Russian & Soviet History

The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a monumental work that provides a harrowing account of the Soviet Union's labour camp system. Set against a vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres, and secret police, the narrative unfolds the grim realities of informers, spies, and interrogators while simultaneously celebrating instances of everyday heroism. This literary masterpiece, based on the testimony...

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is a spellbinding Cold War thriller that unravels the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who risked everything to aid the British in the battle against Soviet oppression. In meticulously researched detail, Macintyre paints a vivid portrait of espionage, double-crossing, and unparalleled bravery, giving readers a riveting glimpse into...

The Forgotten Soldier is an international bestseller that presents a German soldier's first-hand account of life on the Russian front during the second half of World War II. When Guy Sajer joins the infantry, full of ideals in the summer of 1942, the German army is enjoying unparalleled success in Russia. However, he quickly discovers that for the foot soldier,...

Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with Stalin's Wine Cellar by John Baker and Nick Place, a tale that melds history, mystery, and the intrigue of the fine wine industry. This riveting narrative follows John Baker, a well-known dealer of rare and exquisite wines, as he is presented with a mysterious wine list that promises an adventure beyond his...

THE PULSE-POUNDING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY 'Breathtaking . . . This is lucid, kaleidoscopic history' - RORY CARROLL 'As good as any thriller' - HELEN RAPPAPORT 'Hugely compelling' - ROGER MOORHOUSE In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky's study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The...

The Romanovs offers a spellbinding exploration into the rise and fall of one of the world's most powerful dynasties. Spanning over three centuries, this meticulously researched work delves into the intricate tapestry of Russian history, unravelling the story behind twenty tsars and tsarinas who shaped the destiny of their nation. From the transformational reign of Peter the Great to the...

A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph and Economist 'This book reads like a spy novel' Financial Times 'Entertaining and vivid' Observer 'Reads like a thriller' The Sun –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––- The astonishing story of the ten million books that were smuggled across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. For almost five decades after the Second World War, Europe...

The monumental biography of the most influential leader on the world stage in the last twenty years. Vladimir Putin is a pariah to the West. He has the power to reduce the West to nuclear ashes. He invades his neighbours, meddles in western elections, and orders assassinations. Yet many Russians continue to support him. Under Putin's leadership, Russia has once...

‘A towering achievement’ MERVE EMRE NYT Best New Books of 2026 A majestic cultural and environmental history that reveals how forests have made – and resisted – Russia’s many empires. From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the Steppes of Central Asia, Russia’s forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world’s wooded lands. The Oak and the...

In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a fellow East Slav state with much shared history. Russia's War Against Ukraine by Mark Edele, a world authority on the history of the Soviet Union, explains why and how this conflict came about. Edele considers competing historical claims and arguments with authority and lucidity. His primary focus, however, is...

Written in 1857, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivalled Florence Nightingale's during the Crimean War. Seacole's offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, Seacole set out independently to the Crimea, where she acted as doctor and 'mother' to wounded soldiers...

A remarkable new translation of Russia's most lauded lost classics, now in paperback. Discover one of Twentieth-Century Russia's most lauded lost classics, now in a remarkable new translation. Outstanding... A sparkling, supremely precious literary achievement Telegraph One of the great Russian autobiographies, as fresh now as the day it was written - and the day it was lived Julian Barnes...

'A masterpiece of history' DAILY TELEGRAPH Between 1917 and 1921, a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. Many regard this savage civil war as the most influential event of the modern era. An incompatible White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky's Red Army and Lenin's single-minded Communist...

Her beauty saved her life - and condemned her. In 1942, Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, and forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival. After liberation, Cilka is charged...

Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie is an epic biography that transports readers into the fascinating world of one of history’s most remarkable figures, Tsar Peter I of Russia. Set against the grand tapestry of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, the narrative traces Peter's meteoric rise from a shared throne as a ten-year-old co-tsar...

October by China Miéville is a masterful narrative that breathes life into one of the most monumental moments in history—the Russian Revolution of 1917. Through the author's compelling prose, readers are transported back to a world of seismic change, where a sprawling empire was transformed through the fervour of revolutionary zeal. In February of 1917, Russia languished under the yoke...

A masterful history of how war and insecurity, both real and perceived, have driven Russia’s destiny for centuries, including the disastrous invasion of Ukraine. Putin retains his stranglehold on his position in Russia despite an almost ruinous invasion of Ukraine. The answer as to how and why can be found in Russian history. With no naturally defensible borders, and environmental...

