Soviet Travel

Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan became free of the Soviet Union in 1991. But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world. Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the listener on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.

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.

From New York Times bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield comes this exceptional thriller into the dark heart of the Cold War and the space race—soon to be a major TV series from Altitude and Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions. "An exciting journey" —Andy Weir, author of The...

Finding Katya is the inspiring and compelling story of one woman who ditches everything to embark on an unconventional adventure through the former Soviet Union. On her 35th birthday, Katie Aune was at a crossroads. Still reeling from a difficult breakup and longing to find more meaning in her life, she hopped on a one-way flight to start a year-long journey of discovery. Once a Russian and East European Studies major in college, Aune plotted a course that would take her through all 15 states of the former Soviet Union. In a book that is part memoir, part travelogue, Aune takes readers ...

Departing from a simple linear history, The Soviet Century traces all the continuities and ruptures that led from the founding revolution of October 1917, to the final collapse of the late 1980s and early 1990s, passing through the Stalinist dictatorship, the impossible reforms of the Khrushchev years, and the glasnost and perestroika policies of Gorbachev.

From the winner of the National Book Award and the National Books Critics’ Circle Award—and one of the most original thinkers of our time—“Andrew Solomon’s magisterial Far and Away collects a quarter-century of soul-shaking essays” (Vanity Fair). Travel narrative and global cultures...

From the author of Lithuanian Lullaby, a 1997 voyage to Central Europe... Newly liberated Lithuania can be an unpredictable kind of place. Some embrace the opportunities that are unfolding, but it’s difficult to thrive amongst the chaos and corruption. Jurate embarks on a trader’s adventure. She travels to markets and kiosks pitching her wares, but these are dangerous times. There’s a price to be paid for taking chances. Darius is also pitching – he wants to drive his country into the European Union, but as a government minister, his priorities are about to be challenged. Life can ...

Finalist: PURPLE DRAGONFLY BOOK AWARD 2025 When a Soviet schoolgirl discovers a portal between Moscow and Paris, her quest for escape becomes a journey through time, friendship, and the secrets of parallel realities. Moscow, 1988. Thirteen-year-old Zoya Kassatkina endures relentless bullying from her classmate Vlasov and dreams of a life beyond her prestigious school near Moscow Zoo. When she mysteriously travels to modern-day Paris during a fainting spell, she befriends Annick, a French girl her own age, and experiences a world of freedom she's never known. But each journey between worlds ...

In 1979, alarmed Soviet leaders watched the growing civil war in Afghanistan with trepidation. Russia’s neighbor had been a close ally for many years, acting as a buffer between Russia and British India, proving vital in the “Great Game” between the two empires. Various coups had, by this point, led to a Moscow-friendly government in Kabul, but things were not playing out as the Soviets had hoped.

One hundred thousand people are singing on a hillside outside Tallinn when the sky tears open. Four of them fall out of their own century. Johanna lands in 1919. She counts — she has always counted, it is the thing that has kept her alone her whole life — and she works out that every second she spent falling has cost her a year. She talks her way into an apartment at 44 Lai Street, burns her clothes in the basement furnace, and marries a German soldier. Arto lands in 1944, on the morning the Germans pull out and the Red Army comes back. He is a coward from a family of cowards. He knows ...

Sophie Cutler, a sharp-witted journalist, lands a seemingly routine assignment: a puff piece on a philanthropic organization in Northern Europe. But from her very first bizarre dinner with the charity's enigmatic head, Dr. Warren, Sophie senses something is amiss. Her journalistic instincts scream, leading her from the pristine facade of Helsinki to the drab, unsettling clinics of the Baltics, where unanswered questions begin to pile up like snowdrifts in the bitter winter. What Sophie stumbles upon is far more sinister than tax fraud or a poorly run charity. A missing epidemiologist, ...

Nikolai and Alexei built Gonta with their own hands. Years later, the yacht was sitting on the other side of the world in Australia, forgotten by almost everyone. Nikolai had not forgotten. One night in a Kyiv pub, after considerably more vodka than sound planning normally requires, he convinces Alexei that they should go and get her. They have little money. They do not speak English. They have no convenient airline tickets and no particularly convincing legal claim to the boat. What they do have is time, stubbornness, and the certainty that a yacht built with their own hands somehow ...

Bloomsbury presents Enemy of the Good by Matthew Palmer, read by Francine Brody. A twisting thriller in which one woman must choose between morality and compromise with potentially deadly consequences. Perfect for fans of Frederick Forsyth and Charles Cumming. Kate Hollister is a US Foreign...

Bloomsbury presents Pravda Ha Ha written and read by Rory MacLean. Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award 'A gem of a book, informative, companionable, sometimes funny, and wholly original. MacLean must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable...

Brought to you by Penguin. The remarkable conservation story of one of the world’s most iconic animals Deep in the snowy forests of Northeast Asia roams the majestic and revered Amur tigers, more popularly known as ‘The Siberian Tiger’. But in the final years of the Cold War, only a few...

При упоминании имени Михаила Афанасьевича Булгакова на память сразу приходят его Белая гвардия, Мастер и Маргарита или Собачье сердце. Эти без преувеличения гениальные романы выдержали многочисленные переиздания, были неоднократно экранизированы и по праву занимают самое почетное место в золотом фонде российской литературы.

Bloomsbury presents Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire, written and read by Howard Amos 'A different level of insight to anything I’ve read for a long time about Russia.' - Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia 'Exquisitely observed.. Full of empathy, Amos...

No nation suffered more losses during the Second World War than the Soviet Union. The figure most historians recognize as roughly accurate is 20 million. The exact figure is impossible to tally for a number of reasons: destroyed records, inexact pre-war records, Soviet politicization of the population figures before and after the war, and much more. No matter what the exact total was, what is known is that the Soviet population only recovered its losses from the war in the late 1950s.

This book was updated to correct some errors in the original version. General Pat Wilson has been chosen to command a desperate mission.In an alternate timeline, the Soviet Union and its communist ideology has nearly conquered the United States. A technology has been developed to send a modern American Army unit back in time to a critical battle of World War II. If Wilson’s task force can change the outcome, the Soviets will not have the resources to conquer the United States. They have enough men and materiel for one decisive battle. One chance to save America. Despite thorough ...