Russian & Soviet History

This book recounts one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century: the siege of Leningrad. It is based on the searing testimony of eyewitnesses, some of whom managed to survive, while others were to die in streets devastated by bombing, in icy houses, or the endless bread queues. All of them, nevertheless, wanted to pass on to us the...

Despite decades of outstanding writing about the Holocaust, the full story of roughly a quarter million Jews who survived Nazi extermination in the Soviet interior, Central Asia, and the Middle East is nearly unknown, even to their descendants. Investigating her late father's mysterious identity as a Tehran Child, literary scholar Mikhal Dekel delved deep into archives—including Soviet files not previously...

A lively, inside account of Putin’s years of rule and the impending crisis that threatens his tsar-like regime “A beautifully written and very lively study of Russia that argues that the political order created by Vladimir Putin is stagnating—undermined by corruption and a failure to modernise economically.”—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times "Ben Judah, a young freelance writer, paints a more journalistic—and...

Whales and walruses, caribou and fox, gold and oil: through the stories of these animals and resources, Bathsheba Demuth reveals how people have turned ecological wealth in a remote region into economic growth and state power for more than 150 years. The first-ever comprehensive history of Beringia, the Arctic land and waters stretching from Russia to Canada, Floating Coast breaks...

Whales and walruses, caribou and fox, gold and oil: through the stories of these animals and resources, Bathsheba Demuth reveals how people have turned ecological wealth in a remote region into economic growth and state power for more than 150 years. The first-ever comprehensive history of Beringia, the Arctic land and waters stretching from Russia to Canada, Floating Coast breaks...

Emancipation by Peter Kolchin is a sequel to his landmark study, offering a comparison between the transition to freedom after American emancipation and the Russian Great Reforms. An enlightening comparative history. . . . Often revelatory for those who may think of the emancipation of enslaved Americans as an almost unique event."—Fergus M. Bordewich, Wall Street Journal The two largest...

China and Russia offers a compelling, expansive history of the relationship between these two global giants, spanning from the seventeenth century to the present day. Russia and China, the largest and most populous countries in the world, respectively, have maintained a delicate relationship for four centuries. In addition to a four-thousand-kilometre border, they have periodically shared a common outlook on...

The first major English-language history of Ukraine from its emergence after the demise of the Soviet Union through the current Russian invasion. "A fascinating and highly informative narrative."—Arthur Herman, Wall Street Journal In 1991, after seventy years of imperial Soviet rule, Ukraine became an independent country. Since 2022, it has been fighting an existential war against an unprovoked, brutal, and...

The recent murder of Anna Politkovskaya is grim evidence of the danger faced by journalists passionately committed to writing the truth about wars and politics. A longtime critic of the Russian government, particularly with regard to its policies in Chechnya, Politkovskaya was a special correspondent for the liberal Moscow newspaper Novaya gazeta. Beginning in 1999, Politkovskaya authored numerous articles about...

Provides an all-encompassing look at the history of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia Beginning with the breakup of the Mongol Empire in the mid-thirteenth century, Volume II of this comprehensive work covers the remarkable history of “Inner Eurasia,” from 1260 up to modern times, completing the story begun in Volume I. Volume II describes how agriculture spread through Inner Eurasia,...

A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Volume I is a comprehensive history that spans the region from the time of its first inhabitants up to the breakup of the Mongol Empire in 1260 AD. The author, David Christian, defines Inner Eurasia as comprising most of the former Soviet Union, Russia's vast Siberian territories, Russia's former empire in Central...

"Scholarly, intellectually stimulating, and readable. It is not only a very good guide through the record of Russian development, but it makes one go deeper by the way it raises interesting questions."—Frederick C. Barghoorn Generally recognised as the standard one-volume history of Russia, this monumental work describes Russia's growth from the times of the nomadic tribes to the Cold War....

'A carefully researched and hugely readable account of the build-up to war, the momentum inexorably growing as he assembles each part of the jigsaw. Indeed, his narrative is so persuasive that by the time you are about two-thirds through, it takes some effort to remind yourself that the Third World War never happened' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 1983 was a...

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 of High Caucasus Truly kaleidoscopic and unique in its reach, this is a superbly written and unusual book - Caroline Eden, author...

'A salve for our current reactionary times.' ANDREW HARTMAN The gripping, untold story of how six epic journeys launched the three communist revolutions that changed world history forever. From the streets of Petrograd during the heady autumn of 1917, to Mao's stunning victory in October 1949, and Fidel's triumphant arrival in Havana in January 1959, the history of the twentieth...