WINSTON CHURCHILL called it ‘the worst journey in the world’. But was even this telling quote, describing the nightmarish torment experienced while transporting military aid to northern Russia during World War Two, an understatement? As this book’s title implies, Battle of the Arctic tells a unique story. For much of the conflict was complicated by terrific storms, snow, ice, fog,...

The definitive biography of Soviet Jewish dissident writer Vasily Grossman, called “gripping" and "fascinating" by William Taubman in the New York Times “[Popoff] tells Grossman’s story with sensitivity and a keen understanding of his world, drawing on little-known archival collections to produce what must be considered the definitive biography.”—Douglas Smith, Wall Street Journal Longlisted for the 2019 Cundill History Prize...

For nearly a century, the two most powerful nations on earth—Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia—fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it The Great Game, a phrase immortalised in Kipling's Kim. When play first began, the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end,...

It's March 2022 and Russian tanks are roaring across the vast, snow-dusted fields of Ukraine. Their destination: Voznesensk, a town with a small bridge that could change the course of the war. The heavily-armed Russians are expecting an easy fight - or no fight at all. After all, Voznesensk is a quiet farming town, full of pensioners. But the locals...

This is the simplest tale in the world. Two people meet and fall in love. But the route which brought Larissa Salmina and Francis Haskell to a backstreet Venetian restaurant in 1962 was anything but straightforward. Larissa was born in northern Russia, the daughter of a Soviet army officer from a noble family who survived the siege of Leningrad by...

As a former ambassador to Moscow, Rodric Braithwaite brings unique insights to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. The story has been distorted not only by Cold War propaganda but also by the myths of the nineteenth century Great Game. It moves from high politics of the Kremlin to the lonely Russian conscripts in isolated mountain outposts. The parallels with Afghanistan...

The compelling account from the front lines of the war in Ukraine... Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war's decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm...

A 50th anniversary edition of the book that brought down the Soviet Union, now with an introduction from Solzhenitsyn's widow detailing the dramatic story of its publication. The Gulag Archipelago helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated. — Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph With a new introduction by Natalia Solzhenitsyn. A vast canvas of camps, prisons,...

Written by a Communist insider, Conversations With Stalin is a candid portrait of one of the most dangerous men in history. This extraordinarily vivid and unnerving book details three meetings held with Stalin during and after the Second World War. Djilas brilliantly describes the dictator in his lair—cunning, cruel, and enormously talented. Few books give as clear a sense of...

The essential, must-read insider account of the West’s cat and mouse economic warfare against Russia and how it is changing the face of global trade. Magisterial and gripping’ Catherine Belton ‘A brilliant, engagingly written and timely book’ Owen Matthews Undeterred by eight years of timid US sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on 24 February 2022. In...

A New York Times Editors’ Choice “Entertaining . . . A heady mix of propaganda and paranoia . . . [Szabłowski writes] sensitively . . . not just about food but also its terrible absence.” —The New York Times Book Review “Riveting—a delicious odyssey full of history, humor, and jaw-dropping stories. If you want to understand the making of modern...

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie is an enthralling and meticulously researched biography that captures the life and legacy of one of the most powerful women in history. Massie transports readers back to the 18th century, where an obscure German princess, born Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst, ascended to the Russian throne to become the...

In his timely new book, Mikhail Shishkin argues that Russia is not a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma': we just don't know enough about it. So what is the real story behind Putin's autocratic regime and its invasion of Ukraine? In My Russia: War or Peace?, Shishkin traces the roots of Russia's problems, from the 'Kievan Rus'...

The Future is History by Masha Gessen is a riveting exploration of modern Russia’s turbulent journey from the fall of the Soviet Union to its current iteration as a formidable, authoritarian state. Spanning several decades, the book meticulously chronicles the lives of four Russians, who were born during the collapse of the USSR, at a time brimming with hopes of...

For months, ominous signs pointed in one scarcely believable direction: Russia was about to invade Ukraine. Despite these warnings, the world was stunned by the epochal scale of the assault that began in February 2022. This was not just a skirmish; it was an audacious attempt by one nation to devour another. The Kremlin harboured ambitions far beyond territorial gains—it...

The fascinating true story behind HBO's Catherine the Great starring Dame Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great awaits readers in Robert K. Massie's masterful biography. Born into a minor noble family, young Sophia transformed herself into Catherine, Empress of Russia, through sheer determination and political acumen. Her ascent to power is nothing short of extraordinary, marked by strategic marriages, cunning...

