Soviet Russia History

A major new history that transforms our understanding of World War II—tracing the conflict and its most infamous crime, the Holocaust, to Germany’s implacable hostility towards Soviet Russia.

A mother is a dissident, a refusenik, and a prisoner in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) in the 1970s and '80s. Her daughter, eleven years old, is left without a family. A grandmother is in the USA, waiting for her daughter and granddaughter and not knowing if she'll ever see them again. "I am fine," the three of them write to each other in their letters. How can you be "fine" when you have to fight to survive? When you must be silent? When the place that you love turns against you?

The Palace of the Soviets was an unrealized project for the construction of a high-rise administrative building in Moscow to be used for sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and mass demonstrations. The height of the Palace of the Soviets, together with the 100-meter statue of Vladimir Lenin, would be 415 meters. The palace was to become the center of the new Soviet Moscow and the tallest building in the world, symbolizing the victory of socialism. This audiobook examines the grand designs envisioned by the USSR, and how the horrors of war indefinitely scrapped the project.

Every American president since the end of the Cold War has called for better relations with Russia. But each has seen relations get worse by the time he left office. Now, the two countries are facing off in a virtual war being fought without clear goals or boundaries. Why? George Beebe argues that new game-changing technologies, disappearing rules of the game, and distorted perceptions on both sides are combining to lock Washington and Moscow into an escalatory spiral that they do not recognize.

In the early morning hours of February 24, 2022, Russia—or the Russian Federation—under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To date, though Russia has realized only limited territorial gains, the toll on human life has been extensive, with nearly 500,000 casualties and massive destruction of resources, infrastructures, and food supplies.

The failure of Gorbachev's Asian initiatives has had dramatic consequences, by the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was in full retreat from Asia, and since the Soviet collapse, Russia has been left on the sidelines of the "Pacific century." In this exceptionally wide-ranging and deeply researched audiobook, Sergey Radchenko offers an illuminating account of the end of the Cold War in the East, tracing the death of Soviet ambitions in Asia.

What do ordinary Russians think of Putin? Who are his supporters? And why might their support now be faltering? Alive with the voices and experiences of ordinary Russians and elites alike, Sam Greene and Graeme Robertson craft a compellingly original account of contemporary Russian politics.

Le ferie alla dacia per coltivare patate e le vacanze dei mafiosi nell'unico albergo di lusso del Mar Nero. L'infanzia di Gorbaciov, scolaro modello e attore mancato in un villaggio di contadini, e la ricetta dell'ex braccio destro di Stalin, convinto che basterebbe dare "pane e salame" a tutti per riportare l'ordine. La febbre della roulette nei casinò di Mosca e la fame a Leningrado come al tempo dell'assedio nazista.

This audiobook is the first to offer a concise, accessible overview of the evolution of the Soviet Union as a multiethnic empire. It reflects on how the Soviet Union was home to many ethnic minorities, and how their fates, and that of the USSR itself, were bound to the question of how the Soviet state responded variously throughout its existence to the fundamental question of ethnic difference across its vast and diverse territory. The audiobook then examines how the Soviet collapse in 1991 fractured the Union along markedly national lines.

Making his way from the Polish border in the west, through the capital city and the heart of the 2014 revolution, to the eastern frontline near the Russian border, seasoned war reporter Tim Judah brings a rare glimpse of the reality behind the headlines. Along the way he talks to the people living through the conflict - mothers, soldiers, businessmen, poets, politicians - whose memories of a contested past shape their attitudes, allegiances, and hopes for the future.

The Cold War was a crucial conflict in American history. At stake was whether the world would be dominated by the forces of totalitarianism led by the Soviet Union, or inspired by the principles of economic and political freedom embodied in the United States. The Cold War established America as the leader of the free world and a global superpower. It shaped US military strategy, economic policy, and domestic politics for nearly 50 years.

Bringing together a new introduction by Volodymyr Zelensky with his most powerful war speeches, this book recounts Ukraine's story through the words of its president. It is the story of a nation valiantly defending itself from Russian aggression. And it is the story of a people leading the world in the struggle for democracy. Above all, it is a battle cry for us all to stand up and fight for liberty. If not now, when?

In 1949, a newly minted branch of the CIA (the precursor of today’s National Clandestine Service), flush with money and burning with determination to roll back the Iron Curtain, embarked on the first paramilitary operation in the history of the agency. They hatched an elaborate plan, coordinated with the British Secret Intelligence Service, to foment popular rebellion and detach Albania, the weakest of the Soviet satellites in Europe, from Moscow’s orbit. The operation resulted in dismal failure and was shut down by 1954.

In the final days of World War II in Europe, Georgians serving in the Wehrmacht on Texel island off the Dutch coast rose up and slaughtered their German masters. Hitler ordered the island to be retaken and fighting continued for weeks, well after the war's end. The uprising had it origins in the bloody history of Georgia in the 20th century, a history that saw the country move from German occupation, to three short years of independence, to Soviet rule after it was conquered by the Red Army in 1921.

The 17th century was marked by multiple pro-democratic revolutions exploding in both hemispheres. In Europe and its neighbors to the east, border-changing wars were fought incessantly. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the underlying premises of political, governmental and social structures within several European and Asian states were shaken to the core after centuries of royalty and one-family rule. By the onset of World War I, royal families began to experience a long, slow decline, with some quietly fading into the status of national symbols and others experiencing political overthrow. Some were horrified by the suddenness of a changing public, while others barely noticed.

When Reagan and Gorbachev sat down in Reykjavik in 1986, George Shultz said that it was “the poker game with the highest stakes ever played”. It was the last time the world had a chance to do away entirely with nuclear weapons. This is the behind-the-scenes story of this remarkable summit conference. An Impossible Dream is the first exploration of recently available archives of both sides - top-secret archives of the Kremlin, the personal papers of Gorbachev, as well as Reagan's archives.

In the closing months of WW1, with the world exhausted and depleted by a long a brutal war, fifteen nations cobbled together an army of nearly 200,000 men and embarked on one of the most extraordinary and ambitious military ventures of the twentieth century. The Intervention in Russia's civil war was spearheaded by Britain, her colonial forces and allies. It was designed to stop the Bolsheviks in their tracks, reinstate conservative regimes in the Russian Empire and ensure that Germany did not fill the power vacuum which the Russian Revolution had created.

Noveno episodio de la serie documental Mujeres en pie de guerra. La Unión Soviética vivió años convulsos y las mujeres rusas alcanzaron un protagonismo hasta entonces no reconocido. Las mujeres, consideradas último recurso bélico, recibieron igualmente entrenamiento militar general y según algunos datos, hasta un millón de mujeres lucharon en las filas del ejército. Estas son algunas de sus historias.

The Dyatlov Pass incident is a fascinating and truly tragic case. What happened to those hikers? What led them to be found, barely-dressed in freezing conditions, some with horrific injuries, after seemingly cutting their way out of the apparent sanctity of their tent?Asking these kinds of questions is a vital part of who we are. And the Dyatlov case is one of the biggest questions; up there with other enduring mysteries like the identity of Jack the Ripper, or the truth and/or location of Atlantis or the Holy Grail.This book includes brand new evidence, cutting-edge science, investigative ...

A collection of Andrey Kurkov's writings and broadcasts from Kyiv - an unmatched record of a brilliant, distinguished writer reporting from throughout his war-ravaged country. Andrey Kurkov - "Ukraine's greatest novelist," in the words of Giles Harvey in the New York Times - "is fighting for his country."