T. Anderson delivers an account of the Siege of Leningrad and the role played by Russian composer Shostakovich and his Leningrad Symphony.In September 1941, Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history—almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943–1944. More than a million citizens perished. Survivors recall corpses littering the frozen streets, their relatives having neither the means nor the strength to bury them. Residents burned books, furniture, and floorboards to keep warm; they ate family pets and—eventually—one another to stay alive. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens—the Leningrad Symphony, which came to occupy a surprising place of prominence in the eventual Allied victory.This is the true story of a city under siege: the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds. It is also a look at the power—and layered meaning—of music in beleaguered lives.

    A 1930s Soviet censor painstakingly corrects offending photographs, deep underneath Leningrad, bewitched by the image of a disgraced prima ballerina. A chorus of women recount their stories and those of their grandmothers, former gulag prisoners who settled their Siberian mining town. Two pairs of brothers share a fierce, protective love. Young men across the former USSR face violence at home and in the military. And great sacrifices are made in the name of an oil landscape unremarkable except for the almost incomprehensibly peaceful past it depicts. In stunning prose, with rich character portraits and a sense of history reverberating into the present, The Tsar of Love and Techno is a captivating work from one of our greatest new talents.The leopard --Granddaughters --The Grozny Tourist Bureau --A prisoner of the Caucasus --The tsar of love and techno --Wolf of White Forest --Palace of the people --A temporary exhibition --The end

    A man on the curb handed him an envelope whose contents stunned U.S. intelligence: details of top-secret Soviet research and developments in military technology that were totally unknown to the United States. In the years that followed, the man, Adolf Tolkachev, an engineer in a Soviet military design bureau, used his high-level access to hand over tens of thousands of pages of technical secrets. His revelations allowed America to reshape its weapons systems to defeat Soviet radar on the ground and in the air, giving the United States near total superiority in the skies over Europe.One of the most valuable spies to work for the United States in the four decades of global confrontation with the Soviet Union, Tolkachev took enormous personal risks—but so did the Americans. The CIA had long struggled to recruit and run agents in Moscow, and Tolkachev was a singular breakthrough. Using spy cameras and secret codes as well as face-to-face meetings in parks and on street corners, Tolkachev and his handlers succeeded for years in eluding the feared KGB in its own backyard, until the day came when a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.Drawing on previously secret documents obtained from the CIA and on interviews with participants, David Hoffman has created an unprecedented and poignant portrait of Tolkachev, a man motivated by the depredations of the Soviet state to master the craft of spying against his own country. Stirring, unpredictable, and at times unbearably tense, The Billion Dollar Spy is a brilliant feat of reporting that unfolds like an espionage thriller.

    This NYRB Classics edition (and an accompanying second volume forthcoming in 2019) is the first complete English translation of Shalamov's stories, based on the definitive edition of his collected works, published in Russia in 2013.Shalamov spent six years as a slave in the gold mines of Kolyma, a far northeast region of the USSR and one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth, before finding a less intolerable life as a paramedic in the prison camps. He began writing his account of life in Kolyma after Stalin's death in 1953 and continued until his own physical and mental decline in the late 1970s.In Kolyma Stories, the line between autobiography and fiction is indistinct: Everything in these stories was experienced or witnessed by Shalamov. His work records the real names of prisoners and their oppressors; he himself appears simply as "I" or "Shalamov," or at times under a pseudonym, such as Andreyev or Krist. These collected stories form the biography of a rare survivor, a historical record of the Gulag, and, because the stories have more than documentary value, a literary work of creative power and conviction. This new complete translation of Kolyma Stories will fill a significant gap in the English-language library of Russian literature.

    During that quarter-century, by Oleg Khlevniuk’s estimate, he caused the imprisonment and execution of no fewer than a million Soviet citizens per year. Millions more were victims of famine directly resulting from Stalin's policies. What drove him toward such ruthlessness? This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator’s life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history.   In brief, revealing prologues to each chapter, Khlevniuk takes his reader into Stalin’s favorite dacha, where the innermost circle of Soviet leadership gathered as their vozhd lay dying. Chronological chapters then illuminate major themes: Stalin’s childhood, his involvement in the Revolution and the early Bolshevik government under Lenin, his assumption of undivided power and mandate for industrialization and collectivization, the Terror, World War II, and the postwar period. At the book’s conclusion, the author presents a cogent warning against nostalgia for the Stalinist era.

    Red Notice by Bill Browder | A 15-minute Summary & Analysis PLEASE NOTE: This is an unofficial summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of Red Notice Summary of entire book Introduction to the Important People in the book Key Takeaways and Analysis of Key Takeaways Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style

    Prose briefly gained the high ground in the second half of the nineteenth century, but poetry again became dominant in the 'Silver Age' (the early twentieth century), when belief in reason and progress yielded once more to a more magical view of the world. During the Soviet era, poetry became a dangerous, subversive activity; nevertheless, poets such as Osip Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova continued to defy the censors. This anthology traces Russian poetry from its Golden Age to the modern era, including work by several great poets - Georgy Ivanov and Varlam Shalamov among them - in captivating modern translations by Robert Chandler and others. The volume also includes a general introduction, chronology and individual introductions to each poet.For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

    Philip Metres and Dimitri Psurtsev's translations—succinct and allusive, stingingly direct and yet sweeping, mournful and celebratory—are marvels."—PEN/Heim citation"How does one translate the work of Russian classic, Arseny Tarkovsky? Imagine trying to translate Yeats: high style rhetoric, intense emotion, local tonalities of language, complicated historical background, the old equation of poet vs. state, the tone of a tender love lyric, all meshed into one, all exquisite in its execution—and all so impossible to render again. And yet, one tries. In the case of Philip Metres and Dimitri Psurtsev, one tries brilliantly, with gusto, with passion, with attentiveness that is akin to that of a prayer, with the ear of real poets. The result? The gravity and directness of Tarkovsky's tone is brought into English without fail, it is here, honest and pained, piercing and even shy at times, like a deer that looks straight at you before it runs. Tarkovsky's ambition was to seek us—those who live after him—through earth, through time. He does so in this brilliant translation."—Ilya Kaminsky"Arseny Tarkovsky was ten years old at the time of the Russian Revolution and died six months before the opening of the Berlin Wall. He spent his career as a poet creating elegant and starkly interior transfigurations of simple happiness and pure grief, triumphs of the individual self against the brutal realities of daily life in wartime and Communist Russia. Through this meticulous translation of his work, readers will encounter a metaphysical complex poetry, at once searing and brooding, very much in dialogue with such great Soviet poets as Osip Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova. Tarkovsky writes of a country where 'we lived, once upon a time, as if in a grave, drank no tea' but still succeeded in making 'bread from weeds,' where the 'blue sky is dim' but nonetheless manages to be the 'wet-nurse of dragonflies and birds.'"—Michael Dumanis

