Russia Books

A very well-presented portrait of not just women, but of Soviet/Russian history. This book reminded me somewhat of James Baldwin in an off-hand way in that the stories of average people are sometimes more compelling than those who usually find themselves in the history books. This is a great addendum to any history teacher's library.

Barbara Engel is one of my professors at the University of Colorado, so I might be somewhat biased in my opinion of her book. This collection of stories provides long overdue insight into the lives of the overlooked citizens of Russia and the Soviet regime: the women. Each life story is fabulously written, exceedingly interesting, and allows students to better understand this most complicated area of the world. I don't think I have ever liked a book that was required reading for a class as much as this one. Not only is Professor Engel an excellent writer, she is a wonderful teacher as well. I feel privileged to be in her class.

I recently went on a 3-week backpacking tour of Central and Eastern Europe, using Rick Steves' book as my primary guide. Although I did use a few country-specific books, I found that this one book had virtually all the information I needed. After reading through this book, I planned my itinerary based heavily on Steves' recommendations--Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Krakow, Eger, Budapest, Ljubljana, Bled, and Vienna.
I've found that many travel guides cover the same places, but Steves suggested visits to places I would not have been able to find otherwise, such as the Roman Ruins in Obouda (near Budapest).
The book is well organized--each country's section begins with basic information about that country, such as language, currency, entrance requirements, etc. Within the country section, Steves has selected the best places to visit and provides detailed information about each. He tells you how to use the public transportation systems, what to do when you arrive at the airport, trainstation, bus station, etc.
I was very pleased with this book, and ran into several other travelers using the same guide. If you are interested in seeing Eastern Europe as more of a local than a tourist, this is the perfect guide. It's also updated every year, so almost all of the information was correct.

Rick Steves has never failed me and I thoroughly enjoy his views and what he feels is not to be missed. You can never go wrong with a Rick Steves book. I do, however, always companion his books with a Frommers guide book and then I feel like I get the complete story of a city or country.

The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire traces the creation, expansion, maintenance and eventual demise of the Soviet Empire, one of history's greatest tyrranies, from 1945 to 1991.
He describes how the Soviet empire was indeed an imperialist venture (making it all the more absurd how Communists and their fellow travellers refer to the democratic West as 'imperialists').
The author describes the conflict between the forces of nationalism and freedom on the one hand against those of Communist imperialism on the other.
Indeed if you are truly against imperialism you will support nationalism and the nation-state.
The book refers to how East European independence was jointly obliterated by the Nazi and Soviet empires. About the Communist tactics of subjugating Eastern Europe to Communist tyrany after World War II, and the shameful British and American aquiescence in this (so soon after British appeasement of Hitler at Munich, 1938).
As the book traces the development of Stalinist and neo-Stalinist tyranny, we learn of internal Soviet political and economic developments, and the movements of nationalism and liberalism crushed by the Soviets over decades, before their eventual triumph over Communist despotism in 1989-1991.
Key points covered include the conflict between Yugoslav leader Tito and Stalin in the late 1940's and early 50's.
The brutal and bloody Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 to crush nascent pro-democracy movements there.
25 000 Hungarians died in the Soviet invasion and crackdown of 1956.
Then we read of the dishonourable appeasement of Soviet tyranny by the West at Helsinki, 1975, and the crushing of Solidarity and the pro-democracy movement in Poland in 1981.
The book then traces the reforms of Gorbachev to the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989, and the fall of Communist dictatorships in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria that year.
Two years later the Soviet Union itself collapsed with the independence of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union.
The book highlights some interesting facts. For example that the two predecessors of the Soviet Empire were the pre-war Soviet Union and the Nazi Neordnung.
"Over 1939-45, the German Empire self-interestedly liquidated many of the indigenous political cadres of Eastern Europe, inadvertently clearing away the opposition for it's imperial sucessr. By the irony of history, the New Order unwittingly did much of the Soviet Empire's dirty work for it, creating a power vacuum, which the beleagured Soviet Union found impossible to resist over the later 1940s. In effect...the wartime Nazi 'New Order' facilitated a postwar Soviet 'Newer Order'. Given it's parentage it comes as no surprise that the Soviet Empire was seen by many hostile contemporaries as a 'Soviet Ordnung' or 'Stalinist Reich', inheriting the genetic characteristics of both forebears".
Pearson describes something of the nature of life in the Soviet Empire: like the fabled Narnia of CS Lewis, the Soviet Empire remained a joyless land where there was always winter, but never Christmas.
The West has fought two struggles for freedom against forces of world tyranny in the last century, first against Nazism, then against Communist and now is fighting a third strugle against hegemonic Islamic fundamnetalism, which is backed by the international left.

