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101 Stories of the Great Ballets • George Balanchine • Francis Mason REFERENCE • 1975 • PAPER • 541 PAGES Scene-by-scene retellings of the most popular ballets from the man who revolutionized the art. Includes production notes, summaries and personal comments for various productions of each ballet. (GEN262, $17.95)
Alexander Pushkin, The Collected Stories • Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin LITERATURE • 1999 • HARD COVER • 548 PAGES An expanded collection of Pushkin's tales, including The Captain's Daughter, The Queen of Spades, Tales of Belkin, and many shorter works. With a long introduction by John Bayley and chronology. Translated and presented by Paul Debreczeny. (RUS196, $25.00)
All the Views Fit to Print, Changing Images of the U.S. In Pravda Political Cartoons, 1917-1991 • Kevin J. McKenna HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Arranged chronologically, this scholarly book dissects Russian political cartoons and their depictions of America. It's an interesting study of the propaganda war waged throughout the 20th century. (RUS179, $49.95)
Among the Russians • 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 complex Russian identity in this lyrical book, first published as "Where Nights are Longest." Thubron combines his encounters with the interesting characters he meets with Russian history, politics and insightful commentary. Highly recommended. (RUS106, $14.00)
Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana • Stephanie Elizondo Griest BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2004 • PAPER • 416 PAGES The offbeat memoirs of a native Texan who spent four years as a volunteer in Moscow, a propaganda officer in Beijing, and a belly dancer in Havana. You may have come across Griest's distinctive voice in a collection of Travelers' Tales, where she is a regular contributor. She's young, a witty observer with a way with words, and utterly passionate about travel. This is her first book, as much memoir as travel account, spanning four years and three continents. (RUS242, $14.95)
Balanchine, A Biography • Bernard Taper BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1996 • PAPER • 448 PAGES Taper sorts out the controversial legacy of the legendary choreographer in this study of his life. A newly added epilogue to this reprint of the original 1984 work examines how ballet been affected by Balanchine's death. (RUS193, $31.95)
The Baltic Revolution • Anatol Lieven HISTORY • 1994 • PAPER • 454 PAGES Lieven explores the culture and personality of the Baltic peoples, their religious and national differences and relations with Russia and the West. Written by a London Times correspondent who interweaves interviews, observations and history to reveal post-Glasnost Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. (BLT02, $47.00)
Belarus, At a Crossroads in History • Jan Zaprudnik HISTORY • 1993 • PAPER • 278 PAGES A history of Belarus, with a focus on the status of the nation as the Soviet Union crumbled. (RUS123, $34.00)
Berlitz Russian Phrase Book & Dictionary • Berlitz Pocket Guides LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2008 • PAPER • 224 PAGES A short introduction to common Russian words and phrases, designed for the traveler. Contains more than 1,000 phrases and more than 2,000 words. (RUS107, $8.95)
The Big Red Train Ride • Eric Newby TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1989 • PAPER • 267 PAGES • COMING IN Newby's marvelous account of speeding across Russia with wife Wanda on the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Khabarovsk recalls the joys, frustrations and oddities of remote Russia during the Brezhnev years. With photographs by the Newbys. (RUS140, $24.95)
Black Earth, A Journey Through Russia After the Fall • Andrew Meier CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2005 • PAPER • 516 PAGES Meier, a journalist who covered Russia for Time from 1996-2001, ventures outside the Kremlin for this portrait of Russia and of the lives of typical Russians since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He travels South, North, East and West to war-torn Chechnya, the industrial northern city of Norilisk, forgotten Sakhalin, and progressive St. Petersburg. An insightful portrait much in the spirit of David Remnick's Resurrection. (RUS236, $16.95)
Black Sea • Neal Ascherson CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1996 • PAPER • 306 PAGES A vivid and entertaining exploration of the Black Sea, with its unique mingling of cultures. Ascherson skillfully interweaves nature, politics, and culture as he describes both the history of the region and the current state of affairs. (RUS46, $19.00)
Borderland, A Journey through the History of Ukraine • Anna Reid HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 272 PAGES A lively survey of the traditions and history of Ukraine, organized geographically. Reid, who was for three years the Kiev correspondent for the Economist, combines first-person reports, interviews and history in this insightful portrait of the region. (RUS84, $17.00)
Bradt Guide Georgia • Tim Burford GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 272 PAGES This convenient guide is a personal, detailed overview of Georgia. It includes coverage of the Black Sea coast, Tbilisi and other major towns, as well as information on history, culture and accommodations. Filled with photographs, maps and excellent travel information, including visiting Armenia on a three day visa. (CCS03, $25.99)
The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoevsky • Larissa Volokhonsky • Richard Pevear LITERATURE • 1991 • PAPER • 832 PAGES Dostoyevsky's final masterpiece, the introspective, philosophical novel of four very different brothers dealing with the murder of their father. This edition is an acclaimed recent translation. (RUS108, $18.00)
Burning Lights • Bella Chagall • Marc Chagall • Norbert Guterman BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1988 • PAPER • 268 PAGES A memoir of growing up in the city of Vitebsk, Belarus in the beginning of the 20th century. Illustrated by the author's husband (famous artist Marc Chagall), this is a woman's story of life in traditional Belorussian society. (RUS122, $19.00)
Catherine the Great, A Short History • Isabel De Madariaga BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2002 • PAPER • 240 PAGES A brief, balanced biography of Catherine the Great, covering her life, influence and times. Written by a noted scholar of Russian history, the book offers an excellent overview of the political and social climate of 18th-century Russia. De Madariaga begins the book with a short, vigorous chapter: Catherine seizes power. The woman who ruled from 1762 until her death in 1796 had no claim to the throne. For serious students, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, also by De Madariaga, offers more detail. A Yale Note Bene paperback. (RUS105, $14.95)
Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan • Freytag & Berndt REFERENCE • MAP A travel map of the Caucasus at a scale 1:1,000,000. Two Sides. 33x47 inches. (CCS01, $14.95)
A Century of Ambivalence, The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present • Zvi Y. Gitelman HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 321 PAGES A strikingly illustrated history of Jewish life in Russia, originally published in 1988 and expanded for this second edition. With two new chapters on the fate of Jews and Judaism in the former Soviet Union, 200 black-and-white photographs from YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and three maps. Zvi Gitelman is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. (RUS172, $24.95)
Clara's Grand Tour, Travels With a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-century Europe • Glynis Ridley HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 240 PAGES The entertaining history of a most unusual eighteenth-century European celebrity. Clara the Indian rhinoceros was brought to Europe in 1741 by the Dutch sea captain Douwemout Van der Meer, and toured for seventeen years, to the delight of heads of state such as Louis XV and Frederick the Great. A marvelous and unique look at the introduction of Eastern wildlife into the Western world. (FRN536, $12.00)
The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel • Isaac Babel LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 511 PAGES An authoritative edition of Isaac Babel's powerful short fiction, edited by his daughter Nathalie Babel and translated by award-winner Peter Constantine. This edition includes among its treasures his early Red Cavalry Stories and The Odessa Tales, masterpieces that draw on Babel's experiences. This work follows in the wake of the extraordinary Complete Works of Isaac Babel by the same team. (RUS171, $18.95)
