They thought they had found a safe haven in the green hills of England. They were wrong. One by one, the Russian oligarchs, dissidents, and gangsters who fled to Britain after Vladimir Putin came to power dropped dead in strange or suspicious circumstances. One by one, their British lawyers and fixers met similarly grisly ends. Yet, one by one, the British authorities shut down every investigation -- and carried on courting the Kremlin. The spies in the riverside headquarters of MI6 looked on with horror as the scope of the Kremlin's global killing campaign became all too clear. And, across the Atlantic, American intelligence officials watched with mounting alarm as the bodies piled up, concerned that the tide of death could spread to the United States. Those fears intensified when a one-time Kremlin henchman was found bludgeoned to death in a Washington, D.C. penthouse. But it wasn't until Putin's assassins unleashed a deadly chemical weapon on the streets of Britain, endangering hundreds of members of the public in a failed attempt to slay the double agent Sergei Skripal, that Western governments were finally forced to admit that the killing had spun out of control. Unflinchingly documenting the growing web of death on British and American soil, Heidi Blake bravely exposes the Kremlin's assassination campaign as part of Putin's ruthless pursuit of global dominance -- and reveals why Western governments have failed to stop the bloodshed. The unforgettable story that emerges whisks us from London's high-end night clubs to Miami's million-dollar hideouts ultimately renders a bone-chilling portrait of money, betrayal, and murder, written with the pace and propulsive power of a thriller. Based on a vast trove of unpublished documents, bags of discarded police evidence, and interviews with hundreds of insiders, this heart-stopping international investigation uncovers one of the most important -- and terrifying -- geopolitical stories of our time.

    Born of a German father and a Russian mother in Baku in 1895, he moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. A member of the angry and deluded generation who found new, radical faiths after their experiences on the battlefields of the First World War, Sorge became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy.Like many great spies, Sorge was an effortless seducer, combining charm with ruthless manipulation. He did not have to go undercover to find out closely guarded state secrets - his victims willingly shared them. As a foreign correspondent, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society in the years leading up to and including the Second World War. His intelligence regarding Operation Barbarossa and Japanese intentions not to invade Siberia in 1941 proved pivotal to the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war.Never before has Sorge's story been told from the Russian side as well as the German and Japanese. Owen Matthews takes a sweeping historical perspective and draws on a wealth of declassified Soviet archives - along with testimonies from those who knew and worked with Sorge - to rescue the riveting story of the man described by Ian Fleming as 'the most formidable spy in history'.

    Election interference. Armed invasions. International treaties thrown into chaos. Secret military buildups. Hackers and viruses. Weapons deployed in space. China and Russia (and Iran and North Korea) spark news stories here by carrying out bold acts of aggression and violating international laws and norms. Isn’t this just bad actors acting badly?That kind of thinking is outdated and dangerous. Emboldened by their successes, these countries are, in fact, waging a brazen, global war on the US and the West. This is a new Cold War, which will not be won by those who fail to realize they are fighting it. The enemies of the West understand that while they are unlikely to win a shooting war, they have another path to victory. And what we see as our greatest strengths—open societies, military innovation, dominance of technology on Earth and in space, longstanding leadership in global institutions—these countries are undermining or turning into weaknesses.In The Shadow War, CNN anchor and chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto provides us with a revealing and at times disturbing guide to this new international conflict. This Shadow War is already the greatest threat to America’s national security, even though most Americans know little or nothing about it. With on-the-ground reporting from Ukraine to the South China Sea, from a sub under the Arctic to unprecedented access to America’s Space Command, Sciutto draws on his deep knowledge, high-level contacts, and personal experience as a journalist and diplomat to paint the most comprehensive and vivid picture of a nation targeted by a new and disturbing brand of warfare.Thankfully, America is adapting and fighting back. In The Shadow War, Sciutto introduces readers to the dizzying array of soldiers, sailors, submariners and their commanders, space engineers, computer scientists, civilians, and senior intelligence officials who are on the front lines of this new kind of forever war. Intensive and disturbing, this invaluable and important work opens our eyes and makes clear that the war of the future is already here.

    From renowned foreign policy expert Angela Stent comes a must-read dissection of present-day Russian motives on the global stage.How did Russia manage to emerge resurgent on the world stage and play a weak hand so effectively? Is it because Putin is a brilliant strategist? Or has Russia stepped into a vacuum created by the West’s distraction with its own domestic problems and US ambivalence about whether it still wants to act as a superpower? PUTIN’S WORLD examines the country’s turbulent past, how it has influenced Putin, the Russians’ understanding of their position on the global stage and their future ambitions — and their conviction that the West has tried to deny them a seat at the table of great powers since the USSR collapsed.This book looks at Russia’s key relationships — its downward spiral with the United States, Europe, and NATO; its ties to China, Japan, the Middle East; and with its neighbors, particularly the fraught relationship with Ukraine. PUTIN’S WORLD will help Americans understand how and why the post-Cold War era has given way to a new, more dangerous world, one in which Russia poses a challenge to the United States in every corner of the globe — and one in which Russia has become a toxic and divisive subject in US politics.

    Efforts to gain access to the site of catastrophic radiation damage were denied, and the residents of Chernobyl were given no answers as their lives hung in the balance. Drawing on a decade of archival research and on-the-ground interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, Kate Brown unveils the full breadth of the devastation and the whitewash that followed. Her findings make clear the irreversible impact of man-made radioactivity on every living thing; and hauntingly, they force us to confront the untold legacy of decades of weapons-testing and other catastrophic nuclear incidents.

    In this surreal atmosphere created to disorient us and undermine our sense of truth, we’ve lost not only our grip on peace and democracy — but our very notion of what those words even mean.Peter Pomerantsev takes us to the front lines of the disinformation age, where he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, “behavioral change” salesmen, Jihadi fanboys, Identitarians, truth cops, and many others. Forty years after his dissident parents were pursued by the KGB, Pomerantsev finds the Kremlin re-emerging as a great propaganda power. His research takes him back to Russia — but the answers he finds there are not what he expected.Blending reportage, family history, and intellectual adventure, This Is Not Propaganda explores how we can reimagine our politics and ourselves when reality seems to be coming apart.

