soviet union

Explores the history of the Central Asian states, from the breakup of the Soviet Union to the early twenty-first century.

No nation is more in the news than Ukraine, a country that has strong ties with both Russia and western countries. This book examines the events that led to Soviet control and the dramatic and sometimes harrowing political, economic, and social changes that Ukrainian people have experienced—both during the Soviet era and since the Soviet collapse.

The Soviet Union occupied the Baltic nations for decades. This resulted in disasters such as catastrophic shortages of food; suppression of Baltic languages, religions, and customs; and the terrors of forced labor camps. With the Soviet Unions collapse, the Baltics gained independence and have become vibrant members of the European community..

In May 1956, an Italian publishing scout visited Russia's greatest living poet, Boris Pasternak. He left carrying the original manuscript of Dr. Zhivago. Pasternak believed his novel was unlikely ever to be published in the Soviet Union, where the authorities regarded it as an irredeemable assault on the 1917 Revolution. But Pasternak thought it stood a chance of being published and read in the West. From Italy it made its way around the world to earn Pasternak the 1958 Pulitzer Prize in Literature. Copies were sold in Moscow and Leningrad on the Black Market and when Pasternak died in 1960 in Russia his funeral was attended by thousands of admirers who defied their government to bid him farewell.

The 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Iceland was the turning point of the Cold War. Initially planned as a short gathering to outline future talks, the meeting quickly turned to major international issues including SDI (Star Wars) and the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons. Both men were at the height of their powers and this move toward peace laid the groundwork for the most sweeping arms accord in history, adopted in 1987, and the end of the Soviet Union five years later. In one weekend the world was changed.

An exploration of submarine espionage during the Cold War that relates details about secret operations which could have led to nuclear war or cost the lives of hundreds of sailors.