezh Notebooks.Going beyond previous translators who did not try to reproduce Mandelstam's music, Christian Wiman has captured in English for the first time something of Mandelstam's enticing, turbulent, and utterly heartbreaking sounds.

    Russia experts Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy argue that Putin is in fact a man of many and complex identities. Drawing on a range of sources, including their own personal encounters, they describe six that are most essential: the Statist, the History Man, the Survivalist, the Outsider, the Free Marketeer, and the Case Officer. Understanding Putin's multiple dimensions is crucial for policy-makers trying to decide how best to deal with Russia.Hill and Gaddy trace the identities back to formative experiences in Putin's past, including his early life in Soviet Leningrad, his KGB training and responsibilities, his years as deputy mayor in the crime and corruption-ridden city of St. Petersburg, his first role in Moscow as the "operative" brought in from the outside by liberal reformers in the Kremlin to help control Russia's oligarchs, and his time at the helm of a resurgent Russian state. The authors examine the nature of the political system Putin has built, explaining it as a logical result of these six identities.Vladimir Putin has his own idealized view of himself as CEO of "Russia, Inc." But rather than leading a transparent public corporation, he runs a closed boardroom, not answerable to its stakeholders. Now that his corporation seems to be in crisis, with political protests marking Mr. Putin's return to the presidency in 2012, will the CEO be held accountable for its failings?

    Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.

    Luka is a veteran of the First World War and the Russian Civil War. All he wants now is a quiet life with his wife, twin sons and young daughter. Their small village has, so far, managed to remain hidden from the advancing Soviet brutality and labour camp deportations. But everything changes the day the stranger arrives, pulling a sled bearing the bodies of two children. In a fervour, the villagers lynch the stranger, despite Luka's protests. But when calm is restored, the mob leader, Dimitri, discovers his daughter has vanished. Luka is the only man with the skills to find who could have stolen a child in these frozen white wastelands - and besides, the missing girl is best friends with Luka's daughter Lara, and he promises her that he will find her friend and bring her home. Together with his sons and Dimitri, Luka sets out in pursuit across lands ravaged by war and gripped by treachery. Soon they realise that the man they are tracking is a no ordinary criminal, but a skilful hunter with the kidnapped child as the bait in his violent game. It will take all of Luka's strength to battle the harshest of conditions, and all of his wit to stay a step ahead of Soviet authorities. And though his toughest enemy is the man he tracks, his strongest bond is a whispered promise to his family back at home.

    Some of the stories here were collected by folklorists during the last two centuries, while the others are reworkings of oral tales by four of the greatest writers in Russian literature: Nadezhda Teffi, Pavel Bazhov, Andrey Platonov, and Alexander Pushkin, author of Eugene Onegin, the classic Russian novel in verse. Among the many classic stories included here are the tales of Baba Yaga, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Father Frost, and the Frog Princess.

    Filled with chilling tales of looted palaces and burning estates, of desperate flights in the night from marauding peasants and Red Army soldiers, of imprisonment, exile, and execution, it is the story of how a centuries’-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the Tsar and Empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia.Yet Former People is also a story of survival and accommodation, of how many of the tsarist ruling class—so-called “former people” and “class enemies”—overcame the psychological wounds inflicted by the loss of their world and decades of repression as they struggled to find a place for themselves and their families in the new, hostile order of the Soviet Union. Chronicling the fate of two great aristocratic families—the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns—the book reveals how even in the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on. Told with sensitivity and nuance by acclaimed historian Douglas Smith, Former People is the dramatic portrait of two of Russia’s most powerful aristocratic families, and a sweeping account of their homeland in violent transition.

    The encounter changed Mühling’s life, triggering a number of journeys to Ukraine and deep into the Russian heartland on a quest for stories of ordinary and extraordinary people. Away from the bright lights of Moscow, Mühling met and befriended a Dostoevskian cast of characters, including a hermit from Tayga who had only recently discovered the existence of a world beyond the woods, a Ukrainian Cossack who defaced the statue of Lenin in central Kiev, and a priest who insisted on returning to Chernobyl to preach to the stubborn few determined to remain in the exclusion zone. Unveiling a portion of the world whose contradictions, attractions, and absurdities are still largely unknown to people outside its borders, A Journey into Russia is a much-needed glimpse into one of today’s most significant regions.

    Entitled The History of the Rus', it became one of the most influential historical texts of the modern era. Attributed to an eighteenth-century Orthodox archbishop, it described the heroic struggles of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Alexander Pushkin read the book as a manifestation of Russian national spirit but Taras Shevchenko interpreted it as a quest for Ukrainian national liberation and it would inspire thousands of Ukrainians to fight for the freedom of their homeland. Serhii Plokhy tells the fascinating story of the text's discovery and dissemination unravelling the mystery of its authorship and tracing its subsequent impact on Russian and Ukrainian historical and literary imagination. In so doing he brilliantly illuminates the relationship between history, myth, empire and nationhood from Napoleonic times to the fall of the Soviet Union.

    Derived from the collection of the State Historical Museum and covering both dress worn in the countryside and in the city, this book is a fabulous feast of splendid patterns and fine detail. From exuberantly colorful and embellished dresses to elegantly sumptuous brocades and silks, the garments and accessories included in this book are an inspiration. In the first part of the book we look at traditional Russian dress, which was worn by all Russian peasants, by the urban petit bourgeoisie and by merchants. This type of clothing became accepted as national dress. In the towns and cities, dress was influenced by the Parisian styles but interpreted by Russian seamstresses reflecting the love of bright colors, multi-colored patterns and decorative features in evidence in traditional dress. With authoritative essays written by experts L. Yefimova and T. Aleshina, Russian Elegance is an invaluable resource for fashion designers, artists, fashion historians, set and costume designers, or anyone interested in these beautiful designs.