    ‘It didn’t take long for the citizens of Moscow to realize that if you had no choice but to stand in line, then Pushkin was the man to stand next to.’A new story by the New York Times best-selling novelist Amor Towles, featured in Granta 148: Summer Fiction.

    The battling powers had already suffered casualties on a scale previously unimaginable. On both the Western and Eastern fronts elaborate war plans lay in ruins and had been discarded in favour of desperate improvisation. In the West this resulted in the remorseless world of the trenches; in the East all eyes were focused on the old, beleaguered Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemysl.The great siege that unfolded at Przemysl was the longest of the whole war. In the defence of the fortress and the struggle to relieve it Austria-Hungary suffered some 800,000 casualties. Almost unknown in the West, this was one of the great turning points of the conflict. If the Russians had broken through they could have invaded Central Europe, but by the time the fortress fell their strength was so sapped they could go no further.Alexander Watson, prize-winning author of Ring of Steel, has written one of the great epics of the First World War. Comparable to Stalingrad in 1942-3, Przemysl shaped the course of Europe's future. Neither Russians nor Austro-Hungarians ever recovered from their disasters. Using a huge range of sources, Watson brilliantly recreates a world of long-gone empires, broken armies and a cut-off community sliding into chaos. The siege was central to the war itself, but also a chilling harbinger of what would engulf the entire region in the coming decades, as nationalism, anti-semitism and an exterminatory fury took hold.

    But Life and Fate was seized by the KGB. When it emerged posthumously, decades later, it was recognized as the War and Peace of the twentieth century. Always at the epicenter of events, Grossman (1905–1964) was among the first to describe the Holocaust and the Ukrainian famine. His 1944 article “The Hell of Treblinka” became evidence at Nuremberg. Grossman’s powerful anti-totalitarian works liken the Nazis’ crimes against humanity with those of Stalin. His compassionate prose has the everlasting quality of great art. Because Grossman’s major works appeared after much delay we are only now able to examine them properly. Alexandra Popoff’s authoritative biography illuminates Grossman’s life and legacy.

    Petersburg). An imbalance of power and the prevalence of antisemitism in her homeland led her father to steal Shalmiyev away, emigrating to America, abandoning her estranged mother, Elena. At age eleven, Shalmiyev found herself on a plane headed west, motherless and terrified of the new world unfolding before her.Now a mother herself, in Mother Winter Shalmiyev depicts in urgent vignettes her emotional journeys as an immigrant, an artist, and a woman raised without her mother. She tells of her early days in St. Petersburg, a land unkind to women, wayward or otherwise; her tumultuous pit-stop in Italy as a refugee on her way to America; the life she built for herself in the Pacific Northwest, raising two children of her own; and ultimately, her cathartic voyage back to Russia as an adult, where she searched endlessly for the alcoholic mother she never knew. Braided into her physical journey is a metaphorical exploration of the many surrogate mothers Shalmiyev sought out in place of her own—whether in books, art, lovers, or other lost souls banded together by their misfortunes.Mother Winter is the story of Shalmiyev’s years of travel, searching, and forging meaningful connection with the worlds she occupies—the result is a searing observation of the human heart and psyche’s many shades across time and culture. As critically acclaimed author Michelle Tea says, “with sparse, poetic language Shalmiyev builds a personal history that is fractured and raw; a brilliant, lovely ache.”"Vividly awesome and truly great.” —Eileen Myles"I love this gorgeous, gutting, unforgettable book.”—Leni Zumas“A rich tapestry of autobiography and meditations on feminism, motherhood, art, and culture, this book is as intellectually satisfying as it is artistically profound. A sharply intelligent, lyrically provocative memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

    In Retreat from Moscow, a bold, gripping account of one of the seminal moments of World War II, David Stahel argues that instead it was its first strategic success in the East. The Soviet counteroffensive was in fact a Pyrrhic victory. Despite being pushed back from Moscow, the Wehrmacht lost far fewer men, frustrated its enemy's strategy, and emerged in the spring unbroken and poised to recapture the initiative.Hitler's strategic plan called for holding important Russian industrial cities, and the German army succeeded. The Soviets as of January 1942 aimed for nothing less than the destruction of Army Group Center, yet not a single German unit was ever destroyed. Lacking the professionalism, training, and experience of the Wehrmacht, the Red Army's offensive attempting to break German lines in countless head-on assaults led to far more tactical defeats than victories.Using accounts from journals, memoirs, and wartime correspondence, Stahel takes us directly into the Wolf's Lair to reveal a German command at war with itself as generals on the ground fought to maintain order and save their troops in the face of Hitler's capricious, increasingly irrational directives. Excerpts from soldiers' diaries and letters home paint a rich portrait of life and death on the front, where the men of the Ostheer battled frostbite nearly as deadly as Soviet artillery. With this latest installment of his pathbreaking series on the Eastern Front, David Stahel completes a military history of the highest order

    From the time of the Tsars to the waning days of Communist regime, Russian leaders tried to control the flow of ideas by controlling its citizens' movements. They believed strict limits on travel combined with censorship was the best way to escape the influence of subversive Western ideologies. Yet Russians continued to emigrate westward, both to seek new opportunities and to flee political crises at home.Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Russians' presence in Western countries - particularly the United States - has been for the Kremlin both the biggest threat and the biggest opportunity. It sought for years to use the Russian emigre community to achieve Russia's goals - espionage to be sure, but also to influence policies and public opinion. Russia's exiles are a potent mix of the very rich and the very driven, some deeply hostile to their homeland and others deeply patriotic. Russia, a vast, insular nation, depends on its emigres - but it cannot always count on them.Celebrated Moscow-based journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan masterfully look at the complex, ever-shifting role of Russian émigrés from the October Revolution to present day. From comely secret agents to tragically doomed dissidents, the story of Russian émigrés is at times thrilling, at times touching, and always full of intrigue. But their influence and importance is an invaluable angle through which to understand Russia in the modern world.The Compatriots provides an intriguing and thought provoking gripping history of Russian score settling around the globe.©2019 Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan (P)2019 Hachette Audio