    So why is Purdie Davis, an unexceptional nurse from New Zealand, receiving unsolicited gifts? Nothing ordinary but unusual, valuable antiques that must have a story behind them. Purdie doesn’t know their source, and has no idea of their significance. Is she wrong to find this attention menacing? A romantic saga spanning three generations, The Lost One begins as Kyril Komarov flees Moscow, escaping the Russian Revolution. The story crosses the globe as Purdie learns about her family and of the treasure entrusted to their protection at the dawn of the twentieth century, a treasure that now could put Purdie’s own life in danger. Balanced between the past and the present, with history, intrigue and fabulous Russian treasure, The Lost One unfolds one family's legacy

    

    Long recognized by historians as the undisputed “beauty” of the family, Tatiana was acknowledged for her poise, her elegance, and her innate dignity within her own family. Helen Azar, translator of the diaries of Olga Romanov, and Nicholas B. A. Nicholson, Russian Imperial historian, have joined together to present a truly comprehensive picture of this extraordinarily gifted, complex, and intelligent woman in her own words. Tatiana Romanov, Daughter of the Last Tsar: Diaries and Letters, 1913–1918, presents translations of material never before published in Russian or in English, as well as materials never published in their entirety in the West.The brisk, modern prose of Tatiana’s diary entries reveals the character of a young woman who was far more than the sheltered imperial beauty as she previously has been portrayed. While many historians and writers describe her as a cold, haughty, and distant aristocrat, this book shows instead a remarkably down-to-earth and humorous young woman, full of life and compassion. A detail-oriented and observant participant in some of the most important historical events of the early twentieth century, she left firsthand descriptions of the tercentenary celebrations of the House of Romanov, the early years of Russia’s involvement in World War I, and the road to her family’s final days in Siberian exile. Her writings reveal extraordinary details previously unknown or unacknowledged. Lavishly annotated for the benefit of the nonspecialist reader, this book is not only a reevaluation of Tatiana’s role as more than just one of four sisters, but also a valuable reference on Russia, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the people closest to the Grand Duchess and her family.

    So how did we go from the promise of those heady days to the autocratic police state of Putin’s new Russia? The Invention of Russia is a breathtakingly ambitious book that reaches back to the darkest days of the cold war to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation. With the deep insight only possible of a native son, Ostrovsky introduces us to the propagandists, oligarchs, and fixers who have set Russia’s course since the collapse of the Soviet Union, inventing a new and more ominous identity for a country where ideas are all too often wielded like a cudgel.  The Soviet Union yoked together dreamers and strongmen—those who believed in an egalitarian ideal and those who pushed for an even more powerful state. The new Russia is a cynical operation, where perpetual fear and war are fueled by a web of lies, as television presenters peddle the invasion of Ukraine and goad Putin to go nuclear. Twenty-five years after the Soviet flag came down over the Kremlin, Russia and America are again heading toward a confrontation—but this course was far from inevitable. With this riveting account of how we got here—of the many mistakes and false promises—Ostrovsky emerges as Russia’s most gifted chronicler.

     In the depth of winter, Helen Lloyd spent three months cycling solo across one of the most remote, coldest inhabited regions of the planet - Siberia. In temperatures down to -50°C, she battled against the cold, overcoming her fear of wolves and falling through the ice of a frozen lake. Alone in a hibernating land with little to stimulate the senses, the biggest challenges were with her mind as she struggled with the solitude. With flashes of humour and riveting, graphic descriptions that will have you living each moment with her, Helen Lloyd describes the fear, uncertainty and joy of riding through a frozen, icy world. Yet, A Siberian Winter’s Tale is a touching story full of warm-hearted moments that are gifted to Helen by strangers along the Road of Bones.

    The stories and recipes contained in the CCCP Cook Book reflect these turbulent times: from basic subsistence meals consumed by the average citizen (like okroshka, a cold soup made with the fermented beverage kvass) to extravagant banquets held by the political elite (suckling pig with buckwheat), with a scattering of classics (beef stroganoff) in between. Each recipe is introduced with a historical story or anecdote from the period, and illustrated using images sourced from original Soviet recipe books collected by the authors, food historians Olga and Pavel Syutkin.Many of the sometimes extraordinary-looking pictures depict dishes whose recipes used unobtainable ingredients, placing them firmly in the realm of "aspirational" fantasy for the average Soviet household. In their content and presentation, the recipes and illustrations act as windows into the cuisine and culture of the era. CCCP Cook Book offers an illustrated history of Soviet cuisine told through the stories and popular recipes from the period. The book contains 60 recipes from the Soviet period, including such delicacies as aspic, borscht, caviar and herring, by way of bird's milk cake and pelmeni.

    So they revolted!Step into early 20th century Russia and experience whatit was like for soldiers, workers and peasants as theircountry was led by Lenin into a Communist revolution.

    Clover traces Eurasianism’s origins in the writings of White Russian exiles in 1920s Europe, through Siberia’s Gulag archipelago in the 1950s, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and up to its steady infiltration of the governing elite around Vladimir Putin. This eye-opening analysis pieces together the evidence for Eurasianism’s place at the heart of Kremlin thinking today and explores its impact on recent events, the annexation of Crimea, the rise in Russia of anti-Western paranoia and imperialist rhetoric, as well as Putin’s sometimes perplexing political actions and ambitions.Based on extensive research and dozens of interviews with Putin’s close advisers, this quietly explosive story will be essential reading for anyone concerned with Russia’s past century, and its future.

    Young naval officer Mischa Kastamarov is called up to serve on the Kursk, a submarine carrying a super torpedo for testing in the Barents Sea. At the same time, US naval intelligence commander Mitchel James supervises the two American submarines on their mission to spy on the proceedings. But an accidental collision between the boats triggers a terrifying series of events, as an explosion leaves Kastamarov struggling to save his crew. While their own government denies knowledge of the incident and refuses international aid, the men of the Kursk must fight fire, rising water and the onset of despair. Their plight ignored by their President, they are on their own against the elements in a desperate attempt to survive as Mitchel James is caught between a cover up and his own rescue plan. Based in part on a true story of bravery, tragedy and the lethal folly of pride, Kursk is a not to miss political drama.

    This expansive collection of maps offers a visual guide to the theater that decided the fate of the war, spanning the thousands of miles from Berlin to the outskirts of Moscow, Stalingrad, East Prussia and all the way back. The accuracy and detail of the military cartography found in this volume illuminates the enormity of the campaign, revealing the staggering dimensions of distance covered and human losses suffered by both sides.

    Known to their family and friends as "The Little Pair", Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia were born into opulence, but led modest lifestyles. They were two normal young women growing up in extraordinary circumstances, ultimately getting caught in the middle of frightening political events that would take their teenage lives. Until this volume, the two girls did not have a chance to tell the story of the last four years of their lives during the first world war and the revolution, - in their very own words.

