Like all Bond movies, audiences believed that the storyline was entirely fictional if not totally crazy. Little did they know that while they munched on their popcorn, the Soviets were indeed preparing to launch a real nuclear attack on the West. 1983 was a dangerous year. In the United States, President Reagan increased defence spending and launched the 'Star Wars' Strategic Defence Initiative. When a Soviet plane shot down a Korean civilian jet, he described it as 'a crime against humanity'. Moscow was growing increasingly concerned about America's language and behaviour. Would they attack? The temperature was rising, fast.By November, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, a life-long KGB man, had his finger on the nuclear button. Had the US made a move, it would have meant global nuclear Armageddon.It was only the following year that the US - which had never considered a first strike - came to learn just how terrified the Soviet Union was, and just how close to the brink the world had come.In 1983, Taylor Downing draws on previously unpublished interviews, and over a thousand pages of secret documents that have recently been released by Washington to tell the gripping, astonishing story that was almost the end of the world. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.

    The work aims to present the Royal Martyrs through the prism of their spiritual grandeur and the purity of their souls. A lively portrait of the royal family emerges from their own personal writings and in the writings of those who lived very close to them. The result is a psychographic biography that explores the essential character of the royal family in a deeper and inspiring way. Furthermore, the work brings to light a multitude of unknown and unrevealed facts, aspects and elements of history, which evince that many truths in regard to the life and martyrdom of the Royal Martyrs remain silenced or distorted to this day. The book presents unvarnished factually sourced events, deriving all its material stringently from primary sources, which allow no grounds for questioning their legitimacy, gravity, and validity. Thus, many major historical events, such as the 1905 revolution and Bloody Sunday, Russia's involvement in World War I, the February coup d'état of 1917 and the events relating to Nicholas' II abdication, are set in their true proportions and are presented through a proper perspective. Readers may be surprised by the facts surrounding these historical events because up to now these events have generally been presented in an inaccurate light.Among the historians who worked in the research team together with the fathers are Nicholas B.A. Nicholson, Helen Azar, and Helen Rappaport, Sophie Law, Pytor Multatuli, and George Hawkins, all noted specialists in Romanov history.The book features a 56-page color photo insert. The acclaimed Russian artist Olga Shirnina colorized these high-quality images which appear here in print for the first time.Visit the special website of the project at: https://www.romanovs.eu/en

    ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, a revelatory, inside account of U.S.-Russia relations from 1989 to the presentIn 2008, when Michael McFaul was asked to leave his perch at Stanford and join an unlikely presidential campaign, he had no idea that he would find himself at the beating heart of one of today’s most contentious and consequential international relationships. As President Barack Obama’s adviser on Russian affairs, McFaul helped craft the United States’ policy known as “reset” that fostered new and unprecedented collaboration between the two countries. And then, as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, he had a front-row seat when this fleeting, hopeful moment crumbled with Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency. This riveting inside account combines history and memoir to tell the full story of U.S.-Russia relations from the fall of the Soviet Union to the new rise of the hostile, paranoid Russian president. From the first days of McFaul’s ambassadorship, the Kremlin actively sought to discredit and undermine him, hassling him with tactics that included dispatching protesters to his front gates, slandering him on state media, and tightly surveilling him, his staff, and his family.From Cold War to Hot Peace is an essential account of the most consequential global confrontation of our time.

    Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne, and what followed was a struggle that neither he, nor most of his nearest were destined to survive. This volume offers an accurate glimpse into the final two years of the last Imperial Family of Russia: exclusively through their own diary entries and personal correspondence, supplemented by contemporary eyewitness accounts, many of which are published here in English for the first time. The reader will get to know on a deeper level the Grand Duchesses and the Empress, as they work at Tsarskoe Selo infirmaries; witness the imperial family's grief for their murdered "Friend" Grigori Rasputin; experience their arrest after the outbreak of revolution, and follow them into captivity in Siberia - and ultimately the Red Ural - where they meet their tragic end in the cellar of "The House of Special Purpose". This already familiar unique piece of history is individually told by Nicholas, Alexandra and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei. Their collective personal story is a portrayal of a united family bound together by love, hardship and tragedy, taking place during the twilight of an extraordinary bygone era. Richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, this book is a valuable companion to the G.E.T. Educational Tour: In the Steps of The Romanovs.