    Brent Bozell III is one of the most outspoken and effective national leaders in the conservative movement today. As Founder and President of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America, and is uniquely positioned to offer this blazing critique of bias of all types in the national media and how it damages American democracy. By analyzing the coverage of the rise of Donald Trump and his presidency, Bozell explains all the different types of bias that can occur and exposes the insidious effects. ENEMIES LIST will also examine the campaigns for the 2018 midterms – and the results – which will provide the most comprehensive, detailed, and explosive analysis to date of how the media stokes divisiveness in American politics.

    Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna—known to her family and friends simply as “Mashka”—grew into an empathetic, down-to-earth girl, unaffected by her imperial status. Often overshadowed by her two older sisters, Olga and Tatiana, and later, her brother Alexei and younger sister Anastasia, Maria ultimately proved to have a uniquely strong and solid personality. In Maria Romanov: Third Daughter of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters, 1908–1918, by translator and researcher Helen Azar with George Hawkins, Mashka’s voice is heard again through her intimate writings, presented for the first time in English. The Grand Duchess was much more than a pretty princess wearing white dresses in hundreds of faded sepia photographs; Maria’s surviving diaries and letters offer a fascinating insight into the private life of a loving family—from festivals and faith, to Rasputin and the coming Revolution; it is clear why this middle child ultimately became a pillar of strength and hope for them all. Maria’s gentle character belied her incredible courage, which emerged in the darkest hours of her brief life. “The incarnation of modesty elevated by suffering,” as Maria was described during the last weeks of her life, she was able to maintain her kindness and optimism, even in the midst of violence and degradation. On a stuffy summer night in 1918, only a few weeks after of her nineteenth birthday, Maria was murdered along with the rest of her family in a cellar of a house chosen for this “special purpose.” Two sets of charred remains, confirmed to be Maria’s and her brother Alexei’s, were not discovered until almost ninety years later, separately from those of the other victims of the massacre. As the author relates, it is still unknown if these remains will ever be allowed to be laid to rest.

    Still, she sees herself as a typical Soviet citizen: a shy, quiet, obedient, barely-there girl, dissolving into the past, her country's and her own. Determined to break into her new existence, Sonya tries out a shining new persona, but most of her efforts backfire. One mysterious boy notices her, wants to hear her stories, makes her feel like she is the shiniest part of his world. Everything else might as well fade away--her distant and hungry-for-gossip classmates, the equally shy Jewish friend who doesn't always seem to understand her, the growing tension with her fiercely Jewish Mama, the rumors of an impending communist coup. More and more, Sonya spends time with her "rescuer" at a construction site she calls "castle." So what if he uses an occasional anti-Semitic slur?In the shadow of a crane, among metal pipes and concrete blocks, she finds it easy, falling, falling in love with a muddy-eyed boy she knows so little about. As for being Jewish in a country where the Republics are supposed to be "sisters" and the People brothers," what does one's nationality have to do with anything?All the while, Sonya's mama is falling in love also: she is falling in love with shiny America, a land where where being different seems to be celebrated, and not everyone is so very Russian and snow-white. The place sounds amazing, but so far away. Will Sonya ever find her way there?

    While other books describe current Russian practice, Oscar Jonsson provides the long view to show how Russian military strategic thinking has developed from the Bolshevik Revolution to the present. He closely examines Russian primary sources including security doctrines and the writings and statements of Russian military theorists and political elites. What Jonsson reveals is that Russia's conception of the very nature of war is now changing, as Russian elites see information warfare and political subversion as the most important ways to conduct contemporary war. Since information warfare and political subversion are below the traditional threshold of armed violence, this has blurred the boundaries between war and peace. Jonsson also finds that Russian leaders have, particularly since 2011-12, considered themselves to be at war with the United States and its allies, albeit with non-violent means. This book provides much needed context and analysis to be able to understand recent Russian interventions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, how to deter Russia on the eastern borders of NATO, and how the West must also learn to avoid inadvertent escalation.

    Proceeding chronologically, this book shows how Ukraine's separation from Russia in 1991, at the time called a 'civilized divorce', led to what many are now calling 'a new Cold War'. He argues that the conflict has worsened because of three underlying factors - the security dilemma, the impact of democratization on geopolitics, and the incompatible goals of a post-Cold War Europe. Rather than a peaceful situation that was squandered, D'Anieri argues that these were deep-seated pre-existing disagreements that could not be bridged, with concerning implications for the resolution of the Ukraine conflict. The book also shows how this war fits into broader patterns of contemporary international conflict and should therefore appeal to researchers working on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia's relations with the West, and conflict and geopolitics more generally.

    Svitlana Khristenko, a patriotic Ukrainian with dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship, chooses to live in Moscow, despite her conflicting loyalties. The never-ending political tensions between Svitlana's two countries have created serious divisions in Moscow’s society with clear labels being assigned to those who choose a side. Despite her strong political views, all Svitlana wants is to adjust to the changes caused by a topsy-turvy Russian economy, while providing her daughter a good life. Drawing from vivid post-Soviet life, Ajay Kamalakaran weaves a saga of satire and intrigue —- a unique look at contemporary Russian society.

    This is life itself’ Howard Jacobson’No other writer wrote so often, or so imaginatively, about the actual moment of dying’ Orlando FigesTolstoy’s stories contain many of the most acutely observed moments in his monumental body of work. This new selection of his shorter works, sensitively translated by the award-winning Boris Dralyuk, showcases the peerless economy with which Tolstoy could render the passions and conflicts of a life.These are works that take us from a self-interested judge’s agonising deathbed to the bristling social world of horses in a stable yard, from the joyful vanity of youth to the painful doubts of sickness and old age. With unwavering precision, Tolstoy’s eye brings clarity and richness to the simplest materials.