    "Wheel of Fortune" provides an authoritative account of this vital industry from the last years of communism to its uncertain future. Tracking the interdependence among Russia s oil industry, politics, and economy, Thane Gustafson shows how the stakes extend beyond international energy security to include the potential threat of a destabilized Russia.Gustafson, a leading consultant and analyst of the politics of energy in the former Soviet Union, draws on interviews with key players over the course of two decades to provide a detailed history of the oil industry s evolution since the breakup of the Soviet Union. At its center is the complex and fraught relationship between the oil industry and the state, which loosened its grip under Yeltsin only to tighten it again under Putin. As oil becomes harder to find and more expensive to produce and deliver, Gustafson warns, Russia s growing dependence on revenue from oil exports, along with its inefficient and often-corrupt management of the industry, is unsustainable.A rich but troubled Soviet legacy, the conflicting ambitions of politicians and industry oligarchs, and the excesses of capitalism Russian-style threaten to lead Russia to an impasse. Involving the oil industry in the country s modernization agenda and remaking its relationship to the state, Gustafson argues, is Russia s best path toward a stable economy and a safer world."

    Benefi ting from the instruction of his teachers, Repine and Tchistiakov, he became the fi nest Russian portraitist of his generation. His skill is evident in some of his most beautiful paintings, “Young girl with peaches” or “Ulysses and Nausicaa”. Serov’s creative work and experience opened the way for Russian painting to become part of pictorial art in the 20th century.

    Shklovsky’s answers are wonderfully intimate, focusing particularly on the years of the early Soviet avant-garde, and his relationships with such figures as Eisenstein and Mayakovsky. Bearing witness to a vanished age whose promise ended in despair, Shklovsky is in great form throughout, summing up a century of triumphs and disappointments, personal and historical.

    Petersburg, the Russian imperial residence ofTsarskoye Selo is now more than three hundred years old. TsarskoyeSelo (“Tsar’s Village”) was once a modest estate housing a summerresidence for Catherine I, second wife of Peter the Great. The buildingnow known as the Catherine Palace was extensively rebuilt by EmpressElizabeth and then lavishly refurbished by Catherine the Great. Thisempress's love of art and decoration is evident in the sumptuous interiorsand in the extensive park, filled with fanciful pavilions, bridges, andmonuments. Catherine also commissioned the neoclassical AlexanderPalace for her favorite grandson, the future Alexander I; this laterbecame home to the last tsar, Nicholas II, and his family until theirexile to Siberia.The palace is a glorious showcase for Russian art and craftsmanshipin a huge variety of materials and techniques, from the mirrors and lavishgilding of the Great Hall to the blood-red beauty of the Agate Rooms,their walls lined with Siberian jasper. Tsarskoye Selo is not only a pieceof art history but a living testimony to the tastes and private passionsof the Romanov family. Their clothes and porcelain, their desks and bookshelvesbuild an intimate and involving portrait of life in imperial Russia.

    Efim Volkov book includes 34 high quality reproductions of his greatest masterpieces with title and date.

    

    An anti-Soviet satire was not welcome at a time when the West needed Stalin to fight Hitler, and leading intellectuals still believed in the promise of the Russian Revolution. Orwell managed to publish his "fairy tale" in 1945 at a small press for £100. Soon after, a copy ended up in the hands of a Ihor Ševčenko, a Ukrainian refugee who recognized its profound meaning.Ševčenko wrote to Orwell in London, and, working with him by letter, published Animal Farm in Ukrainian. In March 1947, Ševčenko printed around 5,000 copies to distribute among the Ukrainian refugees in the displaced persons camps of postwar Germany and Austria. But only around 2,000 copies were given out; U.S. soldiers confiscated the rest and handed them over to Soviet authorities to be destroyed as propaganda.Though my mother and father were been born in Ukrainian displaced persons camps after their parents had escaped the Soviet Union through the hell of the Eastern Front, it had never occurred to me that out of the 2,000 copies that survived among the 200,000 or so Ukrainian refugees, that my family would have one. As I discovered while researching my family's history, my uncle had picked up a copy in the refugee camp when he was a boy, and brought Orwell's masterpiece with him when he immigrated to the United States. I decided to explore the history behind this family heirloom and share it as a reminder of the humanitarian importance of speaking truth to power.

    But on the eve of her wedding in 1914 came the first rumours of an impending war - a war that would change her life forever and force her to flee her country as a stateless person, with no country to call home. Spanning two of the most turbulent times in modern history - World War I in Russia and World War II in Paris - Countess Hendrikoff's journals demonstrate the uncertainty, horror and hope of daily life in the midst of turmoil. Her razor-sharp insight, wit and sense of humour create a fascinating eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution and the Occupation and Liberation of Paris. In A Countess in Limbo, Countess Hendrikoff tells her remarkable true story that includes the loss of her brother in the Russian Gulag, her sister-in-law murdered with the Russian Imperial family, and herself being robbed at gunpoint and accused of being a spy by the Nazis. She also speaks of the daily life that continues during wartime - ration cards and food restrictions, the black market, and the struggle just to get by for another day. Her gripping story and thoughtful analysis provide an invaluable look at life and humanity in the face of war.

    Since 1905 he had planned to systematically document the empire with the color photography technique he had developed in order to give all Russians, particularly schoolchildren, a deeper connection to their country. He petitioned Nicholas II long enough that the czar finally provided him with a specially equipped railroad-car darkroom and the necessary travel permits. Before he commenced what would become a six-year expedition, Prokudin- Gorskii--like most of his contemporaries--had no idea what his fellow countrymen from the distant regions of Russia looked like or how they lived. His color images were not only meant to document the diverse citizens, ethnicities, settlements, folklore, and landscapes of a vast empire, but to create nothing less than a common identity for its populace. The subjects of Prokudin-Gorskii's landscape photography range from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power. Although one of his first and most famous portraits was of the prominent writer Leo Tolstoy, Prokudin-Gorskii also captured an impressive range of Russia's heterogeneous population: from day laborers to owners of large estates, from a simple ferryman to an elegant emir, from Jewish families to proud Don Cossacks. Prokudin-Gorskii's expert use of color and his skilled eye make his images especially vibrant and timeless. A century later, they have not lost any of their original beauty and intensity. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii fled Russia in 1918 in the aftermath of the October Revolution. After traveling through Norway and England, he settled in Paris, where he died in 1944. The United States Library of Congress purchased his work in 1948, but it was only recently laboriously restored. Nostalgia showcases these restored masterpieces of early color photography that are a milestone in Russia's cultural history.

