Subjects:  1. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    2. History - General History    3. Modern - 20th Century/Nuclear Age   

Reviews (15)

Informative History
Prior to reading this book, the only information that I had on Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was that she was an 18th century Czarina of some repute and that she was essentially a nymphomaniac.While the author disputes my clinical characterization of Catherine's sexual prowess, he certainly does take great pains to point out her long list of conquests, right up until her death at a then advanced age.
excellent and thorough, but quite dry
Troyat needs no bolstering from me: his credentials as a well-known documenter of Russian monarchic history are legion. I relished every page of Troyat's documentaries on Ivan IV, Pjotr I, and Aleksandr I (ranking in strict chronologic order). However, his bio of Yekaterina II--while unquestionably meticulously researched--is dry. For one thing, it is quite overlong, which one must question right out of the starting gate insofar as Henri Troyat's book on Pjotr I--also a fabulous monarch of critical importance to the emergence of the empire, arguably even more so than Yekaterina II--was brief and swift. (Indeed, every paragraph literally burst with fascinating facts and characterizations.) Troyat goes on and on and on about every minor detail to the point where the essential message is basically lost amid the sheer volume: a crystalline example of forest-amid-trees overpowering. As a basis for research, for high school papers, etc., "Catherine the Great" is to be most highly commended. However, as an armchair read for the history devote [only one 'e': I can't render accent aigu through this medium, and devotee is the feminine form--Ed.], it plays marked second fiddle to Henri's Ivan, Peter, and Alex.

Catherine the Great
I visited the Catherine the Great exhibition at the Beaux Arts Museum in Montreal a few weeks ago and was quite impressed with her legacy as a liberal humanist, Russian nationalist and creator of the Hermitage.Catherine penned her own memoirs and many state documents.I was so impressed with her trenchant and revealing prose that I ordered the Troyat biography.Monsieur Troyat takes the gilt off some of Catherine's glory, but he writes as well as his subject and dispenses opinion as freely as she did.
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Subjects:  1. 1729-1796    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Catherine    6. Catherine II, 1762-1796    7. Empress of Russia,    8. Empresses    9. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    10. Historical - General    11. History    12. II,    13. Russia    14. Russia - History    15. Women - Ancient History    16. Biography & Autobiography / Royalty    17. Biography: royalty    18. European history: c 1750 to c 1900   

Reviews (7)

Good Facts, Bad Premise
This book covers the history of "Ukraine" from time immemorial until the late 20th century, laying out all the important dates andleaders. It is without doubt the most extensive and lucid English-language account of the development of regions and peoples which constitute today's Ukraine.
For anyone who wants to learn about this fascinating land
First published in 1988, Orest Subtelny's Ukraine: A History has again been newly updated in a third edition. This 736 page volume spans from the earliest times to the modern day, covering everything from ancient Greek colonization to the recent Ukraine diaspora. Orest Subtelny (Professor of History and Political Science at York University) goes into extreme depth and detail with a text that is significantly enhanced with maps, tables, and the occasional black-and-white photograph. Highly recommended for its lucidity, meticulous attention to detail, and scholarly precision, Ukraine: A History is a "must" for anyone who wants to learn about this fascinating land and its people.

Best Source for Ukrainian History
Mr. Subtelny's "Ukraine: A History" rates a notch above Mr. Magosci's. Well-written and very readable. This is the volume one reaches for when facts on the Ukrainian history are required. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Eastern Europe - General    2. Europe - Former Soviet Republics    3. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Ukraine    8. European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)    9. Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe)    10. History / Europe / Eastern    11. World history   

Reviews (1)

Misleading title
I was assigned this book as part of the reading for a class I took at Princeton on Central Asia.I have very mixed feelings about it.
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Subjects:  1. 1991-    2. Asia - Central Asia    3. Asia, Central    4. Economic conditions    5. Europe - Former Soviet Republics    6. General    7. Government - International    8. History    9. History - General History    10. History: World    11. Politics and government    12. Social conditions    13. Central Asia    14. Local government    15. Political science & theory    16. c 1990 to c 2000   

Editorial Review

The tortured history of Afghanistan is illuminatingly outlined by Barnett S. Rubin, an American academic and human rights monitor in the region. In the 19th century, the country successfully resisted colonial rule, becoming a buffer between the imperial superpowers, Britain and Russia. That dangerous position resulted in an isolation that held back modernization and the emergence of a modern central government. In this century, the Soviet Union and the United States maintained the status quo up until the early seventies, when a communist coup heralded massive outside intervention. The country was ripe for a disastrous fragmentation. This scholarly study is complemented by a sequel: Read more

Reviews (5)

The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System
This book is excellent.It describes in great detail how Great Britain, Russia, Th U.S. and now Pakistan have contributed to the destruction of the basic fiber of the country and the reasons this happened.

