Alexander Litvinenko is brazenly poisoned in central London. Twenty two days later he dies, killed from the inside. The poison? Polonium; a rare, lethal and highly radioactive substance. His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia.Based on the best part of a decade's reporting, as well as extensive interviews with those closest to the events (including the murder suspects), and access to trial evidence, Luke Harding's A Very Expensive Poison is the definitive inside story of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko. Harding traces the journey of the nuclear poison across London, from hotel room to nightclub, assassin to victim; it is a deadly trail that seemingly leads back to the Russian state itself.Harding argues that Litvinenko's assassination marked the beginning of the deterioration of Moscow's relations with the west and a decade of geo-political disruptions--from the war in Ukraine, a civilian plane shot down, at least 7,000 dead, two million people displaced and a Russian president's defiant rejection of a law-based international order. With Russia's covert war in Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea, Europe and the US face a new Cold War, but with fewer certainties.This is a shocking real-life revenge tragedy with corruption and subterfuge at every turn, and walk-on parts from Russian mafia, the KGB, MI6 agents, dedicated British coppers, Russian dissidents. At the heart of this all is an individual and his family torn apart by a ruthless crime.

    A dark shadow is about to fall over the golden cupolas of Kiev…As the Red Army retreats in the face of Hitler’s relentless advance across Eastern Europe, the lives of sisters Natasha and Lisa are about to change forever.While Lisa’s plans to marry her childhood sweetheart turn to tragedy under the occupation, Natasha grows close to Mark, a Hungarian soldier, enlisted against all his principles on the side of the Nazis.But as Natasha fights for the survival of the friends and family she loves, the war threatens to tear them apart.Sisters of War is a powerful tale of love, loss, and the power of hope set in Kiev during the Second World War.

    Goulden, Washington Times   “Satter . . . persuasively supplies evidence for his claim that a series of residential bombings in 1999 were part of an elaborate conspiracy orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, who used them as a smoke screen to invade Chechnya and catapult himself to the presidency.”—Publisher’s Weekly   In December 2013, David Satter became the first American journalist to be expelled from Russia since the Cold War. The Moscow Times said it was not surprising he was expelled, “it was surprising it took so long.” Satter is known in Russia for having written that the apartment bombings in 1999, which were blamed on Chechens and brought Putin to power, were actually carried out by the Russian FSB security police.   In this book, Satter tells the story of the apartment bombings and how Boris Yeltsin presided over the criminalization of Russia, why Vladimir Putin was chosen as his successor, and how Putin has suppressed all opposition while retaining the appearance of a pluralist state. As the threat represented by Russia becomes increasingly clear, Satter’s description of where Russia is and how it got there will be of vital interest to anyone concerned about the dangers facing the world today.

    The Soviets had no intention of bestowing their coveted prize on an unknown American; a Russian pianist had already been chosen to win. Yet when the gangly Texan with the shy grin took the stage and began to play, he instantly captivated an entire nation.The Soviet people were charmed by Van Cliburn’s extraordinary talent, passion, and fresh-faced innocence, but it was his palpable love for the music that earned their devotion; for many, he played more like a Russian than their own musicians. As enraptured crowds mobbed Cliburn’s performances, pressure mounted to award him the competition prize. "Is he the best?" Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demanded of the judges. "In that case . . . give him the prize!"Adored by millions in the USSR, Cliburn returned to a thunderous hero’s welcome in the USA and became, for a time, an ambassador of hope for two dangerously hostile superpowers. In this thrilling, impeccably researched account, Nigel Cliff recreates the drama and tension of the Cold War era, and brings into focus the gifted musician and deeply compelling figure whose music would temporarily bridge the divide between two dangerously hostile powers.

    Girls are named Faith and Hope. After spending their childhood in a foster home and obtaining primary education, they understand that they are different from other people in many respects. The problems of their growing up are exacerbated with permanent humiliations from society. Finally, fortune favors them, slightly opening a door to happiness – separation surgery that theoretically can be performed in the capital. And sisters start their way, full of difficulties and obstacles. Will they be able to overcome a wall of public cynicism together with internal conflicts among themselves? Will they find a justification for their existence and accept it? Searching for the answers to these and many other questions constitutes the essence of this novel. One-Two is a psychological drama, the main events of which unfold in 1980s and 1990s. The novel is a speculation about how difficult it is to be a human and how important it is to stay human until the end. It is a message full of empathy and kindness addressed to all people. I believe the right time has come. I hope this book is for you.

     Sandro was a crucial witness to the collapse of his family. He was the cousin, brother-in-law and close friend of the last tsar, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. He was with Nicky when thousands of Russian peasants died at Khodynka Field during Nicky’s coronation; he was with Nicky in the lead-up to the disastrous Russo-Japanese War; he was with Nicky during the failed revolution of 1905-6; he was with Nicky when the Russian Duma was established in an attempt to ward off future revolutions; he was with Nicky as Russia moved determinedly toward a military showdown with Germany; he was with Nicky fighting the German army of the Eastern Front during the First World War; he was with Nicky when he abdicated in favour of his brother, Michael, who refused the throne. This is a riveting first-hand account of the final days of the Russian Empire and of what it was like to be a member of the Russian Imperial Family at that time. And to our great good fortune, while Sandro may have been no Stolypin, he was a keen observer and an excellent writer. Anyone intrigued by the last days of the Romanovs as the ruling family of Russia should read this book.

    Petersburg in 1872, adopted the pen-name of Teffi, and it is as Teffi that she is remembered. In pre-revolutionary Russia she was a literary star, known for her humorous satirical pieces; in the 1920s and 1930s, she wrote some of her finest stories in exile in Paris, recalling her unforgettable encounters with Rasputin, and her hopeful visit at age thirteen to Tolstoy after reading War and Peace. In this selection of her best autobiographical stories, she covers a wide range of subjects, from family life to revolution and emigration, writers and writing. Like Nabokov, Platonov, and other great Russian prose writers, Teffi was a poet who turned to prose but continued to write with a poet’s sensitivity to tone and rhythm. Like Chekhov, she fuses wit, tragedy, and a remarkable capacity for observation; there are few human weaknesses she did not relate to with compassion and understanding.

