Soviet Empire

On Christmas, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: Earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took center stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush's speech and has persisted for decades. As Serhii Plokhy reveals, the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the US.

Western interpretations of the Cold War--both realist and neoconservative--have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the 20th century.

Stalin: The Architect of Fear and the Soviet Empire is a powerful and accessible biography tracing Joseph Stalin’s rise from his troubled Georgian childhood to his domination of the Soviet Union. It reveals how he built and ruled a vast empire through ideology, ambition, and relentless terror, shaping the lives of millions and redefining the course of the twentieth century. The book explores Stalin’s complex personality—his intelligence, paranoia, emotional hardness, and surprising moments of sentiment—while examining his relationships with Lenin, his rivals, and his own family. It ...

Rome lasted a thousand years. The Mongol Empire barely survived its founder's grandchildren. The British Empire won two world wars and lost everything. The Soviet Union imploded in two years. Different centuries. Different continents. The same five fatal flaws. The Empire Collapse Pattern examines history's mightiest political powers--from Rome to the Soviets--to uncover the recurring lifecycle that every empire follows to its own destruction: explosive growth, overextension, elite capture, loss of legitimacy, and collapse. You'll discover: Why no empire has ever lasted forever--and why the...

'Shocking. Gripping. Unputdownable. You thought you knew the Cambridge Five? Think again! Their level of treachery beggars belief, yet the British establishment's incompetence and cover-up is equally unbelievable.' DAMIEN LEWIS, author of THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE 'Meticulously...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times From the editor of The New Yorker: a riveting account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which has become the standard book on the subject. Lenin’s Tomb combines the global vision of the best historical...

In Three Days in Moscow, Baier explores the dramatic endgame of America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union and President Ronald Reagan’s central role in shaping the world we live in today. On May 31, 1988, Reagan stood on Russian soil and addressed a packed audience at Moscow State University, delivering a remarkable - yet now largely forgotten - speech that capped his first visit to the Soviet capital.

For more than 40 years, communism held eight European nations in its iron fist. Yet by the end of 1989, all of these nations had thrown off communism, declared independence, and embarked on the road to democracy.

The Soviet Union is gone, but its ghostly traces remain, not least in the material vestiges left behind in its turbulent wake. What was it really like to live in the USSR? What did it look, feel, smell, and sound like? In The Soviet Century, Karl Schlögel, one of the world's leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a spellbinding epic that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost civilization. A museum of—and travel guide to—the Soviet past, The Soviet Century explores in evocative detail both the largest and smallest aspects of life in the USSR.

A penetrating history of the year World War II became a global conflict and humankind confronted both destruction and deliverance on a planetary scale, “offering an intriguing perspective on a world at war” (Richard Overy, New York Times–bestselling author of Blood and Ruins) By the end of...

The story of the Crimean War from the Russian perspective. Do not expect the Charge of the Light Brigade here. Balaklava will be in Volume II. This volume deals in large part with the prelude to the war, and the campaigns on the Danube and in the Caucasus. Volume I ends as the British and French are preparing to land in Crimea Yevgeny Tarle was most interested in diplomacy; he writes about it in an instructive and entertaining way. Still, he had shortcomings as a historian. For one, he did not have the knack of describing military operations in a straightforward and concise manner. Verbose,...

“Elegantly written and magisterially researched” (Robert Service, author of A History of Modern Russia), the definitive story behind the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty, by the world’s foremost expert When Tsar Nicholas II fell from power in 1917, Imperial Russia faced a...

The riveting story of the ring of spies known as the Cambridge Five, who infiltrated the highest levels of the British establishment and helped Stalin cement a half century of Soviet domination over Eastern Europe. “A brilliant book. Deep research and dazzling writing make Stalin’s Apostles...

A powerful, unsparing new history of World War II, recasting the conflict as a brutal struggle for survival among declining and ascendant imperial powers In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires...

I will not try to sell you on the notion that the Crimean War is an interesting subject, nor will I deliver a short synopsis. I see no point in that. The Russian original of this volume was something of a mess. It was my first effort at translating a big project, and I’m afraid I did a rather poor job with the edition that appeared in 2014. One thing that hindered me was the quite reasonable notion that a translator should not change an author’s work a great deal. So, I didn’t edit as much as I should have. There is no harm in eliminating redundancy and you, the reader, will never ...

From Akkad to the Soviet Union: 9 Empires That Forged Our World Ever wondered how a single nation can change the course of history? Step into a journey spanning over four thousand years and discover the rise and fall of some of the most influential countries the world has ever seen. This book goes beyond the dates and battles, exploring the brilliant innovations, defining struggles, and lasting legacies that shaped civilizations. You'll uncover the secrets behind their power and their ultimate decline, finding out: Why the Akkadian Empire's military and postal systems were revolutionary. ...

The first panoramic history of the Western world from the 1970s to the present day—from the Cold War to the 2008 financial crisis and wars in the Middle East—Empire of Democracy is “a superbly informed and riveting historical analysis of our contemporary era” (Charles S. Maier, Harvard...

The author of Free returns with an extraordinary inquiry into historical injustice, dignity, truth, and imagination. When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Alps in 1941 posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. Growing up...

From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine -- only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries...

"The Last Witness" was a Category Finalist in the 2014 Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The Eric Hoffer Book Award was created to promote writers, authors, and independent presses. NYC, MAY 3-4, 2014 | I am sad to announce, that Mr. David Stoliar (Z"L), the only sea Survivor of the Jewish refugees ship MV Struma, torpedoed Feb 24, 1942, in the South Black Sea, passed, at age 92, in his sleep, in Bend, Oregon, Saturday, May 03rd, 0:31 AM. He is survived by his wife, Marda Stoliar, and a son. The burial was at the Historic Cemetery in Prineville Oregon, at Noon, May 6, 2014, Pacific Time. Prineville ...