• The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine and Russia: From Civilied Divorce to Uncivil War by Paul D'Anieri
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know by Serhy Yekelchyk
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History by Yuri Kostenko
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine in Histories and Stories: Essays by Ukrainian Intellectuals
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - The Orphanage: A Novel by Serhiy Zhadan

The best books on Ukraine and Russia, recommended by Serhii Plokhy

Thousands of people have been killed since 2014 in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in a war that has been rife with disinformation, misleading narratives and false flag operations. Here Serhii Plokhy, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, recommends books to better understand the conflict, from an introductory work by an eminent historian to the latest work of some of Ukraine’s leading novelists.

  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great by Isabel de Madariaga
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Catherine the Great by Simon Dixon
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair by Simon Sebag Montefiore
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Selected Letters of Catherine the Great by Catherine the Great
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Working the Rough Stone: Freemasonry and Society in 18th Century Russia by Douglas Smith

The best books on Catherine the Great, recommended by Andrei Zorin

She was born in 1729 as Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, a German princess, but by 1762 had become Empress of All Russia and went on to rule for 34 years as Catherine II. She regarded herself as an enlightened despot who embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment and consorted with the French philosophes. Russian historian Andrei Zorin introduces the remarkably industrious and able politician who is remembered as Catherine the Great.

  • The best books on The Cold War - The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad
  • The best books on The Cold War - For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War by Melvyn P Leffler
  • The best books on The Cold War - Russia and the Idea of the West by Robert English
  • The best books on The Cold War - The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe Jacques Lévesque (trans. Keith Martin)
  • The best books on The Cold War - Reagan and Gorbachev by Jack Matlock

The best books on The Cold War, recommended by Archie Brown

American military and economic superiority cannot explain why the Cold War came to an end in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to the historian Archie Brown, you need to accept the primacy of politics and human agency both in the USSR and the West. He chooses five books to understand the Cold War and offers some broader reflections on the qualities of good political leadership—then and now.