Fragmentation of Afganistan
I received two copiesof book and returned one. I did enjoy the book very much.

very detailed and well researched, but a tough read
Barry Rubin's account of the fragmentation of Afghanistan and the failure of the state is a very detailed in-depth account of the different parties involved, and the cobweb of international and national actors. I especially appreciated the new post September 11 preface to the second edition. It is a great book for the academic or those looking for a serious book on Afghanistan, however I would not recommend it for someone with little knowledge of the region and its and religous political struggles. Without an understanding of the region, the reader is not likely to get past the first chapter. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Afghanistan    2. Asia - General    3. Current Affairs    4. Government - Comparative    5. History    6. History: World    7. International    8. Middle East - History    9. Peacekeeping/Occupation Forces    10. Political    11. Political History    12. Politics / Current Events    13. Soviet occupation, 1979-1989    14. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    15. Civil war    16. History / General    17. International relations    18. Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000    19. Revolutions & coups    20. Terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle   

Reviews (23)

Harrowing story of the this nations worst industrail accident.
Although not strictly an historical work, Bill Minutaglio nonetheless uses in depth research to reconstruct the Texas City Explosion of the late 1940's.
Texas City Remembers
This book appealed to me because I was born there 7 years after the Disaster and grew up there where it was part of local lore that I learned from my parents who lived through it.I enjoyed the book for its human interest aspects derived from the author's interviews with survivors.The way he describes life in Texas City coincides with my memories of it from my childhood.I attended the church where Fr. Roach served and the author seemed to use his artistic license from interviewing those who knew him to portray Roach's thoughts and words.
No, it's not non-fiction...
Don't lose sight of the fact that this book is NOT an absolute documentary piece of work -- the writer says as much in his introduction.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Disasters    3. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    4. Fires    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History - U.S.    8. History: World    9. Industrial accidents    10. Texas    11. Texas City    12. United States - State & Local - General    13. History / General   

Editorial Review

Granted privileged access to Russia's secret archives, Edvard Radzinsky has broken down the iron curtain of myth, secrecy and lies that has surrounded Stalin's life and career, painting a picture of the Soviet strongman as more calculating, ruthless and blood-crazed than has ever been described or imagined. ... Read more

Reviews (66)

Very biased and Anti Communist Propaganda book
I m not a big fan of communism, nor of Stalin. But I cross checked the facts mentioned in this book with facts in some other books I have read on similar subject and found that author Edvard Radzinsky is strongly biased against Stalin. In the entire book he seems to give no credit for anything to Stalin nor to his leadership qualities during the course of Second World War. Dont waste your money on a propaganda book. Better to go for an unbiased account from a neutral observer, thats what Biographies are supposed to be.

Engaging
This is one of the most interesting biographies that I have ever read. It should be, as the author is also a successful Russian playwright, and he is not inexperienced at writing biographies. Combine this talent for researching and telling dramatic stories with the fact that the author had privileged access to formerly top-secret archives of the Soviet Union, and the ingredients are there for the compulsive read that it is.
Solid Research Based on Russian Archives
The research done in this book is solid. I read both Russian and English stories, articles, and even books on the recently (if you can call mid nineties that) opened archived by the FSB (then KGB).
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Subjects:  1. 1879-1953    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    7. Heads of state    8. Historical - General    9. Presidents & Heads of State    10. Sources    11. Soviet Union    12. Stalin, Joseph,    13. Biography & Autobiography / Historical   

Reviews (14)

Worth the money.
In my opinion "Nicholas and Alexandra: The Family Albums" is worth every penny. It contains some of the best pictures of this doomed family. Highly recommmended!

Pretty Goood
It had many Romanov pictures I had never seen before. I don't know if it was worth the $105 I paid for it, but I really do like it. A good book for my collection.