    In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play in the country's dissolution? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that Gorbachev and his allies tried to learn from the great success story of transitions from socialism to capitalism, Deng Xiaoping's China. Why, then, were efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism so much less successful than in China?Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics. The Soviet government was divided by bitter conflict, and Gorbachev, the ostensible Soviet autocrat, was unable to outmaneuver the interest groups that were threatened by his economic reforms. Miller's analysis settles long-standing debates about the politics and economics of perestroika, transforming our understanding of the causes of the Soviet Union's rapid demise.

    In this collection of travel writing by famed Russian explorer and naturalist Vladimir K. Arsenyev (1872-1930), readers are shuttled back to the turn of the 20th century when the Russian Empire was reeling from its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and vulnerable to its Far Eastern neighbors. What began as an expedition to survey the region s infrastructure for the Russian military turned into an adventure through one of the most ethnically and ecologically diverse territories on the continent. Encountering the disappearing indigenous cultures of the Nanai and Udege, engaging the help of Korean farmers and Chinese hunters, and witnessing the beginning of indomitable Russian settlement, Arsenyev documents the lives and customs of the region s inhabitants and their surroundings. Originally written as "a popular scientific description of the Kray," this unabridged edition includes photographs largely unseen for nearly a century and is annotated by Jonathan C. Slaght, a biologist working in the same forests Arsenyev explored. Across the Ussuri Kray is a classic of northeast Asian cultural and natural history."

    Never one to miss an opportunity for genealogical research;methodical and meticulous Molly plans a side trip to Ukraine. Intriguingly, her mother, Judith, evokes a favorite Yiddish proverb, 'Man plans and God laughs.' If Judith had her way, her daughter would still be dressing up in fairy wings and princess crowns- collecting wild flowers and connecting with her spiritual energy, but for Molly; making plans and compiling data came as second nature. She and her father had delighted in spending long, cozy, afternoons cuddled in the library studying ancient family history. David Abramovitz began recounting tales of great-grandparents trekking across Mother Russia when his daughter was still quite young. Captivated, Molly learned how her relatives boarded a ship and sailed across the ocean to reach the shores of Argentina. Now, at last, Molly's plans are coming to fruition. Her trek to her ancestral home leads her to an accidental discovery of a mythical tarot card. Will the life lessons revealed on this enchanted journey shake up her staid and uncomplicated life? Only time will tell.

    His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. Tolstoy's ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel.Table of ContentsIntroductionLeo Tolstoy: A Short Biography"Tolstoy the Artist” and "Tolstoy the Preacher” by Ivan PaninBooksThe Kingdom of God is Within YouWhat I BelieveThe Gospel in BriefA ConfessionChristianity and Patriotism Reason and ReligionPatriotism or PeaceLetter to Ernest Howard CrosbyBethink Yourselves!Why do People Stupefy Themselves?A Letter to a HinduCorrespondences with GandhiPersecution of Christians in RussiaHelp!Thoughts on God'Thou Shalt Not Kill'Two WarsReason and MoralityChurch and StateReligious Relation to LifeLetter to a Kind YouthReply to Critics ReminiscencesReminiscences of Tolstoy, by His Son by Graf Ilia LvovichTolstoiMy Visit to Tolstoy by Joseph KrauskopfCount Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) which are often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction.

    Throughout the city, people are dying of starvation and frostbite, and Karen knows that if she doesn’t escape immediately, she will share their fate. If she has any hope of leaving Russia and reuniting with her fiancé, Bobby, in New York, she must do the impossible: cross enemy lines and then stow away.On her harrowing journey, Karen encounters Petr, a young conscripted Russian soldier. She isn’t sure she can trust him—he is equally wary of her. But as the two join forces in order to stay alive, an unexpected romance takes root.Now, as Karen gets closer to the reality of escape, she has a choice to make: Will she return to a safe life in America with Bobby, or remain in war-torn Russia with Petr?

    Noon on January 20th—Inauguration Day—is only hours away. A flaw in the Constitution, and an even more flawed presidential succession act, have opened the door to disaster and Zorin intends to exploit both weaknesses to their fullest.Armed with a weapon leftover from the Cold War, one long thought to be just a myth, Zorin plans to attack. He’s aided by a shocking secret hidden in the archives of America’s oldest fraternal organization—the Society of Cincinnati—a group that once lent out its military savvy to presidents, including helping to formulate three invasion plans of what was intended to be America’s 14th colony—Canada.In a race against the clock that starts in the frozen extremes of Russia and ultimately ends at the White House itself, Malone must not only battle Zorin, he must also confront a crippling fear that he’s long denied, but which now jeopardizes everything. Steve Berry’s trademark mix of history and speculation is all here in this provocative new thriller.

    Now, saving her career means selling her soul to the Russian government. A spy who uses her body to lure men and secure their secrets, Georgina is tasked with seducing Roman Zakharov, the most dangerous oligarch in Russia.Roman Zakharov a man with a past as ugly as his disfigured face. An assassination attempt left him horribly burned, but the scars go deeper than the frightening exterior. Jaded and cruel, he lets Georgina into his world but only to punish her and teach the pretty dancer that no one crosses Roman Zakharov. He will show her what it means to be used. And he will teach her to beg.And in the end, they may teach each other to love...