    Whichever one you choose, it s a rewarding experience of changing landscapes and culture, people and of life on the rails. Anthony Haywood, Lonely Planet Writer. Our Promise - You can trust our travel information because Lonely Planet authors visit the places we write about, each and every edition. We never accept freebies for positive coverage so you can rely on us to tell it like it is.Inside this book 8 authors, 7 time zones, 15,000+ km of railway track, countless breathtaking vistas, inspirational photos, clear, easy-to-use maps, comprehensive planning tools, life on the rails feature, in-depth background, easy-to-read layout.

    On this occasion the other Great Powers had done all they could to prevent it, although public opinion in the West had been shocked by Turkey's brutal repression of the Bulgarian uprising. The war was to be fought in two distinct theatres. In Europe, as on previous occasions, the Russian objective was to cross first the Danube and then the formidable Balkan Mountains before striking for Constantinople. In Asia, over territory also contested many times before, the Russians aimed to seize Kars and then Erzerum.At first all went well for the invaders, the Turks making no serious attempt to hold the line of the Danube, while a thrust south by General Gourko succeeded in crossing the Balkans by a pass not previously considered practicable. At Plevna, however, the Russian advance stalled in the face of the determined defense of the place by the redoubtable Osman Pasha. In Asia, meanwhile, after initial success, the Russian advance was halted by defeat at Zevin. Poor strategic judgment on the part of the Turks led to their failure to take advantage of the opportunity provided by Osman, even after the Russians had suffered three bloody defeats at Plevna. Eventually, after the town was closely invested, it fell to the besiegers.In Asia, the Turks suffered a major defeat in the battle of God's Mountain, and were driven back to Erzerum, while Kars fell to a brilliant assault by the Russian forces. These defeats marked the beginning of the end for the Turks. By January 1878 the Russians were over the Balkans in force, and the last viable Turkish army was surrounded and captured at Shenovo. Armistice negotiations led to a suspension of hostilities and to the treaty of San Stefano. The other Great Powers had watched the conflict with mounting anxiety and were determined to moderate the terms of San Stefano which had imposed harsh conditions on the Ottoman Empire. This, following tortuous diplomatic negotiations, they succeeded in doing at the Congress of Berlin in July 1878. This book, the first military history of the war in English for over a century, traces the course of the campaigns, examining the many occasions on which the outcome of a battle might have gone the other way, and the performance of the combatants, both leaders and led. The book considers the extent to which the parties applied the lessons of recent wars, as well as the conclusions that could be drawn from the experience of combat with the latest weapons. It also explores the complicated motives of the Great Powers in general, and Britain in particular, in bringing about a final settlement, which postponed the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The author's detailed text is accompanied by an extensive number of black and white illustrations and newly commissioned color battle maps. Orders of battle are also provided. This is the latest title in Helion's groundbreaking series of 19th Century studies, and will again appear in hardback as a strictly limited edition printing of 750 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the author on a decorative title page.

    It's the year 2000. Newly elected President Putin is embattled after the Kursk submarine explodes and spirals into the abyss. 118 submariners are trapped. Outwardly, Putin seems not to care, but behind the scenes is another story. Meanwhile, the Russian people yearn for a response from their leader. Mass protests ignite across Russia. Does Putin save the sailors and unite his beloved motherland, or does he lose everything?Discover what motivates the man behind Russia. Is he the cold, ruthless leader you know, or is he...human?

    Drawing on State Department files, personal papers of key Wall Street figures, biographies and conventional histories, Sutton reveals: The role of Morgan banking executives in funnelling illegal Bolshevik gold into the US; the co-option of the American Red Cross by powerful Wall Street forces; the intervention by Wall Street sources to free the Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky, whose aim was to topple the Russian government; the deals made by major corporations to capture the huge Russian market a decade and a half before the US recognized the Soviet regime; the secret sponsoring of Communism by leading businessmen, who publicly championed free enterprise.Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution traces the foundations of Western funding of the Soviet Union. Dispassionately, and with overwhelming documentation, the author details a crucial phase in the establishment of Communist Russia.This classic study - first published in 1974 and part of a key trilogy - is reproduced here in its original form. (The other volumes in the series include Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler and a study of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 Presidential election in the United States.)

    But the quiet life he envisioned as a doctor ended when powerful political forces plunged Russia and Europe into war and revolution. Alexander's fate was at the whim of those in charge at the moment who were flexing power - the czar, the German Nazis, the Russian Bolsheviks, or the partisan underground army - each in turn held his life in their hands. Yet even while tending to a Bolshevik commandant's child, knowing his own life might depend on her survival, or hiding from the Nazis, Alexander never gave up hope for a better future for himself and his family. This historical biography of Alexander Kowal's life is a story of courage, tenacity, and hope.