Great!!
This is one of the best Romanov albums that I own. I think it is defintely worth it! It is filled with beautiful and rare photos not published often. Although there are some date and place mislabelings here and there, it is not so bad as some other albums I have seen. If your main area of interest is NAOTMAA, in other words the Last Imperial Family, than this is the book for you. You will truly get a glimpse of the private lives of the family. This book is worth it's weight in gold! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1868-1918    2. Emperor of Russia,    3. Family    4. General    5. History: World    6. II,    7. Kings and rulers    8. Nicholas    9. Photography    10. Pictorial works    11. Russia    12. Russia (pre & post Soviet Union)    13. Russia - History    14. 20th century    15. Biography: royalty    16. Rank & titles    17. c 1800 to c 1900   

Editorial Review

It's easy now to indulge in nostalgia about the era of the Romanovs, and the sheer lushness of this gorgeous book is enough to encourage the indulgence. Even the text, highly readable and informative, is a little rose-tinted in places, but perhaps the authors can hardly be blamed when the gentlemanly cruelties of the old regime look so innocent next to the quintessentially totalitarian 20th-century hell that replaced them. (Nowhere was the true nature of the new "people's" dispensation revealed more vividly than in the lurid, incompetent savagery with which Nicholas II and his family were dispatched, a story reconstructed in considerable detail here.)In any case, despite a touch of sentimentality, this is a fine short history of how the Romanov dynasty ended, artfully disguised as a coffee-table book. If you merely flip through the pictures (Ekaterinburg, Tsarkoe Selo, the Cathedral of Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg, shining like a gold dagger in the snow), you will ache to travel to Russia. If you read the text, you will learn a surprising amount about the world of an almost comically ineffectual man with whom the Fates amused themselves by placing him at a key turning point in modern history. Heartless autocrat that he was, you may even end up feeling sorry for him: the cure was so much worse than the disease. Read more

Reviews (25)

Beautiful and Haunting veiw of a lost family and their world
The story of the Nicholas and Alexandra and their family is told through photographs and text.Many of the photographs are from the personal photo albums that each of the family members kept themselves.These photo's, along with diary entries and letter excerpts, allows us a peek into what was apparently a very close and loving family.This book does a wonderful job of allowing us to see, not only this close, loving family, but the complex world they lived in.It clearly show us a ruling family who while worshiped, is kept isolated from the people they ruled, and how this, along with many other things, brought about their tragic end.
A wonderful portrait of a lost world!
Peter Kurth is a careful and balanced historical writer whose opinions I value and whose descriptiions are fabulous. Combined with authentic photos of a lost and lavish world makes the reader feel like they have stepped back in time. This is a great coffee table book to introduce friends and family to Imperial russia, but there is enough solid information to make it a reference book, too. A highly enjoyable read!!

Pretty good book...
"Tsar" has some excellent photographs of the Romanov family, especially the children. However I don't give this book 5 stars because Peter Kurth continues to beat the dead horse that Anna Anderson was Grand Duchess Anastasia, even though DNA has proven her to be a fraud. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1868-1918    2. 1872-1918    3. Alexandra,    4. Biography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Emperor of Russia,    7. Empress, consort of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia,    8. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    9. History    10. History - General History    11. II,    12. Kings and rulers    13. Nicholas    14. Russia    15. History / Russia (pre- & post-Soviet Union)   

Reviews (8)

too many factual errors
Anthony C. Sutton is a libertarian conspiracy theorist whose book "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution" argues that the Bolsheviks were financed by foreign powers, such as Germany, and then by the capitalists that supposedly were their opponents. Sutton believes that the Wall Street bankers and US monopolists wanted Russia to become a huge "captive market", and that the Communist regime made this possible.
Disappointing
I do not know whether this was Suttons first book, but it reads like it is. The information would be far more effective arranged quite differently. Even the publisher did not correct either the authors style or his arrangement of the material. Comunists were millionaries frieds and worker's enemies
I read this book, here in Brazil.It's available free to be read on internet.This is great book.The informations of this excelent book(and concise) book are marvelous.
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Subjects:  1. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    2. History & Theory - Radical Thought    3. Investments & Securities - Stocks    4. Politics / Current Events   

Reviews (22)