    Solzhenitsyn's gripping epic masterpiece, the searing record of four decades of Soviet terror and oppression,

    In 1913, the tricentennial year of her family's dynastic rule, Olga was coming of age - turning 18 in early November, and her life was full of romance, pageantry and fun. This volume comprises of diary entries from the full year, which allow the reader a unique glimpse into the daily domestic routines of the Russian imperial family just prior to the outbreak of the First World War.

    After years of responding to each request individually, and building on the success of her blog Email From the Embassy, she finally compiled her answers into a book. Am I Going to Starve To Death? is the quirky result. Part memoir, part Q&A, part simple reassurance that yes, you can survive and thrive overseas, Gorman’s book provides detailed accounts of everything from bidding on jobs to having a baby to dealing with a crisis while overseas.The book provides a wealth of information for longtime Foreign Service family members and newcomers alike. Whether you long ago embarked on your overseas adventures or are just getting started, Am I Going to Starve to Death? is a must-read for all international families.

    Now, in Russian Tattoo, Elena learns that the journey of an immigrant is filled with everyday mistakes, small humiliations, and a loss of dignity. Cultural disorientation comes in the form of not knowing how to eat a hamburger, buy a pair of shoes, or catch a bus. But through perseverance and resilience, Elena gradually adapts to her new country. With the simultaneous birth of her daughter and the arrival of her Soviet mother, who comes to the US to help care for her granddaughter and stays for twenty-four years, it becomes the story of a unique balancing act and a family struggle. Russian Tattoo is a poignant memoir of three generations of strong women with very different cultural values, all living under the same roof and battling for control. Themes of separation and loss, grief and struggle, and power and powerlessness run throughout this story of growing understanding and, finally, redemption. “Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist’s gift,” says The New York Times, and her latest offering is filled with empathy, insight, and humor.

    Ransacking the urban planning of the grand imperial past, it set out to transform everyday life, its sweeping boulevards, epic high-rise and vast housing estates an emphatic declaration of a non-capitalist idea. Now, the regimes that built them are dead and long gone, but from Warsaw to Berlin, Moscow to post-Revolution Kiev, the buildings, their most obvious legacy, remain, populated by people whose lives were scattered and jeopardized by the collapse of communism and the introduction of capitalism.Landscapes of Communism is an intimate history of twentieth-century communist Europe told through its buildings; it is, too, a book about power, and what power does in cities. In exploring what that power was, Hatherley shows how much we can understand from surfaces - especially states as obsessed with surface as the Soviets were. Walking through these landscapes today, Hatherley discovers how, in contrast to the common dismissal of 'monolithic' Soviet architecture, these cities reflect with disconcerting transparency the development of an idea over the decades, with its sharp, sudden zigzags of official style: from modernism to classicism and back; to the superstitious despotic rococo of high Stalinism, with its jingoistic memorials, palaces and secret policemen's castles; East Germany's obsession with prefabricated concrete panels; and the metro systems of Moscow and Prague, a spectacular vindication of public space that went further than any avant garde ever dared.But most of all, Landscapes of Communism is a revelatory journey of discovery, plunging us into the maelstrom of socialist architecture. As we submerge into the metros, walk the massive, multi-lane magistrale and pause at milk bars in the microrayons, who knows what we might find?

    English• Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral Tales• The Power of Darkness• Father Sergius• Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian• Boyhood• What Shall We Do?• The Forged Coupon, and Other Stories• The Kingdom of God is Within You, What is Art• My Religion• Reminiscences of Tolstoy, by His SonIlia Lvovich Tolstoi• Youth• Bethink Yourselves!• A Russian Proprietor, and Other Stories• Sevastopol• On the Significance of Science and Art• Katia• The Cause of it All• The Light Shines in Darkness• The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / Miscellanies• What Men Live By and Other Tales• The First Distiller• The Live Corpse• Fruits of Culture• Plays: Complete Edition, Including the Posthumous Plays• The Census in Moscow• What to Do? Thoughts Evoked by the Census of Moscow• Redemption and two other plays• Master and Man• Childhood• etc.

    Find out how to deal with annoying flies, learn the difference between the oak and the beech, became friends with a couple of yaks and help a sad elephant. Simply look inside!"Снег, жара и слон" -- третья четырехбуквенная книжка в серии, самая большая и самая цветная. К тому же она полна советов. Как отличить дуб от липы, что делать с надоедливой мухой, чем помочь печальному продрогшему слону и что ответить яку-зануде на вопрос "а ты кто?"Короткие слова, простые предложения, чудесные картинки и смешные истории!

    In early 2014 tensions turned to conflict as Vladimir Putin, determined to keep Ukraine from forging stronger ties with the West, seized Crimea and fomented conflict in eastern Ukraine. In the latest Brookings essay, Chrystia Freeland, a former Ukrainian-based reporter with strong family ties to the country, offers a personal reflection on the conflict and the sentiment of the Ukrainian people. She highlights the fact that despite historic, cultural, and linguistic ties between the two countries, Ukrainians stand defiant in their desire for independence.

    After scientist Vladimir Latska is given the task of creating Nuryev clones to redeem Russia's artistic pride and reputation, it's not long before thousands of baby-Nuryev's are running loose in the town of Pas-Grand-Chose in Quebec, Canada, along with tigers, wolves and 1940's Soviet artifacts. No matter what the scientists try, though, none of the children show the passion or talent of the original Nuryev. In this funny and intelligent cautionary tale, Heather O'Neill invites her readers to think about the importance of personal experience and individuality in order to make a life, and in order to make art. This edition features an original introduction by Diane Cook, author of MAN V. NATURE.

    This radical lesbian from an immigrant Slavic family connects with her passion for Russia and finds out some touching as well as dangerous facts about queers in that mysterious country. The stories range from the seeds of a queer life planted in a high school girl on the verge of coming out, to reflections on the challenges of teaching, to an article about a Siberian lesbian the author interviewed who was later murdered. Franeta shares her enthusiasm for Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, chronicles the motivation and complexities of humanitarian trips to Kosovo and a township in South Africa, and mines her memory for unique and universal tales about her family from the former Yugoslavia.

