Imperial Knowledge by Ewa M. Thompson – russian Literature and Colonialism – is a book recommended by a friend. I’m glad he did recommend it because it’s so good. We all hear about the so-called “great russian culture”, which, for the most part is an…
When I was asked to review Putin’s Sledgehammer by Candace Rondeaux* – The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos – I read about the author before replying an excited: yes! My assumption was that the book will focus mainly on Ukraine, or at…
From russia With Blood by Heidi Blake – The kremlin’s Ruthless Assassination Program and vladimir putin’s Secret War on the West – is a book I was recommended. It is a must read book for anyone living in UK and US, at least. The book…
The New Cold War by Edward Lucas is an old book, published for the first time in 2008 with the copy I read from 2014. That makes it perfect. It shows how much it was widely known about putin and russia at that point. I…
Russian Colonialism 101 by Maksym Eristavi is a book my husband bought for me from Ukraine. The cup is too bought from Ukraine, on the same trip. Eristavi is a Ukrainian journalist who talks a lot on social media about russian colonialism. This is not…
I, luckily, found Intent to Destroy by Eugene Finkel – Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine at my library. It was 1 of 3 books on Ukraine that I found at the library and I am looking forward to reading another one of those this…
Russia’s War by Jade McGlynn is a book I wanted to read and that I received as a Christmas gift. I am so happy I read it because it is very good. It focuses on the russian perspective, but in a balanced way and with…
Under the Radar by R. Eugene Parta – Tracking Western Radio Listeners in the Soviet Union – was not what I was expecting, hence the 3 stars I awarded it. The blurb mentioned the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast role in ending the Cold War,…
Modernization from the Other Shore by David Engerman – American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development – is an interesting book, written nicely which might appeal to a wider range of people and not just people in academia. I think the book would have…
USSR by Walter Duranty is boring. This is particularly intriguing considering how readable his other books are. He was wrong about the soviet union and lied and lied and lied. But, nevertheless, his books were interesting to read, his articles were engaging. This one though…
The Kremlin and the People by Walter Duranty is another book I read for my studies. It is a short 1942 book on Stalin, the Kremlin, the Purges, and Kirov’s murder. Because it was published in 1942, the fact that the book is mostly about…
I Write as I Please by Walter Duranty is a memoir of a British-American journalist who worked from moscow for over a decade, in the interwar period. Because it was firstly published in 1935 I included it in the history section of the blog –…
Communism and Hunger by Andrea Graziosi (editor) – The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective – is a book based on presentations given at a conference from 2014. Each author presented a paper on a different topic, on Holodomor, on the Chinese…
The Red Trade Menace by H R Knickerbocker was published in 1931 and it contains the 24 articles he wrote as a series for which he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. These articles are about the first 5-year plan of the ussr. Thus, this…
The Forsaken by Tim Tzouliadis – From the Great Depression to the Gulags: Hope and Betrayal in Stalin’s russia – is a book any American should read. It might sound a bit much, but it’s not. This book is about US as much as it…
Not worthy by Lubomyr Luciuk – Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer Prize and the New York Times – is a book published twenty years ago. It was edited by Lubomyr Luciuk, the Director of Research for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, who called for the stripping…