Books by Lucy Ash
The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash
Vladimir Putin was mocked for being a bore when he lectured Fox News’s Tucker Carlson about Russian history from the 9th century onwards. But this book proves that the past holds many valuable lessons for the Russia of today, in particular the power of the Orthodox Church for would-be rulers of Russia. Ash deftly recounts a concise and never-boring timeline of the collaboration and competition between the Church and the state throughout the centuries, building up a powerful thesis: under Putin’s Russia, the Church has once again become an arm of the state.
Interviews where books by Lucy Ash were recommended
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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.
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1
At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China
by Edward Wong -
2
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
by Anne Applebaum -
3
Broken Threads: My Family from Empire to Independence
by Mishal Husain -
4
Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary
by Victoria Amelina -
5
The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash -
6
The Coming Storm: A Journey into the Heart of the Conspiracy Machine
by Gabriel Gatehouse
The Best Politics Books of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
The Best Politics Books of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
From conspiracy theories wreaking havoc in US politics to poignant memoirs of painful events around the globe, the books shortlisted for the 2025 Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious awards for writing about politics, have been announced. These are the eight books shortlisted for the ‘Orwell Prize for Political Writing,’ awarded annually to a nonfiction book. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired by UK diplomat and former ambassador to the US Kim Darroch.