    But what better way to discover Russian mentality than by reading Russian books? Considering the country’s controversial political image, it is strange that contemporary Russian literature is still in the shade compared to its classical and Soviet counterparts.So who are the modern Russian authors and what have they been writing about? This guide to new Russian books is the first concise encyclopaedia to cover post-Soviet Russian literature. Over a hundred authors and two hundred titles are reviewed. For the convenience of readers, the mentioned books are categorized in sixteen chapters according to their themes/genres:• Modern Russia: 1990s, Putin’s era and office prose• Debut (modern fiction by young authors)• The Soviet Period• Women and Love• Family Life• Psychological Novel• Religion• Humor• Prison Life• Biography• Military and War• Political Fiction• Utopia and Dystopia• Science Fiction and Fantasy• Mystery, Crime, Adventure• Postmodernism, Magic Realism, Philosophical and Metaphysical FictionAt the end of the book there is a table of all the titles together with their ISBN numbers so readers can search for them online (e.g. on Google or Amazon) or in libraries. Also, a list of additional useful online resources about Russian literature is included.This guide is primarily aimed at readers who are interested in learning about modern Russia and its literature. It will also be useful for students and scholars of Russian literature, publishers and translators.Now you can easily discover your new favorite authors in Russia.

    Even though they cover topics ranging from history, to politics, to religion, to military affairs, to social issues, they are all linked by one common thread: the full-spectrum clash between the Western world and what the Saker calls the "Russian civilizational realm". Most Russians, especially when addressing a western audience, feel compelled to use a diplomatic and non-confrontational language. In contrast, Saker's style is informal, almost conversational, but also direct, even blunt. He is fully aware that his views might offend many of his readers, but he believes that there is also a bigger audience out there which will appreciate an honest and, above all, sincere criticism of what the Saker calls the "AngloZionist Empire". The careful reader, however, will notice that the Saker's criticisms are always aimed at a political system and its constituent institutions and supporting ideologies, but never at the people, nations or ethnicities. In fact, the Saker forcefully argues for a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Russia which would be fully integrated in a multi-polar world inspired by the fraternal diversity of the BRICS countries. Underlying the Saker's entire worldview is a categorical rejection of all ideologies and a profound belief that the root of all evil as well as the key to defeating it is always in the realm of spirituality. Gilad Atzmon, jazz musician and philosopher: As telling the truth is becoming a nostalgic endeavour, its seeking is becoming an heroic adventure. The Saker will guide you through the mist of concealment and disinformation." Peter Lavelle, host of Russia Today's flagship program "CrossTalk" offered this: "The Saker provides facts and analysis that are antidotes to the anti-Russian propaganda that prevails in the West." Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan administration and author of 12 books on contemporary politics: "Reading the “Saker” is essential – it is at this media space where one can discern the real trenches and battle lines in today’s super-charged information wars. I read the “Saker” not only for the facts (that are verified and applied in context), but also for a moral and disciplined attitude toward geopolitics. The “Saker” is not only a good read; it is also a way of looking at the world. Simply put: the “Saker” is information that is weaponized and hits all the right targets!" The Saker community of blogs is the only such international and multi-lingual community of blogs. The main blog alone gets well over one million pageviews per month. We currently have about 100 volunteers including professional translators. We collaborate with all the main English language blogs about Russia and the Ukraine. Our articles are often picked up by Russia Insider, the Asia Times, Information Clearing House and many others news sources and our work has been quoted by Paul Craig Roberts, Sheikh Imran Hosein, Pepe Escobar and many others. The Saker was born in a military family of "White" Russian refugees in western Europe where he lived most of his life. After completing two college degrees in the USA, he returned to Europe were he worked as a military analyst until he lost his career due to his vocal opposition to the western-sponsored wars in Chechnia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. After re-training as a software engineer, he moved to the Florida where he now lives with his wife, a veterinarian, and their three children.

    Whether a quick escape through the Alps or a getaway from coast to coast lasting several days, this book takes its readers for a ride through beautiful routes on the most exceptional trains with the best interiors. Trains have always been the only truly cultivated way to travel. Today, in the age of budding airlines, never-ending security controls, and sustainability issues, this is truer than ever before. The slower rhythm from departure to arrival, the relaxed glide through the landscape, and the shift between city and country fill rail enthusiasts with great joy and are pleasures waiting to be discovered by the uninitiated. The Journey presents a varied selection of extraordinary travel opportunities by train from around the world. The reader is invited aboard modern high-speed trains, spectacular panoramic railways, dining carriages, rolling casinos, and elegant compartments of historic luxury trains. The book presents the exteriors and interiors of these different trains, their routes, and their defining character. It takes the reader on a journey to breathtaking canyons and romantic landscapes, recounts adventurous travel reports, and describes the history and current developments of well-known trains, including the Napa Valley Wine Train, the Venice Simplon Orient Express, the Japanese Bullet Train Shinkansen, the Glacier Express, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the El Transcantabrico. Striking images, informative geographical materials, and personal experiences characterize these train adventures, ranging from the quick three-hour trip to the transcontinental journey lasting several days. The Journey also depicts the many other aspects that contribute to the whole experience of a successful train journey; the architecture of old and new train stations as sites for grand emotions, pictures of passing landscapes and travelling salesmen, advice from experienced train travelers on the right reading material, suitable snacks, recommended stopovers, and how to optimize luggage. Train travel is without a doubt one of the best ways to decelerate from our fast-paced daily lives. After all, the journey is also a destination.

     The book opens with an outline of the history of Almaty, from its nineteenth-century origins as a remote outpost of the Russian empire, up to its present status as the thriving second city of modern-day Kazakhstan. The story then goes back to the Neolithic and early Bronze Ages, and the sensational discovery of the famous Golden Man of the Scythian empire. A succession of armies and empires, tribes and khanates, appeared and disappeared, before the siege and destruction in 1219 of the ancient Silk Road city of Otrar under the Mongol leader Genghis Khan. The emergence of the first identifiable Kazakh state in the sixteenth century was followed by early contacts with Russia, the country which came to be the dominant influence in Kazakhstan and Central Asia for three hundred years. The book shows how Kazakhstan has been inextricably caught up in the vast historical processes – of revolution, civil war, and the rise and fall of communism – which have extended out from Russia over the last century. In the process the country has changed dramatically, from a simple nomadic society of khans and clans, to a modern and outward-looking nation. The transition has been difficult and tumultuous for millions of people, but Vanished Khans and Empty Steppes illustrates how Kazakhstan has emerged as one of the world’s most successful post-communist countries.

    From a very young age, she found herself living in two contradictory worlds: the private world of a Jewish family struggling to live a decent life in a society rife with shortages and anti-Semitism; and the public world of an oppressive totalitarian regime that brainwashed its citizens into believing that the Soviet Union was the best country in the world.Despite being constantly bullied and insulted by playmates, neighbors, and teachers, Sveta was a dreamer. In the confinement of her cramped apartment, with a book in her hands, she dreamt about doing something significant for her country to earn its love and respect. Yet as Sveta matured and learned about the persecution of her family and the tragic deaths of her Ukrainian relatives during WWII, she realized that the world around her was built on lies and corruption, and that she needed to be strong just to survive.Composed of a series of poignant and sometimes humorous stories, The Education of a Traitor is a luminous memoir that not only describes the experience of one Jewish child coming of age at the height of the Cold War, but also helps explain why millions of people chose to leave the Soviet Union when the Iron Curtain finally fell.