    He spent decades writing about just four of the most important periods, or nodes." This is the first time that the monumental March 1917--the third node--has been translated into English. It tells the story of the Russian Revolution itself, during which the Imperial government melts in the face of the mob, and the giants of the opposition also prove incapable of controlling the course of events.The action of Book 2 (of four) of March 1917 is set during March 13-15, 1917, the Russian Revolution's turbulent second week. The revolution has already won inside the capital, Petrograd. News of the revolution flashes across all Russia through the telegraph system of the Ministry of Roads and Railways. But this is wartime, and the real power is with the army. At Emperor Nikolai II's order, the Supreme Command sends troops to suppress the revolution in Petrograd. Meanwhile, victory speeches ring out at Petrograd's Tauride Palace. Inside, two parallel power structures emerge: the Provisional Government and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which sends out its famous Order No. 1, presaging the destruction of the army. The troops sent to suppress the Petrograd revolution are halted by the army's own top commanders. The Emperor is detained and abdicates, and his ministers are jailed and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. This sweeping, historical novel is a must-read for Solzhenitsyn's many fans, as well as those interested in twentieth-century history, Russian history and literature, and military history.

    In the first publication to examine the relationship between Britain and Russia using artworks drawn exclusively from the Royal Collection, Russia: Art, Royalty and the Romanovs interweaves the familial, political, diplomatic, and artistic stories of these two nations   over more than four hundred years. From initial contacts in the mid-sixteenth century, through alliances, marriages, and two World Wars, up to the current reign, this richly illustrated book gives readers a glimpse into the public and personal dealings of these two fascinating dynasties. With new research on previously unpublished works, including Imperial porcelain, arms, costume, insignia, and photographs, together with paintings by both Russian artists and British artists working in Russia, this will be the first time that the uniquely interlinked narrative of the art connecting the two royal families has been presented in such stunning, lavishly illustrated detail.

    As a young man, Sholokhov’s epic novel, Quiet Don, became an unprecedented overnight success.Stalin’s Scribe is the first biography of a man who was once one of the Soviet Union’s most prominent political figures.  Thanks to the opening of Russia’s archives, Brian Boeck discovers that Sholokhov’s official Soviet biography is actually a tangled web of legends, half-truths, and contradictions. Boeck examines the complex connection between an author and a dictator, revealing how a Stalinist courtier became an ideological acrobat and consummate politician in order to stay in favor and remain relevant after the dictator’s death.Stalin's Scribe is remarkable biography that both reinforces and clashes with our understanding of the Soviet system. It reveals a Sholokhov who is bold, uncompromising, and sympathetic—and reconciles him with the vindictive and mean-spirited man described in so many accounts of late Soviet history.Shockingly, at the height of the terror, which claimed over a million lives, Sholokhov became a member of the most minuscule subset of the Soviet Union’s population—the handful of individuals whom Stalin personally intervened to save.

    It includes reflections on Tarkovsky's work from fellow artists and writers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Ingmar Bergman, for whom Tarkovsky was "the greatest, the one who invented a new language". Extracts from Tarkovsky's own writings and diaries offer a wealth of insights into his poetic and philosophical views on cinematography, which he described as "sculpting in time". The book also reproduces many personal Polaroid photographs that confirm the extraordinary poetic vision of a great artist who died aged only 54, but who remains a potent influence on artists and filmmakers today.

    By turns vilified and feted by Stalin during the Great Purge, Shostakovich twice came close to the whirlwind of political repression and he remained under political surveillance all his life, despite the many privileges and awards heaped upon him in old age. Yet Shostakovich had a remarkable ability to work with, rather than against, prevailing ideological demands, and it was this quality that ensured both his survival and his posterity.Pauline Fairclough’s absorbing new biography offers a vivid portrait that goes well beyond the habitual clichés of repression and suffering. Featuring quotations from previously unpublished letters as well as rarely-seen photographs, Fairclough provides a fresh insight into the music and life of a composer whose legacy, above all, was to have written some of the greatest and most cherished music of the last century.

    Soviet atheism is the great lost subject of the 20th century. Pope Pius XI led a "crusade of prayer" against it; George Orwell satirized it in Animal Farm; the Nazis called it a Jewish plot; Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Stalin to abandon it: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn blamed it for Russia's catastrophes; and Ronald Reagan put it at the core of his "Evil Empire" speech. And yet, because the Soviet Union promoted atheism almost entirely for domestic consumption, decades' worth of arcane and astonishing anti-religious imagery remains unknown in the West.Drawing on the early Soviet atheist magazines Godless and Godless at the Machine, and postwar posters by Communist Party publishers, author Roland Elliott Brown presents an unsettling tour of atheist ideology in the USSR. Here are uncanny, imaginative and downright blasphemous visions from the very guts of the Soviet atheist apparatus: sinister priests rub shoulders with cross-bearing colonial torturers, greedy mullahs, a cyclopean Jehovah and a crypto-fascist Jesus; Russian cosmonauts mock God from space while vigilant border guards nab American Bible smugglers. Godless Utopia is the occult grimoire of a lost socialist anti-theology.

    227. Based on the actual events on the Eastern Front of World War II, this short story is a rare account of a Soviet penal company, told from a perspective of a real person, the military prosecutor, Jakov Antonovich Krivenkov, and a fictional character, an ordinary Russian woman, Matryona, both caught in the horror of an impossible situation. 427,910 Soviet men shed their blood in defending their motherland in penal military units. They were to stop the enemy regardless of cost. Eighty percent of them did not survive. This is the story of thirteen of them.