Commonwealth of Independent States Map • Freytag & Berndt MAP A double-sided map of the entire CIS, divided into Western Russia (at a scale of 1:2,000,000 and eastern Russia (1:8,000,000). The map of Western Russia is the same plate as that for Eastern Europe (Item EUR36). Two Sides. 35x49 inches. (RUS133, $14.95)
A Concise History of the Russian Revolution • Peter Dimock • Richard Pipes HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 431 PAGES A scholarly analysis of the Russian revolution by Harvard Scholar Richard Pipes, from the events that catalyzed the revolution, to its conclusion and aftermath. Includes glossary, chronology, and photographs of important players of the Revolution. (RUS98, $17.95)
Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer • Andrei Makine LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 144 PAGES The celebrated contemporary Russian author follows two ideologically fervent boys, Arkady and Alyosha, as they come of age in post-Stalin Soviet Union. (RUS136, $21.95)
The Cossacks • Leo Tolstoy • Peter Constantine • Cynthia Ozick LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 192 PAGES A fresh translation of Tolstoy's 1863 semi-autobiographical novel about a young Muscovite and his military adventures in the rough-and-ready Caucasus. The book is, in part, a portrait of the Cossacks -- and an account of falling in love. (RUS241, $13.00)
The Cossacks, An Illustrated History • John Ure HISTORY • 2009 • PAPER • 288 PAGES In this lively, beautifully illustrated overview, a career diplomat (and frequent visitor to the region) explores the history of the Cossacks in Southern Russia and central Asia and their role in world affairs. With 105 color and 30 black and white illustrations. Interestingly, Ure challenges the notion that the Cossacks are no longer influential (or evident), detailing their involvement in Chechnya, Bosnia and other places. (RUS135, $24.95)
Cracks in the Iron Closet, Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia • David Tuller TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1997 • PAPER • 344 PAGES A soul-searching reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle out and about in 1990s Russia. Tuller mixes travelogue with history, social analysis, and lots of comentary on his circle of friends and aquaintances (including the lesbian he fell for). It's an intimate, slightly surreal portrait of an emerging gay subculture in modern Russia. (RUS149, $20.00)
Defiance, The Bielski Partisans • Nechama Tec HISTORY • 1994 • PAPER • 304 PAGES Led by Tuvia Bielski and his brothers, a group of Jews in 1940s Belorusssia, known as the Bieleksi Partisans, mounted an armed rescue Jewish Europeans, saving hundreds from the Holocaust. This is their story, as gathered through interviews by Holocaust surviver Nechama Tec. (RUS120, $14.95)
Dreams of My Russian Summers • Andrei Makine LITERATURE • 2011 • PAPER • 256 PAGES In this widely praised first novel, Makine writes evocatively of the coming of age of a young boy in the Soviet Union of the 1960's and 70's. (RUS266, $14.95)
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 • Norman Stone HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 384 PAGES A classic study of Russia's contribution to the First World War. First published in 1975, before Soviet archives were opened, this work details the Russian defeat and how it affected the 1917 revolution. (WAR76, $16.95)
The End of Eurasia, Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization • Dmitri Trenin HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 340 PAGES A thought provoking analysis of Russia's foreign policy by the deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center (and a retired Russian army officer). Trenin -- who argues for a Euro-centered Russia and integration with the West -- looks at Russia's western face, its southern borders with the Islamic republics of Central Asia and the far east, increasingly dominated by China. (RUS163, $24.95)
Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse • James E. Falen • Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin LITERATURE • 1998 • PAPER • 240 PAGES A master work by one of Russia's most respected poets. Set in early 19th-century Russia, Pushkin's verse novel tells the tale of three men and three women, interwoven with a variety of literal philosophical and autobiographical tangents. (RUS101, $9.95)
Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse • Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin • Vladimir Nabokov LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 362 PAGES In this translation of Pushkin's epic poem set in 19th-century Russia, the great novelist Nabokov brings the spark of Pushkin's original words to life. (RUS290, $24.95)
Eyewitness Guide Moscow • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 263 PAGES An outstanding guide to Moscow, its culture, history and attractions, with excellent local maps, site plans and hundreds of color photographs. It includes a select, annotated listing of recommended hotels, restaurants, cafes and shops. (RUS164, $23.00)
Eyewitness Guide St. Petersburg • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 264 PAGES An outstanding guide to St. Petersburg, its culture, history and attractions. This compact travel guide features excellent local maps and site plans, hundreds of color photographs and a good selection of writing on St. Petersburg over the ages. (RUS87, $25.00)
Fathers and Sons • Ivan Turgenev LITERATURE • 1975 • PAPER • 295 PAGES This book is the original exploration of the generation gap, where the progressive, atheistic and scientific nihilism of the radical Bazarov clashes with the traditional values of his elders. The most accessible of the great Russian novelists, Turgenev was the first to create the modern revolutionary, the outsider, and the first to structure his story around the psychology of his characters instead of plot. More accurately translated than other Turgenev classics (RUS19, $13.00)
First Person, An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President • Vladimir Putin HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 208 PAGES A book-length series of interviews with Russia's leader, organized chronologically. The question and answer sessions cover the man, his politics and rise to power. Translated by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. (RUS161, $16.00)
Five Plays • Anton Chekhov • Ronald Hingley LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 294 PAGES A comprehensive collection of Chekhov's major plays, including "Ivanov," "The Seagull," "Uncle Vanya," "Three Sisters," and "The Cherry Orchard." (RUS88, $8.95)
Fodor's Moscow and St. Petersburg • Salwa Jabado GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 384 PAGES This comprehensive guide in the Fodor's Gold series features solid practical information on sights, excursions, restaurants, hotels and nightlife. With a chapter on the cities of the Golden Ring. Fifth edition. (RUS03, $19.99)
Following Balanchine • Robert Garis BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1997 • PAPER • 260 PAGES Part art criticism, part personal memoir, this work is an homage to an artist by a passionate fan who watched his legacy unfold. English professor and dance critic Robert Garis describes how Balanchine's ballets prompted his own self-discovery. (RUS194, $28.00)
Food in Russian History and Culture • Joyce Toomre • Musya Glants FOOD • 1997 • PAPER Food is the chosen lens for the 14 cultural historians who contributed essays to this scholarly, wide-ranging book. Topics range from Tolstoy's vegetarianism to starvation under Stalin to Soviet restaurants. (RUS143, $34.95)
From Nyet to Da: Understanding the Russians • Yale Richmond CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2003 • PAPER • 219 PAGES A cultural portrait of the Russians for the traveler, covering Russia's geography and culture, character, state and society. With chapters on "Personal Encounters" and "Negotiating with Russians." Richmond is a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer who spent 20 years in Russia. (RUS96, $23.95)
The Georgian Feast, The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia • Darra Goldstein • Niko Pirosmani CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1999 • PAPER • 229 PAGES Historian and food expert Darra Goldstein offers up a savory introduction to the Republic of Georgia in this illustrated cultural history. She combines her love of Georgian food -- and recipes -- with information on geography, history and culture. (CCS02, $24.95)
Gorbachev and Yeltsin As Leaders • George Breslauer HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 3831 PAGES An astute, balanced political analysis. Breslauer -- a professor at Berkeley -- has also published Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics (1982). (RUS156, $32.99)
