Russia & the Former Soviet Union

Highlights of the extraordinary wartime diaries of Ivan Maisky, Soviet ambassador to London The terror and purges of Stalin's Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A...

An in-depth look at the struggle between the charismatic rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, 'The Lion of Panjshir', and the Soviet forces who fought to control the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan. When the Soviets rolled into Afghanistan in 1979, they...

An in-depth exploration of Malevich's pivotal painting, its context and its significance Kazimir Malevich's painting Black Square is one of the twentieth century's emblematic paintings, the visual manifestation of a new period in world artistic culture...

'The best book in English about one of the world's most brutal and under-reported conflicts ... fascinating' Christina Lamb, Sunday TimesIn the early hours of New Year's Eve 1994, Russian troops invaded the Republic of Chechnya, plunging the country into...

From Oscar-winner Oliver Stone comes a first-hand look at one of the most important, powerful, and controversial leaders in the world: Vladimir Putin of Russia. The companion to the news-breaking television series, this edition has substantial material...

Fringing the Black Sea are a kaleidoscope of countries, some centuries old and others emerging only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through the stories of the people he meets there, Jens Muhling seeks to paint a picture of this cauldron of...

A highly illustrated study of the T-90, the backbone of the armoured units of Putin's Russia. In the wake of the T-72 tank's poor performance in the 1991 Gulf War, the Kremlin instructed the Russian tank industry to drop the discredited T-72...

If it ever falls to you, my reader (though God forbid!) to see your name written on a prison wall and followed by the letters 'LYMTL', that will simply mean 'Love You More Than Life'. These letters are no harder to remember than 'KGB'. GREY IS THE COLOUR...

Now available in paperback, this Chronicle documents the lives of tsars famous and infamous in a lively series of biographical portraits stretching from the late 15th to the early 20th centuries. With its comprehensive timelines, datafiles, quotations...

Shedding light on the origins of the Second World War in Europe, Stalin's Gamble aims to create a historical narrative of the relations of the USSR with Britain, France, the United States, Poland, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Romania during the...

Oleg Kalugin oversaw the work of American spies, matched wits with the CIA, and became one of the youngest generals in KGB history. Even so, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system. In 1990, he went public, exposing the intelligence...

The end of the Cold War makes it possible, for the first time, to begin writing its history from a truly international perspective, one reflecting Soviet, East European, and Chinese as well as American and West European viewpoints. In a major departure...

The ideal travel companion, full of insider advice on what to see and do, plus detailed itineraries and comprehensive maps for exploring this fascinating and cultural city.Explore imperial palaces, visit unique museums and stunning churches or stroll...

In Russia, both rulers and ruled long endeavoured to transform their country, each in their own forcible way. Their efforts never quite seemed to bring the results hoped for, and despite reform and revolution some things changed very little. This book...

The compelling quest to solve a great mystery of the twentieth century: the ultimate fate of Russia's last tsar and his family. In July 1991, nine skeletons were exhumed from a shallow grave near Ekaterinburg, Siberia, a few miles from the infamous...

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION War-torn, unstable and virtually bankrupt, revolutionary Russia tried to light its way to the future with the fitful glow of science. It succeeded through terror, folly and crime - but also through...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780312603472Author Helen RappaportFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint St Martin's PressPublisher St Martin's PressWeight(grams) 318gDimensions(mm) 231mm *...

The ideal travel companion, full of insider advice on what to see and do, plus detailed itineraries and comprehensive maps for exploring this historic country.Explore Moscow's revolutionary past at the Red Square and Lenin's Mausoleum, marvel at the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781804510131Author Andrey KorotkovFormat PaperbackPage Count 80Imprint Helion & CompanyPublisher Helion & Company

The Soviet Union was one of the most secretive states that ever existed. Defended by a complex apparatus of rules and checks administered by the secret police, the Soviet state had seemingly unprecedented capabilities based on its near monopoly of...

In The Kremlin's Noose Amy Knight tells the riveting story of Vladimir Putin and the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who forged a relationship in the early years of the Yeltsin era. Berezovsky later played a crucial role in Putin's rise to the Russian...