    It takes those elements of the writer's life that were forged into something new during the disruption and breakup of the Soviet Union and its aftermath, to create a different kind of memoir based on reflections, memory, and a narration that starts in England and leads the reader on a journey through Russia from the White Sea to the Caucasus.It tells two stories, one that begins in suburban England in the 70s, and one that traces the course of a love affair in Moscow twenty years later. They are narrated during the course of a journey through Russia at the time of the commemorations for the hundred-year anniversary of the revolution in 2017.The book comes to terms with what has been described as the central lacuna in twentieth-century thought - the tacit support for communism by Western intellectuals. It describes the author's father's support of Russia and his activism on behalf of nuclear disarmament in the 1970s, and contrasts this with his grandmother's stark warnings of the evils of socialism, and his own ambiguous position growing up in the suburbs outside London, a position that was for many years dominated, in spirit, by a huge military map of the Soviet Union tacked to his bedroom wall.In the first section of the book the author leaves England to visit his family in Russia. They go on a camping trip to the White Sea, driving north on the Archangel Road to the old labour camp on the island of Solovki.The camping holiday comes to an end in the breakfast bar of a chalet-hotel. And so begins an extended journey alone. Morris drives back to Moscow, to the flat where he once lived and which is now empty but still full of memories. He tells the story of the August coup of 1991 and the October disturbances two years later, of the tanks on the streets, the bombardment of the Russian parliament building, and the partisan welcome he received during the nights of troubles from those people who felt they were fighting against the reactionary forces of repression.From Moscow he takes a train south to the Caucasus. He reflects on the emotional end of his own marriage and on the death of his father and grandmother. Morris travels to Astrakhan, the failed final destination of Hitler's sixth army who were desperate to reach the oil fields. From Astrakhan he takes a bus to Elbrus, the highest peak in the Caucasus and then continues on to Grozny, a destroyed city, now rebuilt but still festering from its wounds. The final stage in the journey takes him to Crimea, the scene of his own love-story, and the destination over years of countless Russian and Soviet lovers and would-be lovers, looking for happiness in the coves and dark-sand beaches along the Black Sea coast.Highly informed with a unique perspective, Black Tea chronicles the changing face of Russia over his thirty years there. A reflection and a travelogue, Steve Morris hauntingly explores love and identity, commitment and family.

    In The Anna Karenina Fix, Groskop mines these and other works, as well as the lives of their celebrated creators and her own experiences as a student of Russian, to answer the question “How should you live your life?” or at least be less miserable. This is a charming and fiercely intelligent book, a love letter to Russian literature.

    Commissioned by Joseph Stalin in 1941 to justify state terror in the sixteenth century and in the twentieth, the film's politics, style, and epic scope aroused controversy even before it was released. In This Thing of Darkness, Joan Neuberger offers a sweeping account of the conception, making, and reception of Ivan the Terrible that weaves together Eisenstein's expansive thinking and experimental practice with a groundbreaking new view of artistic production under Stalin. Drawing on Eisenstein's unpublished production notebooks, diaries, and manuscripts, Neuberger's riveting narrative chronicles Eisenstein's personal, creative, and political challenges and reveals the ways cinematic invention, artistic theory, political critique, and historical and psychological analysis went hand in hand in this famously complex film.Neuberger's bold arguments and daring insights into every aspect of Eisenstein's work during this period, together with her ability to lucidly connect his wide-ranging late theory with his work on Ivan, show the director exploiting the institutions of Soviet artistic production not only to expose the cruelties of Stalin and his circle but to challenge the fundamental principles of Soviet ideology itself. Ivan the Terrible, she argues, shows us one of the world's greatest filmmakers and one of the 20th century's greatest artists observing the world around him and experimenting with every element of film art to explore the psychology of political ambition, uncover the history of recurring cycles of violence and lay bare the tragedy of absolute power.

    Ivan was the first ruler in Russian history to use mass terror as a political instrument. However, Ivan’s actions cannot be dismissed by attributing the behavior to insanity. Ivan interacted with Muscovite society as both he and Muscovy changed. This interaction needs to be understood in order properly to analyze his motives, achievements, and failures.Ivan the Terrible: Free to Reward and Free to Punish provides an up-to-date comprehensive analysis of all aspects of Ivan’s reign. It presents a new interpretation not only of Ivan’s behavior and ideology, but also of Muscovite social and economic history. Charles Halperin shatters the myths surrounding Ivan and reveals a complex ruler who had much in common with his European contemporaries, including Henry the Eighth.

    Every day, in cities around the world, performances of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty draw large audiences to theatres and inspire newgenerations of dancers, as does The Nutcracker during the winter holidays. These are his best-known works, but others - Don Quixote, La Bayad�re - have also become popular, even canonical components of the classical repertoire, and together they have shaped the defining style of twentieth-centuryballet. The first biography in English of this monumental figure of ballet history, Marius Petipa: The Emperor's Ballet Master covers the choreographer's life and work in full within the context of remarkable historical and political surroundings.Over the course of ten well-researched chapters, Nadine Meisner explores Marius Petipa's life and legacy: the artist's arrival in Russia from his native France, the socio-political tensions and revolution he experienced, his popularity on the Russian imperial stage, his collaborations with otherchoreographers and composers (most famously Tchaikovsky), and the conditions under which he worked, in close proximity to the imperial court. Meisner presents a thrilling and exhaustive narrative not only of Petipa's life but of the cultural development of ballet across the 19th and early 20thcenturies. The book also extends beyond Petipa's narrative with insightful analyses of the evolution of ballet technique, theatre genres, and the rise of male dancers.Richly illustrated with archival photographs, this book unearths original material from Petipa's 63 years in Russia, much of it never published in English before. As Meisner demonstrates, the choreographer laid the foundations for Soviet ballet and for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the expatriatecompany which exercised such an enormous influence on ballet in the West, including the Royal Ballet and Balanchine's New York City Ballet. After Petipa, Western ballet would never be the same.