    Mettan begins by showing the strength of the prejudice against Russia through the Western response to a series of events: the Uberlingen mid-air collision, the Beslan hostage- taking, the Ossetia War, the Sochi Olympics and the crisis in Ukraine. He then delves into the historical, religious, ideological and geopolitical roots of the detestation of Russia in various European nations over thirteen centuries since Charlemagne competed with Byzantium for the title of heir to the Roman Empire. Mettan examines the geopolitical machinations expressed in those times through the medium of religion, leading to the great Christian schism between Germanic Rome and Byzantium and the European Crusades against Russian Orthodoxy. This history of taboos, prejudices and propaganda directed against the Orthodox Church provides the mythic foundations that shaped Western disdain for contemporary Russia. From the religious and imperial rivalry created by Charlemagne and the papacy to the genesis of French, English, German and then American Russophobia, the West has been engaged in more or less violent hostilities against Russia for a thousand years. Contemporary Russophobia is manufactured through the construction of an anti-Russian discourse in the media and the diplomatic world, and the fabrication and demonization of The Bad Guy, now personified by Vladimir Putin. Both feature in the meta-narrative, the mythical framework of the ferocious Russian bear ruled with a rod of iron by a vicious president. A synthetic reading of all these elements is presented in the light of recent events and in particular of the Ukrainian crisis and the recent American elections, showing how all the resources of the West's soft power have been mobilized to impose the tale of bad Russia dreaming of global conquest. "By hating Russia, one hurts oneself. Swiss journalist Guy Mettan pieces together the reasons of detestation of the Kremlin and of a rhetoric that goes back to Napoleonic times despite the long list of aggressions perpetrated in the meantime by the West. And he explains why pushing Moscow toward Asia is a very serious error." -Panorama, Italy "Like Saddam Hussein's mythical weapons of massive destruction in 2003, Peter the Great's fake will has been used to justify the aggressions and invasions that the Europeans, and now the Americans, still carry out against Russia." -Lib�ration, France

    Along this frontier, a new political space emerged, shaped by competing imperial and spiritual loyalties, cross-border economic and social ties, and the revolutions that engulfed Russia and China in the early twentieth century. David Brophy explores how a community of Central Asian Muslims responded to these historic changes by reinventing themselves as the modern Uyghur nation.As exiles and emigres, traders and seasonal laborers, a diverse diaspora of Muslims from China's northwest province of Xinjiang spread to Russian territory, where they became enmeshed in political and intellectual currents among Russia's Muslims. From the many national and transnational discourses of identity that circulated in this mixed community, the rhetoric of Uyghur nationhood emerged as a rallying point in the tumult of the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War. Working both with and against Soviet policy, a shifting alliance of constituencies invoked the idea of a Uyghur nation to secure a place for itself in Soviet Central Asia and to spread the revolution to Xinjiang. Although its existence was contested in the fractious politics of the 1920s, in the 1930s the Uyghur nation achieved official recognition in the Soviet Union and China.Grounded in a wealth of little-known archives from across Eurasia, Uyghur Nation offers a bottom-up perspective on nation-building in the Soviet Union and China and provides crucial background to the ongoing contest for the history and identity of Xinjiang.

    

    His work was deeply informed by his long and eventful life. He wrote for over seventy years, both as a very young man in the wake of the Russian revolution and as a ninety-year old, never tiring of analyzing the workings of literature.Viktor Shklovsky: A Reader is the first book that collects crucial writings from across Shklovsky’s career, serving as an entry point for first-time readers. It presents new translations of key texts, interspersed with excerpts from memoirs and letters, as well as important work that has not appeared in English before.

    Though Stalin spared the life of Boris Pasternak—whose novel-in-progress, Doctor Zhivago, was suspected of being anti-Soviet—he persecuted Boris’s mistress, typist, and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Boris’s affair with Olga devastated the straitlaced Pasternaks, and they were keen to disavow Olga’s role in Boris’s writing process. Twice Olga was sentenced to work in Siberian labor camps, where she was interrogated about the book Boris was writing, but she refused to betray the man she loved. When Olga was released from the gulags, she assumed that Boris would leave his wife for her but, trapped by his family’s expectations and his own weak will, he never did. Drawing on previously neglected family sources and original interviews, Anna Pasternak explores this hidden act of moral compromise by her great-uncle, and restores to history the passionate affair that inspired and animated Doctor Zhivago. Devastated that Olga suffered on his behalf and frustrated that he could not match her loyalty to him, Boris instead channeled his thwarted passion for Olga into the love story in Doctor Zhivago. Filled with the rich detail of Boris’s secret life, Lara unearths a moving love story of courage, loyalty, suffering, drama, and loss, and casts a new light on the legacy of Doctor Zhivago.

    Kivelson and Ronald Grigor Suny examine how imperial practices shaped choices and limited alternatives. Using the concept of empire, they look at the ways in which ordinary people imagined their position within a non-democratic polity--whether the Muscovite tsardom or the SovietUnion--and what concessions the rulers had to make, or appear to make, in order to establish their authority and preserve their rule.Russia's Empires tackles the long history of the region, following the vicissitudes of empire--the absence, the coalescence, and the setbacks of imperial aspirations--across the centuries. The framework of empire allows the authors to address pressing questions of how various forms of non-democraticgovernance managed to succeed and survive, or, alternatively, what caused them to collapse and disappear. Studying Russia's extensive history in an imperial guise encourages students to pay attention to forms of inclusion, displays of reciprocity, and manifestations of ideology that might otherwisego unnoted, overlooked under the bleak record of coercion and oppression that so often characterizes ideas about Russia.

    Petersburg, photographed with the Winter Palace as a backdrop. Prerevolutionary Russia was renowned for the glamorous and luxurious lifestyles of the nobility, with their opulent palaces and glittering social life. Now, this lavish volume reveals the incredible clothing they wore, from everyday dress and ceremonial attire (traditional holidays outfits and military uniforms) to dress for special occasions, including elaborate evening wear for theater and musical events and fancy masquerade balls. Celebrated for luxurious materials and impeccable craftsmanship, the dress of the Russian nobility was haute couture at its finest. With beautiful photography and details highlighting the hand-spun silks and lace and jeweled embroideries, Russian Splendor highlights the glamour of this gilded age and offers a fascinating window into a vanished world. Essays by Hermitage Museum curators, alongside historic Russian paintings and photographs, place the clothing in a historical context, revealing the rich cultural layers and artistic influences of czarist Russia.

