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  • Experts

Soviet Union

Most Recommended Books

The Road by Vasily Grossman

“Arguably the first published prose literary treatment of a concentration camp based on eye-witness accounts and whatever information Grossman could have gathered by himself.”

Maxim D Shrayer, Literary Scholar

Read more

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler

“Life and Fate…is probably the most important work of fiction about World War II. But, in fact, it is more than just a fiction because it is based on very close reporting from his time with the soldiers. It is a deliberate act of literary homage to Tolstoy as one can see in the title. It is definitely the War and Peace of the 20th century.”

Antony Beevor, Military Historians & Veteran

Read more

Molotov’s Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonsky

“Based on a chance discovery of Molotov’s library, Polonsky takes cultural allusions from Russian literary history and uses them to explain the present.”

Edward Lucas, Journalist

Read more

    The Best Vasily Grossman Books, recommended by Maxim D Shrayer

  • Read
    The Best Vasily Grossman Books - The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman by John and Carol Garrard

    1

    The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman
    by John and Carol Garrard

  • Read
    The Best Vasily Grossman Books - The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry by Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman

    2

    The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry
    by Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman

  • Read
    The Best Vasily Grossman Books - The Road by Vasily Grossman

    3

    The Road
    by Vasily Grossman

  • Read
    The Best Vasily Grossman Books - Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler

    4

    Life and Fate
    by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler

  • Read
    The Best Vasily Grossman Books - Forever Flowing by Vasily Grossman

    5

    Forever Flowing
    by Vasily Grossman

  • The Best Vasily Grossman Books - The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman by John and Carol Garrard
  • The Best Vasily Grossman Books - The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry by Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman
  • The Best Vasily Grossman Books - The Road by Vasily Grossman
  • The Best Vasily Grossman Books - Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler
  • The Best Vasily Grossman Books - Forever Flowing by Vasily Grossman

The Best Vasily Grossman Books, recommended by Maxim D Shrayer

The Soviet writer bore witness to the horrors of Russia’s World War Two and the Shoah — and deserves a place in literary history, says scholar Maxim D Shrayer. He recommends the best books by and about Vasily Grossman.

The Best Vasily Grossman Books, recommended by Maxim D Shrayer

    The best books on Putin and Russian History, recommended by Edward Lucas

  • Read
    The best books on Putin and Russian History - It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway by David Satter

    1

    It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway
    by David Satter

  • Read
    The best books on Putin and Russian History - Internal Colonization by Alexander Etkind

    2

    Internal Colonization
    by Alexander Etkind

  • Read
    The best books on Putin and Russian History - The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen

    3

    The Man Without a Face
    by Masha Gessen

  • Read
    The best books on Putin and Russian History - Molotov’s Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonsky

    4

    Molotov’s Magic Lantern
    by Rachel Polonsky

  • Read
    The best books on Putin and Russian History - Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough

    5

    Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus
    by Oliver Bullough

  • The best books on Putin and Russian History - It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway by David Satter
  • The best books on Putin and Russian History - Internal Colonization by Alexander Etkind
  • The best books on Putin and Russian History - The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen
  • The best books on Putin and Russian History - Molotov’s Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonsky
  • The best books on Putin and Russian History - Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough

The best books on Putin and Russian History, recommended by Edward Lucas

Journalist and author Edward Lucas gives an excoriating critique of Putinism and explains how Russia’s amoral present is rooted in a failure to come to terms with its past.

