Both witness to and victim of Stalin's reign of terror, a courageous woman tells the story of her harrowing eighteen-year odyssey through Russia's prisons and labour camps. Buy

Labels: Biography, Inspirational, Russia

Grab your balalaika, turn off the samovar and meet up with Boris and Natasha at Lenin's tomb in Moscow, in the queue outside the Hermitage in St Petersburg, in any one of the Golden Ring's gorgeous historic towns and in the wildflower-filled meadows of the Caucasus. Buy

Labels: Russia, Travel Guide

You're in Russia. Chances are you'll have to stand in line at least once. With this book in hand, this potentially dreary experience could become a social event. Talk politics, meet the love of your life or simply ask where the toilets are. Buy

Labels: Educational, Russia

Conquest examines Stalin's assault on the Soviet peasantry at the end of the 1920s. His horrific details, drawn from Soviet as well as Western sources, lead Conquest to conclude that as many as 14.5 million died in the years 1930-37 as a result of Stalin's terror against the peasantry: five million came from the Ukraine alone. Buy

Labels: History, Politics, Russia

This book provides a comprehensive survey of Russia's tragic and glorious history from prehistory through glasnost and the fall of the Soviet Union right up to the present day. The book begins with prehistoric Russia and its nomadic invaders, and covers the rise of Muscovy with its colourful panoply of rulers from Ivan Moneybags to Ivan the Terrible, despotism of the Romanovs, and the Russian Revolution. Buy

Labels: Armchair Travel, History, Russia

An excellent compilation of some of the greatest writers Russia has ever produced, including sections on Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenyev, Lermentov, Tolstoy, Blok, Babel, Kharms, Bulgakov, and many others. There are stories, plays and poems in this anthology, giving the reader a fine selection of the rich variety of literature that Russia had contributed to the world. Buy

Labels: Literature, Russia

Russia had an extraordinary twentieth century, undergoing upheaval and transformation. Updating his acclaimed History of Twentieth-Century Russia through 2002, Robert Service provides a panoramic perspective on a country whose Soviet past encompassed revolution, civil war, mass terror, and two world wars. Buy

Labels: History, Russia

In 1992, The United States and Russia signed an accord allowing the citizens of each country the right to travel freely throughout the territory of the other, thus reversing years of Cold War policy that had closed off access to cities and immense tracts of land to the respective peregrinations of both "commie comrades" and "imperial warmongers". In this book, Taplin records his observations as he visits newly "Open Lands" at the far margins of his host country. Buy

Labels: Armchair Travel, Russia

Here is a fresh perspective on the last tumultuous years of the Soviet Union and an exquisitely poetic travelogue. With a keen grasp of Russia's history, a deep appreciation for its architecture and iconography, and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for its people and its culture, Colin Thubron is the perfect guide to a country most of us will never get to know firsthand. Here, we can walk down western Russia's country roads, rest in its villages, and explore some of the most engaging cities in the world. Buy

Labels: Armchair Travel, History, Russia