    Yet some scientists, even in the West, now claim that discoveries in the field of epigenetics prove that he was right after all. Seeking to get to the bottom of Lysenko's rehabilitation in certain Russian scientific circles, Loren Graham reopens the case, granting his theories an impartial hearing to determine whether new developments in molecular biology validate his claims.In the 1930s Lysenko advanced a "theory of nutrients" to explain plant development, basing his insights on experiments which, he claimed, showed one could manipulate environmental conditions such as temperature to convert a winter wheat variety into a spring variety. He considered the inheritance of acquired characteristics--which he called the "internalization of environmental conditions"--the primary mechanism of heredity. Although his methods were slipshod and his results were never duplicated, his ideas fell on fertile ground during a time of widespread famine in the Soviet Union.Recently, a hypothesis called epigenetic transgenerational inheritance has suggested that acquired characteristics may indeed occasionally be passed on to offspring. Some biologists dispute the evidence for this hypothesis. Loren Graham examines these arguments, both in Russia and the West, and shows how, in Russia, political currents are particularly significant in affecting the debates.

    Less than twenty years later the Soviet Union had collapsed, confounding experts who never expected it to happen during their lifetimes. In From Washington to Moscow veteran US Foreign Service officer Louis Sell traces the history of US–Soviet relations between 1972 and 1991 and explains why the Cold War came to an abrupt end. Drawing heavily on archival sources and memoirs—many in Russian—as well as his own experiences, Sell vividly describes events from the perspectives of American and Soviet participants. He attributes the USSR's fall not to one specific cause but to a combination of the Soviet system's inherent weaknesses, mistakes by Mikhail Gorbachev, and challenges by Ronald Reagan and other US leaders. He shows how the USSR's rapid and humiliating collapse and the inability of the West and Russia to find a way to cooperate respectfully and collegially helped set the foundation for Vladimir Putin’s rise.

    Drawing on events from the 1930s through the 1970s, Mark Harrison shows how, by accident or design, people became entangled in the workings of Soviet rule. The author outlines the seven principles on which that police state operated during its history, from the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and illustrates them throughout the book. Well-known people appear in the stories, but the central characters are those who will have been remembered only within their families: a budding artist, an engineer, a pensioner, a government office worker, a teacher, a group of tourists. Those tales, based on historical records, shine a light on the many tragic, funny, and bizarre aspects of Soviet life.

    He prowls through the back alleys of Prague dodging the communist security police to meet secret priests waiting to tell the story of their years in prison and concentration camps, their interrogation and torture, hunger, hard labor, and now a life sentence as ex-convicts. In their atheistic police state the secret priests and their underground churches try to preserve basic human values and morals by their example. The 1968 Prague Spring reaction to Russian oppressive rule over its satellite countries brings a few years of limited freedom. Asked what they need? “News, information, books about our Catholic faith,” they reply.On another trip behind the Iron Curtain the author meets more secret priests in dilapidated huts, state-built cold-water flats, university back rooms, cars, alleyways and crowded restaurants. He is shadowed by communist security police. When he reaches the border to leave the country, he is detained, questioned and strip searched. Months later on another trip he is refused entry behind the Iron Curtain, declared a persona non grata, and placed on Communism’s black list. Regardless, the author with the help of United States military parishioners stationed in Germany establishes an information and book network that ships thousands of books to communist countries.Pope Saint John Paul II, then Cardinal of Krakow, Poland, wrote to the author to express “my thankfulness and appreciation for the great undertaking of the book project.”But Pope John Paul II would not appreciate the author’s condemnation of his and the Vatican’s treatment of the secret priests, when Communism fails, the Cold War ends, and the secret priests can function publically. Now judged as a threat to the structure of the institutional church, they become the other innocent victims of clerical abuse at the hands of Vatican bureaucrats, the Czechoslovakian bishops, and the state-licensed priests who collaborated with communist governments.The author is singularly able through personal experience, research, and letters from secret bishops and priests to tell the true story, largely unknown in the English-language world:• The facts on the valid ordination of secret bishops and priests;• The existence of married and female priests;• The inner workings of the underground churches defying communist security police;• The bishops and priests who betrayed the Catholic church and became spies;• The Vatican’s worldwide spy and counterespionage network;• The chilling Vatican hypocrisy in appeasing the communists;• The rampant corruption in the Vatican as the Mafia and the Masons control the Vatican Bank, laundering money and counterfeiting stocks;• And important for the survival of the Catholic Church: the legacy of the secret priests.Abandoned by the Vatican is an addition to the great Catholic tradition of analyzing the words and behavior of the Vatican, its popes, cardinals, and bishops in the manner of such authors as George Weigel, Carl Bernstein, Jason Berry, and Gary Wills.

    It is usually blamed for creating the most monotonous built environment in the history of mankind, thus constituting a symbol of individual suppression and dejection. The construction programme launched in the post-Stalinist era was the largest undertaken in modern architectural history worldwide. At the same time, Soviet mass housing fulfilled a colossal social role, providing tens of millions of families with their own apartments. It shaped the culture and everyday life of nearly all Soviet citizens. Yet, due to the very scale of construction, it managed to evolve into a complex world denoting an abundance of myths and secrets, achievements and failures. Soviet mass housing is indisputably intriguing, but nevertheless it is still neglected as a theme of research. Therefore, the time is ripe for a critical appraisal of this ambitious project. The authors aim to identify the most significant mass housing series designed and engineered from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.

    

    Starting with the foundation of the Imperial Academy of the Arts in 1757 and culminating with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, it details the professionalization and wide-ranging activities of painters against a backdrop of dramatic social and political change. The Imperial Academy formalized artistic training but later became a foil for dissent, as successive generations of painters negotiated their own positions between pan-European engagement and local and national identities. Drawing on original archival research, this groundbreaking book recontextualizes the work of major artists, revives the reputations of others, and explores the complex developments that took Russian painters from provincial anonymity to international acclaim.

