Norton Dodge visited the apartments of unofficial artists in at least a dozen geographically scattered cities. By 1977, he had a thousand works of art. His ultimate window of interest involved the years from 1956 to 1986, and through his established contacts he eventually acquired another eight thousand works—by far the largest collection of its kind.John McPhee investigates Dodge's clandestine activities in the service of dissident Soviet art, his motives for his work, and the fates of several of the artists whose lives he touched. The Ransom of Russian Art is a suspenseful, chilling, and fascinating report on a covert operation like no other. It offers unprecedented insight into Soviet culture at the brink of the Union's collapse.

    Instead it was played for pride, both personal and national. It was a confrontation twenty years in the making and it marked a turning point in the history of hockey.On December 31, 1975, the Montreal Canadiens, the most successful franchise in the NHL, hosted the touring Central Red Army, the dominant team in the Soviet Union. For three hours millions of people in both Canada and the Soviet Union were glued to their television sets. What transpired that evening was a game that surpassed all the hype and was subsequently referred to as "the greatest game ever played." Held at the height of the Cold War, this remarkable contest transcended sports and took on serious cultural, sociological, and political overtones. And while the final result was a 3-3 tie, no one who saw the game was left disappointed. This exhibition of skill was hockey at its finest, and it set the bar for what was to follow as the sport began its global expansion.

    Seeking their true selves amid the fallen cathedrals of America, they speak wryly of destructive love affairs, aesthetic obsession, and encroaching war, but refuse to abandon hope in the power of imagination.

    Over the next three decades, this mosaic of cultures was modernized and homogenized out of existence by the ruling might of the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, and finally, Polish and Ukrainian nationalism. By the 1950s, this no place emerged as a Ukrainian heartland, and the fertile mix of peoples that defined the region was destroyed.Brown's study is grounded in the life of the village and shtetl, in the personalities and small histories of everyday life in this area. In impressive detail, she documents how these regimes, bureaucratically and then violently, separated, named, and regimented this intricate community into distinct ethnic groups.Drawing on recently opened archives, ethnography, and oral interviews that were unavailable a decade ago, A Biography of No Place reveals Stalinist and Nazi history from the perspective of the remote borderlands, thus bringing the periphery to the center of history.We are given, in short, an intimate portrait of the ethnic purification that has marked all of Europe, as well as a glimpse at the margins of twentieth-century progress.

    To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive. This book explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of “late socialism” (1960s-1980s) through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.Focusing on the major transformation of the 1950s at the level of discourse, ideology, language, and ritual, Alexei Yurchak traces the emergence of multiple unanticipated meanings, communities, relations, ideals, and pursuits that this transformation subsequently enabled. His historical, anthropological, and linguistic analysis draws on rich ethnographic material from Late Socialism and the post-Soviet period.The model of Soviet socialism that emerges provides an alternative to binary accounts that describe that system as a dichotomy of official culture and unofficial culture, the state and the people, public self and private self, truth and lie — and ignore the crucial fact that, for many Soviet citizens, the fundamental values, ideals, and realities of socialism were genuinely important, although they routinely transgressed and reinterpreted the norms and rules of the socialist state.

    Now, to mark the centenary of this epochal event, historian Steve Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the nineteenth century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s, when Stalin simultaneously unleashed violent collectivization of agriculture and crash industrialization upon Russian society. Drawing on recent archivally-based scholarship, Russia in Revolution pays particular attention to the varying impact of the Revolution on the various groups that made up society: peasants, workers, non-Russian nationalities, the army, women and the family, young people, and the Church. In doing so, it provides a fresh way into the big, perennial questions about the Revolution and its consequences: why did the attempt by the tsarist government to implement political reform after the 1905 Revolution fail; why did the First World War bring about the collapse of the tsarist system; why did the attempt to create a democratic system after the February Revolution of 1917 not get off the ground; why did the Bolsheviks succeed in seizing and holding on to power; why did they come out victorious from a punishing civil war; why did the New Economic Policy they introduced in 1921 fail; and why did Stalin come out on top in the power struggle inside the Bolshevik party after Lenin's death in 1924. A final chapter then reflects on the larger significance of 1917 for the history of the twentieth century - and, for all its terrible flaws, what the promise of the Revolution might mean for us today.

    An analysis of Vladimir Putin and the key role a resurgent Russia has to play in world affairs.

    Music for Silenced Voices looks at Shostakovich through the back door, as it were, of his fifteen quartets, the works which his widow characterized as a "diary, the story of his soul." The silences and the voices were of many kinds, including the political silencing of adventurous writers, artists, and musicians during the Stalin era; the lost voices of Shostakovich's operas (a form he abandoned just before turning to string quartets); and the death-silenced voices of his close friends, to whom he dedicated many of these chamber works.Wendy Lesser has constructed a fascinating narrative in which the fifteen quartets, considered one at a time in chronological order, lead the reader through the personal, political, and professional events that shaped Shostakovich's singular, emblematic twentieth-century life. Weaving together interviews with the composer's friends, family, and colleagues, as well as conversations with present-day musicians who have played the quartets, Lesser sheds new light on the man and the musician. One of the very few books about Shostakovich that is aimed at a general rather than an academic audience, Music for Silenced Voices is a pleasure to read; at the same time, it is rigorously faithful to the known facts in this notoriously complicated life. It will fill readers with the desire to hear the quartets, which are among the most compelling and emotionally powerful monuments of the past century's music.

