Russia

Jacob Blumkin, 1892-1929

Rex Winsbury profiles a Soviet gunman and secret agent who assassinated the German Ambassador and was himself shot in 1929 after visiting Trotsky in exile.

Bears in the Bosporus

The arrival in 1833 of a Russian fleet signalled Russian control for several years of the Bosporus and of the Turkish Empire, writes Lansing Collins.

An English Arctic Expedition: 1553

James Marshall-Cornwall describes a Tudor adventure, ultimately unsuccessful: Willoughby perished on the Kola peninsula; Chancellor reached Moscow and was received by Ivan the Terrible.

Trotsky in 1905

Rex Winsbury describes how the attempted Russian Revolution of 1905 was the prologue to greater events in 1917.

The Spirit Wrestlers, Part II

The first Doukhobors reached Canada in 1898 and their leader followed in 1902. George Woodcock describes how fanatical sects later arose in their New World settlements.

The Sea-Otter and History

Across the Pacific, writes C.M. Yonge, from northern Japan to the Californian coastline, the relentless hunt for the sea-otter’s precious fur had international consequences.

The Duchess of Kingston in Russia

Duchess by bigamy, but a Countess by marriage, Elizabeth Chudleigh found refuge from her marital troubles in St Petersburg, writes Anthony Cross.