Soviet War

Dubbed by many pundits as “The Most Stupid War in the World,” the Ukraine conflict is one that hardly anyone saw coming back in 2010. However, it is close to a decade old already. In this conflict in the evenly divided Ukraine, brinkmanship by the local players in the country, by the West that wants to drag Ukraine into its orbit, and by Russia that fears losing Ukraine and its security in the process, is the norm. At the same time, the world watches in a seemingly helpless manner as Ukraine gets torn apart at the seams. Most of the governments in the West blame Russia for instigating ...

In early 2014, sparked by an assault by their government on peaceful students, Ukrainians rose up against a deeply corrupt, Moscow-backed regime. Initially demonstrating under the banner of EU integration, the Maidan protesters proclaimed their right to a dignified existence; they learned to organize, to act collectively, to become a civil society. Most prominently, they established a new Ukrainian identity: territorial, inclusive, and present-focused with powerful mobilizing symbols.

This second volume of Kirill Moskalenko's memoir of his Great Patriotic War begins with the Battle of Kursk. Don't be put off by the first chapter. Moskalenko's Fortieth Army played a relatively minor role in the battle, and I believe he added a bit of unnecessary detail. There is a fairly good and cursory exposition on Voronezh Front operations during the battle in a verbatim report from General Vatutin, commander of Voronezh Front and Moskalenko's immediate superior. Moskalenko's small role at Kursk was not a function of Soviet Supreme Command's opinion of his abilities. The Germans ...

In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, two men, the Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky and his American challenger Bobby Fischer, met in the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film.

On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 264 others. In the ensuing manhunt, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured and ultimately charged on 30 federal counts. Yet long after the bombings and the terror they sowed, after all the testimony and debate, what we still haven't learned is why. Why did the American dream go so wrong for two immigrants?

Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper, was one of the most important spies of the early Cold War. For two and a half years at the end of the 1950s, as a Lt. Colonel at the top of Poland’s espionage service, he smuggled more than 5,000 top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents, as well as 160 rolls of microfilm, out from behind the Iron Curtain. In January 1961, he abandoned his wife and children and made a dramatic defection across divided Berlin with his East German mistress to the safety of American territory.

1945. Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Brno, Moravia. For Gerta Schnirch, daughter of a Czech mother and a German father aligned with Hitler, it’s not deliverance; it’s a sentence. She has been branded an enemy of the state. Caught in the changing tides of a war that shattered her family - and her innocence - Gerta must obey the official order: she, along with all ethnic Germans, is to be expelled from Czechoslovakia. With nothing but the clothes on her back and an infant daughter, she’s herded among thousands, driven from the only home she’s ever known.

Imagine a world where Maria, a girl from Leningrad, becomes a Silicon Valley tech whiz only to be swept into a whirlwind of international espionage. Meanwhile, Sasha, a young scientist in the heart of the USSR, navigates the peaks and valleys of innovation under the Soviet regime. Their lives, seemingly worlds apart, are bound by a game-changing technology. That’s the premise of “Nevsky Prospect,” a techno-spy thriller with an unexpected conclusion that leaves you questioning everything you thought you knew. Maria’s past hides a secret connection—a childhood friendship with ...

Project HAVE PAD: Exploitation of the Soviet MiG-23 FLOGGER at Area 51 (CIA Area 51 Chronicles – Book 5) By TD Barnes A Cold War breakthrough. A captured Soviet fighter. A top-secret mission at Area 51. In 1978, deep within the classified confines of Area 51, the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy embarked on one of the most ambitious intelligence operations of the Cold War—Project HAVE PAD. Their mission: to exploit a captured Soviet MiG-23 FLOGGER, one of the USSR’s most advanced fighters. Designated YF-113 in U.S. military records, the MiG-23 was ...

