Russia Europe

È il 1975 quando Jan Brokken rimane folgorato da San Pietroburgo, l'allora Leningrado, patria splendente e malinconica di poeti e dissidenti, folli e geni, disperati e amanti, culla della ribellione agli zar e poi al regime sovietico in nome della libertà dell'arte e dello spirito. In occasione del centenario della Rivoluzione d'Ottobre, Brokken ci accompagna nelle sue passeggiate fra presente e passato attraverso strade, teatri, case e musei sulle tracce dei personaggi che hanno reso Pietroburgo una capitale mitica della cultura europea.

Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were given sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. Upon reaching the West, they were entitled to special benefits, including financial assistance and permanent residency. In contrast to other migrants, defectors were pursued by the states they left even as they were eagerly sought by the United States and its allies. Defectors follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight via land, sea, and air gave shape to a globalized world.

La Revolución rusa es un ejemplo perfecto de cómo la historia puede reducirse hasta volverse excesivamente pesada y compleja. Para desentrañar la Revolución rusa (de hecho, las revoluciones rusas) hay que empezar por considerar acontecimientos que sucedieron siglos antes de febrero de 1917. Solo así podremos comprender la cantidad de acontecimientos comprimidos en los breves meses del decisivo año 1917.

No disease sparked as much dread in the 18th century as smallpox. The virus killed millions across the globe, carrying off one in every five victims and disfiguring survivors with tell-tale pitted scars. But one mysterious method offered hope: inoculation, the practice of piercing the skin to insert a drop of infected matter and induce a mild case of smallpox. Those inoculated safely were protected from the ‘Speckled Monster’ and stayed immune for life. Only one problem remained: convincing people to accept the treatment.

In this witty and entertaining collection of travel tales, an acclaimed journalist explores his obsession with trains--and what his rail journeys have taught him about culture and identity. "I've gone around the world in installments. Every trip has been a revelation. I've watched regions...

In 2009 musician Franz Nicolay left his job in the Hold Steady, aka the world's greatest bar band. Over the next five years, he crossed the world with a guitar in one hand, a banjo in the other, and an accordion on his back, playing the anarcho-leftist squats and DIY spaces of the punk rock diaspora. He met Polish artists nostalgic for their revolutionary days, Mongolian neo-Nazis in full SS regalia, and a gay expat in Ulaanbaatar who needed an armed escort between his home and his job.

Can trauma be inherited? In this “urgent and enthralling reckoning with family and history” (Andrew Solomon), an American writer returns to Russia to face a family history that still haunts him. Can trauma be inherited? It is this question that sets Alex Halberstadt off on a quest to name...

Artemis leaves the remote Greek island she grew up on to start a shiny new life in 1990s London with her British husband, a successful entrepreneur. Finally, she has escaped the ghosts of her past. Until she is found hanging from the stairs of her beautiful family home. Two decades later, the apparent suicide of an heiress uncannily mirrors Artemis’ mysterious death. And when the ensuing investigation uncovers links to a criminal cartel, National Crime Agency officer Madeleine Farrow begins to pull apart the web of deceit surrounding the two women.

Die bekannte ZDF-Korrespondentin Katrin Eigendorf berichtet seit vielen Jahren regelmäßig aus der Ukraine. So auch während der dramatischen Tage und Wochen nach dem 24. Februar 2022, als Wladimir Putin mit seinem grausamen Angriff auf die Ukraine den Krieg zurück nach Europa getragen hat. Angesichts der Bilder aus Mariupol, Charkiw und Kyiw ist auch Deutschland aufgewacht, nachdem es über viele Jahre Wladimir Putin verharmlost hat. Katrin Eigendorf erzählt hier vom Krieg, den Putin mit aller Härte führt, vor allem gegen die Bevölkerung.

In April 1945, German troops withdrawing from the Seelow Heights were encircled by the Soviet Army near the small town of Halbe, south-east of Berlin. Rather than surrender, their orders were to attempt to break out, westward, and join up with the German twelfth Army. A brutal battle ensued, with an estimated 30,000 German and 20,000 Russian soldiers killed, along with thousands of civilians.

Step into a riveting exploration of Russia and witness its incredible cultural legacy. As the home of famous thinkers, artists, poets, and military strategists throughout the ages, Russia holds a special place in our collective history. This biography explores their legacy, recounting the glorious triumphs and heart wrenching tragedies of this giant on the world stage. You’ll be taken on an unparalleled journey to witness Russia’s past, retracing its steps from ancient times to the modern day.

Winner of the Cundill History Prize A visceral, hundred-year history of the vast Russian penal colony. It was known as 'the vast prison without a roof.' From the beginning of the nineteenth century until the Russian Revolution, the tsars exiled more than one million prisoners and their...

At last a book about the so-called "Mad Monk" of Imperial Russia that lays to rest the myths and reveals the truth about one of the most controversial characters in human history while exploring the impact his murder had on a dynasty, a people, and a country.

Part Blackhawk Down, part The Riddle of the Sands, former MI6 officer Harry Ferguson has written an extraordinarily gripping non-fiction thriller. Operation Kronstadt not only reveals the early days of intelligence services but also uncovers a truly dramatic story from the Russian Revolution involving a daring rescue attempt and a "mission impossible" against the best defended naval target in Russia.

A revelatory examination of the global impact of Emmanuel Macron's tumultuous presidency. A political novice leading a brand new party, in 2017 Emmanuel Macron swept away traditional political forces and emerged as president of France. Almost immediately he realized his task was not only to...

"L'odio rappresenta il motore autentico della guerra, poiché infiamma gli animi, innescando una deflagrazione infernale, spingendo le masse e i singoli individui alle azioni più atroci". Sulla guerra in Ucraina si è scritto e detto di tutto. Tra analisi geopolitiche, campagne mediatiche più o meno in buona fede, la guerra è stata il campo in cui si sono confrontati non solo i due eserciti in lotta, ma soprattutto gli interessi strategici ed economici delle grandi potenze.

At the end of September 1941, more than a million German soldiers lined up along the frontline just 180 miles west of Moscow. They were well trained, confident, and had good reasons to hope that the war in the East would be over with one last offensive. Facing them was an equally large Soviet force, but whose soldiers were neither as well trained nor as confident. When the Germans struck, disaster soon befell the Soviet defenders.

When Germany’s Sixth Army advanced to Stalingrad in 1942, its long-extended flanks were mainly held by its allied armies - the Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians. But as history tells us, these flanks quickly caved in before the massive Soviet counter-offensive which commenced that November, dooming the Germans to their first catastrophe of the war. However, the historical record also makes clear that one allied unit held out to the very end, fighting to stem the tide - the Italian Alpine Corps.

The terror and purges of Stalin's Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records, let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 and 1943. This selection from Maisky's diary grippingly documents Britain's drift to war during the 1930s, appeasement in the Munich era, negotiations leading to the signature of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact....

Cambridge spy Guy Burgess was a supreme networker. He also set a gold standard for conflicts of interest, working variously for the BBC, MI5, MI6, the War Office, the Ministry of Information and the KGB. Yet Burgess was never challenged by Britain's spy catchers: his superiors were convinced he was too much of a liability to have been recruited by Moscow. Now, with a major new release of hundreds of files into the National Archives, Purvis and Hulbert reveal just how this charming establishment insider was able to fool everyone for so long.