    Plots against Russia reveals through dramatic and exciting storytelling that conspiracy and melodrama are entirely equal-opportunity in modern Russia, manifesting themselves among both pro-Putin elites and his political opposition. As Borenstein shows, this paranoid fantasy until recently characterized only the marginal and the irrelevant. Now, through its embodiment in pop culture, the expressions of a conspiratorial worldview are seen everywhere. Plots against Russia is an important contribution to the fields of Russian literary and cultural studies from one of its preeminent voices.

    After being released, he was forced to spend an additional 5 years in the timber regions of central Siberia as the Russian government would not allow him to leave the country, or live in any major city. After the death of Stalin, Thomas was finally released. It took him an additional 5 years working as a commercial artist in Moscow before he finally succeeded in extricating himself and his mother from the U.S.S.R in 1960. After leaving Russia, Tom lived in Italy where he married and worked on diverse artistic projects. Tom and his wife returned to the United States in 1963. Thomas was a native of Buffalo, New York and the only son of Joseph and Anna Sgovio. His father Joseph was a political idealist and believed in the early ideological dream of communism fighting for workers rights in early America. After years of protests and being arrested in Buffalo, New York, Joseph was deported from the USA in early 1933 and chose to live in what he thought was “The Dream” in the Soviet Union. When Thomas graduated from Buffalo Technical High School in 1935, he went to Russia, with his mother and sister, to continue his art education, and join his father. Thomas’ studies at the Moscow Vsyekokhudojhnik Gallery of Fine Arts were abruptly ended in 1938 when he was arrested by the Soviet Secret Police and sent to the Gulag. As an artist, Thomas Sgovio created a series of drawings and paintings, which reside in the Hoover Archives at Stanford University, based on memories of his life as a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag. His love for his native home of Buffalo, New York which he often despaired of ever seeing again, is reflected in his renderings of Buffalo landmarks, which were started immediately after his return. Tom has been recognized with many awards in Western New York for his beautiful artwork. He also gave countless seminars and displayed his paintings, all drawn from memory, depicting the repression that he and millions of others suffered in the Soviet Union. This was his way of spreading the message of Freedom and Democracy which he so dearly loved and treasured.

    The book covers the design and testing of the prototypes in both configurations, the production entry of the basic Su-27 single-seat fighter and the Su-27UB two-seat combat trainer together with the efforts of Sukhoi to keep them up to date with mid-life upgrades to Generation 4++' (Su-35S) level. The operational histories of Su-27 versions including the Su-30/Su-34/Su-35 are also described.When the Soviet Navy decided to bolster its fleet with carriers optimized for conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) aircraft, Sukhoi responded by developing the Su-27K, which later entered service as the Su-33, Russia's first operational CTOL shipboard fighter. These naval variants are included in the book as is a chapter describing the story of how China purchased license manufacturing rights for the Su-27 and went on to develop its own versions with indigenous avionics and weapons, including the basic J-11 fighter and the J-15 Flying Shark--a clone of the Su-33.The post-Soviet republics included, the Su-27/Su-30/Su-34/Su-35 family has seen service with nearly 20 nations, including places as far apart as Vietnam, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Angola, India and Venezuela.The book describes in depth the development and operational career of the Su-27 family, including mid-life upgrades and the latest variants, and features detailed fleet lists. Richly illustrated with color photographs, line drawings and color profiles of the various color schemes carried by the type, this is the definitive work on a truly outstanding aircraft.

    This volume is the first comprehensive re-assessment of its causes, course and consequences in English for over sixty years. It draws together a new generation of leading historians from North America, Japan, Europe, Russia and Central Asia, working with Russian archival sources, oral narratives, poetry and song in Kazakh and Kyrgyz. These illuminate in unprecedented detail the origins and causes of the revolt, and the immense human suffering which it entailed. They also situate the revolt in a global perspective as part of a chain of rebellions and disturbances that shook the world's empires, as they crumbled under the pressures of total war.

    But each has seen relations get worse by the time he left office. Now the two countries are facing off in a virtual war being fought without clear goals or boundaries.Why? Many say it is because Washington has been slow to wake up to Russian efforts to destroy democracy in America and the world.But a former head of Russia analysis at the CIA says that this misunderstands the problem. George Beebe argues that new game-changing technologies, disappearing rules of the game, and distorted perceptions on both sides are combining to lock Washington and Moscow into an escalatory spiral that they do not recognize. All the pieces are in place for a World War I-type tragedy that could be triggered by a small, unpredictable event. The Russia Trap shows that anticipating this danger is the most important step in preventing it.

    It was the uniform world of material goods that united diverse soldiers in the ranks of the Red Army and was often all that separated civilians from soldiers"--

    By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism.   Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia’s economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.

    seized the opportunity to begin strategic faculty and student exchanges with universities inside the Soviet Union. They could not have foreseen the doors that would open next. During a 1990 visit to Russia, John Bernbaum and his colleagues received a surprising invitation from a Russian government official: come help build a faith-based university in Moscow. Thus, after seventy years of fierce religious persecution under communism, the Russian-American Christian University (RACU) was born. In Opening the Red Door, Bernbaum presents an insider's account of the rise and fall of a Russian-American partnership. As a founder and later president of RACU, Bernbaum offers a ground-level perspective on Russia's post-communist transition and the construction of a cultural-educational bridge between the two superpowers. He describes how American RACU staff worked to understand Russian history and culture--including the nation's rich spiritual heritage--so they could support their new Russian friends in rebuilding an educational system and a society. He documents the story of the first private Christian liberal arts university to be accredited in Russia's history, from its first steps, through its major successes, to its facing increasing opposition during the Putin era. Opening the Red Door offers unique insight not only into Russian culture and post-Cold War history but also traces the dynamics within international educational institutions and partnerships. When he first traveled to Russia, Bernbaum writes, he thought of it as a nation of mystery. But after more than twenty-five years of work there, he believes Russia can be understood. His journey of understanding will prove instructive to educators, administrators, students, missionaries, and anyone interested in international relations.