A new identity. A new job. A new life. But the past is never far behind. Ewe Bohn, a man who thought he had buried his former self, is lured back into the shadows of his old profession. In post-war Germany, where loyalties are as fragile as the crumbling walls around him, Bohn's skills are once again in high demand by the CIA. The Gehlen Organization, a covert network of former Nazi operatives now serving the West, is expanding rapidly to counter the rising threats from the Soviet Union and the newly minted East Germany. As Bohn plunges deeper into this dangerous world, he must decide how ...

1670, Kyiv. A German convert to Russian Orthodoxy is writing history. Not merely a book about history: he believes that his work will save his beloved Kyiv from the scourge of Catholicism. Innokenty Gizel has never been to Moscow, but he wants to create the illusion that Kyiv shares a common history with the seat of the Orthodox Church. The story he comes up with - a fantasy - pleases Moscow's rulers so much that it will remain their official line all the way into the 21st century.

The end of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation.

Tracie Tanner works in the world's most dangerous hot-spots. On the most high-stakes assignments. And she works alone. Actions have consequences. Tracie Tanner understands that better than most. She is about to discover just how devastating those consequences can be. Last winter, on a mission to root out and eliminate the driving force behind a Soviet assassination program, Tracie tortured a KGB operative to extract critical intelligence. In a fateful decision, she spared the Soviet operative's life. Now that man has returned, vowing to extract the ultimate vengeance on the woman who ...

The spy novel emerged from the intrigues of the mid-20th century for good reason. The war with the Third Reich involved an unseen cloak-and-dagger struggle between the participants, but beyond that, an even larger and longer contest took place in the shadows. The men responsible for this unprecedented leaking of life-or-death information would enter history as the Cambridge Five - though in fact, they may have been only the core of a much larger group.

In December 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech about a conflict that had some leading figures in Britain and France, including Churchill himself, briefly discussing the idea of going to war with the Soviet Union, even though they were already fighting Adolf Hitler. Of course, war makes strange bedfellows, and one year later, Churchill would find himself allied with the Soviet Union against Germany and Finland. It’s an interesting saga, one with roots in imperial Russian history and the desire of the Finns to be free in their northern forests.

One Navy admiral called it "one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era". To this day, the U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident. For decades, the real story of the disaster has eluded journalists, historians, and the family members of the lost crew. But a small handful of Navy and government officials knew the truth from the very beginning: the sinking of the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Scorpion and its crew of 99 men, on May 22, 1968, was an act of war.

Entre 1979 y 1989 un millón de tropas soviéticas combatieron en una guerra devastadora en Afganistán que provocó más de 50.000 bajas y acabó con la juventud y la humanidad de varias decenas de miles de soldados más. Los muertos soviéticos volvían a casa en ataúdes de zinc sellados mientras el estado no reconocía ni la mera existencia del conflicto. Svetlana Alexievich expone la verdad de la guerra afgano-soviética: la belleza del país y los abusos del ejército, las muertes y las mutilaciones, la profusión de productos occidentales, las vidas destrozadas de los veteranos.

Vladimir Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad.

On a bitterly cold night in January 1945, a heavily armored train pulled into the station at Breslau in German occupied Poland. Here, ancient tapestries, priceless masterpieces, and three hundred tons of gold looted from the treasuries of conquered countries were loaded aboard. Just before dawn, laden with treasure, the train pulled away from the station heading west and disappeared from history. Deep in the primeval forests of the Eulengebirge Mountains of southwestern Poland, a secret Nazi fortress lies buried, untouched by the passage of time. Here, in a labyrinth of tunnels, Hitler’s ...

It was always meant to be this way. Love involves sacrifice, but that can often go too far. A secretive cabal recruits two boys for a mission that could cost their lives but change their country. A man is trapped in East Berlin when the Wall goes up, and he will do anything to return to his beloved family, even pretend he is loyal but always ready to betray. These lives intersect and prove love is both eternal and a powerful motivator. Love forgives almost anything. But love is also sometimes the perfect companion for death.