Books by Donald Rayfield
“The book shows how the Crimean khanate, which existed between the 14th and 18th centuries, was an important geopolitical power that played a role in economic and political dynamics in the region, along with the Ottomans, the Russians, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There was complex diplomacy between these powers. The Crimean khanate made decisions on the economic flows, on slavery, etc. For four centuries, it was an important political formation.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Political Scientist
“Mikheil Javakhishvili is one of the main architects of 20th-century Georgian literature, and in his first, picaresque novel Kvachi Kvachantiradze he laid the foundations for realism in Georgian literature” Read more...
The Best of Georgian Literature
Gvantsa Jobava, Novelist
Interviews where books by Donald Rayfield were recommended
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1
The Knight in the Panther Skin
by Lyn Coffin (translator) & Shota Rustaveli -
2
Kvachi
by Mikheil Javakhishvili and Donald Rayfield (translator) -
3
A Man Was Going Down the Road
by Otar Chiladze and Donald Rayfield (translator) -
4
The Lame Doll
by Ani Kopaliani (translator), Besik Kharanauli & Timothy Kercher (translator) -
5
The Cushion
by Elizabeth Heighway (translator), Irakli Samsonadze & Philip Price (translator)
The Best of Georgian Literature, recommended by Gvantsa Jobava
The Best of Georgian Literature, recommended by Gvantsa Jobava
How does a country left in ruins by 70 years of Soviet oppression rebuild its literature? It starts from scratch and breaks all the rules. Gvantsa Jobava reveals the riches of Georgian literature, from 12th-century feminist epics to radical, experimental accounts of a post-Independence underworld
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1
King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Unmaking of the Modern Middle East
by Scott Anderson -
2
The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom
by David Woodman -
3
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
by Tim Weiner -
4
The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World
by Selena Wisnom -
5
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
by Garrett Graff -
6
The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life
by Sophia Rosenfeld
New History Books
New History Books
It’s a golden age for historical writing, as well-researched and sometimes quite specialist books by historians are written in an engaging style for a broad audience. History books out in recent months range from ancient Assyria to the CIA in the 21st century.
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1
Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire
by Howard Amos -
2
The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash -
3
To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement
by Benjamin Nathans -
4
Patriot: A Memoir
by Alexei Navalny, translated by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel -
5
To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power
by Sergey Radchenko -
6
‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’: The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate
by Donald Rayfield
The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
The Pushkin House Book Prize is awarded annually for a nonfiction book that encourages “public understanding and intelligent debate about Russia.” Political scientist Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, chair of this year’s judging panel, talks us through the six fantastic books shortlisted in 2025, illuminating different parts of Russia’s politics and history — from the memoir of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, to a history of the Russian Orthodox Church and its role in propping up political regimes from the Middle Ages to the present.
