Ranked #1
Adeeb Khalid, “Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR” (Cornell UP, 2015)
Adeeb Khalid, “Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR” (Cornell UP, 2015)
In what promises to become a classic, Adeeb Khalid’s (Professor of History, Carleton College), Making Uzbekistan: Nation... Read more
27 Apr 2016
•
55mins
Ranked #2
Steven Barnes, “Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society” (Princeton UP, 2011)
Steven Barnes, “Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society” (Princeton UP, 2011)
Most Westerners know about the Gulag (aka “Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies”) thanks to Alexa... Read more
23 Sep 2011
•
1hr 13mins
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Ranked #3
Laura Engelstein, “Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914-1921” (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Laura Engelstein, “Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914-1921” (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914-1921 (Oxford University Press, 2017) is a masterful account of the Ru... Read more
31 Jan 2018
•
1hr 4mins
Ranked #4
James Heinzen, “The Art of the Bribe: Corruption Under Stalin, 1943-1953” (Yale UP, 2016)
James Heinzen, “The Art of the Bribe: Corruption Under Stalin, 1943-1953” (Yale UP, 2016)
The Soviet Union under Stalin was very repressive. You could get sent to a GULAG (if not shot) for casually telling an “... Read more
12 May 2017
•
1hr 3mins
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Ranked #5
Mark Galeotti, “The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia” (Yale UP, 2018)
Mark Galeotti, “The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia” (Yale UP, 2018)
The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia (Yale University Press, 2018) by Mark Galeotti is an engrossing read about a topic mainst... Read more
10 Jun 2019
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1hr 13mins
Ranked #6
Daniel Treisman, “The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev” (Free Press, 2011)
Daniel Treisman, “The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev” (Free Press, 2011)
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, journalists, academics, and policymakers have sought to make sense of post-Sovie... Read more
5 Jul 2011
•
1hr 8mins
Ranked #7
Kenneth Moss, “Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution” (Harvard UP, 2010)
Kenneth Moss, “Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution” (Harvard UP, 2010)
For us, every “nation” has and has always had a “culture,” meaning a defining set of folkways, customs, and styles that ... Read more
10 Mar 2011
•
1hr 16mins
Ranked #8
Artemy Kalinovsky, “A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan” (Harvard UP, 2011)
Artemy Kalinovsky, “A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan” (Harvard UP, 2011)
It’s been twenty years since the Soviet Union collapsed, and scholars still joust over its long- and short-term causes. ... Read more
16 Jan 2012
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1hr 5mins
Ranked #9
Svetlana Stephenson, “Gangs of Russia: From the Streets to the Corridors of Power” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Svetlana Stephenson, “Gangs of Russia: From the Streets to the Corridors of Power” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
The title of Svetlana Stephenson’s book Gangs of Russia: From the Streets to the Corridors of Power (Cornell UP, 2015) i... Read more
26 Sep 2018
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36mins
Ranked #10
Yuri Slezkine, “The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution” (Princeton UP, 2017)
Yuri Slezkine, “The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution” (Princeton UP, 2017)
Before the revolution that—very unexpectedly—brought them to power, the Bolsheviks lived nomadic lives. They were always... Read more
4 Dec 2017
•
46mins
Ranked #11
Per Anders Rudling, “The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906-1931” (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2015)
Per Anders Rudling, “The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906-1931” (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2015)
I don’t often have a chance to read books that focus solely on Belarus, which is exactly why I was intrigued by The Rise... Read more
23 May 2016
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1hr 10mins
Ranked #12
Cynthia A. Ruder, “Building Stalinism: The Moscow Canal and the Creation of Soviet Space” (I. B. Tauris, 2018)
Cynthia A. Ruder, “Building Stalinism: The Moscow Canal and the Creation of Soviet Space” (I. B. Tauris, 2018)
In Building Stalinism: The Moscow Canal and the Creation of Soviet Space (I. B. Tauris, 2018), Cynthia Ruder explores ho... Read more
5 Jul 2018
•
59mins
Ranked #13
Jonathan Daly, “Crime and Punishment in Russia: A Comparative History from Peter the Great to Vladimir Putin” (Bloomsbury, 2018)
Jonathan Daly, “Crime and Punishment in Russia: A Comparative History from Peter the Great to Vladimir Putin” (Bloomsbury, 2018)
Jonathan Daly is a professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His newest book Crime and Punishment i... Read more
10 Apr 2018
•
1hr 14mins
Ranked #14
Lynne Viola, “Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine” (Oxford UP, 2017)
Lynne Viola, “Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine” (Oxford UP, 2017)
What happened inside NKVD interrogation rooms during the Great Terror? How did the perpetrators feel when the Soviet sta... Read more
16 Jul 2018
•
51mins
Ranked #15
Victor Taki, “Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman Empire” (I.B. Taurus, 2016)
Victor Taki, “Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman Empire” (I.B. Taurus, 2016)
Victor Taki’s Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman Empire (I.B. Taurus, 2016) invites the reader to expl... Read more
14 Dec 2016
•
1hr 1min
Ranked #16
Roberto Carmack, "Kazakhstan in World War II: Mobilization and Ethnicity in the Soviet Empire" (UP of Kansas, 2019)
Roberto Carmack, "Kazakhstan in World War II: Mobilization and Ethnicity in the Soviet Empire" (UP of Kansas, 2019)
Roberto Carmack’s Kazakhstan in World War II: Mobilization and Ethnicity in the Soviet Empire (University Press of Kansa... Read more
6 Dec 2019
•
57mins
Ranked #17
Anna Fishzon, “Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera: Mad Acts and Letter Scenes in Fin-de-Siecle Russia” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013)
Anna Fishzon, “Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera: Mad Acts and Letter Scenes in Fin-de-Siecle Russia” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013)
Pretty much everyone understands what is called the “Cult of Celebrity,” particularly as it manifests itself in the arts... Read more
17 Apr 2014
•
55mins
Ranked #18
Christopher Ward, “Brezhnev’s Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism” (Pittsburgh UP, 2009)
Christopher Ward, “Brezhnev’s Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism” (Pittsburgh UP, 2009)
At the Seventeenth Komsomol Congress in 1974, Leonid Brezhnev announced the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline Rai... Read more
8 Apr 2011
•
1hr
Ranked #19
Gleb Tsipursky, “Socialist Fun: Youth, Consumption, and State-Sponsored Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1945-1970” (U. Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
Gleb Tsipursky, “Socialist Fun: Youth, Consumption, and State-Sponsored Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1945-1970” (U. Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
Socialist Fun: Youth, Consumption, and State-Sponsored Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1945-1970 (University of Pit... Read more
14 Mar 2017
•
56mins
Ranked #20
Katy Turton, “Forgotten Lives: The Role of Lenin’s Sisters in the Russian Revolution, 1864-1937” (Palgrave-McMillan, 2007)
Katy Turton, “Forgotten Lives: The Role of Lenin’s Sisters in the Russian Revolution, 1864-1937” (Palgrave-McMillan, 2007)
A number of years ago I read Robert Service’s excellent biography of Lenin and came away thinking “We don’t really know ... Read more
5 Jun 2008
•
1hr 5mins