    This 448-page collection is weighty and substantial, yet is also just a taste of the stunning writing coming out of Russia today.Contents:Basileus / Olga Slavnikova; Translated by Andrew BromfieldWhatever Day of the Week It Happens To Be / Zakhar Prilepin; Translated by Simon Patterson and Nina ChordasShelter / Alexander Kabakov; Translated by Daniel JaffeDauntless Women of the Russian Steppe / Ludmila Ulitskaya; Translated by Arch TaitThe Half-Belt Overcoat / Mikhail Shishkin; Translated by Leo ShtutinSindbad the Sailor / Yury Buida; Translated by Oliver ReadyA Family of Monsters / Igor Sakhnovsky; Translated by Hugh AplinHiroshima / Vladimir Sorokin; Translated by Jamey GambrellPsycho’s One Night Stand / Sergey Kuznetsov; Translated by Andrew BromfieldBasya Solomovna’s Third World War / Margarita Khemlin; Translated by Lisa Hayden EspenschadeThe Lizard / Maria Galina; Translated by Deborah HoffmannBirds of A Feather / Alexander Genis; Translated by Daniel GenisGonzo / Andrei Rubanov; Translated by Polly GannonMonologue of A Life Model / Dina Rubina; Translated by Marian SchwartzThe Death of Manon / Yuri Miloslavsky; Translated by David LapezaThe Stone Bridge (Fragment) / Alexander Terekhov; Translated by Simon PattersonThe Life and Death of Nicholas II / Eduard Radzinsky; Translated by Marian SchwartzMozharovo / Dmitry Bykov; Translated by James RannChechnya, To Chechnya / Sergei Shargunov; Translated by John NarinsMore Elderly Person / Dmitry Danilov; Translated by Douglas RobinsonThe One-Day War / Vladimir Makanin; Translated by Bela ShayevichVerbal TNT / Yuri Polyakov; Translated by Leo ShtutinIdzhim / Roman Senchin; Translated by Lisa Hayden EspenschadeThe Agency / Anna Starobinets; Translated by Hugh AlpinShaitans / Alisa Ganieva; Translated by Marian SchwartzStars Over Lake Teleskoye / Irina Bogatyreva; Translated by Arch TaitStrike the Iron While It’s Hot, Boys! / Alexei Lukyanov; Translated by Michele BerdyThe People’s Book / Igor Savelyev; Translated by Amanda Love-DarraghThe Day When You Phone the Dead / German Sadulaev; Translated by Anna GuninThe Sparrow / Alexander Ilichevsky; Translated by Benjamin Paloff

    Gvosdev and Christopher Marsh use a comprehensive vectors approach, dividing the world into eight geographic zones. Each vector chapter looks at the dynamics of key bilateral relationships while highlighting major topical issues--oil and energy, defense policy, economic policy, the role of international institutions, and the impact of major interest groups or influencers--demonstrating that Russia formulates multiple, sometimes contrasting, foreign policies. Providing rich historical context as well as exposure to the scholarly literature, Russian Foreign Policy: Interests, Vectors, and Sectors offers an incisive look at how and why Russia partners with some states while it counter-balances others.

    Nancy Kollmann contrasts Russian written law with its pragmatic application by local judges, arguing that this combination of formal law and legal institutions with informal, flexible practice contributed to the country's social and political stability. She also places Russian developments in the broader context of early modern European state-building strategies of governance and legal practice. She compares Russia's rituals of execution to the 'spectacles of suffering' of contemporary European capital punishment and uncovers the dramatic ways in which even the tsar himself, complying with Moscow's ideologies of legitimacy, bent to the moral economy of the crowd in moments of uprising. Throughout, the book assesses how criminal legal practice used violence strategically, administering horrific punishments in some cases and in others accommodating with local communities and popular concepts of justice.

    The realm’s most beautiful young maidens—provided they hailed from the aristocracy—gathered in Moscow, where the tsar’s trusted boyars reviewed their medical histories, evaluated their spiritual qualities, noted their physical appearances, and confirmed their virtue. Those who passed muster were presented to the tsar, who inspected the candidates one by one—usually without speaking to any of them—and chose one to be immediately escorted to the Kremlin to prepare for her wedding and new life as the tsar’s consort.Alongside accounts of sordid boyar plots against brides, the multiple marriages of Ivan the Terrible, and the fascinating spectacle of the bride-show ritual, A Bride for the Tsar offers an analysis of the show’s role in the complex politics of royal marriage in early modern Russia. Russell E. Martin argues that the nature of the rituals surrounding the selection of a bride for the tsar tells us much about the extent of his power, revealing it to be limited and collaborative, not autocratic. Extracting the bride-show from relative obscurity, Martin persuasively establishes it as an essential element of the tsarist political system.

    This book analyses the politics and economics of the state's efforts to improve living standards, and shows how mass consumption was often used as an instrument of legitimacy, ideology and modernization. However, the resulting consumer revolution brought its own problems for the socialist regime. Rising well-being and the resulting ethos of consumption altered citizens' relationship with the state and had profound consequences for the communist project.The book uses a wealth of sources to explore the challenge that consumer modernity was posing to Soviet 'mature socialism' between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. It combines analysis of economic policy and public debates on consumerism with the stories of ordinary people and their attitudes to fashion, Western goods and the home. The book contests the notion that Soviet consumers were merely passive, abused, eternally queuing victims and that the Brezhnev era was a period of 'stagnation', arguing instead that personal consumption provided the incentive and the space for individuals to connect and interact with society and the regime even before perestroika. This book offers a lively account of Soviet society and everyday life during a period which is rapidly becoming a new frontier of historical research.

    Far less commonly known, however, are the experiences of the Poles of Eastern Poland at the hands of the occupying Soviet army. Far From My Home, Never to Return: A Polish Child's WWII Memoir is a first-person account chronicling the dire peril and adversity endured and suffered by one of these Polish families through the eyes of a young Nadia Bogdaniec, who was only eight years old when the Soviets first arrived in her village in 1939. Shortly after the Soviets' arrival, over a million Poles were forcefully deported by the Soviets from Eastern Poland to various regions of the USSR, including Siberia, to be worked or starved to death in the Soviet labor camps. Most of them would never escape. This is a unique true story of hope and survival in the face of this utterly dire peril and extreme adversity.

    These were the junior lines of the Russian Imperial Family at the time of the Revolution in 1917: Vladimirovichi, Pavlovichi, Konstantinovichi, Nikolaevichi and Mikhailovichi. The book is illustrated with exquisite and rare photographs of these intriguing men, their families and descendants. It also includes several family trees. The chapters were authored by some of today's most recognized authors and scholars on the Romanov Dynasty.