The biblical image of David and Goliath fittingly captures the nature of the war that Russia, the world's largest country by surface area, unleashed on neighbouring Ukraine. While Ukraine is the largest country on the European continent, it is almost thirty times smaller than Russia and has only over a quarter of Russia's population. Yet, Ukraine's stubborn resistance proves that...

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 expert on Stalin. Essential reading."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar Josef Stalin exercised supreme power in the Soviet Union...

From Ukraine’s leading writer-activist comes an intimate account of resistance and survival in the earliest months of the Russian-Ukrainian war When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Serhiy Zhadan took to social media to coordinate a network of resistance workers and send messages of courage to his fellow Ukrainians. What began as a local organising effort exploded onto the...

The first full biography of the fearless and brilliant Maria Yudina, a legendary pianist who was central to Russian intellectual life Maria Yudina was no ordinary musician. An incredibly popular pianist, she lived on the fringes of Soviet society and had close friendships with such towering figures as Boris Pasternak, Pavel Florensky, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Legend has it that she...

Lindsey Hughes, author of the classic account of Russia during the reign of Peter the Great, here provides the definitive shorter biography of this dramatic, appealing, and unconventional character. Peter the Great tells the story of Peter the Great (1672-1725) from birth to death in twelve chapters, including two final chapters on his legacy and posthumous reputation, with the aim...

A clear-eyed exploration of the career of Leon Trotsky, the tragic hero who “dreamed of justice and then wreaked havoc,” by a leading expert on human rights and the former Soviet Union Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in southern Ukraine, Trotsky was both a world-class intellectual and a man capable of the most narrow-minded ideological dogmatism. He was an effective military...

The definitive biography of Ivan the Terrible, setting the Tsar's infamous cruelty within the context of 16th-century Russia. "[A] magnificent biography . . . illuminated by the wisdom gained by its author from a lifetime of learning and reflection about the place of Russia in the wider world." — Orlando Figes, New York Review of Books "Likely to become the...

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 of High Caucasus Truly kaleidoscopic and unique in its reach, this is a superbly written and unusual book - Caroline Eden, author...

Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. However, despite appearances, these are not dogs—they are foxes. They result from the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken—imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev...

Few military organisations have had a greater importance than The Wagner Group: at a cursory glance, no more than a disreputable private mercenary group dedicated to committing war crimes, yet also, astonishingly, the challengers of the Kremlin on 23-24 June, 2023—unheard of in over two decades of Vladimir Putin's rule. From its inception in 2014, this nebulous organisation operating from...

The first comprehensive political history of the communist party, Vanguard of the Revolution is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. A. James McAdams argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking...

Ukrainian politics, the Russian invasion and the escalating crisis of the post-Soviet world Towards the Abyss presents a searching analysis of a decade of war and upheaval in Ukraine. Volodymyr Ishchenko has been among the left’s most significant commentators on Ukraine since 2014, when pro-EU protestors toppled the government in Kiev, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists seized parts of...

Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception and construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev and its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War—Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post—and the Second...

In this important book, influential historian Mark Bojcun explores the social democratic workers' movement in the Ukrainian provinces of the Russian Empire and its impact on the course of the 1917 Revolution. By focusing on the sections of the labour movement built by the Ukrainian, Jewish, and Russian parties, Bojcun sheds new light on the way they each confronted national...

The dominant view of the Russian Revolution of 1917 is of a movement led by prominent men like Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Despite the demonstrations of female workers for 'bread and herrings', which sparked the February Revolution, in most historical accounts of this momentous period, women are too often relegated to the footnotes. Judy Cox argues that women were...

This is a new history of the region known as Kyivan Rus', a state in eastern and northern Europe from the late ninth to the mid-sixteenth century that encompassed a variety of polities and peoples, including Lithuanian, Polish, Ottoman and others. This account for the first time focuses on the history of the region via families, which allows the discussion...

The Petrograd Workers in the Russian Revolution is a study of the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the first months of Soviet power as viewed and experienced 'from below', by the industrial workers of Petrograd, Russia's capital and the centre of its revolutionary movement. Based largely on contemporary scores, it lets the workers speak for themselves, showing them as conscious...

THE FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR This absorbing collective biography of the genius Nobel family reveals how the Nobels’ business and personal lives were fundamentally intertwined with the histories of Sweden and Russia, as well as the economic and entrepreneurial development of Europe in the long 19th century. The name Nobel is mainly associated with the Nobel prize....

THE FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR This absorbing collective biography of the genius Nobel family reveals how the Nobels’ business and personal lives were fundamentally intertwined with the histories of Sweden and Russia, as well as the economic and entrepreneurial development of Europe in the long 19th century. The name Nobel is mainly associated with the Nobel prize....

