Russia
Last updated: September 07, 2024
We have a wide range of interviews recommending books on the history, politics and culture of Russia, and shed light on the reign of its current leader, Vladimir Putin, in power since 1999. For books to understand the Ukraine Russia conflict we turned to Harvard history professor Serhii Plokhy. For a recent book on Russia and where it's at, The Return of the Russian Leviathan by Russian academic Sergei Medvedev—who has already lost his job for writing critical of the current regime—won the 2020 Pushkin House Russian Book Prize and is a good place to start.
Looking back in time we have an excellent interview on Putin and Russian History with Edward Lucas, formerly a senior editor at the Economist, and now a security analyst. His recommendations include one of the best ever titles for a history book: It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway. Our 2011 interview with British academic Simon Pirani on Putin's Russia is also an excellent insight into the late Yeltsin years and how Putin consolidated his power in his first decade.
Looking back to Russia's history, Andrei Maylunas chooses his best books on pre-Revolutionary Russia. Roland Chambers chooses his best books on the Russian Revolution and Thomas Keneally chooses his best books on Revolutionary Russia. Both recommend A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes. Francis Spufford chooses his best books on Russia in the 20th -century and Robert Conquest chooses his best books on Communism. Robert Service chooses his best books on totalitarian Russia. Anna Reid chooses her best books on the Siege of Leningrad. We also have a selection of recommended books on Stalin and about Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union.
Thomas de Waal looks at conflict in the Caucasus. A number of other interviews also deal with Russia’s relationship with its periphery. Vanora Bennett chooses her best books on Chechnya and the poet, Nigan Hasan-Zadeh, chooses her best books on Azerbaijan.
On more cultural and literary themes, we have a collection of recommended Russian literature (including, among others, the best books on Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Nabokov and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Rosamund Bartlett chooses the best Russian short stories. Books by Leo Tolstoy are some of the most frequently recommended on Five Books, attesting to the country's role in producing some of the greatest novels ever written.
Five Mysteries Set in Russia, recommended by Boris Akunin
The golden age of mystery largely passed Russia by, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some great crime novels produced over the last 150 years. Bestselling crime novelist Boris Akunin, who was born Grigory Chkhartishvili in Soviet Georgia and now lives in exile in London, recommends five Russian mysteries—great works of literature that happen to also have a crime at their heart. If you’d like to see Boris/Grigory in person, he’s speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival on 18 March, 2024 at 6pm.
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Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine
by Owen Matthews -
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Russia's War
by Jade McGlynn -
3
Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia
by Natasha Lance Rogoff -
4
Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siècle St. Petersburg
by Olga Petri -
5
Cigarettes and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR
by Tricia Starks -
6
Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling
by Ryan Tucker Jones
The Best Russia Books: The 2023 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Ekaterina Schulmann
The Best Russia Books: The 2023 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Ekaterina Schulmann
Since its invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has been much in the news, with many of us struggling to better understand its politics, history, society and culture. Fortunately, we have the Pushkin House Book Prize, which every year celebrates the best nonfiction written about Russia and available in English. Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, chair of this year’s judging panel, talks us through the books that made the 2023 shortlist.
The Best Russian Novels, recommended by Orlando Figes
They’re among the finest novels ever written, often vast in their scope and ambitious in their subject matter. Some are long, others can be read in an afternoon. They’re also one of the best ways of understanding Russian history. Historian Orlando Figes, author of The Story of Russia and Natasha’s Dance, recommends his favourite Russian novels, from the 19th century to today.
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Ukraine and Russia: From Civilied Divorce to Uncivil War
by Paul D'Anieri -
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Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know
by Serhy Yekelchyk -
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Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History
by Yuri Kostenko -
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Ukraine in Histories and Stories: Essays by Ukrainian Intellectuals
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5
The Orphanage: A Novel
by Serhiy Zhadan
The best books on Ukraine and Russia, recommended by Serhii Plokhy
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 Contemporary Russia, recommended by Edward Lucas
Journalist and author Edward Lucas explains how a revanchist Russia can be traced back to Putin’s sense of betrayal after the collapse of the USSR
The Best Russian Short Stories, recommended by Rosamund Bartlett
In Russia, it’s often fallen to writers to challenge conventions and speak the truth, says the translator and biographer Rosamund Bartlett. She makes a personal selection of some of the most exhilarating Russian short fiction.
The best books on Putin’s Russia, recommended by Simon Pirani
Vladimir Putin has crafted a careful narrative about his rise to power and rescuing of Russia. The trouble, says author and academic Simon Pirani, is it isn’t true. He recommends the best books on Putin’s Russia.
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 books on The Russian Revolution, recommended by Roland Chambers
The Russian revolution was the beginning of the modern age, says award-winning author Roland Chambers. He tells us what Solzhenitsyn imagined Lenin was like, and about the children’s author who led a double life as a spy in Bolshevik Russia.
The best books on Why Russia isn’t a Democracy, recommended by Martin Sixsmith
The former BBC Moscow correspondent and author Martin Sixsmith chooses five great works on Russia’s doomed democracies.