    A brief note accompanies each story to help you understand the events, places, or characters described.Most books about the Soviet Union focus on politics, food shortages, or lack of democratic freedoms. This book portrays everyday experiences of a young girl growing up in the Soviet Union of the 1970's and 1980's. Childhood can be a magical and innocent time oblivious to political regimes and problems. And that's what these twelve stories strive to convey.

    Herzen wrote most of these pieces for The Bell, a revolutionary newspaper he launched with the poet Nikolai Ogaryov in London in 1857. Smugglers secretly carried copies of The Bell into Russia, where it influenced debates over the emancipation of the serfs and other reforms. With his characteristic irony, Herzen addressed such issues as freedom of speech, a nonviolent path to socialism, and corruption and paranoia at the highest levels of government. He discussed what he saw as the inability of even a liberator like Czar Alexander II to commit to change. A Herzen Reader stands on its own for its fascinating glimpse into Russian intellectual life of the 1850s and 1860s. It also provides invaluable context for understanding Herzen’s contemporaries, including Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev.

    But that promise remains unfulfilled. Economic collapse, secessionist challenges, civil war and the failure to escape the legacy of Soviet rule - culminating in the 2008 war with Russia - characterize a two-decade struggle to establish democratic institutions and consolidate statehood. Here, Stephen Jones critically analyses Georgia's recent political and economic development, illustrating what its 'transition' has meant, not just for the state, but for its citizens as well. An authoritative and commanding exploration of Georgia since independence, this is an essential read for those interested in the post-Soviet world.

    A Blessing to Smuggle. The Conjuror of Rain. In this collection of stories as whimsical as their titles, award-winning author Olesia Nikolaeva poignantly recounts life for Christian believers in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. In a manner reminiscent of the bestselling Everyday Saints these tales reveal a common theme - the subtle, sometimes imperceptible movement of Divine Providence at work in the lives of saints and sinners alike. Her writings bring us to what the ancient Celts called “thin places” where the boundaries of heaven and earth meet and the sacred and the secular can no longer be distinguished.

    The illustrations included in this edition were created in the early 20th century by the renowned Russian illustrator and stage designer Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin.

    Travel Writing. In HIKING IN SIBERIA, Lawrence Millman follows the trail of a woman who once tried to walk (and row) from New York City to Siberia. He also gets a ride from an apparent ghost in Iceland and attends a feast in Micronesia where the piece de resistance is fruit bat penis. This stylish, often very funny collection of essays affirms Millman's place among the very best living travel writers.

    Elite clans battle for control of the toddler who will become their first tsar, Ivan the Terrible. Amid the chaos and upheaval, a masked man mysteriously appears night after night to aid the desperate people. Or is he a man? Sixteen-year-old Nasan Kolychev is trapped in a loveless marriage. To escape her misery, she dons boys' clothes and slips away under cover of night to help those in need. She never intends to do more than assist a few souls and give her life purpose. But before long, Nasan finds herself caught up in events that will decide the future of Russia. And so, a girl who has become the greatest hero of her time must decide whether to save a baby destined to become the greatest villain of his.

    The surprising picture has allowed completely on new (completely on new is not exaggeration!) to look at a history of his reign, his character, a life and destiny. Nicholas II tried to overcome a Fate many times: in 1899 (the Hague peace conference); then (most decisively) in March, 1905 (an attempt to abdicate and to head the Russian Orthodox Church); and then again and again but he could not. His attempts to overcome a Fate are the main essence and content of this book. *** Author BORIS ROMANOV Born in 1945 in Leningrad (St.Petersburg), Ph.D (the candidate of sciences), the writer. The author of 10 books, including «Zoroastrianism and Christianity» (1994), «The Occult Bulgakov» (1995), «The Apocalypse 2008-2173» (1996), "Astro-Biblos" (1996), «Tragedy of Princess Diana» (1998), «Russian mags and seers» (1998), «The Story about Apostles, Ponty Pilat and Simon-mag» (1999) and «Fatal Predictions of Russia» (2006) and «The Emperor who knew the Fate. And Russia, which did not knew» (2011). - First part of this book («The Emperor who knew the Fate») is a basis for the script of the documentary «The Emperor who knew the Fate». Boris Romanov was award a prize "For Best Screenplay" on IFF "Pokrov" (Kiev, 2010).

    

    This book, investigating a diplomatic negotiation involving Russia and the formerly Soviet Moldova, explains this dramatic shift in Russian foreign policy.William H. Hill, himself a participant in the diplomatic encounter, describes a key episode that contributed to Russia’s new attitude: negotiations over the Russian-leaning break-away territory of Transdniestria in Moldova—in which Moldova abandoned a Russian-supported settlement at the last minute under heavy pressure from the West. Hill’s first-hand account provides a unique perspective on historical events as well as information to assist scholars and policymakers to evaluate future scenarios.When western leaders blocked what they saw as an unworkable settlement in a small, remote post-Soviet state, Kremlin leaders perceived a direct geopolitical challenge on their own turf. This event colored Russia’s interpretations of subsequent western intervention in the region—in Georgia after the Rose Revolution, Ukraine in 2004, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and elsewhere throughout the former Soviet empire.

    Additionally, it highlights the various cultural policies and points of view concerning the promotion of artistic heritage in Europe. The most emblematic European museums are presented along with some well-kept and fascinating secrets, such as in Nicosia of Cyprus and Sofia in Bulgaria.

    as a playwright he explored the dichotomy of reality and illusion, employing the full range of theatrical resources including music, dance, color, plays-within-plays, disguises, complex plots, and surprise endings.Long unavailable, this essential anthology contains translations of five plays; Evreinov's best known, The Main Thing, which in its time was produced by Pirandello's theater and then on Broadway starring Edward G. Robinson and Lee Strasberg, as well as A Merry Death, The Ship of the Righteous, The Theater of the Soul, and The Theater of the Eternal War. Rounding out the volume is an extensive introduction by Christopher Collins, written in consultation with Evreinov's widow, and many rare illustrations and photographs, including portraits of Evreinov, sketches of sets by the playwright, and photographs from productions in NYC, Paris, Milan, and Warsaw.