    This readable synthesis, covering early coexistence in the seventeenth century to the present day, seeks to encourage new ways of thinking about how the modern world developed.Shoshana Keller focuses on the five major Stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Cultural and social history are interwoven with the military narrative to provide a sense of the people, their religion, and their practices - all of which were severely tested under Stalin.The text includes a glossary as well as images and maps that help to highlight 500 years of changes, bringing Central Asia into the general narrative of Russian and world history and introducing a fresh perspective on colonialism and modernity.

    Tsygankov challenges the dominant view that US-Russia relations have entered a new Cold War phase. Russia's US strategy, he argues, can only be understood in the context of a changing international order. While America strives to preserve its global dominance, Russia--the weaker power--exploits its asymmetric capabilities and relations with non-Western allies to defend and promote its interests, and to avoid yielding to US pressures. Focusing on key areas of conflict and mutual convergence--from European security to China and the Middle East, as well as cyber, nuclear, and energy issues--Tsygankov paints a nuanced and unsentimental picture of two countries whose ties are likely to remain marked by suspicion and conflict for years to come.

    

    The North Atlantic played a key role in the two world wars and the Cold War as the strategic link between the United States and Europe that allowed reinforcements and supplies to flow to embattled allies. Nordenman shows that while a conflict in Europe has never been won in the North Atlantic it surely has been lost there. However the North Atlantic fell away from attention as the Cold War ended the Russian navy fell into decay and the United States and its allies turned to counter-terrorism and expeditionary operations in the far corners of the earth.With Vladimir Putin's Russia threatening the peace in Europe since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 the North Atlantic and other maritime domains around Europe are once again coming into focus. But this battle will be different Nordenman shows due to an overstretched US Navy disruptive technologies a NATO that woke up to the Russian challenge while essentially unprepared for high-end warfighting in the maritime domain and a Russia that commands a far smaller but more sophisticated navy equipped with long-range cruise missiles that have already been used in operations in Syria. Nordenman concludes that the new contest in the North Atlantic will not be about keeping the sea lanes open or facing down a Russian anti-shipping campaign in the vast expanses of the ocean. Instead the Russian threat comes from submarines operating in the far North Atlantic where they can strike at targets across Europe using long-range cruise missiles.Nordenman's book describes the evolution of warfare in the North Atlantic in the 20th century and points to the enduring strategic factors and dynamics in that maritime domain that must be kept in mind as the United States and NATO devises new strategies for defense and deterrence in the North Atlantic. He also highlights how the strategic and operational environment has changed since the end of the Cold War with the coming of new technologies new players in the North Atlantic and the new Russian way of war in the maritime domain. He concludes with a set of recommendations for the United States and its NATO allies on how to build an effective approach to ensuring that the North Atlantic remains an open bridge between North America and Europe in both peace and war.

    She started at the sniper school and eventually became a valued member of her battalion during operations against Prussia.She persevered through eight months of training before leaving for the Front on 24th November 1944 just days after qualifying. Joining the third Belorussian Front her battalion endured rounds of German mortar as well as loudspeaker announcements beckoning them to come over to the German side.Luliia recounts how they would be in the field for days, regularly facing the enemy in terrifying one-on-one encounters. She sets down the euphoria of her first hit and starting her "battle count" but her reflection on how it was also the ending of a life.These feelings fade as she recounts the barbarous actions of Hitler's Nazi Germany. She recall how the women were once nearly overrun by Germans at their house when other Red Army formations had moved off and failed to tell them. She also details a nine-day stand-off they endured encircled by Germans in Landsberg.Regularly suffering ill-health she took a shrapnel injury to her knee and had to be operated on without an anaesthetic. She would eventually see the end of the war in K�ngsberg.Like her famous counterpart Pavlichenko she gained recognition but struggled to come to terms with war service. Haunted by flashbacks she burned the letters she sent home from the Front. She later discovered that of the 1885 graduates of her sniper school only 250 had died in war.In this powerful, first-hand account we come up close to the machinations of the NKVD (the secret police) as well as the gruelling toll of war and the breathtaking bravery of this female sniper.Additional material includes notes by John Walter and an introduction by Martin Pegler.

    Siegelbaum reveals the attractiveness of Communism as an object of study and its continued relevance decades after its disappearance from the landscape of its origin"--

    It explores the involvement of outside powers and the events' impact both on regional and international level.Syria was widely perceived to be essential to the regional power balance, hence it was a valued prize to be fought over. The book examines the impact of global and regional powers in propelling the conflict in Syria; looks at the motives and strategies of the key regional and international actors (Hizbollah, Palestinians, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, US, Russia, EU); and analyses the impact of the Syrian conflict on key relations between regional states (Turkey-Syria, Turkey-Iran, Iraq-Syria). Finally, several chapters treat the impact on Syria of international sanctions and the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine. This book follows on to The Syrian Uprising: Domestic Origins and Early Trajectory, edited by Raymond Hinnebusch and Omar Imady (2018). Subsequent volumes will examine the later evolution of the conflict.Taking an innovative and interdisciplinary approach that seeks to capture the full complexity of the phenomenon, this book contributes significantly to our understanding of the Syrian conflict and will therefore be a valuable resource for anyone studying Middle Eastern Politics.

    For Finland the Continuation War is one of cornerstones of national identity. The Vyborg offensive, the battle that ended this war, is described very differently in Russian and Finnish literature. This book attempts to provide an extensive description of the buildup and course of the battle as well as the diplomatic games that lay behind it, including role of the Tehran Conference between the Allies. The book covers all the main battlefields of the Vyborg offensive - both ones where the Leningrad front was victorious and where it failed. The author tries to give credit to simple soldiers on both sides and provides not only statistics but also recollections and memories of men who were there. Extensive archival research in Russia and Finland was undertaken, as well as numerous trips to the actual battlefields that lie less than 100 miles north from Saint Petersburg. The book includes photos and maps of the operations. The final part of the book summarizes the end of hostilities between the Soviet Union and Great Britain on one side and Finland on another.