Ancient travellers called the Caucasus the mountain of languages. Greeks, Persians, Romans, Goths, Arabs, Mongols and Turks have all passed through the region; poets and artists have been inspired by its rugged beauty and yet its history is a tragic one...

A Freeborn People is a provocative exploration of the ways in which the political cultures of the elite and of common people intersected during the seventeenth century. David Underdown shows that the two worlds were not as separate as historians have...

Roman Ungern von Sternberg was a Baltic aristocrat, a violent, headstrong youth posted to the wilds of Siberia and Mongolia before the First World War. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Baron - now in command of a lethally effective rabble of...

Glory to each and to all, and the charge that they made! Glory to all three hundred, and all the Brigade!' Everyone has heard of the charge of the Light Brigade, a suicidal cavalry attack caused by confused orders which somehow sums up the Crimean War...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780374533458Author Edmund WilsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 608Imprint Farrar, Straus and GirouxPublisher Farrar, Straus and GirouxWeight(grams)...

Distinguished Professor Abraham Ascher offers an impressive blend of engaging narrative and fresh analysis in this perennially popular introduction to Russia. Newly updated on the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia: A Short History...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780156027519Author Evgenia Semenova GinzburgFormat PaperbackPage Count 432Imprint Harvest BooksPublisher Harvest BooksWeight(grams) 408gDimensions(mm) 203mm...

The Great Northern War was a long series of campaigns in which Russia, linked with several other countries in temporary alliances, confronted and eventually replaced Sweden as the predominant power in Northern Europe. While contemporary with the Duke of...

After years of rapprochement, the relationship between Russia and the West is more strained now than it has been in the past 25 years. Putin's motives, his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West, remain for many a mystery. Not for Mikhail...

The most authoritative and engrossing biography of the notorious dictator ever written, winner of the 2016 PROSE Award for Biography & Autobiography"Enthralling, brilliant, and groundbreaking, this book confirms Khlevniuk as probably the greatest living...

In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker provides a deeply reported, bottom-up explanation of Russia's resurgence under Putin. By cleverly exploiting the memory of the Soviet victory over fascism in World War II, Putin's regime has made ordinary Russians feel...

From Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist renegade Vladimir Jabotinsky and filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, an astonishing cast of geniuses helped shape Odessa, a legendary haven of cosmopolitan freedom on the Black Sea. Drawing on a wealth of...

A gripping account of the months before and after Stalin's death and how his demise reshaped the course of twentieth-century history Joshua Rubenstein's riveting account takes us back to the second half of 1952 when no one could foresee an end to Joseph...

Between 1941-45, the Germans recruited around 175,000 men from a number of minorities in the USSR, distinguishing between 'Turkomans' (predominantly Muslims) and 'Caucasians' (predominantly Orthodox Christians). Of these, many formed rear-area auxiliary...

THE DISSIDENT is the story of how one fearless man, offended by the dishonesty and criminality of the Russian political system, mounted a relentless opposition movement and became President Vladimir Putin's most formidable rival-so despised that the...

The Bolsheviks' seizure of power in Russia in late 1917 was swiftly followed by the establishment of the Cheka, the secret police of the new Soviet state. The Cheka was central to the Bolsheviks' elimination of political dissent during the Russian Civil...

In April 1945, German troops withdrawing from the Seelow Heights were encircled by the Soviet Army near the small town of Halbe, south-east of Berlin. Rather than surrender, their orders were to attempt to break out, westward, and join up with the German...

'Brings out the practical activism, principled politics, and revolutionary patience crucial to organizing the oppressed on a rapidly over-heating planet' - Jodi Dean 'Crackling with intellectual life' - Lars T. Lih Vladimir Lenin lies in a tomb in...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781455533008Author Angela StentFormat PaperbackPage Count 464Imprint FaithWordsPublisher Time Warner Trade PublishingWeight(grams) 431gDimensions(mm) 208mm...