A major new account of the post-Napoleonic Holy Alliance and the promise it held for liberals The Holy Alliance is now most familiar as a label for conspiratorial reaction. In this book, Isaac Nakhimovsky reveals the Enlightenment origins of this post-Napoleonic initiative, explaining why it was embraced at first by many contemporary liberals as the birth of a federal Europe...

The Bolsheviks Come to Power is a classic work depicting the early months of the Russian Revolution, featuring a new introduction for the revolution's centenary. During the months following the collapse of the tsarist regime in war-torn Russia, the Bolshevik Party emerged from obscurity to overthrow the Provisional Government and establish the world's first communist government. In this absorbing narrative,...

Ten Days That Shook the World is an undisputed classic of political reportage. A stunning first-hand account overflowing with urgency and immediacy, Reed's masterpiece lives and breathes the streets, meeting halls, posters, and pamphlets of the revolution he witnessed. Like no other work, it places the reader shoulder to shoulder with the people's militias, factory committees, propagandists, and crowds which...

This book provides a comprehensive study of the complex impacts of the war in Ukraine on Russo-Iranian relations, and the resulting consequences for the international relations of the Middle East. In contrast to dominant academic approaches, which view Russo-Iranian relations through the lens of an anti-hegemonic agenda and confrontation with the US-led international order, this study presents an alternative angle....

"Masterfully told and compellingly reinterpreted." The Moscow Times Stalinism at War tells the epic story of the Soviet Union in World War Two. Starting with Soviet involvement in the war in Asia and ending with a bloody counter-insurgency in the borderlands of Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltics, the Soviet Union’s war was both considerably longer and more all-encompassing than is...

Seven Myths of the Russian Revolution is a fascinating volume that significantly contributes to our understanding of the Russian Revolution, from World War I to the consolidation of the Bolshevik regime. This book addresses seven myths, including the exaggerated influence of Rasputin, a supposed conspiracy behind the February Revolution, the treasonous Bolshevik dependence on German support, the numerous Anastasia pretenders...

It is impossible to think of Russia today without thinking of Vladimir Putin. More than any other major national leader, he personifies his country in the eyes of the outside world and dominates Western media coverage of it to an extraordinary extent. In Russia itself, he is likewise the centre of attention for detractors and supporters alike. But as Tony...

A highly original overview of Russia's tumultuous history Covering more than one thousand years, Russia as Empire shows how the medieval empire of Kyivan Rus' metamorphosed into today's Russian Federation. Kees Boterbloem vividly and lucidly describes Russia's various incarnations and considers how the concept of empire evolved from tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union, and how and why it survives...

Russia is the largest country in the world, with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. Over a thousand years, this multifaceted nation of shifting borders has been known as Rus, Muscovy, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago, it was reinvented as the Russian Federation. Russia is not an enigma, but its past is violent, tragic, sometimes...

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Abraham Ascher offers a skillful blend of engaging narrative and fresh analysis in this concise introduction to Russian history. Newly updated on the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, it covers the growing political tensions between Russia and its neighbours, and the mounting divergence between Russian and US' foreign policies. This stimulating and beautifully written introduction will...

Wise and thorough - The Spectator Brisk and readable ... very valuable - Financial Times He is an engaging guide ... and writes with the same flair demonstrated in his previous bestseller Afgantsy - The Sunday Telegraph A scholarly yet highly readable gallop through the last 1000 years of Russian history ... To understand this tormented nation, you can do...

Through extensive archival research in eight different languages, Revolutionary Social Democracy introduces readers to the politics and practices of socialists in Tsarist Russia's imperial borderlands. These parties fought for democracy and workers' power across the entire span of the Russian Empire—from the factories of Warsaw, to the oil fields of Baku, to the autonomous parliament of Finland. Eric Blanc's incisive...

An authoritative analysis of how Putin's Russia conquered the Crimea in 2014 using 'grey zone' warfare techniques, blending operations by anonymous special forces with cyber, sabotage, and propaganda. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 was almost bloodless – fought as much through propaganda, cyberattacks and subversion as by force of arms – but it is crucial for our understanding of...

How did Russia manage to emerge resurgent on the world stage and play a weak hand so effectively? Is it because Putin is a brilliant strategist? Or has Russia stepped into a vacuum created by the West's distraction with its own domestic problems and US ambivalence about whether it still wants to act as a superpower? Putin's World examines the...