    Featuring delta wings and auxiliary lift engines meant to improve its field performance, the first prototype turned out to be more of a liability than an asset and the aircraft was redesigned to have variable geometry wings. The Su-24 had its baptism of fire in the Afghan War and was also exported to Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Libya and Syria, seeing action in some of these countries. At home, Russian Air Force Su-24s were heavily involved in the first and second Chechen campaigns and the type has undergone a mid-life update allowing it to carry precision-guided munitions, and is still going strong.Illustrated with over 750 photographs, many previously unpublished, as well as line drawings, color side views, insignia, unit badges and nose art this latest addition to the Famous Russian Aircraft series will be of interest to aviation enthusiasts and scale modelers alike.

    

    It is also the home to architectural marvels, as many of the original wooden and brick churches and homes in the region's ancient villages and towns still stand. Featuring nearly two hundred full color photographs of these beautiful centuries-old structures, Architecture at the End of the Earth is the most recent addition to William Craft Brumfield's ongoing project to photographically document all aspects of Russian architecture.The architectural masterpieces Brumfield photographed are diverse: they range from humble chapels to grand cathedrals, buildings that are either dilapidated or well cared for, and structures repurposed during the Soviet era. Included are onion-domed wooden churches such as the Church of the Dormition, built in 1674 in Varzuga; the massive walled Transfiguration Monastery on Great Solovetsky Island, which dates to the mid-1550s; the Ferapontov-Nativity Monastery's frescoes, painted in 1502 by Dionisy, one of Russia's greatest medieval painters; nineteenth-century log houses, both rustic and ornate; and the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Vologda, which was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in the 1560s. The text that introduces the photographs outlines the region's significance to Russian history and culture.Brumfield is challenged by the immense difficulty of accessing the Russian North, and recounts traversing sketchy roads, crossing silt-clogged rivers on barges and ferries, improvising travel arrangements, being delayed by severe snowstorms, and seeing the region from the air aboard the small planes he needs to reach remote areas.The buildings Brumfield photographed, some of which lie in near ruin, are at constant risk due to local indifference and vandalism, a lack of maintenance funds, clumsy restorations, or changes in local and national priorities. Brumfield is concerned with their futures and hopes that the region's beautiful and vulnerable achievements of master Russian carpenters will be preserved. Architecture at the End of the Earth is at once an art book, a travel guide, and a personal document about the discovery of this bleak but beautiful region of Russia that most readers will see here for the first time.

     A serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow, rattling the foundations of the communist state (such anti-social crimes only occur in decadent bourgeois societies, after all). The victims are as pitifully innocent as the crimes are grievous, and Petrovka 38 runs down one blind alley after another, while its most capable detective, Pavel Matyushkin, is distracted by a frivolous apparatchik. With twists and turns aplenty, and rich with the atmosphere of 1960s Moscow, The Latchkey Murders is a page-turner you won’t want to put down.

    Allen's compelling account draws on extensive research in Soviet Communist party and secret police archives.

    Surveying the great power rivalry between the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for control over the Western and Far Eastern boundaries of Eurasia, Alfred J. Rieber provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of Soviet policy from the Revolution through to the beginning of the Cold War. Paying particular attention to the Soviet Union, the book charts how these powers adopted similar methods to the old ruling elites to expand and consolidate their conquests, ranging from colonisation and deportation to forced assimilation, but applied them with a force that far surpassed the practices of their imperial predecessors.

    The work uses comparative international law as starting point and argues that in order to understand post-Soviet Russia's state and scholarly approachesto international law, one should take into account the history of ideas in Russia. To an extent, Russian understandings of international law differ from what is considered the mainstream in the West.One specific feature of this book is that it goes inside the language of international law as it is spoken and discussed in post-Soviet Russia, especially the scholarly literature in the Russian language, and relates this literature to the history of international law as discipline in Russia. Recentstate practice such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia's record in the UN Security Council, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, prominent cases in investor-state arbitration, and the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union are laid out and discussed in the context ofincreasingly popular 'civilizational' ideas, the claim that Russia is a unique civilization and therefore not part of the West. The implications of this claim for the future of international law, its universality, and regionalism are discussed.

    Marcel H. Van Herpen argues that the Kremlin's propaganda offensive is a carefully prepared strategy, implemented and tested over the last decade. Initially intended as a tool to enhance Russia's soft power, it quickly developed into one of the main instruments of Russia's new imperialism, reminiscent of the height of the Cold War. The author describes a multifaceted strategy that makes use of diverse instruments, including mimicking Western public diplomacy initiatives, hiring Western public-relations firms, setting up front organizations, buying Western media outlets, financing political parties, organizing a worldwide propaganda offensive through the Kremlin's cable network RT, and publishing paid supplements in leading Western newspapers. In this information war, key roles are assigned to the Russian diaspora and the Russian Orthodox Church, the latter focused on spreading so-called traditional values and attacking universal human rights and Western democracy in international fora. Van Herpen demonstrates that the Kremlin's propaganda machine not only plays a central role in its "hybrid war" in Ukraine, but also has broader international objectives, targeting in particular Europe's two leading countries-France and Germany-with the goal of forming a geopolitical triangle, consisting of a Moscow-Berlin-Paris axis, intended to roll back the influence of NATO and the United States in Europe. Drawing on years of research, Van Herpen shows how the Kremlin has built an array of soft power instruments and transformed them into effective weapons in a new information war with the West.

    His early career blossomed in St. Petersburg in the 1870s, where he became the darling of the Tsar’s court. His popularity soon spread far beyond Russia’s borders. He lived and worked in Paris and then America, becoming the premier ambassador of traditional Russian culture in the United States.This beautifully illustrated book, the first full survey in English of Makovsky’s career, positions his work at the crossroads between late Imperial St. Petersburg, Belle-Epoque Paris, and America during the Gilded Age. Three great canvases celebrating Russia’s traditional wedding customs unify this survey: A Boyar Wedding Feast (1883), which launched Makovsky on a long career as a celebrity painter of historical genre scenes, Choosing the Bride (1887), and The Russian Bride’s Attire (1889). All are explored through outstanding photography, including close-up details, published here for the first time.Four fascinating essays trace the career path of this Russian artist eager for international fame. Wendy Salmond begins by establishing the Russian milieu. Russell E. Martin highlights the historical sources, artifacts and costumes on which Makovsky relied for his scenes of seventeenth-century private life. Wilfried Zeisler reveals the artist’s little-known Paris period, exploring also his Orientalist paintings inspired by the Middle East and North Africa. Wendy Salmond investigates the American audience’s enthusiastic reception of Makovsky’s paintings. That Makovsky’s canvases acquired real celebrity status among a broad American public invites intriguing questions about the nature of the international art world and the place there of Russian artists in the late nineteenth century. A valuable bibliography brings together resources on the artist.

