Soviet Union

In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.

Politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle have accused Russia of interfering with our elections and our intelligence agencies. But the war Russia is waging against America is very different from anything you have heard in the press, as Russian-born US intelligence expert Rebekah Koffler reveals. In Putin’s Playbook, Koffler details how Vladimir Putin is orchestrating a wide-ranging, multifaceted campaign to retake his country’s role as a superpower and to defeat America in the process. 

The Soviet Union at its height occupied one sixth of the world's land mass, encompassed fifteen republics, and stretched across eleven different time zones. More than twice the size of the United States, it was the great threat of the Cold War until it suddenly collapsed in 1991. Now, almost...

Can trauma be inherited? In this “urgent and enthralling reckoning with family and history” (Andrew Solomon), an American writer returns to Russia to face a family history that still haunts him. Can trauma be inherited?It is this question that sets Alex Halberstadt off on a quest to name...

Bloomsbury presents Berlin: Endgame 1945 by Prit Buttar, read by John Telfer. Written by one of the world's leading experts on the Eastern Front, this captivating history explores the final battle for Berlin and the heart of Germany. This sweeping saga takes us from the banks of the River Oder...

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...

Discover the dramatic collapse of a global superpower and the political shockwaves that ended the Cold War era. Perfect for an engaging morning commute or a session of deep-focus learning, this gripping historical narrative tracks the sudden implosion of a seemingly invincible empire. Experience...

A "Best Non-Fiction to Read This Year" Selection from The New Statesman A magisterial, revisionist narrative history of the Soviet Union in its post-Stalin heyday, bringing a forgotten society to vivid life and offering a new explanation for how it suddenly collapsed. To those of us in the West...

Witness the dramatic collapse of a superpower in this gripping Cold War history of systemic failure. Perfect for your commute, this intense narrative explores how a massive empire unraveled in mere years. Experience the turbulence of a stagnant regime pushed to the brink by radical reforms and...

Uncover the dramatic Cold War history behind a nuclear superpower's sudden, shocking political collapse. Perfect for your daily commute, this thought-provoking journey drops you right into the late twentieth century, where a seemingly immovable regime vanished almost overnight. Experience the...

In today’s chaotic world, where the multiplication of information sources creates competing narratives, credibility is the key to winning the war of ideas. This is the reason why governments and corporations resort to astroturfing - creation of ostensibly grassroots movements set up to advance political agendas and commercial campaigns. The democratization of information and polarization of politics offer a perfect storm.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia, from Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ...

Early in 1968, a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine sank in the waters off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Compelling evidence strongly suggests that the sub sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile.

Durante más de medio siglo y hasta su abolición en 1991, el Comité para la Seguridad del Estado (KGB), conocido también en el mundo del espionaje como ‘El Centro', dirigió una auténtica guerra de espías desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta el fin de la Guerra Fría. Pero no solo el KGB significaba el enemigo para la CIA o el MI6, sino también el terror para miles de ciudadanos de la antigua Unión Soviética. El 'escudo y la espada' (símbolo del KGB) a través de sus agentes y espías fueron sin duda alguna la vanguardia de la defensa de unos valores que dejaron de serlo abruptamente en 1991.

In 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries came to power in the war-torn Russian Empire in a way that defied all predictions. Scarcely a lifespan later, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as accidentally as it arose. The decades between witnessed drama on an epic scale-the chaos and hope of revolution, famines and purges, hard-won victory in history's most destructive war, and worldwide geopolitical conflict, all entwined around the dream of building a better society.

In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath.

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Tells the story with a mordant eye, weaving together the disintegration of Mikhail Gorbachev's reformist ambitions, the implosion of the Soviet economy and the plight of ordinary people' DOMINIC SANDBROOK 'Savage, comic and tragic . . . Brilliant' JOHN CRACE Who won the...

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...

'This bracing tour d'horizon of the once and future world order, although aimed at the informed layman, is well worth reading . . . Simms has done much to rescue the reputation of geopolitical writing, often the preserve of the charlatan, the witless pundit and the video gamer. His newest work...

An award-winning historian reveals the harrowing, little-known story of an American effort to save the newly formed Soviet Union from disaster. After decades of the Cold War and renewed tensions, in the wake of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, cooperation between the United States and...