An original history of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics and rekindled the Cold War. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has reshaped history. In the decades after the collapse of Soviet communism, the West convinced itself that liberal democracy would henceforth be the dominant, ultimately unique, system of governance—a hubris that shaped...

An in-depth history of the Stalinist skyscraper. In the early years of the Cold War, the skyline of Moscow was forever transformed by a citywide skyscraper building project. As the steel girders of the monumental towers went up, the centuries-old metropolis was reinvented to embody the greatness of Stalinist society. Moscow Monumental explores how the quintessential architectural works of the...

Asked shortly after the revolution about how she viewed the new government, Tatiana Varsher replied, "With the wide-open eyes of a historian." Her countrywoman, Zinaida Zhemchuzhnaia, expressed a similar need to take note: "I want to write about the way those events were perceived and reflected in the humble and distant corner of Russia that was the Cossack town of...

The definitive account of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky, its leader and key historian. Published to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, this edition of Trotsky's masterpiece, with a new foreword by Ahmed Shawki, tells the epic story of the remarkable events which transformed Russian and world history forever. Leon Trotsky was a leader of...

For those living in the Soviet Union, Orwell's masterpieces, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, were not dystopias, but accurate depictions of reality. Here, the Orwell scholar and expert on Russian politics, Masha Karp—Russian Features Editor at the BBC World Service for over a decade—explores how Orwell's work was received in Russia, when it percolated into the country even under censorship....

Written by a renowned expert in modern conflicts, this fully illustrated book provides an examination of ground warfare over the past 20 years and looks ahead to the future. Using lessons drawn from recent history, including the war in Ukraine, Boots on the Ground offers a fascinating insight into how armies and battlefields of the future will look. Each chapter...

Barbarossa 1941 by Kevin Boylan is an exquisitely presented atlas, featuring original 1:2,500,000-scale German military maps from the 1941 Operation Barbarossa campaign. Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s surprise assault on the Soviet Union in June 1941, aimed at nothing less than the complete destruction of Communist Russia in a matter of months. It was the one period when the Germans had a...

The Havah's Journey trilogy—Please Say Kaddish for Me, From Silt and Ashes, As One Must, One Can—abridged into one illustrated volume with bonus stories. No one can forget the bravery and perseverance of Havah Cohen Gitterman, the Jewish heroine of Rochelle Wisoff-Fields's captivating family saga. Born in Czarist Russia at the turn of the century, Havah is the only survivor...

‘Extraordinary.’ Philippe Sands ‘We are touched by the courage and dignity of Andrew Harding's characters - qualities that the author must surely possess in equal measure.’ - Andrey Kurkov ‘A story of extraordinary heroism by ordinary people.’ - James Meek ‘This gripping account is the Russian invasion of Ukraine in microcosm.’ - Lindsey Hilsum The Russians are invading. But the...

All the Kremlin's Men is a gripping narrative of an accidental king and a court out of control. Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putin's inner circle, this book presents a radically different view of power and politics in Russia. The image of Putin as a strongman is dissolved. In its place is a weary figurehead buffeted—if...

Winner of the Costa Biography Award What makes a Stalin? Was he a Tsarist agent or Lenin's bandit? Was he to blame for his wife's death? When did the killing start? Based on revelatory research, here is the thrilling story of how a charismatic cobbler's son became a student priest, romantic poet, prolific lover, gangster mastermind, and murderous revolutionary. Culminating...

For the first time ever, New York Times bestselling author and former CIA operative Robert Baer tells the explosive story of how insiders believe a KGB mole rose to the highest ranks of the CIA. In the aftermath of the Cold War, US intelligence caught three high-profile Russian spies. However, these arrests left major questions unanswered, and rumours have long...

In this monumental book, Ronald Grigor Suny sheds light on the least understood years of Stalin's career, bringing to life the turbulent world in which he lived and the extraordinary historical events that shaped him. Suny draws on a wealth of new archival evidence from Stalin's early years in the Caucasus to chart the psychological metamorphosis of the young Stalin,...

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution irrevocably changed the course of history, with consequences still being felt a century later. This book offers a dramatic depiction of the chaotic events of the revolution, drawn from selected firsthand accounts. Assembling extracts from letters, journals, diaries, and memoirs from a remarkably diverse cast of both Russians and foreign nationals who were there when the...

Nicholas & Alexandra is the internationally famous biography from Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Massie. Massie shows conclusively how the personal curse of the young heir's haemophilia, and the decisive influence it brought Rasputin, became fatally linked with the collapse of Imperial Russia. As an engrossing account of one of the century's most dramatic episodes—and an intimate portrait of two people caught...

