Books by Sergey Radchenko
“The big question that Radchenko is asking is, ‘What were the drivers and the motives behind Soviet foreign policy? What motivated these individuals?’ He had access to newer archives that allowed him to really plunge into the psychology of decision-making and thinking and attitudes and behavior. He also looks at the psychology of the Chinese and, to some extent, the Americans. But I think the strength of the book is really from his understanding of the Soviets.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Political Scientist
Interviews where books by Sergey Radchenko 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.