Borderland?
Unfortunately the author did not get the basic premise correct. Ukraine does not mean borderland. The oldest use of the word found in written text is in the 10th century chronicle of Slava o Polke Ihoria. The term Ukraine is used as meaning within the kingdom, at the heart of the kingdom. The opposite of what the author writes. Borderland would mean Okraina, this is the difference between in and out. She also missed that Ukraine has the oldest calendar on the planet now dating to 7039. Another significant fact.
Good Historical Record of the Early Nineties and Independence
Anna Reid has done a marvelous job of describing the situation in Ukraine in the early 1990s and the historical background of a nation that never existed before 1991.It was always an area of people, but never was it ever independent.Reid does a good job in explaining who 'owned' Ukraine, and what happened there during the different periods when parts or all of it belonged to Poland, Poland/Lithuania, Austria, Prussia, Russia, AustroHungary, Poland and USSR.
Ukraine and the borderland.
This is a better book than her book on Siberia.In this book, Ms. Reid makes the case that Ukraine is indeed the borderland of Asia and Europe.To the east, is the ancient and powerful country of Russia, and to the west, former foes in Germany and Poland.The people of Ukraine were never a really distinct culture aside from the Russians.This started to change in the early 1800s when authors, artists, and historians started to document their own culture.When the Western Ukraine was joined with the Eastern Ukraine after WWII, Ukraine was a large part of the Soviet Union.With the breakup of the Soviet Union, this country became the largest country in Europe.
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Subjects:  1. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    2. Fiction    3. History    4. History - General History   

Reviews (1)

Factual and thorough
Oleg Khlevniuk's Russian archive work on researching the true extent of the destruction of humans under Stalin is by far the best work in the field. By painstakingly analyzing secret reports, top secret letters between Commissars, censuses, official data, the Chrushchov era KGB research, etc. he is capable of giving an authoritative and absolutely fair analysis of exactly what went on in the GULAG system in particular and Stalinism as a whole, how many people were affected and how, and what this means for the accuracy of the 'popular view' of Stalin's crimes.
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Subjects:  1. Concentration camps    2. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    3. Forced labor    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Penology    8. Political prisoners    9. Social History    10. Soviet Union    11. History / General   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (17)

partially an advertisement for two Soviet Agent's talent
This book was written with the help of several present and former Soviet Intelligence officers.Be aware that that colored the book with favorable views of these people's talent level and Soviet Intelligence in general. The book does contain valuable information along with important omission and advertising style hot air.I would suggest that you consider Venona by John Earl Haynes or The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors by Herbert Romerstein.The former is an academic description of the 450+ Soviet agents disclosed by the US breaking Soviet codes used during the war. The latter is an inside story by two US espionage agents and experts.One of the gems it reveals is that President FDR was gullible and had several advisors who were Soviet agents.Stalin was afraid of a two front war in Europe and with Japan in the Pacific.He composed an insulting message for his agents to present to FDR who sent as is it to the Japanese government.This provoked the war in the Pacific.Had this not been done, The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor would have been done much later or not at all.

Second thoughts
I reviewed this book in 1999, and gave it three stars.Over time, I've decided it was better than I first thought, and came back here to up it to four...

A Critical View of "The Haunted Wood"
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Subjects:  1. Military Science    2. Spies    3. Politics/International Relations    4. Espionage, Soviet    5. American history: postwar, from c 1945 -    6. European history: postwar, from c 1945 -    7. History / United States / 20th Century    8. International relations    9. Russia    10. Terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle    11. USA    12. Europe - Former Soviet Republics    13. 20th century    14. Soviet Union    15. Intelligence Operations    16. History    17. United States   

Subjects:  1. 1917-1936    2. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    3. General    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Kommunisticheskaia partiia    8. Kommunisticheskaëiìa partiëiìa Sovetskogo Soëiìuza    9. Party work    10. Politics and government    11. Propaganda, Soviet    12. Soviet Union    13. Eastern Europe    14. Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe)    15. History / Russia (pre- & post-Soviet Union)    16. Russia    17. Social groups & communities   

Reviews (1)

somewhat unconnected and jargon-filled series of essays
Rogers Brubaker, Professor of Sociology at UCLA and part-time teacher at the Central European University in Budapest, has written six decent essays on nationalism here which don't really comprise a full book.Originallypublished in such journals as 'Daedalus' and 'Ethnic and Racial Studies',the essays present some interesting new concepts for the study ofnationalism like 'nationalizing states' (a process which Benedict Andersonmight call 'official nationalism') and 'homeland nationalism' (where anation-state has significant numbers of its cultural community locatedoutside its borders, i.e. Germany between the world wars and Russiatoday).Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe    2. Europe, Eastern    3. Former Soviet Republics    4. General    5. History - General History    6. International Relations - General    7. Nationalism    8. Political Science    9. Politics and government    10. Politics/International Relations    11. Nationalism--Europe, Eastern    12. Political Science / General    13. Social theory   