The Gothic Enterprise, A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral • Robert A. Scott ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • PAPER • 294 PAGES Scott, whose interest in the history of cathedrals began when he first saw the magnificent Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Salisbury, England, takes his reader on a historical, architectural and sociological tour of the magnificent spires and stained-glass windows that dot the landscape of Europe. It's an accessible, personable overview. (EUR190, $21.95)
The Great History of the Russian Ballet, Its Art and Choreography • Elisabeth Souritz • Evdokia Belova • E. Bocharnikova ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1999 • HARD COVER • 208 PAGES An illustrated history of the Russification of ballet. For over two centuries the Russians have revolutionized and made this imported art form their own. This work, compiled by a team of scholars, chronicles the history of the discipline under the guidance of Petipa, Tchaikovsky, Diaghilev and more. With illustrations, designs, portraits and photographs. (RUS195, $55.00)
Growing Pains, Russian Democracy and the Election of 1993 • Jerry F. Hough • Timothy J. Colton HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 745 PAGES An in-depth analysis of Russia's 1993 election -- the first since the collapse of the Soviet Union -- with attention given to campaigns, parties, personalities and the electoral process. (RUS75, $26.95)
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: Vol. I • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn • Thomas Whitney LITERATURE • 2007 • PAPER • 672 PAGES A masterpiece of literature and history, this novel documents the horrors of Russia's prison system under communism. Based on Solzhenitsyn's first-hand experiences, it is a powerful and unforgettable work of suffering and redemption. This is the first volume in "The Gulag Archipelago" trilogy. (RUS113, $21.99)
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: Vol. II • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn • Thomas Whitney LITERATURE • 2007 • PAPER • 712 PAGES A masterpiece of literature and history, this novel documents the horrors of Russia's prison system under communism. Based on Solzhenitsyn's first-hand experiences, it is a powerful and unforgettable work of suffering and redemption. This is the second (and by some considered the best) in "The Gulag Archipelago" trilogy. (RUS74, $21.99)
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: Vol. III • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn • Thomas Whitney LITERATURE • 2007 • PAPER • 570 PAGES A masterpiece of literature and history, this novel documents the horrors of Russia's prison system under communism. Based on Solzhenitsyn's first-hand experiences, it is a powerful and unforgettable work of suffering and redemption. This is the third volume in "The Gulag Archipelago" trilogy. (RUS114, $21.99)
Hadji Murad • Leo Tolstoy • Aylmer Maude LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 192 PAGES A short novel set in the 19th-century Caucasus, concerning -- in part -- conflicts between the occupying Russians and Muslim groups in the region. Tolstoy, who spent four years in the Russian army in the Caucasus, based his story on a real-life mountain warrior. Originally published posthumously in 1923, this edition includes an introduction by John Burt Foster that puts the novel in its historical context. (CCS18, $11.95)
Here Is Where We Meet • John Berger LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 256 PAGES This novel weaves a portrait of several European countries through encounters with the dead, from the narrator's mother, whom he discovers on a park bench in Lisbon, to a childhood friend wandering a market in Krakow. "The dead don't stay where they are buried," the protagonist's mother tells him, and this becomes the mantra for this most unusual journey through Europe's history and people. (EUR189, $15.00)
The Hermitage, Masterpieces • Scala Masterpieces ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2008 • PAPER • 157 PAGES • COMING IN A slim guide to the extraordinary collection, this little book, featuring 80 color reproductions, is an excellent overview of what to see at the Hermitage. (RUS90, $29.95)
A History of Russia • Nicholas Riasanovsky HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 776 PAGES First published nearly 40 years ago, this comprehensive history of Russia -- now in its eighth edition -- remains a popular survey for students and travelers with a serious interest in history. It's a scholarly, balanced survey from Russia's Kievan origins through Imperial and Soviet Russia to Yeltsin and the new Russian Federation. (RUS130, $69.95)
A History of Russia • George Vernadsky HISTORY • 1986 • PAPER • 520 PAGES A popular college text. (RUS174, $32.00)
A History of the Peoples of Siberia, Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990 • James Forsyth HISTORY • 1992 • PAPER • 455 PAGES An ethnohistory of the people of Siberia from Russian conquest to the 1980s. Forsyth looks at 30 indigenous groups, comparing their experience with the Eskimos and Indians of North America. Along with the Yakuts, Tatars and Chukchis, this comprehensive study also features the peoples of Lake Baikal, Manchuria and the Russian-Chinese border. With 16 halftones and 12 maps. (SIB03, $55.00)
Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia • Dan Healey CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2001 • HARD COVER • 376 PAGES This study unearths the legal, medical and political attitudes toward gay men and women before and after 1917. Healey, a lecturer in Russian social history in Wales, reveals the changing homosexual subculture in Moscow and St. Petersburg in this fascinating, scholarly book. (RUS145, $52.50)
Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography • Igor Stravinsky BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1998 • PAPER • 176 PAGES A brief account of the life and work of Stravinsky (1882-1971), by the conductor himself, covering the first 50 years of his life in St. Petersburg, France and Switzerland. Originally published in 1956. (MUS18, $17.95)
An Illustrated History of the First World War • John Keegan HISTORY • 2001 • HARD COVER • 448 PAGES • COMING IN An illustrated edition of Keegan's outstanding history of the Great War, considerably enhanced by his selection of almost 500 photographs, maps, drawings and illustrations. The visuals clarify and augment his wide-ranging narrative of the origins, battles and consequences of WWI. (WAR16, $50.00)
Images of Space, St. Petersburg in the Visual and Verbal Arts • Grigory Kaganov • Sidney Monas ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1997 • HARD COVER • 238 PAGES A slim, academic study, featuring 75 black-and-white engravings, paintings and illustrations. This is not an architectural guide to St. Petersburg in the traditional sense. Instead of studying the buildings, parks, and bridges of the historic city, Kaganov delves into changing ideas about spatial representation, looking at the way St. Petersburg's urban spaces -- and the depiction of them in art and literature-- have changed over the centuries. (RUS42, $59.95)
K-19 The Widowmaker: The Secret Story of the Soviet Nuclear Submarine • Peter A. Huchthausen HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 243 PAGES This companion to the film of the same name describes the race against time to prevent the meltdown of a nuclear reactor aboard the first Soviet ballistic missile boat in 1961. Former U.S. Navy antisubmarine expert Peter Huchthausen tells this stunning true story of captain Nikolai Zateyev and crew's life saving heroics. Includes rare archival photographs, movie stills and an afterward by director Kathryn Bigelow. (RUS187, $16.00)
Kiev: A Portrait, 1800-1917 • Michael F. Hamm HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 304 PAGES From medieval center to important city in Imperial Russia, this scholarly book is a wonderfully informative cultural history of the city and especially its 19th-century legacy. (RUS56, $45.00)
Knopf Mapguide Moscow • Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 48 PAGES Full-color foldout maps make this guidebook a handy and practical way to find information on where to go and what to do in the city. (RUS270, $10.95)
Kosmos, A Portrait of the Russian Space Age • Svetlana Boym • Adam Bartos CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2001 • HARD COVER • 176 PAGES A portfolio of 100 photographs of the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with an accompanying essay by Harvard professor Svetlana Boym. The somber photographs were taken between 1995 and 1997 in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. (RUS184, $40.00)
Letters from Russia • Marquis De Custine • Anka Muhlstein TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2002 • PAPER • 654 PAGES An authoritative edition of Astolphe de Custine's scathing, insightful -- and observant -- account of the people, culture and politics of St. Petersburg and Moscow circa 1839. George Kennan called this book the best thing ever written about Russia, no doubt in part because of de Custine's trenchant observations on Russian despotism (the Soviets also banned the book). This is the 1843 translation, edited, revised and with an introduction by de Custine's biographer, Anka Muhlstein. (RUS166, $24.95)