    This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    For decades, historians have been trying to understand why the "world communist revolution" that broke out in Europe in 1917-1919 in the wake of the horror of the First World War ended in defeat. The overthrow of the Russian monarchy in March 1917 and the Bolshevik coup eight months later was followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a separate peace between Russia and the Central Powers, with unprecedented annexations and reparations. Vladimir Lenin called for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. Nikolai Bukharin called for immediate revolutionary war. Lev Trotsky adhered to a middle position, which has entered history under the slogan "neither peace nor war." What is clear is that by forming a separate peace with Germany and her allies in order to stabilize Soviet rule in Russia, Lenin's government delivered a stab in the back to the German socialist revolution. As a result, by 1919, the Soviet government, headed by Lenin, had survived in Russia, and it became the global center of the Communist International movement. Join scholar and noted Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky as he examines existing and newly discovered source material for a fresh look at this pivotal turning point in world history.

    Christian Raffensperger refutes this conception and offers a new frame for two hundred years of history, one in which Rus' is understood as part of medieval Europe and East is not so neatly divided from West.With the aid of Latin sources, the author brings to light the considerable political, religious, marital, and economic ties among European kingdoms, including Rus', restoring a historical record rendered blank by Russian monastic chroniclers as well as modern scholars ideologically motivated to build barriers between East and West. Further, Raffensperger revises the concept of a Byzantine commonwealth that stood in opposition to Europe-and under which Rus' was subsumed-toward that of a Byzantine Ideal esteemed and emulated by all the states of Europe. In this new context, appropriation of Byzantine customs, law, coinage, art, and architecture in both Rus' and Europe can be understood as an attempt to gain legitimacy and prestige by association with the surviving remnant of the Roman Empire. Reimagining Europe initiates an expansion of history that is sure to challenge ideas of Russian exceptionalism and influence the course of European medieval studies.

    Scholastic's books are the #2 Scooby licensed product in the world!Can Scooby and the gang save the greatest show on earth?Mystery, Inc.’s own Fred Jones has always dreamed of performing death-defying acrobatics under the big top. So when the Brancusi Circus comes to town, he leaps at the chance to check it out.The circus ringleader is desperate for the gang’s help. A werewolf has been terrorizing the performers and stealing jewelry from the audience members. Now it’s up to Scooby and the gang to solve this mystical mystery!This junior novel features eight pages of cool pictures from the movie.

    She recounts and interprets the unique details of her own life, bringing to life the personalities and experiences of various relatives and friends in an intimate, heartbreaking, and often humorous manner. Her rich prose is evocative and poetic, yet highly accessible and engaging. Her story becomes a window into many lives, lives most readers will find reflected in their own personal narratives, encouraging them to revisit and re-imagine their own family backgrounds. Seamlessly blending past and present, Stephanie takes us from Manhattan of the 1950s to Moscow and Odessa circa 1800s, where she imaginatively renders the lives of her grandparents and great grandparents, and then takes us into the twenty-first century. She bares her soul by inviting readers into her world: her magical and unsettling early childhood by the sea, her years spent as the only Jewish girl in a Presbyterian boarding school, her urban high school years during which conflict with her mercurial and charismatic mother reaches a crescendo, and the weight of her father s anger and unrealized dreams press down upon her. While acknowledging the mirror of the past, she shows us the love and friendship reflected in her current life, celebrating the generative power of each moment to transform experience. Editorial Reviews: Reflective readers, who seek artistic healing of the common hurts of growing up and growing older, will find that Mirror Mirror speaks powerfully. [The] consistent, nostalgic tone gives the book a savoring, contemplative speed. Each chapter is laden with vivid yet sometimes enigmatic images, alluring readers with crisp evocations of mood and poignant descriptions of characters. [R]eflective readers, who seek artistic healing of the common hurts of growing up and growing older, will find that Mirror Mirror speaks powerfully. Foreword Reviews Hart s memoir charts her psychological process of overcoming a painful childhood. This bittersweet collage of memories is categorized into five sections. Hart s lyrical, well-paced prose saves her story from falling into the poor me category of memoirs. Her smooth writing style, sharp insights and eye for detail make her family problems compelling. But while interesting separately, the somewhat fragmented vignettes are more significant because Hart has rendered them into a complete picture. Indeed, this collection illustrates Socrates philosophy that the unexamined life is not worth living. Each section reads as though she intuitively regressed to capture the emotional mindset of whatever age she was recalling. She also reveals how she rose above the negativity and eventually realized her authentic self. The stories culled from her memory, as well as the way in which they re analyzed and organized, map a process of overcoming childhood adversity. A hopeful, finely rendered portrait of a dysfunctional family and its effects on the author. Kirkus Reviews About the Author Stephanie Hart teaches writing at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. Hart is also the author of Clouds Like Horses and Other Stories (which contains some of the stories of Mirror Mirror) and the young adult novel Is There Any Way Out of Sixth Grade? A member of Poets and Writers, and the Authors Guild, her stories and essays have appeared in anthologies such as Mondo James Dean, The Best Stories from ducts.org, and literary magazines including The Sun, Jewish Currents, And Then, and ducts.org. For more information, visit: mirrormorrorhart.com

    In the first account in English of this fascinating tradition, George M. Young offers a dynamic and wide-ranging examination of the lives and ideas of the Russian Cosmists.Suppressed during the Soviet period and little noticed in the West, the ideas of the Cosmists have in recent decades been rediscovered and embraced by many Russian intellectuals and are now recognized as essential to a native Russian cultural and intellectual tradition. Although they werescientists, theologians, and philosophers, the Cosmists addressed topics traditionally confined to occult and esoteric literature. Major themes include the indefinite extension of the human life span to establish universal immortality; the restoration of life to the dead; the reconstitution of thehuman organism to enable future generations to live beyond earth; the regulation of nature to bring all manifestations of blind natural force under rational human control; the transition of our biosphere into a noosphere, with a sheath of mental activity surrounding the planet; the effect ofcosmic rays and currently unrecognized particles of energy on human history; practical steps toward the reversal and eventual human control over the flow of time; and the virtues of human androgyny, autotrophy, and invisibility.The Russian Cosmists is a crucial contribution to scholarship concerning Russian intellectual history, the future of technology, and the history of western esotericism.