    This fictional biography, solidly founded on historical and literary research, explores his life and work - from his childhood, dominated by his tyrannical mother, to his last years, in the tender care of Pauline Viardot, the Franco-Spanish diva who was the love of his life. Author Christopher Cruise offers insights into other affairs and flirtations, together with his ambivalent relationship with his illegitimate daughter Paulinette, the result of a half-hour liaison with a servant girl. The reader is transported to many parts of Europe, from the revolutionary streets of St Petersburg to the cultural salons of Paris. The intense generational clash of his era inspired his best-known work, Fathers and Children, while his mother's cruelty ignited in him a lifelong horror of violence and injustice which found expression in A Sportsman's Sketches, a book that contributed to Czar Alexander II's decision to emancipate the serfs. The influence of the radical critic Belinsky transformed Turgenev from a 'superfluous man' on the fringes of society, to a probing writer and thinker. His relationships with some of his fellow Russian writers - Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Herzen and Bakunin - were often stormy, but in France he was admired and esteemed by many members of the French literary and musical worlds, including Flaubert, George Sand and Zola. Considered by his peers as a traitor to his class and by the radical left as a woolly liberal, by the end of his life he had won the respect - and even love - of the majority of young Russians seeking a democratic future for their tormented country.

    From dissidents to solidarity, Michnik talks animatedly about battling the 'salami' tactics of the old Polish communist regime. Step by step, beneath the Kremlin walls, Navalny is looking for parallels. How did a small group of opposition-minded Poles come to form a ten-million-strong political movement? 'Our strength lay in our solidarity,' says Michnik. Navalny knows what he's up against: 'Putin's main weapon is his ability to bribe the population.' But he also knows his fellow countrymen, for there is 'no one in the country who approves of palace-buying officials.' They pass by Lenin's tomb many times, searching for a way forward. When it's much easier to talk revolution than to actually make it happen, how do you breach the walls of the Kremlin? Here is a clarion call. The blueprint for a new Russia.

    Were cosmonauts heroic pilots steering their craft through the dangers of space, or were they mere passengers riding safely aboard fully automated machines? Tensions between Soviet cosmonauts and space engineers were reflected not only in the internal development of the space program but also in Soviet propaganda that wavered between praising daring heroes and flawless technologies. Soviet Space Mythologies explores the history of the Soviet human space program within a political and cultural context, giving particular attention to the two professional groups—space engineers and cosmonauts—who secretly built and publicly represented the program. Drawing on recent scholarship on memory and identity formation, this book shows how both the myths of Soviet official history and privately circulating counter-myths have served as instruments of collective memory and professional identity. These practices shaped the evolving cultural image of the space age in popular Soviet imagination. Soviet Space Mythologies provides a valuable resource for scholars and students of space history, history of technology, and Soviet (and post-Soviet) history.

    In it, researchers found evidence that Leon Trotsky deliberately lied many times and about many people and events. Other evidence of Trotsky's lies comes from his own writings and in documents from former Soviet archives.Drawing upon primary sources from the Harvard Trotsky Archive and from former Soviet archives Grover Furr subjects the testimony of Moscow Trials defendants to a source-critical check and verification. His conclusion: their testimony is genuine, reflecting what the defendants chose to say. The same primary sources, plus Trotsky's own writings, demonstrate that Trotsky lied about virtually everything concerning the Soviet Union in his writings about the three Moscow Trials of 1936, 1937 and 1938, his writings on the assassination of Sergei Kirov, and in his testimony to the Dewey Commission in 1937.This book will revolutionize the understanding of the Moscow Trials. Trotsky’s writings and activities during the 1930s must be seen in an entirely new light.The results of this research reveal much about Trotsky’s conspiracies in the 1930s.

    From the peripheries of international affairs, India is now at the centre of major power politics. It is viewed as a major balancer in the Asia-Pacific, a democracy that can be a key ally of the West in countering China, even as India continues to challenge the West on a range of issues. This book provides an overview of Indian foreign policy as it has evolved in recent times, it focuses on the twenty-first century and provides historical context for the issues examined. It analyses and discusses India's relationships with both major global powers; the US, China, Russia and the EU, and its neighbouring countries; Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. India's policies regarding regions such as East Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East are also considered along with India's role in key global issues such as international and regional organizations, nuclear proliferation, democracy, climate change and trade. With a gradual accretion in its powers, India has become more aggressive in the pursuit of its interests, thereby emerging as an important player in the shaping of the global order in the new millennium.

     The essays in the volume explore the historical roots, the heyday of the movement in the 1920s, and the afterlife of the movement in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The first study to offer a multifaceted account of Eurasianism in the twentieth century and to touch on the movement's intellectual entanglements with history, politics, literature, or geography, this book also explores Eurasianism's influences beyond Russia.             The Eurasianists blended their search for a primordial essence of Russian culture with radicalism of Europe's interwar period. In reaction to the devastation and dislocation of the wars and revolutions, they celebrated the Orthodox Church and the Asian connections of Russian culture, while rejecting Western individualism and democracy. The movement sought to articulate a non-European, non-Western modernity, and to underscore Russia's role in the colonial world. As the authors demonstrate, Eurasianism was akin to many fascist movements in interwar Europe, and became one of the sources of the rhetoric of nationalist mobilization in Vladimir Putin's Russia. This book presents the rich history of the concept of Eurasianism, and how it developed over time to achieve its present form.

    foreign policy without betraying fundamental American values.

