The doctor said something in Russian and the translator translated." I am told you did not eat your breakfast. Are you feeling sick to your stomach?" "No. I feel fine. I feel great. I just don't like Kasha," The doctor came over to me and said "aw." I stuck out my tongue to show her how great my throat was now. She made a hmmm noise and wrote on her chart. The nurse produced a thermometer. "Roll over," the translator said." The doctor needs to take your temperature." They had me trapped. I hated them all. I rolled over. My frilly bloomers were pulled down. The thermometer was freezing. I lay there in full view with a thermometer sticking out of my bum. The Russian girl in the next bed was looking at me. I heard people in the hall. People came in and out of the room. How many people did this have to involve? How many people needed to look at my bare bum with a thermometer sticking out of it? I hated the girl staring at me. I put my face down in the pillow. Maybe I'd suffocate and die. Normally I did not want to die, right now though it would have been better that way, better to die. Several minutes went by. It was quiet now. When was the nurse going to come back and read my temperature, which was going to be normal after all of this? I was fine. I waited. I waited. They must have forgotten about me. Jeepers Creepers! They forgot they were taking my temperature.

Russian history is first and foremost a history of personalized power. As Russia startles the international community with its assertiveness and faces both parliamentary and presidential elections, Lilia Shevtsova searches the histories of the Yeltsin and Putin regimes. She explores within them conventional truths and myths about Russia, paradoxes of Russian political development, and Russia's role in the world. Russia--Lost in Transition discovers a logic of government in Russia--a political regime and the type of capitalism that were formulated during the Yeltsin and Putin presidencies and will continue to dominate Russia's trajectory in the near term. Looking forward as well as back, Shevtsova speculates about the upcoming elections as well as the self-perpetuating system in place--the legacies of Yeltsin and Putin--and how it will dictate the immediate political future. She also explores several scenarios for Russia's future over the next decade.

Rywkin, author of Soviet Society Today (1989) and Moscow's Muslim Challenge (rev. ed., 1990), covers the background and current fate of the principal nationalities circumscribed by the Soviet Union in order to present a picture of national and ethnic issues affecting the post-Soviet states at the outset of their independent existence. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers Soon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov From the number one New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel 'A wonderful book' - Tana French 'This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don't miss it' - Chris Cleave 'No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year '[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself.' - Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year 'Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism' - The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all? A BOOK OF THE DECADE, 2010-2020 (INDEPENDENT) THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 ONE OF BILL GATES'S SUMMER READS OF 2019 NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS WEEK AWARD

This volume gives an overview of the regional, ethnic and political structure of the Soviet empire from its establishment through its ultimate disintegration. It provides a corrective to the Russocentrism and Great Power bias that has marked most studies of the Soviet Union.

From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine -- only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nation's history. Spanning over 500 years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin exploited existing forms of identity, warfare, and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. An authoritative and masterful account of Russian nationalism, Lost Kingdom chronicles the story behind Russia's belligerent empire-building quest.

The author presents her personal memories and her research into her family's history, including the mysterious circumstances surrounding the fate of her grandfather, Leonid Khrushchev, as well as the legacy of her great grandfather, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Linchpin of the Soviet system and exemplar of its ideology, Moscow was nonetheless instrumental in the Soviet Union's demise. It was in this metropolis of nine million people that Boris Yeltsin, during two frustrating years as the city's party boss, began his move away from Communist orthodoxy. Colton charts the general course of events that led to this move, tracing the political and social developments that have given the city its modern character. He shows how the monolith of Soviet power broke down in the process of metropolitan governance, where the constraints of censorship and party oversight could not keep up with proliferating points of view, haphazard integration, and recurrent deviation from approved rules and goals. Everything that goes into making a city - from town planning, housing, and retail services to environmental and architectural concernsfigures in Colton's account of what makes Moscow unique. He shows us how these aspects of the city's organization, and the actions of leaders and elite groups within them, coordinated or conflicted with the overall power structure and policy imperatives of the Soviet Union. Against this background, Colton explores the growth of the anti-Communist revolution in Moscow politics, as well as fledgling attempts to establish democratic institutions and a market economy.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was hailed as the beginning of a new era of peace and co-operation between East and West. But in the years since, Russia has made incursions into Georgia, Ukraine and Syria, leaving the Western powers at a loss. What went wrong? Drawing on exclusive interviews with key players, Peter Conradi examines the pivotal moments of the past quarter of a century and outlines how we might get relations back on track before it’s too late. Who Lost Russia? provides the essential background to understanding the bizarre and shifting relationship between Trump’s America and Putin’s Russia. This updated edition includes a new chapter on the year following the 2016 US presidential election.

her upper class family and her own demons. And Tatiana and Misha, whose business empire has blossomed from the ashes of the Soviet Empire but who, despite their luxury, seem uneasy in this new world." "Through their stories and her own experiences, Susan Richards demonstrates how in Russia the past and the present cannot be separated. This remarkable history of contemporary Russia holds a mirror up to a forgotten people and sweeps away many traditional Western assumptions. Lost and Found in Russia is a magical and unforgettable portrait of a changing society." --Book Jacket.