Literary Russia, A Guide • Anna Benn • Rosamund Bartlett GUIDEBOOK • 2006 • HARD COVER • 528 PAGES Back in print! Organized geographically, this guide and literary companion includes the homes, museums and literary landmarks of Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Nabokov and other Russian masters. (RUS45, $37.50)
Lonely Planet Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania • Lonely Planet GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 456 PAGES In its hallmark style, this practical guide to the Baltic nations by Lonely Planet features maps, a good overview of culture, history and language, and much nuts-and-bolts information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With color photographs and excellent travel information. (BLT05, $25.99)
Lost Opportunity: What has Made Economic Reform in Russia so Difficult? • Marshall Goldman HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 308 PAGES An astute commentator, the author looks at Yeltsin's economic reforms and the changes wrought on the complex Russian economy since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Associate Director of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard, the author is none too optimistic about the prospects for genuine reform. (RUS64, $21.95)
Mammals of Europe • Priscilla Barrett • David W. MacDonald FIELD GUIDE • 2002 • PAPER • 320 PAGES Published by Princeton, this is a field guide to land and marine mammals throughout Europe, both endemic and introduced. With more than 600 color illustrations of over 200 mammals, it's a comprehensive handbook, with detailed descriptions, range maps and commentary on behavior. (FG61, $38.50)
The Master of Petersburg • J.M. Coetzee LITERATURE • 1995 • PAPER • 250 PAGES Celebrated author Fyodor Dostoyevski becomes a literary character in Coetzee's novel of 19th-century Russia. Dostoyevski is summoned to St. Petersburg to investigate the suicide of his stepson. The mystery he soon becomes ensnared in illuminates the underworld of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. (RUS200, $16.00)
The Memoirs of Catherine the Great • Catherine the Great • Mark Cruse • Hilde Hoogenboom BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2005 • HARD COVER • 352 PAGES Catherine The Great's rule lasted from 1762 until her death in 1796; this collection of her memoirs begins some years before, upon her arrival in Russia as a German princess in 1744. An intimate insight into the life of the world-renowned ruler and her often uneasy adjustment to the world of Russian royalty. (RUS277, $26.95)
The Moldovans: Romania, Russia and the Politics of Culture • Charles King HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 294 PAGES A scholarly political and cultural history of Moldova, focusing on issues of national identity in a post-Soviet world. (EUR97, $24.95)
Moscow Map • ITMB MAP A folded map of Moscow and surrounding neighborhoods at the broad scale of 1:50,000, and featuring a detailed map of the city center at 1:12,500. Two Sides. 38x26 inches. (RUS151, $8.95)
Moscow, Governing the Socialist Metropolis • Timothy J. Colton HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 939 PAGES A scholarly, political history of Moscow from frontier town through Tsarist and Soviet transformations to the 1990s by a Harvard professor. It's a big book, nicely written, that will appeal to travelers with a serious interest in history. At almost 1,000 pages with the usual scholarly notes it's not for the feint of heart. (RUS157, $31.50)
Murder on the Leviathan • Boris Akunin • Andrew Bromfield MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 240 PAGES Erast Fandorin, a young diplomat who moonlights as a detective and the hero of Akunin's novel "The Winter Queen" must match wits with the French police commissioner Gustave Gauche to determine which passenger aboard a ship destined for India murdered the Lord Littleby and his ten servants. Akunin pays homage to Agatha Christie with a bizarre and memorable cast of characters in this entertaining page-turner. (RUS225, $14.00)
Nicholas and Alexandra • Robert Massie HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 613 PAGES This is a fairy tale of true love turned tragic as Tsar Nicholas II, the handsome ruler of one-sixth of the earth, carries on the royal Russian tradition of marrying a German princess, Alexandra of Hesse. Their union produces four daughters and a hemophiliac son, the tsarevitch Alexis, whose disease only the evil monk Rasputin can treat. The stage is set for the downfall of the Romanov dynasty and imperial Russia and the coming of Communism. This entertaining and well-researched history traces the royal relationship and explores how a disease determined the destiny of rulers, the disintegration of the empire, and the course of Russian history. (RUS69, $20.00)
Nights at the Circus • Angela Carter LITERATURE • 1984 • PAPER • 294 PAGES This wildly inventive, bawdy -- and very strange -- tale follows an enchanted circus and its six-foot-two winged star from turn-of-the-century London to St. Petersburg and Siberia. Ever since reading this novel, we've wanted to take the Trans-Siberian Express. (RUS189, $16.00)
Northern Europe Scandinavia Map • Freytag & Berndt 2007 • MAP A colorful shaded relief map of Scandinavia and the Baltic States at a scale of 1:2,000,000. It shows the entire Baltic Sea region, also covered by the Baltic Sea States map (BLT38) in the same series. One Side. 42x34 inches. (EUR19, $14.95)
Notes from Underground • Fyodor Dostoevsky • Richard Pevear LITERATURE • 1994 • PAPER • 160 PAGES "I am a sick man... I am a wicked man." So begins Dostoevsky's darkly funny 1864 novel, an introspective psychological portrait of the Underground Man, one of Dostoevsky's most recognizable protagonists. A rich character study and an excellent glimpse of 19th-century St. Petersburg, "the most abstract and intentional city on the entire globe," written with the unforgettable wit and compassion of the master of Russian literature. (RUS230, $12.00)
Notes from Underground • Fyodor Dostoevsky • Richard Pevear LITERATURE • 1994 • PAPER • 160 PAGES "I am a sick man... I am a wicked man." So begins Dostoevsky's darkly funny 1864 novel, an introspective psychological portrait of the Underground Man, one of Dostoevsky's most recognizable protagonists. A rich character study and an excellent glimpse of 19th-century St. Petersburg, "the most abstract and intentional city on the entire globe," written with the unforgettable wit and compassion of the master of Russian literature. (RUS230, $12.00)
Notes of a Provincial Wildfowler • Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov NATURAL HISTORY • 1998 • HARD COVER • 216 PAGES A celebrated drama critic and man of letters in 19th-century Moscow, Aksakov was also a keen observer of nature, and especially of birds. Organized by species, this book collects his notes on the natural history of Russian birdlife, including detailed observations on behavior, ecology and landscapes. A wonderfully literate book, this is the companion volume to Notes on Fishing. (RUS60, $39.00)
Odyssey Guide Moscow, St. Petersburg & The Golden Ring • Masha Nordbye • Patricia Lanza GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 728 PAGES A comprehensive guide to the art, culture and history of these two great Russian cities, filled with maps and fine color photographs. It also includes a 50-page chapter on the ancient cities of the Golden Ring around Moscow. Third edition. (RUS78, $26.95)
The Oligarchs, Wealth & Power in the New Russia • David Hoffman HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 567 PAGES A scrupulously documented, fascinating account of six businessmen whose profiteering amid the near-anarchy and corruption that followed collapse of the Soviet Union skyrocketed them to positions of immense power in the New Russia. Written by the acclaimed former Moscow bureau chief for the Washington Post, it's an engrossing tale of capitalism born from chaos. (RUS159, $21.95)
On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers • Kate Marsden TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2001 • PAPER • 256 PAGES • COMING IN Certainly one of the most outlandish of the Victorian travelogues, this classic chronicles Marsden's 3,000-mile journey from St. Petersburg to the Viluisk leper colony in Siberia. Marsden, who had nursed Russian soldiers in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish war, seems to have been fired by missionary zeal, dispensing religion, tea and bandages as though they were all three medical supplies. Her book is a lively tale of adventure and a fascinating report on Siberia (not to mention 19-century attitudes toward leprosy). First published in 1893. (RUS138, $16.95)
