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St. Petersburg & Baltics

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Books for

Enrich your travels with reading! Here's a hand-picked list prepared for your journey in conjunction with the book experts at Longitude.

Essential Reading

Item EXEUR783. Buy these 4 items as a set for $71 including shipping, 20% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Bradt Guide Baltic Cities

Bradt Guide Baltic Cities

by Neil Taylor

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 298 PAGES

This second, expanded edition includes Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Kaliningrad as well as Tartu, Liepaja, Kaunas and Klaipeda. (BLT12, $25.99)

Eyewitness Guide St. Petersburg

Eyewitness Guide St. Petersburg

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 264 PAGES

With excellent local maps and site plans, this outstanding visual guide introduces the culture, history and attractions of St. Petersburg. (RUS87, $25.00)

Cathedrals and Castles, The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages

Cathedrals and Castles, The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages

by Alain Erlande-Brandenburg

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 175 PAGES

This pocket-size encyclopedia of the art, architecture and culture of the Middle Ages features hundreds of drawings, color illustrations and a brief chronology. (MED07, $15.95)

Northern Europe Scandinavia Map

Northern Europe Scandinavia Map

by Freytag & Berndt

  • 2007
  • MAP

A colorful shaded relief map showing the Baltic region from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg and Hammerfest at a scale of 1:2,000,000. (EUR19, $14.95)

 
Baltic States Map

Baltic States Map


by Freytag & Berndt

  • MAP

A double-sided detailed map of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania at a scale of 1:400,000. (BLT06, $14.95)

St. Petersburg Map

St. Petersburg Map


by Borch Maps

  • MAP

A detailed, laminated city plan of St. Petersburg, with street index inset. Place names are in transliterated English. (RUS89, $7.95)

Footprint Tallinn

Footprint Tallinn


by Clare Thomson

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

Nuts-and-bolts information, plus an overview of history and culture, geared for the independent traveler. (BLT27, $12.95)

Lonely Planet Baltic Phrasebook

Lonely Planet Baltic Phrasebook


by Paul Jokubaitis | Jana Teteris | Lisa Trei

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 284 PAGES

Learn the basics of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian with this handy guide. (BLT10, $8.99)

Land of the Firebird, The Beauty of Old Russia

Land of the Firebird, The Beauty of Old Russia


by Suzanne Massie

  • HISTORY
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 496 PAGES
  • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

Massie traces both miniscule details and larger movements in pre-revolutionary Russian art, literature and daily life in this affectionate overview of 19th-century palaces, courts and culture. (RUS21, $35.00)

Lenin's Tomb

Lenin's Tomb


by David Remnick

  • HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 588 PAGES

A gripping eyewitness tale of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Remnick, the Washington Post reporter on the scene, combines fine historical scholarship with great storytelling. (RUS07, $17.00)

Russia, A Concise History

Russia, A Concise History


by Ronald Hingley

  • HISTORY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

Well-known scholar Hingley sketches Russia's multiple transformations from her illiterate, pagan, Slavic roots to a multi-ethnic empire in this highly readable, well-illustrated brief history. (RUS04, $19.95)

Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia

Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia


by W. Bruce Lincoln

  • HISTORY
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

A wonderfully written, informative portrait of St. Petersburg, focusing on the city's development in the 18th and 19th centuries as Russia's "window on the West." Highly recommended for travelers with an interest in the character and significance of the city and its monuments. (RUS128, $19.95)

The Baltic

The Baltic


by Alan Palmer

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 448 PAGES

Palmer chronicles the Baltic region from the Viking era and Byzantine Empire through wars, uprisings and other political conflicts of the twentieth century, and on to modern times, where he finds a group of nations and peoples poised to emerge as some of Europe's most vital democracies. In addition to the prolific British historian's considerable learning, he provides some rather entertaining anecdotes. (BLT22, $19.95)

The Baltic Revolution

The Baltic Revolution


by Anatol Lieven

  • HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 454 PAGES

A Latvian correspondent for the London Times, Lieven weaves history, interviews and analysis into a vivid cultural portrait of post-Glasnost Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. (BLT02, $47.00)

The Latvians, A Short History

The Latvians, A Short History


by Andrejs Plakans

  • HISTORY
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 257 PAGES
  • OUT OF PRINT

A scholarly history of Latvia beginning in medieval times, which concentrates on the growth of Latvian nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. (BLT08, $24.95)

The Northern Crusades

The Northern Crusades


by Eric Christiansen

  • HISTORY
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

The wilder-than-fiction story of the conquest and conversion of the pagan tribes of the Baltic coasts by the crusading knights of the Teutonic Order from the 13th to the 15th centuries. (BLT14, $17.00)

