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This unflinching account of one remarkable physician’s experiences during the conflict between Russia and its breakaway republic, Chechnya, is an instant classic of war literature. Weaving the history of the Chechnya conflict and the heritage of his own family into the visceral narrative, Dr. Baiev tells a tale that is shocking, heroic, and impossible to forget.

Luliia was a dedicated member of the Komsomol (the Soviet communist youth organization) and her parents worked for the NKVD. She started at the sniper school and eventually became a valued member of her battalion during operations against Prussia. She persevered through eight months of training before leaving for the Front on 24th November 1944 just days after qualifying. Joining the third Belorussian Front her battalion endured rounds of German mortar as well as loudspeaker announcements beckoning them to come over to the German side.

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 leader, arguing that his policies were profoundly paradoxical.

Today, Chechnya is a republic with some degree of autonomy in the contemporary Russian Federation. The majority of Chechnya’s population is comprised of Sunni Muslims, meaning religion has played a key role in the territory’s development. Wedged in the North Caucasus mountain range and bordering the Caspian Sea, Dagestan is a true meeting point of cultures, religions and geopolitical rivalries. A crossroad between east and west, Dagestan has been vitally important at different times for various powers in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

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 Russian Revolution of 1917 was a key turning point in the history of modern Europe and the world. For much of the 20th century, politics were defined by attitudes to what had taken place in Russia in 1917. To understand the Russian Revolution, then, is to understand a key building block of modern history and the contemporary world.

True Believer reveals the life of Noel Field, an American who betrayed his country and crushed his family. Field, once a well-meaning and privileged American, spied for Stalin during the 1930s and '40s. Then, a pawn in Stalin's sinister master strategy, Field was kidnapped and tortured by the KGB and forced to testify against his own Communist comrades.

Mythen haben Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine den Boden bereitet. Von der Erfindung eines geeinten russischen Volks durch den deutschen Mönch Innozenz Giesel bis zum Narrativ einer russischen Krim – russische Propaganda nimmt die Ukraine und ihre Geschichte seit Jahrzehnten in Geiselhaft. In seinem die Jahrhunderte umspannenden Buch führt uns Mikhail Zygar zu den Ursprüngen von Russlands Imperialismus – und weist so den Weg aus seinen zerstörerischen Wahnvorstellungen.

The Great Northern War, fought from 1700-1721, gets its name from the fact the war focused on the Baltic, but the battlefields extended into Germany and deep into Poland and Ukraine. Sweden was a military power with a small empire in the Baltic, while Russia was still a landlocked place, backward when compared to the rest of Europe, not very powerful, and highly xenophobic. The Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth was still powerful, and the Cossacks were still free.

In 2004 and 2005, striking images from the Ukraine made their way around the world, among them boisterous, orange-clad crowds protesting electoral fraud and the hideously scarred face of a poisoned opposition candidate. Europe's second-largest country but still an immature state only recently independent, Ukraine has become a test case of post-communist democracy, as millions of people in other countries celebrated the protesters' eventual victory.

For many, the Rus might be synonyms for Russia or Russians, perhaps an early form of the civilization that later became Russia. This is partly true. Modern-day Russia lays claim as a successor to the Rus, particularly the Kievan Rus empire that dominated, with oscillating borders, the area around today’s Kiev and Ukraine between the 8th and 11th centuries. Crucially, the Rus had roots in the Nordic region. Initially, they would travel into modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and beyond to trade. Only later would they start to settle in the region and then become known as the Rus.

Als Russland am 24. Februar 2022 die Ukraine angriff, schien das großen Teilen der russischen Gesellschaft egal zu sein. Das ist nicht Uberraschend. Seit Jahren wird das russische Expansionsstreben davon begleitet, dass gesellschaftlich das Recht des StArkeren gilt. Gewalt wird von vielen als Mittel der Politik akzeptiert. Gesine DornblUth und Thomas Franke erklAren, wie es dazu kommen konnte. Ihre Reportagen und Analysen fUhren uns durch drei Jahrzehnte, in denen nationalistische KrAfte Uber Verfechter demokratischer Werte die Oberhand gewannen.

In the mid-1950's were tumultuous for the Soviet Bloc. Several countries saw Stalin’s death and the apparent change of direction, even the softening of policy under Khrushchev, as an opportunity to pursue a reformist path...the uprising with the greatest impact on the bulk of the Cold War took place in Hungary in 1956, when protestors took to the streets to demand freedom from tyranny and a greater say in their own destiny. When the Hungarians rose up against the status quo in October 1956, they were met with a brutal response from Moscow.

The Charge of the Light Brigade is the most famous British cavalry charge in history, possibly also eclipsing the renown of any other mounted attack conducted by the armed forces of other nations in the general imagination. This cavalry action is certainly remembered far more vividly than the 1854 Battle of Balaclava during which it occurred, and even the wider Crimean War that led to the battle.

Using historical archives and primary documents, former Library of Congress historian Andrei Znamenski reveals the strange accounts of the Bolsheviks’ clandestine quest for ultimate power. Red Shambhala details the attempts of Marxist revolutionary and cryptographer Gleb Bokii and occult writer Alexander Barchenko to create a divine era of Communism by tapping into the power of Shambhala, a mythic land of pure bliss where inhabitants enjoyed god-like capabilities.

Over the long course of Russian history, perhaps no aspect of the giant country has generated interest quite like Siberia, the easternmost part of Russia that lies in Asia. Generally speaking, all that is widely known about Siberia is that it is really big and really cold, which, to be fair, are good starting points for a deeper exploration of this fascinating region.

Chechnya’s modern history is marked by its fluctuating ties with the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union. A notable dark chapter was in 1944 when Joseph Stalin ordered the mass deportation of Chechnya’s entire population. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, tensions between ethnic Russians and Chechens escalated into two full-blown wars. The first, in 1994, saw Russian forces invade Chechnya.

A history of Russia in the twentieth century unlike any other—from the Russian revolution to the oligarchs of the '90s, via the Holodomor, the siege of Leningrad and Chernobyl.

This timely book offers a world history of insurgencies and of counterinsurgency warfare. Jeremy Black moves beyond the conventional Western-centric narrative, reaching back to antiquity to trace the pre-modern origins of war within states. His sweeping study will be essential material for all students of military history.

Their wings were weak, their talons broken…yet they flew the Soviets into winning the war against the Nazis. They were ignored, laughed at, and forced to do chores beneath their ranks. Why? They were the "weaker" gender. Despite being capable, they were initially denied entry into combat. And when they did enlist, their treatment only worsened: They were assigned worn-out uniforms and left to the mercy of rusted equipment on the battlefield. These adversities didn’t stop the Soviet female fighters from going ahead and showing unprecedented excellence in warfare.