    In the very moment of revolution, these sentiments were put to the test as antisemitic pogroms swept the former Pale of Settlement. The pogroms posed fundamental questions of the Bolshevik project, revealing the depth of antisemitism within sections of the working class, peasantry and Red Army. Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution offers the first book-length analysis of the Bolshevik response to antisemitism. Contrary to existing understandings, it reveals this campaign to have been led not by the Party leadership, as is often assumed, but by a loosely connected group of radicals who mobilized around a Jewish political subjectivity. By examining pogroms committed by the Red Army, Brendan McGeever also uncovers the explosive overlap between revolutionary politics and antisemitism, and the capacity for class to become racialized in a moment of crisis.

    Finishing a novel in another language will give you a real sense of achievement, and will motivate you to go on reading more and more. And the more you read, the more your language proficiency increases, the more confident you feel and the more motivated you are! All Russian Readers include stress accents in the Russian text, Russian-English vocabulary and reading comprehension questions at the end of each chapter. The series is published at six levels - Starter, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate; Upper-intermediate and Advanced. The number of words at each level: Starter (A1) - 300-600 headwords; Elementary (A2) - 600-1000 headwords; Pre-intermediate (A2-B1) - 1000-1400 headwords; Intermediate (B1) - 1400-1700 headwords; Upper-intermediate (B2) - 1700-2200 headwords; Advanced (C1) - 2200-3000 headwords.

    James Heinzen’s innovative and compelling study examines corruption under Stalin’s dictatorship in the wake of World War II, focusing on bribery as an enduring and important presence in many areas of Soviet life. Based on extensive research in recently declassified Soviet archives, The Art of the Bribe offers revealing insights into the Soviet state, its system of law and repression, and everyday life during the years of postwar Stalinism.

    The accepted dates for the Cold War are 1947 to 1991, the year in which the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe collapsed and the world witnessed the formal dissolution of the USSR, leaving the USA as the world's only superpower. In those intervening years the world had come dangerously close to nuclear Armageddon on several occasions.

    This book is unique in that it has REAL traditional Russian Recipes that have been in my family for generations! I also made sure to include popular regional dishes that are unique to certain areas of Russia or Ukraine. There’s a little bit of everything here from Russian Pierogis to the infamous Borscht. Pick your own delicious Russian adventure with our 90 recipes! ↓↓↓↓ If you are ready to eat delicious Russian Recipes Today... Don’t waste any more time buy this book now!

    With incomes erratic and banks inadequate, Russians of all social castes were deeply enmeshed in networks of credit and debt. The necessity of borrowing and lending shaped perceptions of material and moral worth, as well as notions of social respectability and personal responsibility. Credit and debt were defining features of imperial Russia's culture of property ownership. Sergei Antonov recreates this vanished world of borrowers, bankrupts, lenders, and loan sharks in imperial Russia from the reign of Nicholas I to the period of great social and political reforms of the 1860s.Poring over a trove of previously unexamined records, Antonov gleans insights into the experiences of ordinary Russians, rich and poor, and shows how Russia's informal but sprawling credit system helped cement connections among property owners across socioeconomic lines. Individuals of varying rank and wealth commonly borrowed from one another. Without a firm legal basis for formalizing debt relationships, obtaining a loan often hinged on subjective perceptions of trustworthiness and reputation. Even after joint-stock banks appeared in Russia in the 1860s, credit continued to operate through vast networks linked by word of mouth, as well as ties of kinship and community. Disputes over debt were common, and Bankrupts and Usurers of Imperial Russia offers close readings of legal cases to argue that Russian courts--usually thought to be underdeveloped in this era--provided an effective forum for defining and protecting private property interests.

    Drawing extensively on Tchaikovsky’s uncensored letters and diaries, this richly documented biography explores the composer’s life and works, as well as the larger and richly robust artistic culture of nineteenth-century Russian society, which would propel Tchaikovsky into international spotlight.Setting aside clichés of Tchaikovsky as a tortured homosexual and naively confessional artist, Philip Ross Bullock paints a new and vivid portrait of the composer that weaves together insights into his music with a sensitive account of his inner emotional life. He looks at Tchaikovsky’s appeal to wealthy and influential patrons such as Nadezhda von Meck and Tsar Alexander III, and he examines Russia’s growing hunger at the time for serious classical music. Following Tchaikovsky through his celebrity up until his 1891 performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall and his honorary doctorate at the University of Cambridge, Bullock offers an accessible but deeply informed window onto Tchaikovsky’s life and works.

    The book focuses on a region 750 miles east of Moscow known as Bashkiria. The region was split nearly evenly between Russian and Turkic language speakers, both nomads and farmers. Ufa province at Bashkiria’s core had the largest Muslim population of any province in the empire. The empire’s leading Muslim official, the mufti, was based there, but the region also hosted a Russian Orthodox bishop. Bashkirs and peasants had different legal status, and powerful Russian Orthodox and Muslim nobles dominated the peasant estate. By the 20th century, industrial mining and rail commerce gave rise to a class structure of workers and managers. Bashkiria thus presents a fascinating case study of empire in all its complexities and of how the tsarist empire’s ideology and categories of rule changed over time.

    The authors highlight the polemics and disagreements that energize the field, discussing interpretations from Russian, �migr�, and Western historiographies and showing how scholars diverge sharply in their understanding of key events, historical processes, and personalities.Each chapter contains a selection of primary sources and discussion questions, engaging with the voices and experiences of ordinary Soviet citizens and familiarizing students with the techniques of source criticism. Illustrated with images and maps throughout, this book is an essential introduction to twentieth-century Russian history.

    Moscow, 1682 and clan rivalry forces the accession of two joint tsars: one, Ivan, is feeble-minded and the other is Peter, a child of ten years old.

