Author Goltz was detoured in Baku in mid-1991 and decided to stay, this diary is the record of his experiences.

    A land of astonishing natural beauty and a dizzying array of ancient cultures, the Caucasus for most of the twentieth century lay inside the Soviet Union, before movements of national liberation created newly independent countries and sparked the devastating war in Chechnya.Combining riveting storytelling with insightful analysis, The Ghost of Freedom is the first general history of the modern Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to the rise of new countries after the Soviet Union's collapse. In evocative and accessible prose, Charles King reveals how tsars, highlanders, revolutionaries, and adventurers have contributed to the fascinating history of this borderland, providing an indispensable guide to the complicated histories, politics, and cultures of this intriguing frontier. Based on new research in multiple languages, the book shows how the struggle for freedom in the mountains, hills, and plains of the Caucasus has been a perennial theme over the last two hundred years--a struggle which has led to liberation as well as to new forms of captivity. The book sheds valuable light on the origins of modern disputes, including the ongoing war in Chechnya, conflicts in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and debates over oil from the Caspian Sea and its impact on world markets.Ranging from the salons of Russian writers to the circus sideshows of America, from the offices of European diplomats to the villages of Muslim mountaineers, The Ghost of Freedom paints a rich portrait of one of the world's most turbulent and least understood regions.

    She was born during the War of Independence in the 1940s and disappears on a cold winter night in the 1990s.

    Mine, in contrast, was extremely rich but not ''respectable'' at all... Banine's family were peasants who became millionaires overnight when oil gushed from their lands - and the course of her own life would be just as dramatic. This is her unforgettable memoir of an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood, growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between east and west, tradition and modernity. She remembers her luxurious home, with endless feasts of sweets and fruit; her beloved, flaxen-haired German governess; her imperious, swearing, strict Muslim grandmother; her bickering, poker-playing, chain-smoking relatives. She recalls how the Bolsheviks came, and they lost everything. How, amid revolution and bloodshed, she fell passionately in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed - until the chance of escape arrived. By turns gossipy and romantic, wry and moving, Days in the Caucasus is a coming of age story and a portrait of a vanished world. It shows what it means to leave the past behind, yet how it haunts us.

    

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    And for a disparate, disconnected clutch of wanderers - many thousands of miles apart but linked by a common goal - four parallel journeys are just beginning.Gorych and his driver, rolling through water, sand and snow on an empty petrol tank; the occupant of a black airship, looking down benevolently as he floats above his Fatherland; young Andrey, who leaves his religious community in search of a new life; and Kharitonov, who trudges from the Sea of Japan to Leningrad, carrying a fuse that, when lit, could blow all and sundry to smithereens.Written in the final years of Communism, The Bickford Fuse is a satirical epic of the Soviet soul, exploring the origins and dead-ends of the Russian mentality from the end of World War Two to the Union's collapse. Blending allegory and fable with real events, and as deliriously absurd as anything Kurkov has written, it is both an elegy for lost years and a song of hope for a future not yet set in stone.

    That man is Nikolai Dante lover, rogue and thief, son of a pirate-queen and altogether too cool to kill! Created by Robbie Morrison (BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS) and Simon Fraser (Lux and Alby), this collection features art by Chris Weston (THE FILTH), Charlie Adlard (THE ESTABLISHMENT) and Henry Flint (Judge Dredd/Aliens).When chance leaves him working with the Tsar's beautiful daughter Jena, Dante discovers his heritage bio-bonding with the alien Weapons Crest, which grants him astonishing abilities. But with the new enemies he's making much less the family he never knew about can Dante keep his head?