History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky stands as an epic, captivating, and monumental account of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Spanning a wide array of historical, political, and social contexts, Trotsky's narrative delves into the intricate details and dramatic moments that led to the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government and the establishment of Bolshevik power. Through his...

The acclaimed winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize returns to Chernobyl to tell the gripping story of thirty-five days of war. On 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, armoured vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital - and an...

An essential short history of Russia by acclaimed writer and expert Mark Galeotti, taking us from Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great, to the Russian Revolution, the fall of the USSR, and the rise of Vladimir Putin - and updated to include the road to the Ukrainian war. Fascinating... One of the most astute political commentators on Putin and...

Hitler and Stalin by Laurence Rees provides an in-depth comparative study of the two most infamous dictators of the 20th century, examining their roles during World War II. This meticulously researched book delves into the complex and often chilling relationship between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. It paints a detailed picture of how these tyrants forged, broke, and redefined alliances...

Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes is an enthralling exploration of Russian culture and identity that spans centuries and geographical boundaries. The book intricately weaves a rich tapestry of stories and characters, illuminating the evolution of Russia from the splendour of 18th-century St Petersburg to the relentless drive of Stalinist propaganda. Through an evocative narrative, Figes brings to life an extraordinary...

A fascinating, bottom-up exploration of contemporary Russian politics that sheds new light on why Putin’s grip on power is more fragile than we think. Putin vs. the People wrestles with perhaps the central conundrum of contemporary Russia: the endurance of support for Putin amid deepening disillusionment with the present and pessimism about the future.”—Daniel Beer, The Guardian What do ordinary...

A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: Sunday Times Irish Times Spectator Financial Times Telegraph * Aspects of History ‘The history book you need if you want to understand modern Russia' – ANNE APPLEBAUM ‘A magnificent, magisterial thousand-year history of Russia . . . by one of the masters of Russian scholarship' – SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE ‘A great historian at...

The history of Russia since 1917 has always been told as the story of the Communist Party, with the secret police as its instrument—the sword and shield of the Party. This groundbreaking book revolutionises that account. From Red Terror to Terrorist State argues that the Cheka and its successors were never ancillary but the Party's equal, locked in a century-long...

Step into the covert world of Russian espionage with this revealing insider’s account of how the Russian Intelligence Services (RIS) operate across the globe. Drawing on years of CIA field experience, Sean M. Wiswesser exposes the tactics, tradecraft, and mindset of the RIS – making this a must-read for anyone fascinated by spies, sabotage, and the high-stakes intelligence war between...

Subjugate or Exterminate! is an authoritative first-hand account of the Russo-Chechen conflict by a Chechen leader who played a central role in all the main events. Akhmed Zakayev rose rapidly from an actor of Shakespearean roles to Commander of the Western Group for the Defence of Ichkeria, and later served as Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya and, in exile, as...

Nearly a century after his murder, Rasputin remains as divisive a figure as ever. Was he really a horse thief and a hard-drinking ruffian in his youth? Was he a devout Orthodox Christian, or was he in fact just a fake holy man? Are the stories of his enormous sexual drive, debauchery, and drunken orgies true, or simply a myth?...

Since the invasion of Ukraine and the ban on foreign reporters, Russia seems to have sunk into an even deeper shadow than in the darkest times of the Soviet Union. Only by presenting himself as a historian was Italian journalist Marzio G. Mian able to penetrate the Russian heartland, leading to his groundbreaking cover story for Harpers’ Magazine, “Behind the...

A son's reckoning with a formidable mother, Russia and the history that shaped them both. On 3 October 2023, beneath the dome of Les Invalides, the French Republic honours Hélène Carrère d'Encausse - renowned historian of Russia, member of the Académie Française, national figure. Among the mourners stands her son, Emmanuel Carrère, wondering who this formidable woman truly was: to...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PUSHKIN HOUSE PRIZE 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRES DEBUT NON-FICTION PRIZE 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHERBORNE PRIZE FOR TRAVEL WRITING 2026 'A different level of insight to anything I’ve read for a long time about Russia.' - Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia 'Exquisitely observed.. Full of empathy, Amos refuses easy stereotypes.' - Tom Parfitt, author...

A comprehensive evaluation of generalship on the most important front in World War II. The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the largest sustained air-ground conflict in military history and played the decisive role in the defeat of the Third Reich. This new study seeks to analyse the command and generalship of the combatants. The scale...

