Russia Books

Esteemed historian of the Soviet Union recommends five books on Communism, from novels and personal narratives to theoretical works.

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.

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...

Acknowledged expert on the unresolved conflicts of the South Caucasus selects five books that encapsulate the fragility of the region and the impact of the desperate scramble for the spoils of the Soviet Union

Bilingual author and translator with his pick of the five must-reads by - and about - Nabokov. Says a revisionist biography of the writer is due, which comes to terms with the Jewish influence on his work

Author and former Reuters correspondent in Moscow chooses books on the Caucasus and says the only language Russia understands is unconditional surrender, whether they are ruled by the Tsars, the Communists or Putin

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'

From the days it was known as Muscovy to the Russian Empire described by the great novelists of the 19th century, historian Andrei Maylunas recommends books that give a feel for the country. Two are works of history, one is notes from a visiting ambassador in the 16th century, two are novels. All are entertaining to read and key to understanding the present.

Rated by the British Library as among the top ten foreign poets based in London, Nigar Hasan-Zadeh discusses a range of books—from love stories, to poetry, to oil field reporting—to boost our insight into Azerbaijan.

Robert Service, Professor of Russian Studies at Oxford, when forced to choose between Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, says Stalin was definitely the worst of the lot. He takes a look at the dynamics of totalitarian Russia, gleaning insights from Thucydides to Orwell.