The best books on Putin and Russian History, recommended by Edward Lucas

    The Best Tales of Soviet Russia, recommended by Robert Chandler

  • Read
    The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Russian Countess by Edith Sollohub

    1

    The Russian Countess
    by Edith Sollohub

  • Read
    The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Road by Vasily Grossman

    2

    The Road
    by Vasily Grossman

  • Read
    The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Russian Word’s Worth by Michele A Berdy

    3

    The Russian Word’s Worth
    by Michele A Berdy

  • Read
    The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov & Robert Chandler (translator)

    4

    The Foundation Pit
    by Andrey Platonov & Robert Chandler (translator)

  • Read
    The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - Black Earth City by Charlotte Hobson

    5

    Black Earth City
    by Charlotte Hobson

  • The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Russian Countess by Edith Sollohub
  • The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Road by Vasily Grossman
  • The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Russian Word’s Worth by Michele A Berdy
  • The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov & Robert Chandler (translator)
  • The Best Tales of Soviet Russia - Black Earth City by Charlotte Hobson

The Best Tales of Soviet Russia, recommended by Robert Chandler

Robert Chandler, one of the best known translators of Russian literature, recommends some of his favourite tales of Soviet Russia. There’s the one about a dog in space and the one about the Soviet café which stocked nothing but champagne and Mars bars…

The Best Tales of Soviet Russia, recommended by Robert Chandler

    The best books on 20th Century Russia, recommended by Francis Spufford

  • Read
    The best books on 20th Century Russia - Khrushchev by William Taubman

    1

    Khrushchev
    by William Taubman

  • Read
    The best books on 20th Century Russia - Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler

    2

    Life and Fate
    by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler

  • Read
    The best books on 20th Century Russia - Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

    3

    Roadside Picnic
    by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

  • Read
    The best books on 20th Century Russia - The Jewish Century by Yuri Slezkine

    4

    The Jewish Century
    by Yuri Slezkine

  • Read
    The best books on 20th Century Russia - Molotov’s Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonsky

    5

    Molotov’s Magic Lantern
    by Rachel Polonsky

  • The best books on 20th Century Russia - Khrushchev by William Taubman
  • The best books on 20th Century Russia - Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler
  • The best books on 20th Century Russia - Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
  • The best books on 20th Century Russia - The Jewish Century by Yuri Slezkine
  • The best books on 20th Century Russia - Molotov’s Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonsky

The best books on 20th Century Russia, recommended by Francis Spufford

Reading about Russia’s 20th century is like finding another vision of how the world might have been. Francis Spufford, author of Red Plenty, recommends books that tell the story of Russia in the last century — from Soviet science fiction set in capitalist wastelands to Khrushchev as raconteur.

The best books on 20th Century Russia, recommended by Francis Spufford

    The best books on 1989, recommended by Mary Elise Sarotte

  • Read
    The best books on 1989 - The Turn by Don Oberdorfer

    1

    The Turn
    by Don Oberdorfer

  • Read
    The best books on 1989 - My Six Years with Gorbachev by Anatoly Chernyaev & trans and ed Robert English and Elizabeth Tucker

    2

    My Six Years with Gorbachev
    by Anatoly Chernyaev & trans and ed Robert English and Elizabeth Tucker

  • Read
    The best books on 1989 - After the Wall by Jana Hensel

    3

    After the Wall
    by Jana Hensel

  • Read
    The best books on 1989 - The Global Cold War by Odd Arne Westad

    4

    The Global Cold War
    by Odd Arne Westad

  • Read
    The best books on 1989 - Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification by Frédéric Bozo

    5

    Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification
    by Frédéric Bozo

  • The best books on 1989 - The Turn by Don Oberdorfer
  • The best books on 1989 - My Six Years with Gorbachev by Anatoly Chernyaev & trans and ed Robert English and Elizabeth Tucker
  • The best books on 1989 - After the Wall by Jana Hensel
  • The best books on 1989 - The Global Cold War by Odd Arne Westad
  • The best books on 1989 - Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification by Frédéric Bozo

The best books on 1989, recommended by Mary Elise Sarotte

Mary Elise Sarotte, holder of the Kravis Chair in Historical Studies at Johns Hopkins, discusses five books on the end of the Cold War and East Germany’s attempts to grapple with its new future post-reunification

The best books on 1989, recommended by Mary Elise Sarotte

    Books from the KGB Archives, recommended by Lyuba Vinogradova

  • Read
    Books from the KGB Archives - My Journey by Olga Sliozberg

    1

    My Journey
    by Olga Sliozberg

  • Read
    Books from the KGB Archives - Writers and Soviet Leaders by Boris Frezinsky