Once Upon the River Lore • Andrei Makine • Geoffrey Strachan LITERATURE • 1998 • PAPER • 256 PAGES In this richly evocative novel, three boys growing up in a Siberian backwater in the 1970's have their lives changed by watching a film starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Looking back after 30 years, the novel follows its characters from the taiga to New York and Central America. (SIB45, $24.95)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn LITERATURE • 2009 • PAPER • 181 PAGES The poignant story of an inmate in one of Stalin's Siberian labor camps struggling to maintain his dignity under the oppression of a Communist prison. This is the unexpurgated translation, authorized by Solzhenitsyn after a relaxation of censorship. (RUS26, $14.00)
Open Lands, Travels Through Russia's Once Forbidden Places • Mark Taplin TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1998 • PAPER • 376 PAGES • COMING IN An information officer posted at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in 1992, Taplin jumped at the chance to visit the regions of Russia suddenly thrown open to the West. Off he goes to gulags, Siberian archipelagos, Kamchatka and Vladivostok in this witty travelogue that mixes journalism, social commentary and history. (RUS62, $18.00)
The Orthodox Church • Kallistos Ware RELIGION • 1993 • PAPER • 359 PAGES A comprehensive, clear overview of the origins, historical development and practice of Eastern Christianity by a British scholar and Archbishop. With chapters on Byzantium, conversion of the Slavs, the Church under Islam, Moscow and St. Petersburg and the contemporary Orthodox world. (GEN261, $17.00)
Pavlovsk, The Life of a Russian Palace • Suzanne Massie CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1990 • PAPER • 393 PAGES A biography of the palace from its role in 18th-century Tsarist Russia to the revolution, public park, Nazi military headquarters and restoration. It's a great story, well told by Massie, who also wrote Land of the Firebird. With archival and modern color photographs. Among the books many pleasures is the story the courage of those who fought to save the palace in the wake of WWII. (RUS154, $28.00)
A People's Tragedy, A History of the Russian Revolution • Orlando Figes HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 960 PAGES An engrossing epic narrative of the Russian Revolution through Lenin's death in 1924. While presenting the full scope of the revolution, Figes does not lose sight of the individual personalities, not only the leaders but also the workers, peasants and soldiers. Figes argues that the revolution was a disaster for the ordinary people of Russia. (RUS181, $27.00)
Peter the Great • Paul Bushkovitch BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2003 • PAPER • 224 PAGES Focusing on Peter's cooperative relationship with the aristocracy, Yale professor Paul Bushkovitch offers a revised view of the legendary modernizer of Russia. Bushkovitch sees Peter as more of a politician than once thought, while no less a dynamic and powerful personality. (RUS169, $24.95)
Peter the Great, His Life and World • Robert Massie BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1986 • PAPER • 960 PAGES A Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling history of the great Westernizer of Russia. Massie portrays a giant of history on the monumental canvas of Europe as he transforms Russia from backwater tsardom to major empire. In this massive chronicle, he tells of Peter the Great as he travels incognito to the West, builds Russia's navy, defeats Sweden, moves the capital of the country to the newly created St. Petersburg, and modernizes Russia. (RUS11, $8.99)
Petersburg • David McDuff • Andrei Bely LITERATURE • 2011 • PAPER • 624 PAGES The "New York Times Book Review" calls this novel, written in 1916, the "most important, most influential, and most perfectly realized Russian novel written in the 20th century." Bely conjures a whirlwind of impressions and impulses in this kinetic meditation on the nature of the city. In an unabridged translation that captures the rhythms of the Russian original. (RUS134, $17.00)
Petersburg, Crucible of Cultural Revolution • Katarina Clark CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1998 • PAPER • 384 PAGES A case study of the cultural changes in St. Petersburg in the years 1913-1931 and how they coincided with the Russian Revolution. The author tries to discern how and why Stalinist culture arose, by looking at a variety of sources (from archived material to films and novels of the time) and offering her own revisionist theories. A focused and detailed analysis for those interested in the intellectual and artistic communities of the period. (RUS43, $30.00)
Pocket Menu Reader Russia • Langenscheidt • Mario Caramitti LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2000 • PAPER • 189 PAGES A pocket guide to negotiating food and restaurants in Russian with an overview of typical foods, 1,500 words and phrases, transliterations and Cyrillic. (RUS165, $7.95)
Prodigal Son, Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic • Edward Villella • Larry Kaplan BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1998 • PAPER • 317 PAGES The memoir of the great star of American ballet who found fame in the age of Balanchine. It captures his Rocky-like ascent from a 9-year-old boy taking ballet classes in Queens to the glory of the stage of the NYCB. Along the way it offers a glimpse into the dynamic legacy of Balanchine, who Villella alternately criticizes and praises. (USE283, $21.95)
Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other • Laurie Essig CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1999 • PAPER • 254 PAGES An engaging, scholarly portrait of post-perestroika gay culture. The author (who appears in male drag in one of many photographs in the book), interviews many men and women for this insightful study, which also takes into account her own observations, and a close look at contemporary books, plays, and music. Despite Yeltsin's de-crimilization of consensual sex between adults of the same sex in 1993, atitudes and behavios have been slow to change. (RUS146, $23.95)
Queer Sites, Gay Urban Histories Since 1600 • David Higgs HISTORY • 1999 • PAPER • 240 PAGES A history of the gay subculture in seven major cities from the early modern period to the present. The book focuses on the changing nature of queer experience in London, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Paris, Lisbon and Moscow. The contributors look, in particular, at the transition from the sexual furtiveness of centuries when male homosexual behaviour was criminal, to the open affirmation of gay identities in the 1990s. (WLD32, $39.95)
The Ransom of Russian Art • John McPhee CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1998 • PAPER • 192 PAGES A fascinating, illustrated account of the underground of Russia during the Cold War. In a break from his series on North American geology, McPhee has chosen to profile Norton Townsend Dodge, a man he originally met on a train, and an unusual collector of dissident Russian art. With his typically compelling style, McPhee writes about a professor who, according to his wife, "couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag," yet managed to smuggle thousands of important works out of Russia. The book includes dozens of color reproductions. (RUS91, $12.00)
Rasputin, The Saint Who Sinned • Brian Moynahan BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2000 • PAPER • 400 PAGES A juicy biography of the curious mystic, holy man and influential advisor of the Romanovs. The lurid detail and sensational style make for a fun read. Moynahan's scholarly bent and attention to historical events also make this book a good portrait of pre-Revolutionary Russia. Not surprisingly, the author pays particular attention to Rasputin's relationship with the Tsar and Tsarina. Moynahan is the author of three previous books on Russian history. (RUS198, $17.95)
Reading Chekhov, A Critical Journey • Janet Malcolm LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 205 PAGES An extended essay of Chekhov and his work interweaving literary criticism, biography and a journey to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Yalta -- all significant to the plays, stories and life of Chekhov. (RUS155, $13.95)
Reeling in Russia, An Angler's Paradise • Fen Montaigne TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1998 • PAPER • 275 PAGES Fishing across Russia, Montaigne gets to out-of-the-way places (including Baikal, Kamchatka and Kolyma) and meets up with some very memorable characters. This is a wonderfully written, entertaining and insightful portrait of modern Russia. (RUS61, $18.95)
The Reforms of Peter the Great, Progress through Coercion in Russia • Evgenii Anisimov • John Alexander HISTORY • 1993 • PAPER • 344 PAGES Russian historian Evgenii Anisimov writes of Peter the Great, and how his various reforms shaped early 18th-century Russia. (RUS102, $34.95)