    Professor John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago"This collection of smart and erudite essays is a welcome antidote to the steady stream of anti-Russian stories that fill the Western media these days. Doctorow, a seasoned expert on Russia, provides an abundance of smart insights about how relations between Russia and the Wesst have deteriorated over the past three years. At the same time, he makes compelling arguments against some of the most popular anti-Putin tropes. One only wishes there were more Doctorows in the public debate on Russia."2. Charles Bausman, Editor, Russia-Insider.com"If you want to cut through the misinformation surrounding Russia, Gil Doctorow is simply one of the best guides out there. His insights are original and important. An invaluable collection."3. James Carden, contributing writer at The Nation"Those trying to make sense of the precipitous decline in US-Russian relations over the past several years could hardly do better than Gilbert Doctorow's 'Does Russia Have a Future?'Dr. Doctorow has written a learned, eloquent and, what is more, necessary, corrective to the reigning neoconservative and neoliberal pieties that so distort and undermine understanding between the former Cold War rivals.Doctorow has put a lifetime of learning and first hand experience in Russia into producing an erudite collection that is frequently punctuated with razor sharp asides and droll humor. Caveat emptor: Doctorow does not dim his headlights; but those looking for illumination will be amply rewarded."4. Tatjana Zdanoka, Member of the European Parliament, Latvia"For those who are sure that everything is correctly done by the West concerning Russia, the very title of the book by Gilbert Doctorow devoted to Russian, American and European relations during the last two years seems to be extremely defiant. The answer to the question "Does Russia have a future? is available to them in advance. But the author suddenly, already in the subtitle, honestly and openly declares: his approach to the subject is nonconformist. Therefore from the persons who opened the book and decided to examine this other position, a capacity for self-criticism and refusal of stereotypes will be required. I am convinced that Gilbert Doctorow addressed the book first of all to such readers. The collection of essays in this book cover, it would seem, a small time period: two years. However, getting acquainted with the essays, you become convinced how extremely dense was historical time from April 2013 to June 2015. and it is surprising how steady in these waves of events our author held his position - always profound, logical, objective, honest. All these unique qualities of the author make his book very necessary and valuable."5. Professor Richard Sakwa, University of Kent"The author, one of the most perceptive analysts of the current crisis in European international politics, is remarkably well informed. Every piece provides insight and analysis that is always compelling and challenging. Together the fragments create a powerful mosaic where each element contributes to a convincing picture. The collection represents a fresh perspective that will be of interest to a wide readership - everyone will learn from them."

    His literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. Many of his works contain a strong emphasis on Christianity, and its message of absolute love, forgiveness and charity, explored within the realm of the individual, confronted with all of life's hardships and beauty. His major works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature. His novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.Table of Contents:SHORT STORIES:The Grand Inquisitor (The Brothers Karamazov)Mr. ProhartchinA Novel in Nine LettersAnother Man's Wife or, The Husband under the BedA Faint HeartPolzunkov The Honest ThiefThe Christmas Tree and The WeddingWhite NightsA Little HeroAn Unpleasant Predicament (A Nasty Story)The CrocodileBobokThe Heavenly Christmas TreeA Gentle SpiritThe Peasant MareyThe Dream of a Ridiculous ManPoor FolkThe DoubleThe LandladyUncle's DreamNotes from UndergroundThe Gambler The Permanent HusbandESSAYS ON DOSTOYEVSKY:A SURVEY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE by Isabel Florence HapgoodDOSTOYEVSKY AND HIS MESSAGE TO THE WORLD by Zinaida VengerovaON RUSSIAN NOVELISTS by William Lyon PhelpsExtract from ‘AN OUTLINE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE’ by Maurice BaringBIOGRAPHYFyodor Dostoyevsky, A Study by Aimée Dostoyevsky

    Long before the Cold War, there was a seemingly unlikely connection between the two countries — one a champion of liberty and progress; the other an absolute monarchy and defender of tradition. Indeed, following Russia’s refusal to help Great Britain put down the rebellious colonists, there developed a relationship of warm friendship, robust trade, and mutual support between Russia and the newly formed United States of America.Over the course of the next century and a half, the relationship between Russia and America flourished and matured. The St. Petersburg Connection brings to life the events and figures that played a crucial role in that history, drawing a picture of a time when two of the great States of the last century, often enemies since, were friends.

    With this volume Corney has made available the major contributions to the polemic that surrounded its publication.

    His recorded legacy, extending from 1947 to 1994is one of the largest and most admired ever assembled by any musician anywhere. Yet this prodigiously gifted artist underwent no formal musical studies of any kind until at the age of 22 when he left the relative obscurity of theUkraine to seek the advice of Russia's most celebrated piano pedagogue, Heinrich Neuhaus, in Moscow. Neuhaus' astonished reaction to his first encounter with Richter, and his declaration that 'to teach one who already knows will only do damage', have passed into legend.Richter, a famously reclusive man outside a small circle of trusted companions, resisted speaking or writing about himself. As a result, comparatively little is known about his life before his move to Moscow. This lavishly illustrated book provides unique insights into the childhood and formative years of 'Svetik' - 'Little Light', as he was always known within the large and unusually creative family circle- in a provincial Ukrainian city during the traumatic years of revolution, civil war, famine and wartime occupation by German and Romanian forces. Walter Moskalew, Richter's much younger cousin, is guardian of a rich collection of photographs, reminiscences, drawings and letters of family members, notably the memoirs of Richter's mother Anna and his twenty-year-long correspondence with his beloved Aunt Meri. Walter Moskalew has collaborated with editor and translator Anthony Phillips to produce an indispensable account of the influences that shaped the artistry and world-view of the phenomenon that was Sviatoslav Richter.

    Contrary to common assumptions, this volume argues that the German concept of the West was not born in the twentieth century, but can be traced from a much earlier time. In the nineteenth century, -the West- became associated with notions of progress, liberty, civilization, and modernity. It signified the future through the opposition to antonyms such as -Russia- and -the East, - and was deployed as a tool for forging German identities. Examining the shifting meanings, political uses, and transnational circulations of the idea of -the West- sheds new light on German intellectual history from the post-Napoleonic era to the Cold War.

    Expanding our focus to the Eastern front, as David R. Stone does in this masterly work, fundamentally alters--and clarifies--that picture. A thorough, and thoroughly readable, history of the Russian front during the First World War, this book corrects widespread misperceptions of the Russian Army and the war in the east even as it deepens and extends our understanding of the broader conflict.Of the four empires at war by the end of 1914--the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German, and Russian--none survived. But specific political, social, and economic weaknesses shaped the way Russia collapsed and returned as a radically new Soviet regime. It is this context that Stone's work provides, that gives readers a more judicious view of Russia's war on the home front as well as on the front lines. One key and fateful difference in the Russian experience emerges here: its failure to systematically and comprehensively reorganize its society for war, while the three westernmost powers embarked on programs of total mobilization.Context is also vital to understanding the particular rhythm of the war in the east. Drawing on recent and newly available scholarship in Russian and in English, Stone offers a nuanced account of Russia's military operations, concentrating on the uninterrupted sequence of campaigns in the first 18 months of war. The eastern empires' race to collapse underlines the critical importance of contingency in the complete story of World War I. Precisely when and how Russia lost the war was influenced by the structural strengths and weaknesses of its social and economic system, but also by the outcome of events on the battlefield. By bringing these events into focus, and putting them into context, this book corrects and enriches our picture of World War I, and of the true strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and successes of the Russian Army in the Great War.

    It also journeys deeper into Russian and Ukrainian history to explain more fully what keeps them together and yet at the same time drives them apart.Kalb argues that the post-cold war world today hangs on the resolution of the Ukraine crisis. So long as it is treated as a problem to be resolved by Russia, on the one side, and the United States and Europe, on the other, it will remain a danger zone with global consequences. The only sensible solution lies in both Russia and Ukraine recognizing that their futures are irrevocably linked by the geography, power, politics, and history that Kalb brings to life in Imperial Gamble.

    Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the implementation of Zbig’s Grand strategy has moved at a feverish pace, gobbling up former Soviet satellites and then converting them into NATO forward bases. The endgame for the West, via these moves, has always been to quash Russian and, ostensibly, Chinese independence, economic viability and, thus, their ability to project power in Eurasia.Ukraine: ZBIG’s Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated speaks to the historical and geostrategic moves by the West to control the Eurasian landmass: the broken promises and treaties, the geostrategic missteps and, finally, how Grand Chessboard fundamentalism actually catalyzed Russia’s re-emergence as a global power, shifted geostrategic power eastward and, proverbially, snatched defeat from the jaws of a U.S./NATO victory.

    Six former Chernobyl employees were convicted of criminal negligence; they defended themselves by pointing to reactor design issues. Other observers blamed the Soviet style of ideologically driven economic and industrial management. In Producing Power, Sonja Schmid draws on interviews with veterans of the Soviet nuclear industry and extensive research in Russian archives as she examines these alternate accounts. Rather than pursue one “definitive” explanation, she investigates how each of these narratives makes sense in its own way and demonstrates that each implies adherence to a particular set of ideas—about high-risk technologies, human-machine interactions, organizational methods for ensuring safety and productivity, and even about the legitimacy of the Soviet state. She also shows how these attitudes shaped, and were shaped by, the Soviet nuclear industry from its very beginnings.Schmid explains that Soviet experts established nuclear power as a driving force of social, not just technical, progress. She examines the Soviet nuclear industry's dual origins in weapons and electrification programs, and she traces the emergence of nuclear power experts as a professional community. Schmid also fundamentally reassesses the design choices for nuclear power reactors in the shadow of the Cold War's arms race.Schmid's account helps us understand how and why a complex sociotechnical system broke down. Chernobyl, while unique and specific to the Soviet experience, can also provide valuable lessons for contemporary nuclear projects.

    The first book in any language on the hajj under tsarist and Soviet rule, Russian Hajj tells the story of how tsarist officials struggled to control and co-opt Russia's mass hajj traffic, seeing it not only as a liability, but also an opportunity. To support the hajj as a matter of state surveillance and control was controversial, given the preeminent position of the Orthodox Church. But nor could the hajj be ignored, or banned, due to Russia's policy of toleration of Islam. As a cross-border, migratory phenomenon, the hajj stoked officials' fears of infectious disease, Islamic revolt, and interethnic conflict, but Kane innovatively argues that it also generated new thinking within the government about the utility of the empire's Muslims and their global networks.Russian Hajj reveals for the first time Russia's sprawling international hajj infrastructure, complete with lodging houses, consulates, "Hejaz steamships," and direct rail service. In a story meticulously reconstructed from scattered fragments, ranging from archival documents and hajj memoirs to Turkic-language newspapers, Kane argues that Russia built its hajj infrastructure not simply to control and limit the pilgrimage, as previous scholars have argued, but to channel it to benefit the state and empire. Russian patronage of the hajj was also about capitalizing on human mobility to capture new revenues for the state and its transport companies and laying claim to Islamic networks to justify Russian expansion.

    In The Russian Idea, Solovyov seeks to answer the question: What is the role and function that God has in mind for Russia as being integrated into all of humanity and especially as being integrated into the Mystical Body of Christ on Earth? "The idea of a nation is not what it thinks of itself in time, but instead what God thinks of it in eternity." Remarkably perceptive and insightful, trenchant and charitable, Solovyov remains pertinent today.

    30 plus pages of letters, postcards, study notebooks and diary entries. Assembled and edited by Helen Azar, author of "The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution."

    Germany has just formed her confederation and is vying for prominence. America has recovered from her civil war and is expanding her reach. A younger son of a minor landholder is allowed to join his Cossack band for the first time and is just hoping to survive the campaign, return home, buy a farm and start a family. Fate has other ideas and he soon finds himself thrust into world events he never knew existed. Bartered from one sovereign to another for a favour and thrust into a life he never had never dreamed of. A chance meeting on a lonely back country road, propels him on a life's journey, meeting the love of his life and finding out that little is as it seems.

    Since Vladimir Putin ascended to power in 2000, the country has undertaken grandiose foreign policy projects to clearly delineate its place among the world's superpowers. In Russian Foreign Policy under Putin, author Robert Nalbandov provides thorough coverage of the milestones of Russia's foreign policy since the turn of the 21st century with a focus on regional context. This framework provides a new way to view the specifics of foreign policy goals, engagement practices, and tools used by Putin's administration in promoting Russia's vital national and strategic interests in specific geographic locations, and illuminates Putin's foreign policy goal of reinstituting Russian strategic dominance in all parts of the globe. Furthermore, Nalbandov examines the identity-based politics that dominate Putin's tenure and how Russia's east/west split is reflected in Asian/European politics.Overall, these identity politics have a large part to play in dictating Russian foreign policy and political culture that has been developed and molded for generations. This political culture is also highly influenced by unchecked domestic power that is not derived from the people, an almost exclusive application of hard power both domestically and abroad, and a determined ambition for unabridged global influence and a defined place as a world superpower. Russian Foreign Policy under Putin explores these and other significant dimensions that drive Russia's interactions around the globe.

    Drawing from a wealth of Russian and Turkic sources, Mustafa Tuna surveys the roles of Islam, social networks, state interventions, infrastructural changes and the globalization of European modernity in transforming imperial Russia's oldest Muslim community: the Volga-Ural Muslims. Shifting between local, imperial and transregional frameworks, Tuna reveals how the Russian state sought to manage Muslim communities, the ways in which both the state and Muslim society were transformed by European modernity, and the extent to which the long nineteenth century either fused Russia's Muslims and the tsarist state or drew them apart. The book raises questions about imperial governance, diversity, minorities, and Islamic reform, and in doing so proposes a new theoretical model for the study of imperial situations.

    First flown in 1975, it differed from its progenitor primarily in having a crew of two (pilot and weapons systems operator), a highly capable passive phased-array radar - a world first - and new R-33 long-range missiles as its primary armament. The maximum speed was an impressive Mach 2.82, the cruising speed being Mach 2.35. The type entered service in 1981; more than 500 copies were built between 1981 and 1994. The powerful radar and other avionics allowed the MiG-31 to operate as a 'mini-AWACS' scanning the airspace and guiding other interceptors to their targets; a flight of three such aircraft in line abreast formation could cover a strip 800 km (500 miles) wide. To this day the MiG-31 remains one of the key air defense assets of the Russian Air Force.The book describes the MiG-31's developmental history, including upgrade programs, and features a full and comprehensive survey of the various MiG-31 model-making kits currently available on the market.