    The daughter of the last British Ambassador to Imperial Russia, she wrote a number of articles and books about her experiences during that time, most notably: Recollections of imperial Russia (1919) and Ambassador's daughter (1958). Although several books have been written about Russia and the Revolution in its time period, few of them are illuminating. One of them that does really send some gleams of light through the mist is Miss Meriel Buchanan's Petrograd, the City of Trouble, 1914-1918. The writer is the daughter of the late British Ambassador in Russia. She was in the capital all through the war and the Revolution till the beginning of its last year, having opportunities for seeing all sorts of people, from the Emperor and his Consort to street-loafers and policemen, and keeping a calm, clear, untroubled, and yet sympathetic English eye upon everything. She gives us the atmosphere of that huge, bewildered, fate-stricken capital, that fair Northern giantess spellbound and helpless in the coils of an unholy wizardry, better than any other writer of these times. Even if her judgment of men and events may be erroneous the book would be worth reading for the singular charm of its descriptive passages. Miss Buchanan's word-painting is exquisite, and her pictures of the Kremlin, and the Crimea, and of Petrograd in the rose and gold of its summer pageantry, or lying white and still under the thin blue wintry sky, linger on the memory. She writes well of Russia and the Russians, for she loves them, and moves us to pity and sorrow for the great, simple, helpless people, preyed upon by surely the shabbiest and most ignoble gang of miscreants whom the frothy waves of revolution ever drifted out of the underworld. This book of Miss Buchanan's is the first attempt of any writer in any language to give to the world a sense of the atmosphere of Russia under the shock and terror of those world-shaking events. Miss Buchanan has placed us all under a very real and serious debt. She has also done Russia a noble service. Contents I. THE EVENING REVIEW AT KRASSNOE II. JULY 24 III. DECLARATION OF WAR IV. MOSCOW V. FIRST DAYS AT THE HOSPITAL VI. 1915 VII. THE SECOND WINTER VIII. THE CRIMEA IX. SUMMER, 1916 X. THE COURT XI. THE MURDER. OF RASPUTIN XII. THE GATHERING OF THE STORM XIII. MONDAY, MARCH 12 XIV. THE EMPEROR'S ABDICATION XV. THE FIRST WEEKS OF THE REVOLUTION XVI. SPRING, 1917 XVII. THE WOMEN OF RUSSIA XVIII. BOLSHEVIK RISING OF JULY XIX. JULY 17 AND 18 XX. THE TAKING OF THE FORTRESS XXI. THE FAILURE OF THE RUSSIAN ARMY XXII. THE COUP D'ETAT OF KORNILOFF XXIII. A SOLDIER XXIV. AUTUMN, 1917 XXV. THE BOLSHEVIKS STRIKE XXVI. THE BOLSHEVIKS IN POWER XXVII. THE MOCKERY OF GOVERNMENT XXVIII. NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE XXIX. RULE OF THE RED GUARD XXX. ANARCHY XXXI. EAST DAYS IN PETROGRAD XXXII. THE SOUL OF RUSSIA XXXIII. THE JOURNEY FROM RUSSIA

    Examining a broad range of writings, G. M. Hamburg shows why Russia’s enlightenment constituted a precondition for the explosive emergence of nineteenth-century writers such as Fedor Dostoyevsky and Vladimir Soloviev.

    Hugo seemed to embody a distinctly central European experience of his time, of people trapped between Hitler and Stalin. Using the unvarnished account found in Hugo's notebooks, George Huppert takes the reader on a tour of the writer's life from his provincial youth to his education and radicalization in Vienna; to Moscow where he meets Mayakovski and where he is imprisoned during Stalin's purges; through the difficult war years and return to Vienna; to his further struggles with the communist party and his blossoming as a writer in the 1950s. Through all the twists and turns of this story, George remains a faithful presence, guiding the way and placing Hugo's remarkable life in context. Comrade Huppert is a story of displacement and exile, the price of party loyalty, and the toll of war and terror on the mind of this emblematic figure.

    Khrushchev is plotting, Communism is menacing, the traditional Catholic mass is changing and her pretty, patriotic, white mom is wearing a wire and infiltrating the Black Panthers in a flip and a miniskirt. Amid all this turmoil, Patricia navigates girlhood and adolescence with a loyal heart, an observant eye, and a sarcastic wit. If you grew up in the Cold War era, you'll love this book for the memories it rekindles--and if you didn't, it will make you wish you'd been there." --Evelyn Somers. Associate Editor, The Missouri Review

    It considers how the crisis was contextualized with reference to broader themes of competition for power over Eurasia and the Washington Consensus. It assesses accounts of the role of Russia and of ethnic Russian Ukrainians in Crimea, Odessa and the Donbass and traces how Western mainstream media went out of their way to demonize Vladimir Putin. The book deconstructs prevailing Western narratives as to the reasons for the shooting down of Malaysian Airways flight MH17 in July 2014, and counters Western media concentration on the issue of culpability for the attack with an alternative narrative of egregious failure to close down civilian air space over war zones. From analysis of these discourses, the book identifies principles of post-2001 Western conflict propaganda as these appeared to play out in Ukraine.This book will be of much interest to students of propaganda, media and communication studies, Russian and Eastern European politics, security studies and IR.

    It was the staging ground for the armies of the Mongol Empire, for the nineteenth-century struggle between the Russian and British empires, and for the NATO campaign in Afghanistan. Today, multinationals and nations compete for the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea and for control of the pipelines. Yet “Stanland” is still, to many, a terra incognita, a geographical blank.Beginning in the mid-1990s, academic and journalist David Mould’s career took him to the region on Fulbright Fellowships and contracts as a media trainer and consultant for UNESCO and USAID, among others. In Postcards from Stanland, he takes readers along with him on his encounters with the people, landscapes, and customs of the diverse countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—he came to love. He talks with teachers, students, politicians, environmental activists, bloggers, cab drivers, merchants, Peace Corps volunteers, and more.Until now, few books for a nonspecialist readership have been written on the region, and while Mould brings his own considerable expertise to bear on his account—for example, he is one of the few scholars to have conducted research on post-Soviet media in the region—the book is above all a tapestry of place and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the post-Soviet world.

