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Into Siberia
- George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
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Its code name was “Operation Gold”, a wildly audacious CIA plan to construct a clandestine tunnel into East Berlin to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military telecommunication lines. The tunnel, crossing the border between the American and Soviet sectors, would have to be 1,500 feet (the length of the Empire State Building) with state-of-the-art equipment, built and operated literally under the feet of their Cold War adversaries.
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Publisher's summary
In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent.
Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear. Prisoners in the mines were chained day and night to their wheelbarrows as punishment. Babies in exile parties froze to death in their mothers' arms. Kennan came to call the exiles' experience in Siberia a "perfect hell of misery."
After returning to the United States, Kennan set out to generate public outrage over the plight of the exiles, writing the renowned Siberia and the Exile System. He then went on a nine-year lecture tour to describe the suffering of the Siberian exiles, intensifying the newly emerging diplomatic conflicts between the two countries which last to this day.
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In The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives. Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, makes this ancient world come alive in 24 lectures with captivating stories of intrigue, artifacts, illustrations, and detailed descriptions from primary sources of intriguing personalities.
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The Pagan World
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The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean
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The history of the tablets translated in the following book is strange and beyond the belief of modern scientists. Their antiquity is stupendous, dating back some 36,000 years. The writer is Thoth, an Atlantean Priest-King, who founded a colony in ancient Egypt after the sinking of the mother country. He was the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, erroneously attributed to Cheops. In it he incorporated his knowledge of the ancient wisdom and also securely secreted records and instruments of ancient Atlantis.
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Excellence...
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Mythology: Mega Collection
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Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....
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An interesting set of introductions.
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The Run of His Life
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The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The Run of His Life is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin's nonfiction masterpiece tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of "the trial of the century".
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Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles
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Helter Skelter
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Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the 20th century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Now available for the first time in unabridged audio, the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime is brought to life by acclaimed narrator Scott Brick.
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Everything I remembered about the case was wrong..
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The Hidden History of the Boston Tea Party
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The history of the Boston Tea Party is a hidden one. Why? Since it was a clandestine operation, all sorts of rumors and legends grew up around the event—many collected decades after the American Revolution had ended. At its core, however, the night of December 16, 1773, when colonials dumped tea from British ships into Boston Harbor, was more than a fight over tea and taxes. It was a struggle over the very nature of democracy and self-governance.
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How nuanced this event actually was
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Made in America
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In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land, explaining how a dusty hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up, as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question, and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.
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Bryson Not Reading Makes For a Rare Fail
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What listeners say about Into Siberia
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- David
- 03-15-24
History and Adventure
When we were kids, some parents threatened to send misbehaving children to the salt mines, or to Siberia. This book shows how scary that threat could be. Siberia in the 19th Century became a harsh prison for Russian exiles. These were not just criminals, but often political exiles, wealthy nobles and intellectuals who were thought to have criticized the tsar.
George Kennan exposed the horrors of the Russian exile system after a lengthy 1885 expedition into Siberia with his artist friend George Frost. Until his expedition, Kennan believed the exile system was humane. But as he toured the overcrowded, disease-infested prisons and met with wretched exiles across Siberia, he realized the cruelty and horror of their punishment. He changed his mind about the exile system, and he changed the minds of the American public through his articles in popular magazines of the day.
This is a stirring book, and it’s also a remarkable adventure story. Kennan traveled twice to Siberia, once as part of an 1865 team considering a telegraph route, then in 1885 for his investigation of the Russian exile system. Both trips were hazardous and thrilling. Kennan confronted wild bears, blinding blizzards, out-of-control sleigh rides, suspicious officials and his own physical and mental exhaustion. Frost appeared to suffer a nervous breakdown. But they didn’t stop their investigation.
I would recommend this book for those interested in Russian and Siberian history, but also for those who like adventure and survival stories. The narration was well done.
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