history / europe / russia & the former soviet union

"Joshua Rubenstein's riveting account takes us back to the second half of 1952 when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalin's murderous regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower with armed force, and was also broadening a vicious campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalin's sudden collapse and death in March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in the twentieth century. The Last Days of Stalin is an engaging, briskly told account of the dictator's final active months, the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international events in the months after his death. Rubenstein throws fresh light on: the devious plotting of Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev, and other 'comrades in arms' who well understood the significance of the dictator's impending death; the witness-documented events of his death as compared to official published versions; Stalin's rumored plans to forcibly exile Soviet Jews; the responses of Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles to the Kremlin's conciliatory gestures after Stalin's death; and the momentous repercussions when Stalin's regime of terror was cut short"--.

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident-- unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes-- have led to decades of speculation over what really happened. Eichar retraces the hikers' fateful journey in the Russian winter to bring the real story of what happened that night on Dead Mountain.

A portrait of the outbreak of the 1917 Russian Revolution, told through eyewitness accounts left by foreign nationals who saw the drama unfold. Petrograd (the former St. Petersburg), was filled with foreign visitors who existed in hotels, clubs, offices, and embassies, and were acutely aware of the chaos in the city, the terrible shortage of edible food, and the fact that their lives were constantly in danger. The group included journalists, diplomats, businessmen, bankers, governesses, volunteer nurses, expatriate socialites, and some African Americans. Many kept diaries and wrote letters home. Much of the material in this book is previously unpublished and furnishes a unique and frightening picture of life in Petrograd during the revolution.

The prizewinning memoir of one of the world?s great writers, about coming of age as an enemy of the people and finding her voice in Stalinist Russia.

"True tales from history [that] delve into the little-known stories from the past, covering everything from adventure, war, murder and slavery to espionage"--Provided by publisher.

The four Romanov sisters were the Princess Dianas of their day. They were the most photographed and the most talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. Over the years their tragic end has overshadowed their true selves. The contents of this book, taken from diaries and letters written to their friends and family, show that the girls were intelligent, sensitive, and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution.

"A timely, topical book grounding Russia's recent turn towards conservativism in pre-1917 culture and explaining what this shift could mean for the rest of the world"--.

"The ... tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president--of his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history. ... This ... narrative elucidates a cool and calculating man with enormous ambition and few scruples. We see Putin, a former KGB agent, come to office in 2000 as a reformer, cutting taxes, expanding property rights, bringing a measure of order and eventual prosperity to millions whose only experience of democracy in the early years following the Soviet collapse was instability, poverty, and criminality. But Myers makes clear how Putin then orchestrated a new authoritarianism, consolidating power, reasserting the country's might, brutally crushing revolts, and swiftly dispatching dissenters, even as he retained--and continues to retain--the support of many"--Provided by publisher.