St. Petersburg, Architecture of the Tsars

St. Petersburg, Architecture of the Tsars


by Dmitri Shvidkovsky | Alexander Orloff

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 1996
  • HARD COVER
  • 360 PAGES

This definitive book presents Baroque masterpieces of Peter the Great, Neoclassic confections of Catherine the Great and Art Nouveau glitter of Nicholas II in splendid color photographs. (RUS152, $95.00)

The Hermitage, Masterpieces

The Hermitage, Masterpieces


by Scala Masterpieces

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 157 PAGES
  • OUT OF PRINT

This slim book, featuring color illustrations of hundreds of important works, is an excellent guide to European paintings at the Hermitage. (RUS90, $29.95)

A Woman in Amber

A Woman in Amber


by Agate Nesaule

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 280 PAGES

In this American Book Award-winning memoir, Nesaule recounts the horrors she witnessed and experienced as a young girl during World War II in Latvia. A gripping testimony of survival. (RUS30, $16.00)

Among the Russians

Among the Russians


by Colin Thubron

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

The marvelous account of a 10,000-mile journey by car from St. Petersburg and the Baltic States south to Georgia and Armenia in 1981. A gifted writer and intrepid traveler, Thubron grapples with the complexities of Russian identity in this lyrical book. (RUS106, $14.00)

Catherine the Great, A Short History

Catherine the Great, A Short History


by Isabel De Madariaga

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

A brief survey of the reign of Catherine the Great that nicely balances biography with descriptions of the economic, political and social life of the period. (RUS105, $14.95)

Letters from Russia

Letters from Russia


by Marquis De Custine | Anka Muhlstein

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 654 PAGES

An authoritative edition of Astolphe de Custine's observant, scathing and insightful account of travels in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1839. (RUS166, $24.95)

Peter the Great, His Life and World

Peter the Great, His Life and World


by Robert Massie

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 914 PAGES

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Massie portrays the giant of history who transformed Russia from backwater tsardom into a major empire. (RUS48, $21.00)

Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory


by Vladimir Nabokov

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 316 PAGES

Nabokov's richly imagined memoir wonderfully evokes cultural life among the well-to-do in turn-of-the-century St. Petersburg. (RUS28, $16.00)

The Avengers, A Jewish War Story

The Avengers, A Jewish War Story


by Rich Cohen

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 262 PAGES

The riveting tale of three kids from the Jewish ghetto, who went from the streets of Vilna to fighting the Germans and eventually wound up in a Kibbutz north of Tel Aviv. (BLT16, $14.95)

Coup de Grace


by Marguerite Yourcenar

  • LITERATURE
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 151 PAGES

A novel set against the backdrop of the Latvian War of Independence in the aftermath of WWI. (BLT26, $16.00)

Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment


by Fyodor Dostoevsky | David McDuff

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 647 PAGES

Dostoevsky's thriller of murder and redemption is redolent of St. Petersburg's atmosphere. A cornerstone of Russian literature, and one of the greatest detective stories ever told. (RUS18, $15.00)

From Karamzin to Bunin: An Anthology of Russian Short Stories

From Karamzin to Bunin: An Anthology of Russian Short Stories


by Carl Proffer

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 1969
  • PAPER
  • 468 PAGES

A broad selection of Russian literary works from the earliest prose to the years before the revolution, featuring reliable translations of masterpieces from Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gogol, and more. (RUS08, $24.00)

The Christening

The Christening


by Denise Neuhaus

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 296 PAGES

This accomplished novel, set against a backdrop of the last days of the Soviet Union, follows three Estonian women in Tallinn and Stockholm. (BLT25, $16.95)

The Dogs of Riga

The Dogs of Riga


by Henning Mankell

  • MYSTERY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Swedish detective Kurt Wallander travels from Ystad to Latvia on the shadowy trail of a grisly murder in this second book, steeped in Baltic ambiance. (BLT24, $15.00)

The Master of Petersburg

The Master of Petersburg


by J.M. Coetzee

  • LITERATURE
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 250 PAGES

Dostoyevski becomes a literary character in Coetzee's novel of 19th-century Russia, where he is ensnared in a mystery that illuminates the underworld of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. (RUS200, $16.00)

The Siege

The Siege


by Helen Dunmore

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

The 1941 siege of Leningrad is the backdrop for this affecting novel of one Russian family's attempts to survive during the darkest hours of World War II. (RUS258, $13.00)

To the Hermitage

To the Hermitage


by Malcolm Bradbury

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 510 PAGES
  • OUT OF PRINT

Bradbury's spirited, time-spanning novel, involving French philosopher Diderot, Catherine the Great, a 1990s English professor in St. Petersburg and contemporary politics. (RUS153, $16.95)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.