Leading expert Mark Galeotti explores the undeclared war in the Donbas in 2014, illuminating the long-running Russia-Ukraine crisis. The emerging and undeclared struggle for Ukraine's south-eastern Donbas region that erupted after the Russian annexation of Crimea was at once an insurgency, a proxy war, and a direct Russian intervention. At first, it was a struggle largely between local insurgents and...

A highly illustrated study of the T-72 main battle tank and variants, detailing its history from the Cold War Soviet Army through to the current War in Ukraine. The T-72 is one of the most recognisable tanks in the world. Produced in large quantities, it has seen service in numerous Middle Eastern and African conflicts, as well as the War...

In riveting prose, In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century. Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine and Poland by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their...

A riveting account of a forgotten holocaust: the slaughter of over one hundred thousand Ukrainian Jews in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century. 'Exhaustive, clearly written, deeply researched' - The Times 'A meticulous, original and deeply affecting historical account' - Philippe Sands, author...

This book skilfully probes the conflicted relationship that the Russian peoples have had with their army, most often seeing service as a burden to the individual and family, yet a necessary one to defend the interests of the nation/empire. Roger R. Reese reflects on the fact that even from before its formal institutionalisation by Peter I, military service and the...

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 produced a rupture with the United States and Europe not seen since the Cold War. As a result, Russia refocused its entire state machinery on one purpose: to outlast the West. Russia foreign policy analyst Hanna Notte uncovers how Russia reinvented itself, outmanoeuvring sanctions, forging surprising alliances, charming the Global South and sowing fear...

Packed with rare and unpublished photographs, this is a new history of the Red Army’s tracked artillery tractors that were pivotal to its success in World War II. The development of artillery tractors in the 1930s was integral to the industrial development of the Soviet Union. The tracked tractor plants at Chelyabinsk, Kharkov and Stalingrad were built specifically to industrialise...

The first authoritative, illustrated account of Russia’s high-risk strike on Ukraine’s capital, the centrepiece of its failed 2022 invasion plan. In 2022, Vladimir Putin was convinced he could seize Kyiv, install a puppet government, and close his fist on Ukraine in a matter of weeks, with minimal fighting. In Kyiv 2022, Dr Mark Galeotti, a world expert on Russian military...

A masterful history of how war and insecurity, both real and perceived, have driven Russia’s destiny for centuries, including the disastrous invasion of Ukraine. Putin retains his stranglehold on his position in Russia despite an almost ruinous invasion of Ukraine. The answer as to how and why can be found in Russian history. With no naturally defensible borders, and environmental...

This absorbing study describes and illustrates the US, British, Japanese, French, Italian and Czechoslovak troops deployed to North Russia and Siberia at the height of the Russian Civil War. Between March 1918 and late 1920, a multinational force was deployed in the former Russian Empire’s Arctic Circle and in Eastern Siberia, becoming drawn into the Russian Civil War. American, British,...

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union begins its countdown. From the steppes of Kazakhstan, the first human—Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin—launches into space. In that moment, another countdown begins. How could it be that a single generation—just three decades—would separate the USSR's crowning achievement from the collapse of the Soviet empire? More than...

No campaign during World War Two contained more spinetingling drama, outstanding courage and heartbreaking tragedy than the Arctic convoys. Yet they – and the multifaceted Battle of the Arctic that had to be fought to get them through to Russia – remain one of the war’s most undercelebrated feats. As this book’s title implies, Battle of the Arctic tells a...

Thirty years after the end of the Soviet Union, multiple ghosts haunt Russia, its elites, and its society, from concern over demographic and economic decline to worry about the country’s vulnerability to external intervention, reviving the old notion of Russia as a "besieged fortress." Faced with both a West that emerged victorious from the Cold War and a shockingly dynamic...

All original edition. Nothing added, nothing removed. This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle...

Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism—an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history—now with a new introduction by Anne Applebaum. A cornerstone of modern political philosophy, The Origins of Totalitarianism has become essential reading as we grapple with the rise of autocrats and tyrannical thought across the globe. The book begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central...

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a bloody escalation of a conflict that had begun eight years earlier. What drove Vladimir Putin to launch Europe's largest land war since World War II? Lucian Kim—an on-the-ground reporter in the region for decades—offers a gripping, definitive account of Russia's path to war, from Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 Maidan...

How officials in bureaucratic institutions in Tajikistan, though well-meaning, create a postcolonial, problematic "migrant" Making Migrants explores the postcolonial life of institutions and law in Tajikistan, finding that bureaucratic spaces render people who seek to work abroad into the subjective construct of a "migrant." Anthropologist Malika Bahovadinova argues that this category describes not an individual, but a broader process of...