    

     The story of the Romanovs begins in Moscow in 1613, and ends in Ekaterinburg in 1918, at the beginning of a revolution, where Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their five children were slaughtered by a Soviet death squad. In this book, you will learn about the lives and reigns of each Romanov emperor and empress. Read about Peter the Great, who kept company with peasants and pie sellers but had his own son tortured to death; Catherine the Great, who finally convinced Europe that there was more to be found in the far north than just snow and barbarians; Alexander I, the gallant emperor who famously defeated Napoleon in 1812; Alexander II, who freed the serfs and survived five assassination attempts before perishing in the sixth; and Nicholas II, who ended the Romanov dynasty in 1917 when he abdicated the throne on behalf of himself and his son, the hemophiliac Alexei, who would never be emperor but is now considered a saint. The Romanov Dynasty Michael I (1613-1645) Alexei I (1645-1676) Fyodor III (1676-1682) Sofia Alekseyevna, regent for co-tsars Ivan V and Peter I (1682-1689) Ivan V (1682-1696) Peter the Great (1682-1725) Catherine I (1725-1727) Peter II (1727-1730) Anna I (1730-1740) Anna, Duchess of Courland, regent for Ivan VI (October 1740-December 1741) Elizaveta I (1741-1761) Peter III (January 1762-July 1762) Catherine the Great (1762-1796) Paul I (1796-1801) Alexander I (1801-1825) Nicholas I (1825-1855) Alexander II (1855-1881) Alexander III (1881-1894) Nicholas II (1894-1917)

    Compelling characters, fluid, thrilling reading, and a strong sense of history set these books apart in the minds of more than a half million fans who’ve loved them. Join Phillips and Pella again or for the first time as peasant and princess alike face the prospect of their beloved Russia being torn apart. Conflict within and without brews as thoughts of revolution stirs the masses and war looms in the Balkans. The lives of the characters will be forever changed…and so will yours.

    Because he knows state secrets, he has not been allowed to cross the state's frontiers. Now, suddenly, his request for an exit visa is approved -- a sure sign that the situation is even more chaotic than he had imagined.Falk accepts a chair as a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Chaos-Related Studies in upstate New York. Arriving in the Promised Land under the impression that the streets are paved with Sony Walkmans, he plunges into the heart of another kind of chaos. No sooner has he arrived than he sets off on an academic cat fight, falls in love with a hairdresser half his age, and becomes a self-styled gumshoe tracking a serial killer.In one of his most original novels, Littell explores the relationships between randomness and God, chaos and sex, a butterfly tattoo and occasional rain, the going and the getting there. The Visiting Professor is a delicious post-Cold War romp through a chaotic contemporary America.

     It begins somewhere in Russia in the mid-19th century, and takes the reader into the events during the two world wars, and their ways of existence during the holocaust. The simple and touching stories are presented from the perspective of a sensitive young boy, fascinated by his surroundings. In a moment of anxiety and fear, the boy is torn from his family, and the journey of his life begins. The story describes four generations that represent the history of Eastern European Jews. The author creates a unique attraction between the book and the reader, by her fluent and vivid language. Historical truths are intertwined with fascinating stories about the power of a violin, and the miracles that occurred during the attempt to survive under impossible conditions in a period where sanity was lost. “People will forget what I said, people will forget what I did, people will never forget what I made them feel.”

    Defending this system is idealistic security officer Leo Demidov, a war hero who believes in the iron fist of the law. But when a murderer kills at will and Leo dares to investigate, the State's obedient servant finds himself demoted and exiled. Now, with only his wife at his side, Leo must fight to uncover shocking truths about a killer--and a country where "crime" doesn't exist.THE SECRET SPEECH:Soviet Union, 1956. It is a period of wrenching change. Stalin is dead, and a regime once held together by fear is beginning to fracture, creating a lawless society where the police have become the criminals and the criminals take vengeance against them. A series of murders now has all of Moscow on edge, and no one--no matter how powerful or connected--seems safe. With his new and secretive homicide department, Leo Demidov investigates--only to find that he, his wife, and his two adopted daughters may be in grave danger. For Leo is a former state security officer who arrested and condemned many of his fellow citizens, and despite all his efforts to atone for his past, he cannot escape the long shadow of his former career. To save his family, Leo must make a desperate choice and face an impossible journey that may bring his redemption...or shatter their fragile future.

    These stories all deal with the common theme of the awakening of love at unpremeditated time and place, catching the victims off-guard. For the essential flavor of the tales, read Sunstroke, the story of a chance encounter on board ship; and A Night at Sea, perhaps the most unusual story of the group. Russian -- some about cultured people, some about peasants. The market is:- all who like exceptional short stories; all who are interested in getting the feel of one of the most famous writers.