Resurrection, The Struggle for a New Russia • David Remnick HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 352 PAGES Remnick, the Washington Post reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize for Lenin's Tomb (on the fall of the Soviet Union), insightfully explores the powers shaping a new Russia. Remnick focuses on the emergence of a new power elite, but does not neglect the effect of these changes on the welfare of the Russian people. Chronologically, the book follows the ruins of the USSR, up to the 1996 elections. (RUS23, $16.00)
The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire • John Dunlop HISTORY • 1995 • PAPER • 394 PAGES A modern scholarly history of Russia from Perestroika to the abortive coup of August 1991 and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Dunlop, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, explores Yeltsin's role in resisting Communist resurgence and questions whether new institutions will survive the challenges of democracy in a traditionally undemocratic society. (RUS68, $46.95)
The Romanovs, The Final Chapter • Robert Massie HISTORY • 1995 • PAPER • 308 PAGES Written like a good detective story, this riveting scientific thriller examines the evidence and international dispute linking the skeletons exhumed in 1991 in Siberia with the last of the Romanovs killed in the early period of the Russian Revolution. Are these the remains of the last tsar and his family, and was Anna Anderson really the Grand Duchess Anastasia as she claimed? This book provides definitive answers to one of the most enduring and intriguing mysteries of the 20th century. (RUS14, $16.00)
Romanovs: Autocrats of all the Russians • Lincoln Bruce HISTORY • 1983 • PAPER • 852 PAGES A history of the rise and fall of the Romanov dynasty in Russia, from their ascension to the throne in 1613 to the Russian Revolution. (RUS25, $25.00)
Rough Guide Moscow • Rough Guide GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 524 PAGES A comprehensive, no-nonsense guide to the culture, history and attractions of Moscow. With fll colcor maps of Central Moscow and the Metro system, dozens of sketch maps and site diagrams, and a chapter on excursions outside of Moscow. (RUS129, $18.99)
The Routledge Atlas of Russian History • Martin Gilbert HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 216 PAGES A fantastically interesting, useful survey of the history of Russia in 161 maps, covering rebellion and exile, famine, expansion, trade, the military, the collapse of communism and myriad other topics, all succinctly presented. This revised edition follows the fate of Russia since the demise of the Soviet Union. Each black-and-white map is densely printed with factual information and accompanies by a detailed key and a few paragraphs of text. (RUS176, $29.95)
Russia from St. Petersburg to Moscow Map • Falk Maps 2009 • MAP A detailed map of northwest Russia at a scale of 1:750,000, well-suited for a river cruise between St. Petersburg and Moscow. It covers all but the northernmost extent of the route. A multi-lingual map, place names are in Russian. It does, however, omit the northernmost part of the trip (three days) from Goritsy to Svir Story. It does not show the White Lake, the Volga-Baltic Waterway, Lake Onega, Svir River and portions of Lake Lagoda. Published mostly in German. One Side. 38 X 55 inches. (RUS06, $17.95)
The Russia Hand, a Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy • Strobe Talbott HISTORY • 2003 • PAPER • 478 PAGES An insider's view of the Clinton administration's role in Russia's transition from communism to democracy. Strobe Talbott was President Clinton's top advisor on Russia policy, and he gives intimate details on not only diplomatic issues, but also the characters involved, not least Boris Yeltsin and Clinton himself. (RUS234, $16.95)
The Russia House • John Le Carre LITERATURE • 2000 • PAPER • 434 PAGES The spymaster sets his sights on post-glasnost Russia in this suspenseful novel of love and espionage delivered with traditional Le Carrean panache. The backdrop of Gorbachev's restructuring paints a portrait of life in Moscow for Easterners and Westerners alike in the final decade of the Soviet Union. (RUS186, $16.00)
Russia in Search of Itself • James H. Billington HISTORY • 2004 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES A wise and probing analysis of modern Russia by the Librarian of Congress and expert on Russia James Billington. Copublished by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. (RUS229, $26.95)
Russia in Search of Itself • James H. Billington HISTORY • 2004 • HARD COVER • 256 PAGES A wise and probing analysis of modern Russia by the Librarian of Congress and expert on Russia James Billington. Copublished by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. (RUS229, $26.95)
Russia in Space, The Failed Frontier? • Brian Harvey HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 416 PAGES In this wide-ranging guide to the Russian space program, Harvey takes readers from the program's conception in 1921, through its golden age, near ruin with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and tentative steps into the 21st century. He considers especially Russia's leading role in the International Space Station. (RUS182, $49.95)
Russia in the Age of Peter the Great • Lindsey Hughes BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2000 • PAPER • 640 PAGES A biography of Peter the Great and an account of Russia in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Comprehensive, readable and impeccably researched, the strength of this book is in how it illuminates both Peter's life and his time. (RUS103, $90.00)
Russia's Unfinished Revolution, Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin • Michael McFaul HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 383 PAGES A political history and analysis of Russian democracy and institutions since the Gorbechev era, especially strong on Yeltsin. The author, a senior associate at Carnegie, teaches political science at Stanford. (RUS160, $23.95)
Russia, A History • Gregory Freeze HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 496 PAGES An illustrated survey of the full scope of Russian political history with 13 engaging essays by leading specialists; the modern era is given equal weight alongside the medieval and imperial periods. With 16 color plates and 180 illustrations. Second Edition. Gregory Freeze is a professor of history at Brandeis and research associate of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. (RUS40, $29.95)
Russia, Experiment With a People • Robert Service HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 406 PAGES An authoritative survey of the transformation of Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, organized thematically. Service casts a wide net, looking at not just political and economic change but also the influence of society, culture and belief. (RUS284, $23.50)
Russia, People and Empire, 1552-1917 • Geoffrey Hosking HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 548 PAGES Historian Geoffrey Hosking writes elegently and vehemently on the history of Russia under the czars. Hosking argues that Imperial Russia pursued empire building at the expense of national identity. (RUS29, $26.50)
The Russian Century, A History of the Last Hundred Years • Brian Moynahan CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1994 • PAPER • 272 PAGES A lively survey of Russian history and people from the Tsars through the Revolution, the dark days of Stalin, the Cold War and the tumultuous events of the 1990s by a British historian and journalist. With a few black-and-white photographs. (RUS167, $16.95)
Russian Experiment in Art, 1863-1922 • Camilla Gray • Marian Burleigh-Motley ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1998 • PAPER • 324 PAGES A handsome illustrated volume in the "World of Art" series, this book documents a critical period in the history of Russian art in a series of insightful essays and hundreds of color illustrations. Organized chronologically, it's an excellent guide to the extraordinary art of Kasimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, and other masters of the Russian avant-garde. Completely revised for this edition. (RUS17, $19.95)
Russian Folk Art • Alison Hilton ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1995 • HARD COVER • 356 PAGES An illustrated study of Russian folk art from traditional forms to modern interpretations. (RUS104, $27.95)
The Russian Heritage Cookbook • Lynn Visson FOOD • 2009 • PAPER • 336 PAGES A guide to Russian cooking for the modern kitchen, covering everything from delicacies to down-home favorites, and every inch authentic. Visson is well-informed about the history and culture surrounding these 360 recipes, and the book is divided into helpful chapters such as "Zakuski" and "Pirogs and Pancakes." A revised edition of Visson's The Complete Russian Cookbook, Visson introduces each section with anecdotes, history and practical tips. (RUS233, $28.95)