Reviews (1)

A powerful military aviation history of the achieved and proposed projects
Any reader of military history who wishes to follow the evolution of modern Soviet fighters must look at Soviet Secret Projects: Fighters Since 1945. It provides a powerful military aviation history of the achieved and proposed projects, including designs unknown to the West, and drafted as possible prototypes which never got off the ground. These projects were created by the former Union between 1945 to present and offer not only black and white photos and sketches of projects, but background history into the competition between projects.
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Subjects:  1. Aviation - General    2. History    3. History - Military / War    4. Military    5. Military - Aviation    6. Aerospace & aviation technology    7. Air forces & warfare    8. Transportation / Aviation / General   

Reviews (13)

A revolutionary retrospective
A reader of 'The Revolution Betrayed' will find invaluable insight into the 'intellectual response' of a leading Soviet politician. Trotsky was a very important contributor to the theoretical idiom which frames the 'conceptual creation' of the USSR. He had a part to play in many critical phases of the October Revolution and Civil War, organizing and propagandizing, enforcing harsh discipline and imposing his theoretical brand of Marxism on the Soviet State. His distinguished position in Lenin's party is beyond debate. Reading this text gives the reader a deeper analytical impression into the changes and transformations that occurred in the highest echelons of the Soviet bureaucracy, as Stalin began to accrue power. Indispensable reading for anybody with an interest in Russia history.

Revolutions revisited
In my humble opinion, Trotsky's "Revolution Betrayed" is the best analysis of not only the Russian revolution, but revolutions in general. I have studied revolutions in the modern world quite extensively, and re-reading this book at this particular time in history was a true eye-opener - again. To be simplistic, revolutions do not provide lasting success when nothing is to be gained.Those who rise against existing power expect to be rewarded, not with poverty, but with a certain degree of wealth and privilege. If there is nothing to be distributed, then what is the use in fighting?Stalin unfortunately stepped in at the right place, at the right time. Not good for the outcome of that revolution, not good for socialism, but good for Stalin's kind of power.
Trotsky: Mass Murderer and Liar
You know, I hate to burst the bubble of devoted Trotskyites across the globe, but Trotsky was just as responsible for Stalin's rule as anyone. For Leon to blame Stalin is the height of hypocrisy. Without Lenin's apparatus of social repression and Trotsky's apparatus of military dictatorship, Stalin would never have been.
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Subjects:  1. 1917-1936    2. 1917-1945    3. Economic conditions    4. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    5. General    6. History    7. History & Theory - General    8. History - General History    9. History: World    10. Politics and government    11. Social conditions    12. Soviet Union    13. European history: from c 1900 -    14. Political Science / History & Theory    15. Russia   

Reviews (5)

Political and Economic Summary of the causes of the Failure of the Soviet Union
Peter Kenez has written a succinct book on the underlying reasons for the success of the October Revolution and the failure of the Soviet Union.When the Russian Empire disintegrated in 1917, the country itself was on the verge of anarachy.Trotsky, brilliantly constructed the Red Army and used the railroad system to attack and keep at bay on the periphery four armies. Lenin instituted 'war communism' with the optimism that the rest of Europe would soon join him in a socialist revolution.
Cold War Political Pamphlet, not a serious reasearch
This is a very shallow, biased piece of Cold War style journalism disguised as a historical research. The book is full of ungrounded generalizations and direct factual lies (I cannot call them mistakes, since the author must be familiar with archival data that give evidence to the contrary). All this is is tailored with one obvious goal in mind: to present the USSR in the worst possible light, demonise its leaders, slander its people, and discredit the socialist idea as such. You will know and understand less about Soviet Union after you have read this book than you do already. Do not waste your time, read serious, balanced scholarship instead.

An excellent, short history
This compact and well-written book from Soviet historian Peter Kenez is an excellent short history of the Soviet Union.
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Subjects:  1. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Soviet Union    6. European history: from c 1900 -    7. History / Russia (pre- & post-Soviet Union)    8. Russia    9. Soviet Union--History   

Reviews (1)

Offers great early insight into recent Russian developments
In the tradition of Lewin, Jowitt and Lane Von Laue offers insight where others have failed ...