The Philosophy Steamer, by Lesley Chamberlain, Atlantic Books, 414pp.

So powerful was the image of Russia created by the extraordinary group of writers, artists and philosophers who dominated their country’s intellectual life at the beginning of the 20th century that it persists even today. Read on »

1776: America and Britain at War, by David McCullough, Allen Lane, 386pp.

To a British reader who knows the subject, 1776 may seem pretty thin. To one who doesn’t, it may be confusing. It is an account of the military history of a single year of the American revolution, so the ambitions of the author are oddly limited. Read on »

Russia’s Empires by Philip Longworth, John Murray, 2005, 398pp

At the beginning of Russia’s Empires, Philip Longworth announces that his intention is to “examine the phoenix-like nature of Russian imperialism and to expand our understanding of it”. He points out that over the centuries, no less than four empires have risen and subsequently fallen on Russian soil, beginning with Kievan Rus in the Middle Ages, continuing on through the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the long era of the Romanov dynasty, and followed by the relatively short Soviet regime. Read on »

Anna of all the Russias: The Life of Anna Akhmatova
by Elaine Feinstein
Weidenfeld, 322pp.

For far too long, the history of 20th century Russia has been understood almost exclusively through the prism of politics, as if it were about nothing more than Marxism and Leninism, revolution and totalitarianism, war and famine. Read on »

The Soviet Century, by Moshe Lewin, Verso, 416pp.

In the last several years, English-speaking readers have been treated to a plethora of Soviet history books unlike others before them. The opening of Soviet archives has given us everything from Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad to Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s book on Stalin’s court, to new biographies of Rasputin, Lenin and Trotsky. Now, however, we have The Soviet Century, the work of a respected American academic. It is a book whose qualities are not easy to describe. Read on »

The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme, by Andrei Makine. Translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan. Arcade. 206 pp.

To read the first page of this novel is to feel an odd and not altogether pleasant sensation of voyeurism. The scene is a house beside the railway tracks in central Russia, on the eve of the great battle of Stalingrad. A man and a woman are alone together, but they cannot quite shut out the rest of the world:

“The wall facing the bed does not exist, only gaps in the charred timbers, the havoc wrought by the fire of two weeks ago. Beyond this space, the purple, resinous flesh of the stormy sky swells heavily. The first and last May storm of their shared life.” Read on »

From Siberia With Love by Geoffrey Elliott, Methuen, 2004, 300pp.

Perhaps because it is a lost civilisation, the Russian empire seems to exert an almost magnetic attraction on the children and grandchildren of the people who left. In recent years a notable number have traced their families back to Polish villages or Tsarist palaces, pieced together the histories of those places using family memoirs and old photographs, and written books which describe what, if anything, still remains of their ancestors’ past. Read on »

The Perversion of Knowledge: The True Story of Soviet Science

by Vadim Birstein

Basic Books, 2008, pp. 512

In 1978 Bulgarian agents tried to murder Georgi Markov - a Bulgarian dissident then living in London - no fewer than three times. Once, they touched him “accidentally” with poisoned skin cream, designed to cause a heart attack within 48 hours. When that failed, they tried to slip chemicals into his drink. Finally, they came up with an unorthodox but ultimately succesful plan. Read on »

Moscow 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March, by Adam Zamoyski, HarperCollins, 644 pp.

Certain historical events become so covered in myth and significance, so overlaid with patriotism and emotion, that over time many people forget what really happened and why. Napoleon’s fatal 1812 march on Moscow is one such event. Read on »

Moscow 1812  - Napoleon’s Fatal March by Adam Zamoyski, Harper Collins, 2004, 672pp.

Certain historical events become so covered in myth and significance, so overlaid with patriotism and emotion, that over time many people forget what really happened and why. Napoleon’s fatal 1812 march on Moscow is one such event. Read on »