    She is a prolific author, whose recent books include The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. She and photographer Michael Friedman journey to Siberia to document the erasure of Russia's history and show the alarming transformation of Russia under authoritarian rule.

    Soviet power used a variety of tools―from education, to propaganda, to terror―to turn its vision of a Communist world without religion into reality. Yet even with its monopoly on ideology and power, the Soviet Communist Party never succeeded in overcoming religion and creating an atheist society.A Sacred Space Is Never Empty presents the first history of Soviet atheism from the 1917 revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and in-depth interviews with those who were on the front lines of Communist ideological campaigns, Victoria Smolkin argues that to understand the Soviet experiment, we must make sense of Soviet atheism. Smolkin shows how atheism was reimagined as an alternative cosmology with its own set of positive beliefs, practices, and spiritual commitments. Through its engagements with religion, the Soviet leadership realized that removing religion from the “sacred spaces” of Soviet life was not enough. Then, in the final years of the Soviet experiment, Mikhail Gorbachev―in a stunning and unexpected reversal―abandoned atheism and reintroduced religion into Soviet public life.A Sacred Space Is Never Empty explores the meaning of atheism for religious life, for Communist ideology, and for Soviet politics.

    From launching points in newly acquired Poland, in three prongs--North, Central, South--German forces stormed western Russia, virtually from the Baltic to the Black Sea. By late fall, the invasion had foundered against Russian weather, terrain, and resistance, and by December, it had failed at the gates of Moscow, but early on, as the Germans sliced through Russian territory and soldiers with impunity, capturing hundreds of thousands, it seemed as though Russia would fall. In the spirit of Martin Middlebrook's classic First Day on the Somme, Craig Luther narrates the events of June 22, 1941, a day when German military might was at its peak and seemed as though it would easily conquer the Soviet Union, a day the common soldiers would remember for its tension and the frogs bellowing in the Polish marshlands. It was a day when the German blitzkrieg decimated Soviet command and control within hours and seemed like nothing would stop it from taking Moscow. Luther narrates June 22--one of the pivotal days of World War II--from high command down to the tanks and soldiers at the sharp end, covering strategy as well as tactics and the vivid personal stories of the men who crossed the border into the Soviet Union that fateful day, which is the Eastern Front in microcosm, representing the years of industrial-scale warfare that followed and the unremitting hostility of Germans and Soviets.

    When the German war machine began faltering from a shortage of oil after the failed Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht launched Operation Edelweiss in the summer of 1942, a bold attempt to capture the Soviet oilfields of Grozny and Baku and open the way to securing the vast reserves of Middle Eastern oil. Hitler viewed this campaign as the key to victory in World War Two. Mountain warfare requires unique skills: climbing and survival techniques, unconventional logistical and medical arrangements and knowledge of ballistics at high altitudes. The Main Caucasus Ridge became the battleground that saw the elite German mountain divisions clash with the untrained soldiers of the Red Army, as they fought each other, the weather and the terrain.

    For the Russians who had endured the horrific suffering and loss of lives in defending their nation against the Nazi invasion, the opportunity for vengeance seemed as if fate was on their side. For the German civilians who remained in Berlin, the approach of the Red Army invoked terror. The Germans hoped that the Americans would reach them first; they would have preferred to surrender to the Americans. But the Russians were advancing swiftly from the east, and by April of 1945, the Battle of Berlin was underway. Inside you will read about... ✓ From Stalingrad to Berlin ✓ The Battle of the Oder-Neisse ✓ The Russians Enter Berlin ✓ The Last Days of Adolf Hitler ✓ The Rape of Berlin And much more! Hitler died by his own hand on April 30, and the Third Reich was crumbling. The loss of life on both sizes was catastrophic, but the Germans had no way of replacing the defenders of the city, and on May 2, Berlin surrendered to the Soviet forces intent on retaliation. The Russians attempted to provide services and food to the starving Germans, but not all of the Russian soldiers were inspired by compassion or altruism. Looting and rape replaced law in the city, and more than 100,000 women of Berlin were raped by Allied soldiers. By the time the Americans and British arrived, the scars of the Russian occupation were seared upon the memories of the German people. The country and its capital would be divided, and the Soviet presence would remain in the country for decades, a bitter reminder that Adolf Hitler’s grand promises of glory had brought Germany to defeat. World War II came to an end in 1945, but for the Germans, their nation became a sacrifice to the Cold War which took its place.