    Split into three parts which focus on 'Food, Health and Leisure', the 'Lived Experience' and 'Religion and Ideology', the book is comprised of chapters covering a range of important subjects, including:* Food* Health and Housing* Sex and Gender* Education* Religion (Christianity, Islam and Judaism)* Sport and Leisure* FestivalsThere is detailed analysis of urban and rural life, as well as explorations of life in the gulag, life as a peasant, life in the military and what it was like to be disabled in Stalin's Russia. The book also engages with the wider Soviet Union wherever possible to ensure the most in-depth discussion of life, in all its minutiae, under Stalin.This is a vitally important book for any student of Stalin's Russia keen to know more about the human history of this complex period of dictatorship.

    Originally written in Russian, Judgment was seen as a major indictment of political treachery both inside and outside the USSR. The book was funded by a grant from Margaret Thatcher. Fellow dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn paid for its publication in Russia. Bukovsky's thesis is in the title: Just as the Nuremberg trials declared Nazism and associated actions crimes against humanity, so should the world have put Communism on trial after the fall of the Soviet Union. The goal: Not revenge, but a declaration that the world would consider a resurgence of the USSR's form of totalitarian government intolerable and criminal, and would not allow it to rise again. Instead, Bukovsky details a pattern of co-operation with Soviet regimes that makes today's accusations of collusion between American leaders and Moscow not only unsurprising, but expected.A controversial tome in nine other languages, Judgment has never been published in English, after the author refused to rewrite parts of the book which accused prominent Americans of behind-the-scenes collusion with the Soviets. The author quotes a Random House editor's letter: "I don't disagree, but I simply can't publish a book that accuses Americans like Cyrus Vance and Francis Ford Coppola of unpatriotic -- or even treacherous -- behavior."The 2019 English edition is a new translation by translator and journalist Alyona Kojevnikov, who has worked for Radio Liberty, the BBC and Prime Minister Thatcher. it includes an introduction by former Economist editor Edward Lucas and afterword by veteran Russia journalist David Satter. Published by Ninth of November press, it will also include hundreds of source footnotes to translated Communist Party documents, newspaper and book archives, plus historical context notes for today's readers.

    The Great Bear at War: The Russian and Soviet Army, 1917–Present explores the development and struggles of Soviet and Russian armed forces across the numerous conflicts which mark its history. It charts the great historical events that have defined the Red/Russian Army, especially World War II and the Cold War, but also the post-communist insurgencies and wars in which the Russian military has redeveloped its outlook and mission. The post-Soviet development of the Russian military into a modern force is explored in detail, including its controversial campaigns in Chechnya (1999–2009) and Georgia (2008). Sewn into the narrative are details about the equipment, uniforms, training, service conditions, and weaponry of the Soviet/Russian soldiers, bringing personal experience and technological context to the broader history. At a time when the world is closely focused upon Russian military behavior, The Great Bear at War is both timely and fascinating.

    So when a sudden, debilitating illness robs her of her looks, her sense of her place in the world is shattered. The court that once idolized her spurns her. Who is she, if not the siren of men’s dreams? Enter Felix Ossolinski—scholar, diplomat, Renaissance man. A riding accident in his teens forced him to redirect his energies from war to the life of the mind, and alone among the men of the sixteenth-century Polish court he sees in Juliana a kindred spirit, a woman who has never appreciated her own value and whose inner beauty outweighs any marring of her face.At Felix’s suggestion the Polish queen offers Juliana a way out of her difficulties: spy for the royal family in return for a promise of financial independence. Facing poverty and degradation, Juliana cannot refuse, although the mission threatens not only her freedom but her life. Felix swears he will protect her. But no one can protect Juliana from the demons of her past.

    Applying social identity theory—the idea that individuals derive part of their identity from larger communities—to nations, they contend that China and Russia have used various modes of emulation, competition, and creativity to gain recognition from other countries and thus validate their respective identities. To make this argument, they analyze numerous cases, including Catherine the Great’s attempts to westernize Russia, China’s identity crises in the nineteenth century, and both countries’ responses to the end of the Cold War. The authors employ a multifaceted method of measuring status, factoring in influence and inclusion in multinational organizations, military clout, and cultural sway, among other considerations. Combined with historical precedent, this socio-psychological approach helps explain current trends in Russian and Chinese foreign policy.

    Engaged on one side of the Russian-Chechen conflict, he presents what he witnessed, how he became involved, how the struggle with Russia and the internal Chechen rivalries evolved, and how it impacted his family, his friends, his acquaintances, and the Chechen people.

    Petersburg, Russia, built by the prerevolutionary aristocracy.Palaces of St. Petersburg reflects the unparalleled access and meticulous research of the authors, showcasing private residences that are unsurpassed in their historical importance and artistic grandeur. From the world-renowned Yusupov Palace, where Count Yusupov, famous for killing Rasputin, carried out his courtly duties, to the Polovtsov Palace, its unassuming facade concealing one of the most spectacular interiors of St. Petersburg, these residences have been an integral part of Russian history.This volume gives readers a glimpse into the interiors of these family homes with their sweeping marble staircases and grand rooms with elaborate parquet floors, intricate moldings, and mosaic details, enriched with sculptures and tapestries. All-new photography--as well as archival images showing the rooms and art collections as they existed in the day--celebrate the enduring beauty and exquisite restorations of these masterpieces, which reflect a lost way of life.

    The written word has been an important part of Russian art since the early years of the twentieth century, when artists of the avant-garde began writing manifestos and developing futurist concepts such as zaum (transrational) poetry through their art. The unofficial artists of the 1960s and 1970s continued this tradition, committing concepts and reminiscences to paper and incorporating language in their work. About the BookThe Agent in Love is more than an autobiography. In telling the story of his life in Moscow and Prague, and his renewed relationship with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, artist Viktor Pivovarov plunges the reader into the rich cultural life of the artistic underground which existed behind the Iron Curtain in the 1960s and 1970s.