This is the story of Leandro Illin and his family who settled in Australia in 1910 after roaming the world seeking a new home. Five years later, in the face of official opposition, Leandro married a Ngadjon Aboriginal woman, Kitty Clarke. Following her death in 1925, he raised their six children by himself in outback Queensland, struggling to eke out...

Isaac Deutscher was planning to write a biography of Lenin after he completed the Trotsky trilogy. However, he changed his mind and wrote one of Stalin instead. This was necessary, he argued, to show that Stalin is an objective fact. He won the faction fight. We lost. He can't be ignored. The tome on Stalin duly appeared and was respectfully...

Lenin (1870–1924) was the leader of the communist Bolshevik party and founder of the Soviet Union. He was a key revolutionary thinker and a man who, at one time, lived in exile for his political views and survived several assassination attempts. This concise biography of Lenin's life and outlook is based on wide-ranging new research that puts Lenin into the...

A rich and fascinating exploration of the Volga River and its vital place in Russian history—named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times “A memorable journey into the heart of Russian social, political, and cultural history.”—Jennifer Eremeeva, Moscow Times “'Without the Volga, there would be no Russia.' The final words of Janet Hartley's book sound sweeping. But its...

The Iron Curtain divided the continent of Europe, north to south, with the Berlin Wall as its most visible, infamous manifestation. Since the Cold War ended and these borders came down, Europe has transformed itself. But we cannot consign the tensions and restrictions of the past to history. At a time when Russia is once again making war and when...

The Second World War was the defining moment in the history of the Soviet Union. With Stalin at the helm, it emerged victorious at a huge economic and human cost. But even before the fighting had ended, Stalin began to turn against the architects of success. In this original and comprehensive study, Alfred J. Rieber examines Stalin as a wartime...

This searing account of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine reveals that, contrary to popular media narratives, Western hawks are culpable in triggering a war that has cost many thousands of innocent Ukrainian lives. In 1991, the Cold War ended in a bloodless victory for NATO. After 45 years of a gruelling, nuclear-tinged Cold War, communism was dead, Eastern Europe...

'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra ... Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair' Economist It was history's most successful political partnership— as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince...

A thrilling new biography of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—composer of some of the world's most popular orchestral and theatrical music. "A lively, argumentative and thoughtful reflection on one of the 19th century's most important musical figures."—Michael O'Donnell, Wall Street Journal Tchaikovsky is famous for all the wrong reasons. Portrayed as a hopeless romantic, a suffering melancholic, or a morbid obsessive, the...

Corruption on an immense scale and the unscrupulous use of law enforcement have left indelible marks on post-Soviet Russia. Federico Varese reveals the scars of these grim decades through an unusual lens: its criminal history. Varese weaves together the tales of four criminals, each emblematic of a different decade and social group within the country. We encounter a traditional mobster,...

A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union—showing how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms led to its demise “A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart.”—Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times “[A] masterly analysis.”—Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it...

A compelling, expansive history of the relationship between China and Russia, from the seventeenth century to the present. China and Russia explores the delicate relationship that Russia and China, the largest and most populous countries in the world, respectively, have maintained over four centuries. Despite sharing a four-thousand-kilometre border and occasionally aligning in political and economic affairs, these nations remain...

Growing up in Bulgaria, Julia Kristeva was warned by her father not to read Dostoyevsky. “Of course, and as usual,” she recalls, “I disobeyed paternal orders and plunged into Dosto. Dazzled, overwhelmed, engulfed.” Kristeva would go on to become one of the most important figures in European intellectual life—and she would return over and over again to Dostoyevsky, still haunted...

Putin’s war has prompted a deep analysis and reevaluation of the forces driving this deadly confrontation. At the Vanishing Point in History brings together renowned humanities scholars and prominent novelists to explore the roots and causes of the ongoing catastrophe in Eastern Europe. This distinguished group of Russian émigrés, well-versed in Russian culture, history, and philosophy, aims to examine the...

Set during the darkest days of the Cold War, a tautly-told, nail-bitingly atmospheric historical thriller about two competing KGB operatives caught in a race to secure the devastating truth behind the assassination of JFK. The new novel from a master of the Cold War thriller... This is Robert Harris storytelling territory - Daily Mail Outstanding - Sunday Times Tense, exciting...

The personal and the political collide in this masterful account of the death of a dictator. When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, he had been the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union for over twenty years, having presided over the ruthless modernisation of the early 1930s, the Great Purges later in the decade, the near-catastrophe and ultimate victory of World...

An examination of the causes of the Russian invasion and its implications for the future 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. He...