    This elegant novel is utterly absorbing, thought-provoking, and also moving in ways that are all the more powerful for their quiet, unannounced approach. It is an original and powerful book, and I loved it." —Robin Black, author of LIFE DRAWING "In a novel of passion and insight, Nathaniel Popkin peels back the layers of a great American city to reveal the previous cities contained within it. He also discovers that a single man can be a city unto himself, densely inhabited by the men he once was and the potential men he might yet be, each driven by his own contradictions and errors, lusts and aversions, triumphs and sorrows." —Ken Kalfus, author of COUP DE FOUDRE Acclaimed architect Nicholas Moscowitz lands a major commission, but his drive suddenly falters. The site of the new project awakens guilty memories, and when he digs into the place’s history, he uncovers a 19th-century Moskowitz whose life offers strange parallels to his own. As Nicholas grows obsessed with this shadow man, the dual narratives of Moskowitz and Moscowitz, the city’s past and present, blend in unexpected and poignant ways. Ultimately Nicholas must face certain truths that don’t change over time—and use them to rebuild his own life. "Nathaniel Popkin renders the world of this novel with such precision, and in such stunning detail, that everything is felt. The sense of place, the longing, the regret, the desire, the frustration, the irresistible pull of history all brim with emotional content as Nicholas Moscowitz is thwarted in his attempt to design an apartment building. He must first confront the site of the planned structure, that empty space where he discovers the selves he was, and those yet to be. An immersive read." —Diane McKinney-Whetstone, author of LAZARETTO "In Nathaniel Popkin's evocative novel Everything Is Borrowed, Philadelphia arises from its foundation shimmering with glass and steel. Popkin's portrait of the city of brotherly love carries whiffs of Bellow's Chicago circa SEIZE THE DAY, or Newark in Roth's best moments. This is a novel to live inside, and to linger in." —Daniel Torday, author of THE LAST FLIGHT OF POXL WEST "As architect Nicholas Moskowitz digs through the history of his neighborhood, releasing anarchists and holy men, immigrants and philosophers, and his own lost love, he discovers that we cannot build a meaningful future until we learn to honor the past. Both poignant and cerebral, EVERYTHING IS BORROWED is an evocative meditation on the bond between a man and the places that formed him." —Stephanie Feldman, author of THE ANGEL OF LOSSES "Nathaniel Popkin has crafted a beautifully written, skillfully researched historical mystery. The story is compelling, the characters are fully realized, and the voice is gentle and engaging." —Liz Moore, author of THE UNSEEN WORLD

    Petersburg has always felt like an impossible metropolis, risen from the freezing mists and flooded marshland of the River Neva on the western edge of Russia. It was a new capital in an old country. Established in 1703 by the sheer will of its charismatic founder, the homicidal megalomaniac Peter the Great, its dazzling yet unhinged reputation was quickly cemented by the sadistic dominion of its early rulers. This city, in its successive incarnations—St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad and, once again, St. Petersburg—has always been a place of perpetual contradiction.It was a window to Europe and the Enlightenment, but so much of Russia’s unique glory was also created here: its literature, music, dance and, for a time, its political vision. It gave birth to the artistic genius of Pushkin and Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, Pavlova and Nureyev. Yet, for all its glittering palaces, fairytale balls and enchanting gardens, the blood of thousands has been spilt on its snow-filled streets.It has been a hotbed of war and revolution, a place of siege and starvation, and the crucible for Lenin and Stalin’s power-hungry brutality. In St. Petersburg, Jonathan Miles recreates the drama of three hundred years in this paradoxical and brilliant city, bringing us up to the present day, when its fate hangs in the balance once more.This is an epic tale of murder, massacre and madness played out against squalor and splendor, and an unforgettable portrait of a city and its people.