A Russian Journal • John Steinbeck • Robert Capa TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1999 • PAPER • 240 PAGES During the Cold War, amidst an abundance of paranoia, Steinbeck and Capa decided to gather un-propagandized information on the Russian way of life by traveling to the other side of the Iron Curtain. This is the result of their reporting project, an honest account of the people and everyday life, with striking photographs by the great Robert Capa. (RUS275, $15.00)
The Russian Museum, A Centennial Celebration of a National Treasure • Vladimir Gusyev • Yevgenia Petrova ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1998 • HARD COVER • 286 PAGES An overview of Russian art from 989 to present, highlighting the collection of The Russian Museum. Includes many unfamiliar works largely unknown outside of Russia. An informative text accompanies 295 color plates. (RUS199, $60.00)
Russian Phrasebook & Dictionary • Hippocrene LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 1994 • PAPER • 228 PAGES A handy phrasebook and basic dictionary featuring transliterations of all the Russian words. (RUS65, $11.95)
The Russian Revolution • Sheila Fitzpatrick HISTORY • 1994 • PAPER • 199 PAGES A concise provocative summary of events in Russia between 1917 and 1939, appropriate for the curious general reader and student alike. Fitzpatrick makes an admirable effort to rescue from politics the greatest upheaval of modern times and reclaim it for history. (RUS39, $14.95)
Russian Short Stories • Robert Chandler LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 396 PAGES Part of the Penguin Classics series, this anthology brings together literature from the most important Russian writers of the last two centuries, including well-known authors like Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Tolstoy and lesser-known greats like Zoshchenko (a Soviet satirist), Teffi (a female humorist who escaped after the October Revolution) and Varlam Shalamov (a Gulag survivor). (RUS288, $18.00)
Russian, Start Speaking Today! • Language/30 LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 1995 • AUDIO CD A 90-minute crash course with a CD and phrasebook, all packaged in a vinyl sleeve. Geared for travelers, the course follows the foreign service method -- which focuses on dialogues and useful sentences instead of individual words. In each case, an English phrase is spoken once, and repeated twice in Russian. Topics include introductions, transportation, business and health. Na zdorovye! (RUS192, $24.95)
Russka • Edward Rutherfurd LITERATURE • 2005 • PAPER • 946 PAGES In this absorbing, complex novel Rutherfurd transforms Russian history into an epic saga. The bestseller follows the fate of interconnected families over 800 years. Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, Tolstoy, Voltaire, Pushkin, Lenin, Stalin, and Rasputin all make an appearance. (RUS175, $19.00)
The Sexual Revolution in Russia, From the Age of the Czars to Today • Igor Kon HISTORY • 1995 • HARD COVER • 337 PAGES A groundbreaking, fascinating history of sex, sexuality and attitudes in Russia from Tsarist times through the communist period -- and the accompanying repression of the sexual lives of the Russians -- to the post-perestroika transformation. The author, a historian in Russia and its first "sexologist," draws on history, folklore, literature and sociological data derived from the author's surveys and interviews. (RUS147, $25.50)
The Shaman's Coat, A Native History of Siberia • Anna Reid HISTORY • 2003 • PAPER • 224 PAGES Reid, a talented journalist and intrepid traveler, interviewed hunters, reindeer herders, storytellers and dozens of other original inhabitants across Siberia for this eye-opening book. With chapters on the Khant, Buryat, Tuvans, Sakha, Ainu and Chukchi people. (SIB28, $13.00)
Siberia on Fire: Stories and Essays • Valentin Rasputin CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1990 • PAPER • 252 PAGES Six stories and six essays on Siberia's land, spirit, and people by Rasputin, an acknowledged modern Soviet master. A resident of Irkutsk, Rasputin combines great insight with supple prose and passion for his homeland in both his fiction and non-fiction. Translated and introduced by Gerald Mikkelson and Margaret Mitchell, the collection includes essays of Baikal and Irkutsk. (SIB04, $18.00)
Siberia, Siberia • Valentin Rasputin EXPLORATION • 1997 • PAPER • 443 PAGES • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE A sweeping account of the exploration, conquest and colonization of Russia's "West," beginning with the crossing of the Ural Mountains by the Cossacks in 1580. Six areas of Siberia are examined, including Lake Baikal and Irkutsk. Invaluable for its perspective of the history, ecology and traditions of Siberia, this lyrical book was written by one of Russia's great post-Stalin writers, second in importance only to Solzhenitsyn. Admirably translated into English for the first time, the book is a tribute to Siberia -- and a call for its salvation, full of profound sadness over the waste of such a beautiful, natural refuge. (SIB01, $22.95)
Soviet Blitzkrieg, The Battle for White Russia, 1944 • Walter S. Dunn HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 252 PAGES A history of the Russian campaign to regain control of Belarus from the invading Germans. A monumental battle staged in 1944, the details of events have finally come to light thanks to the release of previously classified military documents. (RUS121, $16.95)
Speak, Memory • Vladimir Nabokov BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1989 • PAPER • 316 PAGES A richly imagined memoir of Nabokov's early years. First published in 1951, it wonderfully evokes cultural life among the well-to-do in turn-of-the-century St. Petersburg. The prose is so rich and the presentation so well considered, few novels can rival this nonfiction classic in imagination and detail. (RUS28, $16.00)
St. Petersburg Map • Borch Maps MAP A detailed, laminated city plan of St. Petersburg at a scale of 1:11,000, with street index inset. Place names are in transliterated English. Two Sides. 20x26 inches. (RUS89, $7.95)
St. Petersburg, A Cultural History • Solomon Volkov • Antonina Bouis HISTORY • 1995 • PAPER • 598 PAGES This intimate cultural history of the city includes profiles of its artists and writers over the last 300 years. The author is a native historian and musician who knew such luminaries as Balanchine and Brodsky. (RUS72, $38.95)
St. Petersburg, Architecture of the Tsars • Dmitri Shvidkovsky • Alexander Orloff ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1996 • HARD COVER • 360 PAGES A handsome, oversize study of the buildings constructed during the reigns of the Russian tsars since Peter the Great. The book combines insightful text, excellent photography and a good balance between building exteriors and interiors. Organized chronologically, it covers the Baroque architecture of Peter the Great, Neoclassic splendor of Catherine the Great and Art Nouveau of Nicholas II. The author, Dmitri Shvidkovsky, is a member of the Russian Federation's Academy of Fine Arts. (RUS152, $95.00)
Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar • Simon Sebag Montefiore BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2005 • PAPER • 848 PAGES An exhaustively researched "man-behind-the-monster" look at Joseph Stalin and his court. At 800 pages, there is ample room for personal and anecdotal information about Stalin -- down to his musical preferences -- as well as the gory details of the vicious politics and sexual quirks of the cast of characters that made up Stalin's political family. The lengthy volume includes new archival material, interviews with surviving figures of the era, and 24 pages of maps and photos. Montefiore has also written a biography of Prince Grigory Potemkin. (RUS228, $19.95)
Stories from a Siberian Village • Vasily Shukshin • Laura Michael • John Givens • Kathleen Parthe LITERATURE • 1996 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A series of 25 stories from Russian author, actor and filmmaker Vasily Shukshin. Set in rural Siberia, these tales are not so much about the landscapes of the region, as they are about the people that inhabit them. (SIB19, $18.00)
A Summer on the Yenesei, 1914 • Maud D. Haviland TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1971 • HARD COVER • 328 PAGES The charming account of an amateur British ornithologist on an expedition down the Yenesei to the Kara Sea in 1914. Though certainly dated (the shooting of birds for collection is done with great relish), the description of life on the Yenesei is veery well done. In addiiton to her impressions of nature and birds, Haviland records her encounters with Siberiak villagers and Samoyed people near the Gulf. (SIB08, $23.95)
Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia • W. Bruce Lincoln HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 432 PAGES A wonderfully written, informative portrait of the city, discussing its culture, architecture and history. Lincoln focuses on the development of St. Petersburg 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)
Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian Script • Daphne West LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2003 • PAPER • 119 PAGES A step-by-step guide to reading and writing Cyrillic, organized into ten brief units. The book divides the alphabet in manageable chunks, covering 5012 letters, review, decorative handwritten script and vocabulary. (RUS207, $10.95)
Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian, An Easy Introduction • Rachel Farmer LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 1997 • CASETTE TAPE • 240 PAGES This comprehensive guide to the basics of spoken Russian includes a book and two audio cassettes, all packaged in a plastic case. You may also purchase the book separately (RUS124). (RUS110, $22.95)
Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories • Sholem Aleichem LITERATURE • 1996 • PAPER A winning collection of Yiddish tales (including, famously, the source material for Fiddler on the Roof) as translated by Hillel Halkin. (RUS170, $16.95)
To the Finland Station • Edmond Wilson HISTORY • 2003 • PAPER • 507 PAGES This wide-ranging, heartfelt tribute to the power of history takes, as its ostensible subject, the origins of the Russian revolution. Originally published in 1940, Wilson famously shows his enthusiasm for the great Soviet experiment and, especially, Lenin. It's a fascinating book which ranges from the French revolution, Engels and Marx, to Lenin and Trotsky (who Wilson disliked). (RUS206, $19.95)
To the Hermitage • Malcolm Bradbury LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 510 PAGES • COMING IN Bradbury's last novel -- a spirited, complex tale involving French philosopher Diderot, Catherine the Great, an English professor, 18th-century notions and contemporary politics. Bradbury alternates chapters set during the reign of Catherine the Great and 1990s St. Petersburg. It's a novel of ideas -- and an excellent portrait of Russia. (RUS153, $16.95)
Track of the Tiger, Legend and Lore of the Great Cat • Maurice Hornocker NATURAL HISTORY • 1997 • HARD COVER • 120 PAGES A celebration of the tiger, this handsome book edited by Siberian tiger biologist Maurice Hornocker presents thoughtful short essays by conservationists and 75 color photographs. (BST19, $30.00)
Tragedy of Russia's Reforms, Market Bolshevism Against Democracy • Peter Reddaway • Dmitri Glinsky HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 768 PAGES A provocative, comprehensive analysis of economic modernization (or lack thereof) in today's Russia, especially critical of the policies of Yeltsin. (RUS162, $29.95)
Trans-Siberian Handbook • Bryn Thomas GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 512 PAGES A compact guide and history of the Trans-Siberian, featuring maps and practical details for cities and sights from St. Petersburg to Irkutsk, Ulan Bator, Beijing and Vladivostok. With 50 maps and 30 color photos. Excerpts from the book and others in the British series are online at www.trailblazer-guides.com. (RUS73, $21.95)
Transitional Citizens, Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia • Timothy J. Colton HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 320 PAGES A scholarly, sophisticated account of Russian citizens and the vote since the collapse of the Soviet Union. With charts, graphs and extensive notes. (RUS158, $39.00)
A Travel Guide to Jewish Russia & Ukraine • Ben G. Frank GUIDEBOOK • 2000 • PAPER • 400 PAGES A focused, informative guide to both historical and contemporary sites of Jewish interest in cities, including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, and Kishinev. With historical context, practical travel information and brief descriptions of synagogues, museums, monuments and schools. The author follows in the footsteps of the 12th-century Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. This book follows the author's Travel Guide to Jewish Europe. (RUS173, $25.00)
A Traveller's History of Russia • Peter Neville HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 336 PAGES An impressively compact, lively survey of Russian history from the coming of the Slavs to the collapse of the Soviet Union. (RUS47, $14.95)
Travels with Myself and Another, A Memoir • Martha Gellhorn TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2001 • PAPER • 304 PAGES The "Another" of this title (also known as the unwilling companion), was Gellhorn's husband at the time, Ernest Hemingway. Her witty account of worldwide travels is a classic of unexpected encounters and sharp description. She's a marvelous, incisive writer who covered every important conflict from from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. The book includes an uncomfortable journey to visit with Chiang Kai-Shek, a remarkbale look at dysfunctional Moscow, and escapades with Hemingway in East Africa. Originally published in 1979. Gellhorn died in 1998 at the age of eighty-nine. (TVL25, $15.95)
Treasury of Ukrainian Love: Poems, Quotations & Proverbs in Ukranian and English • Helene Turkewicz-Sanko ANTHOLOGY • 1997 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A short selection of Ukrainian writing on the subject of love. It is mostly a selection of poetry. (RUS117, $11.95)
Ukraine Map • ITMB MAP A map of Ukraine, at a scale of 1:1,000,000. Two Sides. 27 X 39 inches. (RUS86, $11.95)
The Ukrainians, Unexpected Nation • Andrew Wilson HISTORY • 2009 • PAPER • 380 PAGES An outstanding guide to modern identity, politics and history in Ukraine, highly recommended for an understanding of the geopolitics of the region and, especially, uneasy relations with mother Russia. (RUS125, $19.00)
War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy • Constance Garnett LITERATURE • 1983 • PAPER • 1344 PAGES This great historical and philosophical novel set in the age of Napoleon portrays Russia through the lives of three aristocratic families united by love and separated by war during the invasion. As the men learn about courage, character and death through the initiation of war, a young woman learns about her feelings, emotions and passions as she is initiated into love. (RUS20, $10.95)
War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 1296 PAGES A major achievement from the award-winning team of Pevear and Volokhonsky, this translation richly restores Tolstoy's masterpiece for English speakers. (RUS391, $20.00)
We Now Know, Rethinking Cold War History • John Lewis Gaddis HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 425 PAGES The eminent Cold War scholar, John Lewis Gaddis, takes advantage of the opening of Soviet archives to re-examine the tension between the U.S. and U.S.S.R through the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. (RUS191, $24.99)
The White Guard • Mikhail Bulgakov • Marian Schwartz LITERATURE • 2008 • PAPER • 352 PAGES Set in Kiev in 1918 on the eve of civil war, this short novel (first published in 1923) owes much of its power to the author's passion for the old city -- and his manifestly well developed sense of irony. The characters in the royalist Turbin family are wonderfully drawn, with the city an important element in their lives. Bulgakov's first novel. (RUS58, $18.00)
Wine Country Europe, Touring, Tasting, And Buying At European Regional Wineries • Ornella D'Alessio • Marco Santini FOOD • 2005 • HARD COVER • 324 PAGES Part how-to, part guidebook, part picture book, this charming coffee table treat covers sprawling French vineyards as well as lesser-known hidden treasures in Austria and Hungary. The authors, both Italian journalists and wine connoisseurs, provide helpful tips alongside the hundreds of magnificent color photographs. (EUR191, $35.00)
With the Armies of the Tsar, A Nurse at the Russian Front in War and Revolution, 1914-1918 • Frances Farmborough HISTORY • 2000 • PAPER • 422 PAGES An extraordinary memoir of life on the battlefield by an English governess in Moscow who volunteered her services as a nurse in WWI. A witness to the 1917 revolution, she accompanied Russia's troops in Poland, Austria and Rumania, finally fleeing to Vladivostok from where she escaped home to Britain. With 50 of Farmborough's photographs. (RUS139, $19.95)
A Woman in Amber • Agate Nesaule BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1997 • PAPER • 280 PAGES The author, who fled rural Latvia on the heels of the Russian advance at the age of seven, chronicles the terrible dislocations of World War II. In this American Book Award-winning memoir, she tells the powerful story of what she witnessed and experienced as a young girl during the war. Ultimately a testimony to survival, this book brings to light a terrible knowledge of rape, torture and execution. (RUS30, $16.00)

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