    And in 1991, as drastic political and social changes are happening in her country, that dream seems possible. Like many Muscovites, Marina is excited about the changes and the new life. But then, one August morning, tanks rumble down her quiet Moscow street. In the weeks and months that follow, Marina’s life changes in ways she could not have imagined.

    In this vast territory, extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, four major empires with ethnically and religiously diverse populations encountered each other along often changing and contested borders. Examining this geographically widespread, multicultural region at several levels--local, national, transnational, and empire--and through multiple approaches--social, cultural, political, and economic--this volume offers informed and dispassionate analyses of how the many populations of these borderlands managed to coexist in a previous era and how and why the areas eventually descended into violence. An understanding of this specific region will help readers grasp the preconditions of interethnic coexistence and the causes of ethnic violence and war in many of the world's other borderlands both past and present.

    At the same time, few leaders worldwide have maintained such high levels of popularity. Putin's political and economic successes are too startling to be ignored. From his appointment as vice president on New Year’s Eve 1999, Putin has assisted in the rebuilding of a shattered country in a few short years. With high rates of economic growth, military and police reform, and a concerted attack on official corruption, Putin has become a trusted populist leader, and a significant figure in global nationalism, non-alignment and multipolarity. This book attempts to synthesize the basic political views of Putin. It does not deal much with policy, but rather, it centers around the ideas that drive Putin and his reform plans in both domestic and foreign policy.

    Instead of introducing the letters alphabetically the Workbook uses the order that helps English-speaking or bilingual students avoid confusion between similar letters and sounds. Propisi Russian Step By Step presents each letter, accompanied with an example letter that needs to be traced over, combination of letters, words, phrases and sentences. The students also have the opportunity to work on the order of strokes, the connections between the letters and the incline of the letters to the right.

    The Russian victory at Poltava contributed to the decline of Sweden as a Great Power and was a major setback to Ukrainian independence. Hetman Ivan Mazepa, who joined forces with the Swedish king Charles XII against Tsar Peter I, remains a controversial figure even today.In 2009, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute gathered scholars from around the globe and from many fields of study--history, military affairs, philology, linguistics, literature, art history, music--to mark the 300th anniversary of the battle. This book is a collection of their papers on such topics as the international, Russian, and Ukrainian contexts of the battle; Mazepa in European culture; the language and literature of the period; art and architecture; history and memory; and fact, fiction, and the literary imagination. Mazepa himself is the focus of many of the articles--a hero to Ukrainians but a treacherous figure to Russians. This book provides a fresh look at this watershed event and sheds new light on the legacies of the battle's major players.Part of a series: Harvard Papers in Ukrainian Studies

    Set in Yekaterinburg, Russia in the years after the collapse of communism, Sobornost examines adoption from the perspectives of both adoptive and birth parents and explores the limits of family.

    These frank, unsparing, and varied stories by women in their twenties and thirties reveal the evolution of women's consciousness in Russia through two decades of violent social upheaval—including the dramatic monologue of a teenage girl who grew up in an orphanage; an escape to the Altai Mountains and the mysterious local rites and lore; the seamy side of Siberian business and a young man's failure to get to grips with it; the tricky backstage life of a provincial theater; the private life of a wealthy family which mirrors the social stratification in Russian society today.

    

    Not one step back! Such should now be our main slogan.” – Joseph StalinA lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ Russian Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of Russia's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. If Adolf Hitler had not inflicted the devastation of World War II upon Europe, it’s quite likely that the West would consider Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) the 20th century’s greatest tyrant. A Bolshevik revolutionary who played a crucial role in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet Union, Stalin was one of the Communist regime’s earliest leaders and went about consolidating power after the death of Vladimir Lenin, whose final wishes were that Stalin be removed from his post as General Secretary of the Communist Party and not be given the ability to take power. Of course, Stalin managed to do just that, modernizing the Soviet Union at a breakneck pace on the backs of millions of poor laborers and prisoners. Before World War II, Stalin consolidated his position by frequently purging party leaders (most famously Leon Trotsky) and Red Army leaders, executing hundreds of thousands of people at the least. In one of history’s greatest textbook examples of the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Stalin’s Soviet Union allied with Britain and the United States to defeat Hitler in Europe, with the worst of the war’s carnage coming on the eastern front during Germany’s invasion of Russia. Nevertheless, the victory in World War II established the Soviet Union as of the world’s two superpowers for nearly 50 years, in addition to being the West’s Cold War adversary. By the time Stalin died in 1953, it was written that he “had found Russia working with wooden ploughs and [is] leaving it equipped with atomic piles.” Of course, he was reviled in the West, where it was written, “The names of Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler will forever be linked to the tragic course of European history in the first half of the twentieth century.” Russian Legends: The Life and Legacy of Joseph Stalin explores Stalin’s life and work before the Bolshevik Revolution, as well as the crucial role he played in establishing the Soviet Union and turning it into a modern superpower. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Stalin like you never have before, in no time at all.

    High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Lubyanka Criminal Group (also translated as The Gang from Lubyanka) is a book by Alexander Litvinenko about the alleged transformation of the Russian Security Services into a criminal and terrorist organization.

    This book, from an experienced author and strong grandmaster provides a solution. Based around the moves: 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4, Delchev provides original analysis, his own as well as computer generated, and up to date game references from 2011. The repertoire covers both 2...c6 and 2...e6 as well as the independent tries 2...dc and 2...d4. The book is divided into 8 sections, each of which is subdivided into a main ideas section, a step-by step theory section and finally some complete illustrative games. There is one section on each of 2...dc and 2...d4, before 4 chapters on the various Slav and Semi-Slav structures and 2 on an anti-Queen's Gambit Declined approach. In short this provides: A tried and tested repertoire against some of the most common and most solid black lines, presented by an established GM author, An emphasis on understanding the themes and key ideas rather than a maze of complex variations, Up to date game references and analysis that will stand the test of time.

