On the Defensive
From the founding of Kiev in the ninth century through to the present, the Russian Empire has been both a predator and a victim.
Russia
Could the Soviet Union Have Survived?
We ask four historians of the Cold War whether the demise of the USSR was as inevitable as it now seems.
The Western Gaze
Russian history through western correspondents.
‘The Russia Anxiety’ by Mark B. Smith review
Why is the West so suspicious of Russia? The Russia Anxiety: And How History Can Resolve It by Mark B. Smith attempts to answer.
Postcards and the Russian Revolution
Short, angry missives pinged across the world – Russian propagandists used postcards to get their message across.
From Russia with Borscht
A staple of Russia and the Slavic world, borscht has inspired films and novels – and has even reached outer space.
Homophobia in Russia
Despite the difficulties in accessing official archival sources, the history of homophobic persecution in Russia is covered convincingly in this study.
Goodbye Lenin? A Centenary Perspective
The Russian Revolution should not be confined to 1917. The legacy of its leader and chief ideologue lives on in all its terrible contradictions.
Looking back through the Iron Curtain
A discerning account by a self-deprecating but well-informed journalist of the dramatic changes in Russia over the past 40 years.
Revolution and the Fortune of War
On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, five books track its transition from idealism to tyranny.