    Known for his aggressive politics abroad, and irresponsible despotism domestically, the leader of the world's largest nation holds seemingly limitless control over his people. But Putin is only the latest face of Russian political power: understanding his rule means understanding Russia.In Russia: Putin's Playground, Anastasia Edel explores the tumultuous relationship between the Russian state and its people, and traces Russia's history from its inception through Putin's controversial rule. In a series of short and punchy articles, Russia examines every facet of Russian life and culture-from literature to oligarchs including Peter the Great to punk protesters Pussy Riot.

    Springing from Hitler’s fanatical desire to conquer the Soviet territories, defeat Bolshevism and create ‘Lebensraum’ for the German people, it pitted two diametrically opposed armed forces against one another.The invasion began with 4.5 million troops attacking 2.3 million defenders. On one side was the Wehrmacht, without any doubt the world’s most advanced military force. On the other were the Soviet armed forces, downtrodden, humiliated, decapitated and terrorized by an autocratic and crude dictator with no military education whatsoever. Initially Operation Barbarossa led to a row of unparalleled tactical victories for the attackers. In just five months, an area of around 1.4 million square kilometres was captured. Tremendous losses were inflicted on the Soviet armed forces. 566,852 troops were listed as killed in action, 2,335,482 as missing in action (including POWs), and around 500,000 Soviet reservists had been captured while still mobilizing - making a total of approximately 3.4 million total losses. But by the end of December 1941, Operation Barbarossa had ground to halt; how was this possible? Christer Bergström tells the story in great detail; as with The Battle of Britain: An Epic Conflict Revisited he combines facts and figures with the human stories behind the action, and draws new conclusions based on many years of research in German and Russian archives.

    She follows the histories of three merchant families from various social ranks who conducted trade in Siberia for well over a century. These include the Filat'evs, who were among Russia's most illustrious merchant elite; the Shababins, Muslim immigrants who mastered local and long-distance trade while balancing private endeavors with service to the Russian state; and the Noritsyns, traders of more modest status who worked sometimes for themselves, sometimes for bigger merchants, and participated in the emerging Russia-China trade.Monahan demonstrates that trade was a key component of how the Muscovite state sought to assert its authority in the Siberian periphery. The state's recognition of the benefits of commerce meant that Russian state- and empire-building in Siberia were characterized by accommodation; in this diverse borderland, instrumentality trumped ideology and the Orthodox state welcomed Central Asian merchants of Islamic faith.This reconsideration of Siberian trade invites us to rethink Russia's place in the early modern world. The burgeoning market at Lake Yamysh, an inner-Eurasian trading post along the Irtysh River, illuminates a vibrant seventeenth-century Eurasian caravan trade even as Europe-Asia maritime trade increased. By contextualizing merchants and places of Siberian trade in the increasingly connected economies of the early modern period, Monahan argues that, commercially speaking, Russia was not the outlier that most twentieth-century characterizations portrayed.

    The son of two of modern Russia's greatest poets, Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, Gumilev spent thirteen years in Stalinist prison camps, and after his release in 1956 remained officially outcast and professionally shunned. Out of the tumult of perestroika, however, his writings began to attract attention and he himself became a well-known and popular figure.Despite his highly controversial (and often contradictory) views about the meaning of Russian history, the nature of ethnicity, and the dynamics of interethnic relations, Gumilev now enjoys a degree of admiration and adulation matched by few if any other public intellectual figures in the former Soviet Union. He is freely compared to Albert Einstein and Karl Marx, and his works today sell millions of copies and have been adopted as official textbooks in Russian high schools. Universities and mountain peaks alike are named in his honor, and a statue of him adorns a prominent thoroughfare in a major city. Leading politicians, President Vladimir Putin very much included, are unstinting in their deep appreciation for his legacy, and one of the most important foreign-policy projects of the Russian government today is clearly inspired by his particular vision of how the Eurasian peoples formed a historical community.In The Gumilev Mystique, Mark Bassin presents an analysis of this remarkable phenomenon. He investigates the complex structure of Gumilev's theories, revealing how they reflected and helped shape a variety of academic as well as political and social discourses in the USSR, and he traces how his authority has grown yet greater across the former Soviet Union. The themes he highlights while untangling Gumilev's complicated web of influence are critical to understanding the political, intellectual, and ethno-national dynamics of Russian society from the age of Stalin to the present day.

    

    Andrei Kurkov, author of 'Death and the Penquin' (Penquin Publications), described it as a 'hologrammatic' novel, 'a series of beautifully crafted puzzles'.The book is set in Ukraine after a war with Russia. A man has lost his memory because the Russian military have used his brain to control military satellites. He regains conciousness in a mysterious hospital-like building and begins a pilgrimage to find his past. He journeys to Kaharlyk, a town where time has stood still following the testing of an experimental weapon.The book is an Odyssey as magical as Alice's tumble through the looking glass or Guilliver's first footprints on the sands of Lilliput. Kaharlyk has featured in Index on Censorship, The Guardian and many other publications.

    In 2014, Russia's annexation of Crimea and the subsequent violent conflict in Eastern Ukraineutterly transformed the nationalist discourse in Russia. This book provides an up-to-date survey of Russian nationalism as a political, social and intellectual phenomenon by leading Western and Russian experts in the field of nationalism studies. It includes case studies on migrantophobia; therelationship between nationalism and religion; nationalism in the media; nationalism and national identity in economic policy; nationalism in the strategy of the Putin regime as well as a survey-based study of nationalism in public opinion.