    Bankers and Bolsheviks tells the dramatic story of this boom and bust, chronicling the forgotten experiences of leading financiers of the age.Shedding critical new light on the decision making of the powerful personalities who acted as the gatekeepers of international finance, Hassan Malik narrates how they channeled foreign capital into Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While economists have long relied on quantitative analysis to grapple with questions relating to the drivers of cross-border capital flows, Malik adopts a historical approach, drawing on banking and government archives in four countries. The book provides rare insights into the thinking of influential figures in world finance as they sought to navigate one of the most challenging and lucrative markets of the first modern age of globalization.Bankers and Bolsheviks reveals how a complex web of factors--from government interventions to competitive dynamics and cultural influences--drove a large inflow of capital during this tumultuous period in world history. This gripping book demonstrates how the realms of finance and politics--of bankers and Bolsheviks--grew increasingly intertwined, and how investing in Russia became a political act with unforeseen repercussions.

    The script was based on romance between the Heir to the Russian throne, future Tsar Nicholas II, and a young ballet dancer named Mathilde Kschessinska.Despite the fact that Kschessinska’s personal diaries covering the period of this relationship exist, and are accessible, surprisingly the film’s creators failed to consult them.The diaries (and a number of complementary letters) detail the development of a romance between the young ballerina and the heir to the Russian throne. What seemingly started out as a casual fling, ultimately evolved into a much more serious liaison for both.Mathilde’s writings reveal the bliss, angst and anxiety of first love; they allow the reader to follow the affair from its inception to its inevitable conclusion, when the Tsesarevich gets engaged to a more suitable bride: Princess Alix of Hesse.Translated and published in this ebook in English for the first time, the diaries provide a clear glimpse of future Tsar Nicholas II as a young man experiencing intense, consuming feelings of first love.The ebook includes numerous photographs and illustrations. Digital Colourization of some of the images have been completed by Justyna Michalska

     Free History BONUS Inside! The Russian Revolution was the most important and progressive political event of the twentieth century. There is a lot to learn from these explosive political episodes and many remarkable stories to discover. But despite this, many people are reluctant to read up on the Russian revolution because it can require one to go through heavy and sometimes overly analytical texts. But that is about to change. This new captivating history book is designed to be an easy to read guide so you can learn the most crucial events of the Russian Revolution while hopefully enjoying yourself. The Russian Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the February and October Revolutions and the Rise of the Soviet Union Led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks includes topics such as: Twilight of the Tsars The Midnight Train Dual Power Return from exile The July Days The abortive coup Ten Days that Shook the World Peace, Land, and Bread Defending the Revolution All this and much more awaits you, so get instant access now by clicking the "buy now" button!

    The massacre was brutal and effective. Yet, after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the bodies of the imperial family were finally recovered from their secret burial place in the woods, two bodies were missing. The little boy was missing, and one of the daughters was missing. The identification of the Romanov skeletons was the first great forensic use of DNA evidence. All agreed that the body of the Tsarevich Alexis was missing, but opinion differed about which daughter was missing. Americans, long enamored of the romantic story about the escape of Anastasia insisted that she was missing. The Russians, on the other hand, examined the bones and concluded that an older daughter was missing. They believed the missing person was the third daughter, Marie. How could it be possible for two children to escape? No one could have escaped the execution. Yet, it would have been possible to escape the House of Special Purposes several weeks before the execution. Many unexplained events took place in the ten days leading up to the execution. The local guard of Ural Russians was replaced by a special detachment. Until then, the imperial family was allowed to receive gifts of food and wine from their admirers. The rulers in Moscow had planned to put the family on trial, and they had plenty of time to remove the Romanovs from Ekaterinburg to a place of safety far away from the advancing White army. After the events of that dreadful night, Lenin said that the children were still alive and safe because he believed they were dead. In this telling of the story, Stalin would insist that all the children were dead because he knew that two of them still lived. This story follows the desperate escape of Marie and the new young Tsar Alexis as they make their way across the face of Russia. Marie, the daughter who nursed her mother and excelled at foreign languages while constantly putting on plays in the palace, had the unique set of skills needed by the royalists to preserve the Heir and secure the crown. This story also follows the growing paranoia of Stalin into madness as he destroys millions of people in his effort to hide his greatest secret: it was his fault that the children escaped. This story mixes the historical circumstances of Stalin’s Soviet state with the many unexplained and inconsistent aspects of Stalin’s behavior. Why did he wait so long to have Trotsky killed when he thought nothing of sending millions to their deaths? Why did he eliminate some of those associated with the killing of the tsar’s family but let others live for so long? This telling of the story of the killing of the tsar’s family explores how a variety of unrelated details could all converge to explain one another in terms of Stalin’s attempt to cover up his unwitting complicity in the one event that threatened the survival of the Soviet regime.

