A quiet philatelist, George H. Kaestlin joined the original Rossika Society in 1935 along with the better known Theo B. Lavroff and K. Szymanowski. Whereas Lavroff contributed significantly to Russian philately as an author and researcher and Szymanowski was an avid collector, Kaestlin collected privately. Born in Moscow, circa 1893, Kaestlin arrived in England in 1939. After World War II, When the original Rossika dissolved, he did not join the newly reconstituted Rossica Society of the U...

As the world struggles to confront a bolder Russia, the importance of understanding the formidable and ambitious Vladimir Putin has never been greater. This gripping narrative of Putin's rise to power recounts Putin's origins—from his childhood of abject poverty in Leningrad to his ascent through the ranks of the KGB, and his eventual consolidation of rule in the Kremlin.On the one hand, Putin's many domestic reforms—from tax cuts to an expansion of property rights...

This biography of the longest reigning monarch of Imperial Russia is "a vivid portrait of a sensual and intellectual woman" ( Washington Post ).Dutiful daughter, frustrated wife, passionate lover, domineering mother, doting grandmother, devoted friend, tireless legislator, generous patron of artists and philosophers—the Empress Catherine II, the Great, was all these things, and more. Her reign lasted from 1762 until her de...

From one of our greatest historians, a magnificent reckoning with the modern world's most fateful idea.With astonishing authority and clarity, Richard Pipes has fused a lifetime's scholarship into a single focused history of Communism, from its hopeful birth as a theory to its miserable death as a practice.At its heart, the book is a history of the Soviet Union, the most comprehensive reorganization of human society ever attempted by a nation-state. Drawing on much new info...

The assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko in November 2006 -- poisoned by the rare radioactive element polonium -- caused an international sensation. Within a few short weeks, the fit forty-three-year-old lay gaunt, bald, and dying in a hospital, the victim of a "tiny nuclear bomb." Suspicions swirled around Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the Putin regime. Traces of polonium radiation were found in Germany and on cer...

This WWII memoir of a Nazi infantryman captured at Stalingrad offers a rare firsthand account of life inside Soviet POW camps.The Battle of Stalingrad has been studied and recalled in exhaustive detail ever since the Red Army trapped the German 6th Army in the ruined city in 1942. But most of these accounts finish at the end of the battle, with columns of tens of thousands of German soldiers disappearing into Soviet captivity. Their fate is rarely described. But in ...

This masterwork of interpretative history begins with a bold declaration: “The Modern Age is the Jewish Age, and the twentieth century, in particular, is the Jewish Century.” The assertion is, of course, metaphorical. But it drives home Yuri Slezkine’s provocative thesis: Jews have adapted to the modern world so well that they have become models of what it means to be modern. While focusing on the drama of the Russian Jews, including émigrés and their offspring, The Jewish Century...

Listen closely…can you hear it?Can you hear the voices? Thoughts, insights, confessions from the creative community sharing ideas, trading secrets, venting frustrations; asking and answering questions such as, "What color rarely shows up in your work?" or "How do you express vulnerability in you art?" Or "What is one current trend that you wish would go away?" As artists, we are curious by nature and there is a longing to see inside the hearts and minds of artistic souls of our own...

***The Venona Secrets***presents one of the last great, untold stories of World War II and the Cold War.In 1995, secret Soviet cable traffic from the 1940s that the United States intercepted and eventually decrypted finally became available to American historians. Now, after spending more than five years researching all the available evidence, espionage experts Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel reveal the full, shocking story of the days when So...

A full and authoritative illustrated history of Russia's army since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, including Air Assault and Navy ground forces.Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's army has undergone a turbulent transformation, from the scattered left-overs of the old Soviet military, through a period of shocking decay and demoralization, to the disciplined force and sophisticated 'hybrid war' doctrine that enabled Vladimir Putin to seize Crimea ...

In "Russia in the Shadows," H. G. Wells embarks on a compelling exploration of early 20th-century Russia, delving into the political, social, and cultural upheavals that defined the nation's tumultuous landscape. Written in a journalistic style, the book reflects Wells's characteristic blend of keen observation and speculative insight, framed against the backdrop of Bolshevism's rise. His narrative weaves together vivid accounts and sharp analysis, illustrating the contradictions permeatin...

Russia's engagement with Germany on the Eastern Front during World War II was ferocious, unprecedented and bloody, costing millions of civilian and military lives. In this challenging new book, Lee Baker distinguishes myth from reality and deflates the idea that this war, while gargantuan in scale, was in essence a war like any other.