    His account, in which he shows how Germans set out to "conquer" that most fundamental natural element, water, brings together politics, culture, economics, and ecology in a daring work of total history.

    The wrong choice may just get you killed… Another gripping, gritty crime thriller from Kerry Barnes that will have you hooked. Readers LOVE Kerry Barnes: ‘Absolutely fantastic, I can’t wait for the next one’‘Kerry is one of my favourite authors if you have not read any of her books then give them a go.’‘MUST READ!!! 10 STAR!!!!’

    Intelligence analyst Eugene "Boston" Hollinger wants to escape from his. Hampered by strange dreams since he was severely injured by a roadside bomb in ISIS-occupied Iraq, he enlists the help of an attractive, yet quirky dream therapist to get to the bottom of the mystery. Together they come to understand the true nature of Boston’s condition - he is not dreaming, but somehow accessing the memories of others while he sleeps.As Boston comes to grips with his condition, the nation’s intelligence community is in a panic. A mole with high-level access to classified intel is passing secrets to the enemy, and the pressure to catch him is increasing by the minute. With soldiers and informants dying every day, and the government all pointing fingers at each other, Boston realizes his strange dreams are about the mole, and could hold the only key to finding him before it’s too late. Now armed with a new tool to track him down, he enlists the help of some old friends and his current fiancée to help bring the traitor to justice at any cost. As forces within the government seek to silence him, it becomes a race against time - find the mole or become the scapegoat in one of the deadliest intelligence breaches ever uncovered. The Eyes of Others follows the struggles of five people caught up in a maelstrom of bureaucratic wrangling, politics, and one of the most desperate, high-stakes mole hunts in American history. Lives will be lost and tensions high, but can the mole be found in time when the only clues can be found by dreaming about memories seen through the eyes of others?

     It follows little "Vikki" from childhood as she blossoms into a formidable young woman who becomes queen, and falls in love with Albert, the cousin who will be her prince. The story begins with the intriguing circumstances surrounding the marriage of Victoria's parents, and her own birth. A fascinating novelisation of a great woman's life, The Little Victoria is set in Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, and other royal residences. It lifts the curtain on the political intrigue, royal gossip, family feuds and romances that played a part in the destiny of the little girl who would one day be queen. Perfect for fans of the British Royal Family, historical fiction and TV historical dramas such as Victoria, War and Peace and Poldark.

    Land of the midnight sun and the Klondike gold rush. Wilderness and wildlife, rivers and lakes, mountains and glaciers. As mystical a place as there is on earth. The Yukon’s also a great place to launder illicit cash with a gold mine. And organized crime knows it. C.E. Brody is a man of the world but prefers life in a cabin on the Yukon River. For a living he flies an ancient float plane and runs a highway repair shop. Single, fiercely independent, a champion for the little guy, Brody loves his dogs and plane, hates cops and phones, and cooks a great meal for two. After repairing her car, Brody is hired by a beautiful and mysterious woman to fly her over a gold mine. The two spot a missing plane. They land and find two men inside. He knows the pilot, she knows the passenger. Within hours, Brody realizes he’s suddenly become the center of attention for the RCMP, the FBI, and two underworld gangs. His beautiful passenger is making romantic advances. He’s beaten up, his plane is hijacked, a friend’s child is kidnapped. With no idea what's going on, he's bound and determined to get answers. And get even. A thriller, an adventure, a romance, Yukon Audit is filled with imagery and insight into the land called the Yukon - its gold rush history, its colorful characters, its geography and geology. Detailed flying sequences are narrated from the cockpit, as are the history and details of Brody’s sixty year old pride and joy, a DeHavilland Beaver, the greatest bush plane ever made. If you’ve never been to the Yukon, you’ll want to visit after reading Yukon Audit.

    As the events and characters of Sashie's past come to life, Rachel discovers a distant country and time, a time when Jews were forced to serve in the Czar's armies or were murdered in pogroms, a time when nine-year-old Sashie devised a wonderful plan to save her family from danger. . . .

    Nine months later, Kittel’s doctor made a terrible mistake during her subsequent pregnancy and she found herself burying yet another baby. Caught up in the maelstrom of a malpractice lawsuit, Kittel and her husband battle not only the medical system, but their own relatives, in the courtroom. As their family tree begins to topple, the Kittels struggle to nourish the roots of their young family and find healing. Achingly raw and beautifully narrated, Breathe is a story of motherhood, death, and family in the face of unspeakable tragedy and, ultimately, how she learns to breathe again.