    This family of seven was brutally killed in July of 1918, but continues to fascinate even a hundred years later. Helen Azar, author of several books based on her original translations of their diaries and letters, brings you "THE ROMANOV FAMILY YEARBOOK" - a unique edition which commemorates them through a collection of personal documents that recount their daily lives, ranging over a decade. This book contains 365 diary entries, letters, and photographs--one for each day of the year-including some previously unpublished material. It is essential reading for Russian imperial history enthusiasts and excellent introduction for those new to the letters and diaries of Russia's last Romanovs.

    Volume II describes how agriculture spread through Inner Eurasia, providing the foundations for new agricultural states, including the Russian Empire. It focuses on the idea of "mobilization"--the distinctive ways in which elite groups mobilized resources from their populations, and how those methods were shaped by the region's distinctive ecology, which differed greatly from that of "Outer Eurasia," the southern half of Eurasia and the part of Eurasia most studied by historians. This work also examines how fossil fuels created a bonanza of energy that helped shape the history of the Communist world during much of the twentieth century.Filled with figures, maps, and tables to help give readers a fuller understanding of what has transpired over 750 years in this distinctive world region, A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia: Volume II: Inner Eurasia from the Mongol Empire to Today, 1260-2000 is a magisterial but accessible account of this area's past, that will offer readers new insights into the history of an often misunderstood part of the world.Situates the histories of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia within the larger narrative of world history Concentrates on the idea of Inner Eurasia as a coherent ecological and geographical zone Focuses on the powerful ways in which the region's geography shaped its history Places great emphasis on how "mobilization" played a major part in the development of the regions Offers a distinctive interpretation of modernity that highlights the importance of fossil fuels Offers new ways of understanding the Soviet era A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia: Volume II is an ideal book for general audiences and for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in world history. The Blackwell History of the World SeriesThe goal of this ambitious series is to provide an accessible source of knowledge about the entire human past, for every curious person in every part of the world. It will comprise some two dozen volumes, of which some provide synoptic views of the history of particular regions while others consider the world as a whole during a particular period of time. The volumes are narrative in form, giving balanced attention to social and cultural history (in the broadest sense) as well as to institutional development and political change. Each provides a systematic account of a very large subject, but they are also both imaginative and interpretative. The Series is intended to be accessible to the widest possible readership, and the accessibility of its volumes is matched by the style of presentation and production.

    In exploring the intersection of art, politics, and society, few collections in the world can compare with the David King Collection, now part of Tate. King was not only a passionate collector, but also an artist, designer, and historian, and he produced revelatory and award-winning books on Soviet design history. Here, every step of the Soviet journey is documented with visual media, photomontage, photographs, paintings, handwritten notes, books (signed with annotations and marginalia), enclosures, and ephemera. Published to accompany an exhibition, this accessible and highly illustrated publication features key pieces from the collection, accompanied by short explanatory texts that bring this exceptional era in design history to life.

    His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. He was given the nickname Nicholas the Bloody or Vile Nicholas by his political adversaries due to the Khodynka Tragedy, anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, the violent suppression of the 1905 Russian Revolution, the execution of political opponents, and his perceived responsibility for the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Soviet historians portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions.Following author Pierre Gilliard’s return to Europe in September 1920, having been “cut off from communication with the rest of the world for many months,” he was dismayed to read of the recent publications on the subject of the Czar Nicholas II. and his family. Upon realizing that the general public appeared to have accepted the reports as gospel, his indignation grew—and he immediately set out to “rehabilitate the moral character of the Russian sovereigns.” Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, which was first published in 1921, is the result.With 59 illustrations, including portraits.“In this book I have endeavoured to bring Nicholas II. and his family back to life. My aim is to be absolutely impartial and to preserve complete independence of mind in describing the events of which I have been an eyewitness. It may be that in my search for truth I have presented their political enemies with new weapons against them, but I greatly hope that this book will reveal them as they really were, for it was not the glamour of their Imperial dignity which drew me to them, but their nobility of mind and the wonderful moral grandeur they displayed through all their sufferings.”—Pierre Gilliard, Introduction