This book examines the transnational circulation of knowledge between Russia and Japan from the early Meiji era to the present day, reconfiguring the East-West paradigm both in terms of socio-geographical divides and cultural and political tensions within both cultures. Featuring chapters from the fields of literature, history, philosophy, film, and social and political thought, the case studies give interdisciplinary examples...

Between the Buddha and the New Tsar is an ethnography of contemporary urban Buddhism in Buryatia, a republic within the Russian Federation. Kristina Jonutytė shows how – in this ethnically and religiously diverse borderland region – Buryat Buddhists are caught between an oppressive, militant Russian regime and the tenacity of local religious and cultural forms. As Jonutytė narrates, historically Buryat...

This book draws on the rich historical record of the Russian royal court to demonstrate how green spaces have been used as an instrument of diplomatic and political influence. Ekaterina Heath convincingly argues that parks like Pavlovsk are a fruitful new primary source, here revealing the previously obscured evidence of women’s political activities. In 19th-century Russia, green spaces gave women...

In the spring of 1936, the Soviet effort to build an anti-Nazi alliance was failing. Stalin continued nevertheless to support diplomatic efforts to stop Nazi aggression in Europe. In Stalin's Failed Alliance, the sequel to Stalin's Gamble, Michael Jabara Carley continues his re-evaluation of European diplomacy during the critical events between May 1936 and August 1939. This narrative history examines...

Following the celebrations of the Millennium and our entry into the 21st century, it was to be hoped that the days when a brutal dictator could bring mindless death and destruction to another country, and even to his own people, were over, and that the lessons of the past had been well and truly learned. A forlorn hope, as it...

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews "This is the essential backstory, the history book that you need if you want to understand modern Russia and its wars with Ukraine, with its neighbours, with America, and with the West." --Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy and Red Famine From "the great storyteller...

An annotated translation of Alexander Herzen’s monumental memoir, Past and Thoughts—the first new English-language edition in a century—captures the tumultuous life and penetrating cultural and political insights of the writer widely regarded as the founder of Russian socialism. Isaiah Berlin called Alexander Herzen’s magnum opus, Past and Thoughts, “a literary masterpiece worthy to be placed by the side of the...

As expansionist empires, socialist superpowers, and authoritarian regimes, China and Russia have much in common. While many in the West fear the formation of an authoritarian alliance between these two great powers, and while Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping call themselves 'good friends', the geopolitical interests of Beijing and Moscow are often at odds with each other. They may be...

The official, one-volume edition, authorised by Solzhenitsyn "BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20th CENTURY" — Time The Nobel Prize winner's towering masterpiece of world literature and a landmark of Russian history, the searing record of four decades of terror and oppression, in one abridged volume (authorised by the author). Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum. "It is impossible to...

Red Notice does for investing in Russia and the former Soviet Union what Liar's Poker did for our understanding of Salomon Brothers, Wall Street, and the mortgage-backed securities business in the 1980s. Browder's business saga meshes.

New York Times Best Book of the Year Time Best Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner From journal Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham is a definitive, dramatic account of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster — the worst nuclear accident in history — blending historical narrative and deep...

When did Russia lose its chance of freedom? 1990: As a new openness sweeps Russia, a talented young physicist, Boris Nemtsov, begins his career in politics. Charismatic, confident, liberal and vehemently opposed to corruption, he swiftly rises to prominence. For the first time, another future seems possible. 2015: Putin holds the country in the grip of tyranny once more. Nemtsov,...

Retired US Ambassador John J. Maresca draws on his personal papers to offer a first-hand account of his role in negotiating the end of the Cold War with the USSR. As a special American Ambassadorial envoy, he symbolically opened direct US diplomatic relations with each of the newly independent states from the former USSR following its dissolution. He recounts the...

Following its declaration of independence in 1991, Ukraine has sought to produce a new national history. After the 2004 Orange Revolution, newly elected president Viktor Yushchenko embarked on an ambitious project to rehabilitate the most radical branch of the far-right interwar and wartime Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its armed wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Their leaders were...

On 24 February 2022, Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He declared a 'special military operation', expecting a quick victory. The Ukrainian army countered with a spirited defence that foiled his political aims. Putin's special operation descended into a brutal slogging match of massacres. The horror of Bucha, rapes, looting, and the mass kidnap of children were discovered...