    2

    Writers and Soviet Leaders
    by Boris Frezinsky

  • Read
    Books from the KGB Archives - The Forsaken by Tim Tzouliadis

    3

    The Forsaken
    by Tim Tzouliadis

  • Read
    Books from the KGB Archives - Stalingrad by V Khristoforov

    4

    Stalingrad
    by V Khristoforov

  • Read
    Books from the KGB Archives - The Cold Civil War by Andrei Okulov

    5

    The Cold Civil War
    by Andrei Okulov

  • Books from the KGB Archives - My Journey by Olga Sliozberg
  • Books from the KGB Archives - Writers and Soviet Leaders by Boris Frezinsky
  • Books from the KGB Archives - The Forsaken by Tim Tzouliadis
  • Books from the KGB Archives - Stalingrad by V Khristoforov
  • Books from the KGB Archives - The Cold Civil War by Andrei Okulov

Books from the KGB Archives, recommended by Lyuba Vinogradova

The author and academic talks about KGB tricks to get American victims of the Great Depression in Russia to take Soviet citizenship. ‘They had to hand over their American passports temporarily and never saw them again’

Books from the KGB Archives, recommended by Lyuba Vinogradova

    The best books on Soviet Law, recommended by Stephen Lucas

  • Read
    The best books on Soviet Law - Soviet Workers and the Collapse of Perestroika by Donald Filtzer

    1

    Soviet Workers and the Collapse of Perestroika
    by Donald Filtzer

  • Read
    The best books on Soviet Law - Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick

    2

    Lenin's Tomb
    by David Remnick

  • Read
    The best books on Soviet Law - The Socialist Offensive by R W Davies

    3

    The Socialist Offensive
    by R W Davies

  • Read
    The best books on Soviet Law - Communists and Their Law by John N Hazard

    4

    Communists and Their Law
    by John N Hazard

  • Read
    The best books on Soviet Law - The History of International Law in Russia 1647-1917 by V E Grabar

    5

    The History of International Law in Russia 1647-1917
    by V E Grabar

  • The best books on Soviet Law - Soviet Workers and the Collapse of Perestroika by Donald Filtzer
  • The best books on Soviet Law - Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick
  • The best books on Soviet Law - The Socialist Offensive by R W Davies
  • The best books on Soviet Law - Communists and Their Law by John N Hazard
  • The best books on Soviet Law - The History of International Law in Russia 1647-1917 by V E Grabar

The best books on Soviet Law, recommended by Stephen Lucas

Dr Stephen Lucas is a partner in the banking group of an international law firm, Linklaters LLP and a student of Soviet law. He recommends books on communist legislation in the former USSR

The best books on Soviet Law, recommended by Stephen Lucas

    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recommended by Michael Nicholson

  • Read
    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Solzhenitsyn by Michael Scammell

    1

    Solzhenitsyn
    by Michael Scammell

  • Read
    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by L.Saraskina

    2

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
    by L.Saraskina

  • Read
    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Solzhenitsyn Files by Michael Scammell (Ed), Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

    3

    The Solzhenitsyn Files
    by Michael Scammell (Ed), Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

  • Read
    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Operation Prophet by Robert B Asprey

    4

    Operation Prophet
    by Robert B Asprey

  • Read
    The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Solzhenitsyn by Francis Barker

    5

    Solzhenitsyn
    by Francis Barker

  • The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Solzhenitsyn by Michael Scammell
  • The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by L.Saraskina
  • The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Solzhenitsyn Files by Michael Scammell (Ed), Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
  • The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Operation Prophet by Robert B Asprey
  • The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Solzhenitsyn by Francis Barker

The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recommended by Michael Nicholson

Russian literature specialist Michael Nicholson, Emeritus Fellow at University College, Oxford, talks us through the best books to learn more about the great Soviet dissident and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

The Best Books About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recommended by Michael Nicholson

About

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