    The splendor of a once powerful cultural and political center of Eastern Europe is evidenced by these pieces that are unique to Kiev. Their artistic workmanship and magnificence of style enriches the understanding of Kievan art and allows it to stand on its own as separate from Byzantine art history. Featuring objects that have never been published outside the former Soviet Union, this survey provides a complete picture of the three largest medieval hoards unearthed in the now-Ukrainian city—in 1906, 1842, and 1824—while tracing the history and whereabouts of other lost treasures and providing invaluable insight into the rich heritage of Kievan Rus'.

    This volume brings together scholars to address the current status of Sino-Russian relations in the political, military, energy and trade sectors.In this comprehensive new volume, authors offer a detailed account on the both the historical context and current status of relations between Russia and China and the geo-political realignments in Eurasia. This analysis of the evolving relationship addresses global strategy, energy politics, national security, human security, and Central Asian links. Individual chapters examine key issues such as China's economic ascendancy, military relations, the geostrategic position of Mongolia, Japan's views and historical background. With authors representing a broad range of current active experts and researchers working in Europe, the US, Central Asia, China and Japan, this book offers a long-term and in-depth analysis of the relations and potential developments in both bilateral and international relations.This work will be of great interest to scholars of international relations, Asian security, and the Eurasian region.

    Petersburg he meets Kaarina, a Finnish mathematician and daughter of the counselor to Tsar Alexander I. The pair soon fall in love. But Kaarina is betrothed to Agripin, a vicious Cossack and a favorite of the Tsar.When she refuses him, Agripin kidnaps her, aided by Kaarina's envious twin sister, Kaisa. At a time of Europe's brief, uneasy truce Breutier deserts Napoleon's army and the Tsar's employ to reclaim Kaarina. Dodging the vengeance of the world's most powerful rulers sends Breutier on a perilous quest to hunt down the era's most ruthless Cossack.Interweaving the characters' personal dramas with the epochal events of the following two years forms the core of the story. Historically accurate, the novel climaxes at the moment when, for the first time in 400 years, foreign armies invaded France, leaving behind Cossacks in Paris."

    Indigenous elder shares Altai wisdom prophecying a shift from the motley yellow era to the white era of goodness.

    By focusing on the tumultuous events surrounding the Revolution of 1905, Barricades and Banners argues that the metropolitanization of Jewish life led to a need for new forms of community and belonging, and that the ensuing search for collective and individual order gave birth to the new institutions, organizations, and practices that would define modern Jewish society and politics for the remainder of the twentieth century.

    En route to deliver a secret pamphlet entrusted to him by his elder brothers, a young boy falls into the clutches of the Czar’s secret police. Another decade will pass before the Crown gives way, not to liberally minded revolutionaries like Vladimir Romm, the boy now a young man, but to the pitiless disciples of an embittered lawyer named Lenin. For the next three-quarters of a century, Marxism in its cruelest form will rule Russia. Returning to Vilna during the winter of 1918 for the first time since his youth, Romm finds it occupied by Polish troops. As World War I yields to an uneasy peace, Romm joins Soviet intelligence. In 1934 Romm is named Izvestia‘s inaugural correspondent to Washington, where he is given orders to bring key Americans to the Soviet side. But as his career reaches its zenith, Romm is suddenly recalled, arrested, and forced to serve with four others as “witnesses” at the notorious 1937 Moscow show trial.

    Five decades later, Leo Tolstoy published War and Peace, a fictional representation of the era that is one of the most celebrated novels in world literature. The novel contains a coherent (though much disputed) philosophy of history and portrays the history and military strategy of its time in a manner that offers lessons for the soldiers of today. To mark the two hundredth anniversary of the French invasion of Russia and acknowledge the importance of Tolstoy's novel for our historical memory of its central events, Rick McPeak and Donna Tussing Orwin have assembled a distinguished group of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds--literary criticism, history, social science, and philosophy--to provide fresh readings of the novel.The essays in Tolstoy On War focus primarily on the novel's depictions of war and history, and the range of responses suggests that these remain inexhaustible topics of debate. The result is a volume that opens fruitful new avenues of understanding War and Peace while providing a range of perspectives and interpretations without parallel in the vast literature on the novel.Contributors: Alan Forrest, University of York; Andreas Herberg-Rothe, University of Applied Sciences, Fulda, Germany; Dominic Lieven, Trinity College, Cambridge University; Jeff Love, Clemson University; Alexander M. Martin, University of Notre Dame; Rick McPeak, United States Military Academy at West Point; Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University;Donna Tussing Orwin, University of Toronto; Elizabeth D. Samet, United States Military Academy at West Point; Dan Ungurianu, Vassar College; David A. Welch, Balsillie School of International Affairs and University of Waterloo

    Book by Genevra Gerhart

    Contrary to conven�tional thinking, she contends that today the Russian state is weak and ineffective. Vladimir Putin has dismantled and under�mined most public institutions, and has consolidated a patronage system of rule. The Medvedev presidency was but one chapter in the story, as Putin's re-election exemplifies. Political and economic power remains concentrated in the hands of a few groups and individuals, and the elites remain loyal to the leadership in order to hold on to their positions and prosper. Those at the helm of the state are unaccountable to the society they govern.Up until the economic crisis of 2008, ordinary Russians largely turned a blind eye to these authoritarian methods because living standards had markedly improved. The economic slowdown, rising corruption and unfair elections have put the leadership under pressure, and have caused unprecedented public protest.

    And no one immortalized it better than Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), a Russian landscape painter. In this comprehensive work of scholarship, Irina Shuvalova and Victoria Charles make a thorough examination of Shishkin’s work.