Soviet Century

The Soviet Union is gone, but its ghostly traces remain, not least in the material vestiges left behind in its turbulent wake. What was it really like to live in the USSR? What did it look, feel, smell, and sound like? In The Soviet Century, Karl Schlögel, one of the world's leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a spellbinding epic that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost civilization. A museum of—and travel guide to—the Soviet past, The Soviet Century explores in evocative detail both the largest and smallest aspects of life in the USSR.

Departing from a simple linear history, The Soviet Century traces all the continuities and ruptures that led from the founding revolution of October 1917, to the final collapse of the late 1980s and early 1990s, passing through the Stalinist dictatorship, the impossible reforms of the Khrushchev years, and the glasnost and perestroika policies of Gorbachev.

If Vasily Grossman's 1961 masterpiece, Life and Fate, had been published during his lifetime, it would have reached the world together with Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago and before Solzhenitsyn's Gulag. But Life and Fate was seized by the Russian KGB. When it emerged posthumously, decades later, it was recognized as the War and Peace of the 20th century.  

The first in Ken Follett's breathtaking Century Trilogy, Fall of Giants is a captivating tale that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. A World in Chaos 1911, a thirteen-year-old boy, Billy...

Winter of the World is the second novel in Ken Follett's uniquely ambitious Century trilogy. On its own or read in sequence with Fall of Giants and Edge of Eternity, this is a spellbinding epic of global conflict and personal drama during World War II. A Battle of Ideals It is 1933 and, at...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times From the editor of The New Yorker: a riveting account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which has become the standard book on the subject. Lenin’s Tomb combines the global vision of the best historical...

Abridged edition. Winter of the World is the second novel in Ken Follett's uniquely ambitious Century trilogy. On its own or read in sequence with Fall of Giants and Edge of Eternity, this is a spellbinding epic of global conflict and personal drama. A Battle of Ideals It is 1933 and, at...

Step into the gripping true history of ruthless espionage and covert operations that fueled the Cold War shadow wars. Perfect for a suspenseful daily commute, this cinematic narrative exposes how a besieged Bolshevik regime weaponized deception into a global intelligence machine. Follow the...

Trace the bloody birth and dramatic collapse of a communist superpower in this gripping 20th-century history audio. Perfect for an educational morning commute, this tense narrative transports you from the dazzling wealth of the Romanov tsars to the chaotic final days of the Kremlin in 1991...

“A masterpiece” (The Guardian) from the Nobel Prize–winning writer, an oral history of children’s experiences in World War II across Russia NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST For more than three decades, Svetlana Alexievich has been the memory and conscience...

THE ENTHRALLING TRUE STORY OF BRITAIN'S MOST TREACHEROUS SPY RING - FEATURING NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN RESEARCH. *Orwell Prize for Political Writing Finalist 2026* 'Shocking. Gripping. Unputdownable. You thought you knew the Cambridge Five? Think again!' - DAMIEN LEWIS 'A definitive work on one of the...

A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph and Economist LONGLISTED for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2026 'This book reads like a spy novel' FINANICAL TIMES 'Entertaining and vivid' OBSERVER...

Experience the dramatic fall of the Romanov Empire and the chaotic rise of Soviet power from the bloodstained streets. Perfect for an immersive commute or deep-focus listening, this gripping 20th-century history plunges you into the tumultuous reality of everyday citizens. Hear the voices of...

Experience the tense geopolitical brinkmanship of a global conflict that pushed humanity to the edge of nuclear war. Whether you need an immersive military history for your daily commute or a suspenseful deep-dive into twentieth-century statecraft, this sweeping narrative delivers. Step into an...

Bloomsbury presents Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941-44 by Robert Forczyk, read by Mark Meadows. The Crimean Peninsula was the setting for the destruction of a number of armies in World War II, both Soviet and German. When the Soviets fortified Sevastopol in 1941 it heralded the...

Discover how the pursuit of radical equality sparked political revolutions and ignited a fierce global Cold War standoff. Perfect for your daily commute or an intellectual deep dive, this gripping historical narrative traces socialist ideology from philosophical texts to violent barricades...

‘Effervescent’ New Yorker Best Books Of 2022 So Far ‘Bursts with colour and incident’ FT Best Books of Summer Read this prize-winning historian’s “immersive” ( New York Times) account of the famous writers who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules...

Bloomsbury presents Rockin' the Kremlin: My Incredible True Story of Gangsters, Oligarchs, and Pop Stars in Putin's Russia by David Junk with Fred Bronson, read by Christopher Ragland. Read the true story of Universal Music Russia’s first CEO and his quest to bring Western popular music to...

Bloomsbury presents To Save An Army by Robert Forsyth, read by Mark Meadows. Using the diaries of Luftwaffe commanders and other previously unpublished sources, Robert Forsyth analyzes the human, strategic, tactical and technical elements of one of the most dramatic operations arranged by the...

Drawing on remarkable and never-before-seen material, the extraordinary story of one of the most horrific and devastating encounters of the Second World War. 'This is a truly astounding book, packed with searing hitherto-unpublished testimony about what it was like to endure, and ultimately...