    

    Over the next four years—from the initial invasion and sweep of the German army through the western Soviet Union, through the siege of Leningrad and the battle for Stalingrad—between 1.6 million and 2 million Soviet citizens perished. A citizen’s daily ration at the height of the siege was a square of bread the size of two fingers.In Barbarossa, award-winning poet Jonathan Fink presents a collection of sonnets focusing on the individual lives of Leningrad citizens during the first year of the siege, from the initial German invasion of the Soviet Union to the formation of supply routes over the frozen Lake Ladoga. With precise language and breathless power, Fink illuminates the tension, complexity, and singularity of one of most colossal operations of World War II and the lives it transformed.

    Grigorieva is a uniquely individual voice, bucking the trends of modernist poetry to create her own distinctive and beguiling body of poetry.Her work draws on her own remarkable life to create startlingly arresting images and metaphors, full of beauty and power, from her series that emerged from her Arctic childhood, to the troubles that beset Ukraine. Her range of influences is wide, and Beethoven, Freud, Sylvia Plath and Byron all appear in her poems as well as more familiar Russian images.At the heart of Grigorieva's poetry is what she calls its 'musicality' - her firm belief in the power of rhyme and rhythm in creating a poetic experience. In this first major collection of her work in English, English poet John Farndon, working with Grigorieva and co-translator Olga Nakston, has recreated this musicality in English so that English readers might experience for the first time what makes her work so revered in her Russian homeland.

    Discovering that corrupt US cabinet officials and a Russian billionaire plan to steal the technology from Russian scientists about a green energy source, the FSB Agent asks his American friend for help, hoping that together they can prevent the theft and avoid the conflict it would cause.Thrust into the dangerous world of political intrigue, and not sure he will survive, the financial analyst must overcome his timid nature and find the courage to prevent the heist and the killing of the Russian president. If he and his friend fail, more than their lives will be lost; war between the two countries will erupt.

    The voice of a foreign female servant in the court of Tsar Nicholas II tells a personal story within the world-changing events of the first two decades of the 20th Century. Her relationships with some of the most controversial figures in Russian history take us from her small village to St. Petersburg, from the palace basement laundry to the rooms of Rasputin and the Dowager Empress, from a Siberian monastery to the forest insurgents who call themselves the "People's Army", from monarchy to civil war.

    If it is to reveal to the reader the truth about her pure soul, it is sure to become not as much a historical discovery as a religious one. The original diary from 1917 is a small book bound in fabric with a light blue cover sewn by Alexandra Fyodorovna herself and with a small cross embroidered in the corner. On the inside of the cover, written by the hand of Her Majesty, is a simple “Alix, 1917.”

    Author Jon K. Chang demonstrates that the Koreans of the Russian Far East were continually viewed as a problematic and maligned nationality (ethnic community) during the Tsarist and Soviet periods. He argues that Tsarist influences and the various forms of Russian nationalism(s) and worldviews blinded the Stalinist regime from seeing the Koreans as loyal Soviet citizens. Instead, these influences portrayed them as a colonizing element (labor force) with unknown and unknowable political loyalties.One of the major findings of Chang's research was the depth that the Soviet state was able to influence, penetrate, and control the Koreans through not only state propaganda and media, but also their selection and placement of Soviet Korean leaders, informants, and secret police within the populace. From his interviews with relatives of former Korean OGPU/NKVD (the predecessor to the KGB) officers, he learned of Korean NKVD who helped deport their own community. Given these facts, one would think the Koreans should have been considered a loyal Soviet people. But this was not the case, mainly due to how the Russian empire and, later, the Soviet state linked political loyalty with race or ethnic community.During his six years of fieldwork in Central Asia and Russia, Chang interviewed approximately sixty elderly Koreans who lived in the Russian Far East prior to their deportation in 1937. This oral history along with digital technology allowed him to piece together Soviet Korean life as well as their experiences working with and living beside Siberian natives, Chinese, Russians, and the Central Asian peoples. Chang also discovered that some two thousand Soviet Koreans remained on North Sakhalin island after the Korean deportation was carried out, working on Japanese-Soviet joint ventures extracting coal, gas, petroleum, timber, and other resources. This showed that Soviet socialism was not ideologically pure and was certainly swayed by Japanese capitalism and the monetary benefits of projects that paid the Stalinist regime hard currency for its resources.

    Decisions have taken place around the table. Arguments have been won or lost while dinner was being served. Kitchen And Socialism: A Culinary Guide Through Lenin’s Life aims to do just that and more. Part recipe book, part biography, this unique recipe book offers insight into the life of Vladimir Lenin, a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. Taking snippets from his life, this book is intended to spark conversation in this heated political climate and feed not only the mind, but the belly. Picture this; your friends and family have gathered for what would otherwise be remembered for hours spent away from their devices, but by gathering around, sharing a meal from this unique collection of Lenin-era foods and discussing what’s taking place in our current political climate, you as the host, have led your own revolution of sorts. You’ve created a safe and interesting environment to not only share a plate of delicious food, but to share in a hearty discussion. Why not enjoy a meal straight from a chapter entitled Socialism as a Starter and use that as the impetus for a discussion about the irony of two men, different eras, both touting idealistic ideas? Or from The Taste of Power chapter, you might find a snippet about what it means to be in full control of a country while eating a scrumptious meal. Who knows! The possibilities are endless when you mix family, friends, reverie, delicious food and a healthy dose of tongue and cheek fun. Gather around, invite your friends, and let the conversation begin!

    Investigating the origins and development of Marcuse's dialectical approach vis-a-vis Hegel, Marx, Fourier, Heidegger, and Freud as well as the central figures of the Frankfurt School Horkheimer, Adorno, Neumann, Fromm, and Benjamin Sethness Castro chronicles the radical philosopher's lifelong activism in favor of anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, and anti-authoritarianism together with Marcuse's defiant revindication of global libertarian-socialist revolution as the precondition for the realization of reason, freedom, and human happiness. Beyond examining Marcuse's revolutionary life and contributions, moreover, the author contemplates the philosopher's relevance to contemporary struggle, especially with regard to ecology, feminism, anarchism, and the general cause of worldwide social transformation."