This book actually is about two empires -- the "Inner Empire" of the Soviet Union and the "Outer Empire" of the Soviet Bloc. The book is exceedingly well written and hard to put down. Though it ignores broad swaths of Soviet history (military confrontation with the west, relationship with China, etc), it admits that it doesn't tell all, and, more importantly, tells what it does very clearly.

The crisises of 1956, 1968, and 1980 are examined in detail, and throughout humor is used to get the point across (such at the Kiti-Kat fiasco, and contemporary Soviet and Eastern European jokes about the regime).

For a first book, Adrian Scotts travelogue is remarkably well written. It takes the reader along with him as he travels from the furthest reaches of Siberia to Europe, Via China and Central Asia. In the wake of rapidly growing global interest in independant travel by motorcycle, Adrian sets off for his first long distance interenational bike adventure with just a few vague ideas about how it may go. On the way he discoveres the real people and real hospitality of people living along his path.

Its a fun read for anyone with an interest in independant travel, an excellent read for anyone with an interest in the the former USSR, and a compulsory read for anyonne contemplating a first major motorcycle adventure.

For anyone who enjoys one or more of off-the-beaten-track travel, motorcycle riding or following a crazy Australian around, this is a must read book. Adrian is a witty and compelling story teller whose descriptions of the remote places he visited and the characters he met very real and intensely readable.

Hardly a country has written such an eventful economic history as has Russia in recent times. The value of the Ruble dropped in the first years of the 1990's from $5 to below $1. At the same time the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was cut in half. The depreciation of the Ruble together with increasing energy costs from 1997 on, led, in consequence, to improved exports. Increasingly strong economic growth followed at the turn of the century. Today Russia with around 4 percent of the world's trade, has become an important trading partner, and with its oil and gas supply, has become one of Europe's most important energy suppliers. The still hesitant attitude of foreign investors however suggests a certain skepticism towards future development of Russia's economy. Causes of such reservations are without doubt the hardly comprehensible actions of the auction and nationalization in the last few years of Yuko's, the once largest oil company, whose legitimacy still occupies the courts of numerous countries, and the ubiquitous corruption in the public and private sector, to whose combat, according to their own information, the Putin government granted priority.

How can Russia's economic development during the last few years be explained? Which conclusions for the future can be derived from the country's recent economic history? John M. Letiche undertakes to answer these two questions in his latest publication, "Russia Moves into the Global Economy." In a relatively compact space the author presents an analysis of Russia's recent economic development complete with precise data, and deduces under which conditions Russia can further advance in its chosen direction for growth. J.M. Letiche was born in Russia, immigrated with his parents to North America, studied economics in Chicago and was, before he took a teaching position at the University of California in Berkeley, an assistant to Jacob Viner. In his position as teacher and researcher J.M. Letiche repeatedly examined the Soviet Union or rather, Russia; wrote articles on particular problems, translated volumes of Russian economists and published anthologies of Russian economic history (as publisher and co-author). The newest publication is therefore equally the fruit of his experiences of Russia over the last decades as well as the aspiration to analyze and provide an update on the latest progress of Russia's' economic development.

In the first section the author compiles actual data about the status and the course of the currency, about the foreign trade and the social product of Russia and analyzes their course verbally and by means of graphics and charts (complemented with further details in the appendix). The author clarifies how the Russian economy, with its devaluation of the currency, gained access to world trade and how the revenues generated from oil and gas exports in turn influenced the economy and stimulated positive effects on economic growth.

J.M. Letiche classifies Russia's most recent economic developments as occurring in three phases. In the first phase from 1998 until the middle of 1999 are the finance crisis and the devaluation of the ruble and with it Russia's growing access to world trade. During this time the Gross Domestic Product increased by roughly $42 billion with around $3 billion from revenues from oil and gas exports. The actual turnround therefore is not the result of the increased energy costs at that time, but, induced by devaluation, the consequence of the growing commercial and industrial exports and, activated by that, domestic investments.

The second phase refers to mid 1999 until the third quarter of 2000. In this time the price of oil increased from $10.09 to $24.70 per barrel. However, because of the "bottlenecks" during this year, trade increased only marginally in promotion and transport, and the politics of domestic allocations (under-priced contributions of oil in the inland). The broadening of the range of goods did not follow until the years 2000 and 2001. Additional profits from energy sales caused multiple domestic and foreign investments in exploration and oil and gas production, in further processing of primary products, and finally in all feeder plants. Instead of a decrease by 5.3 percent in 1998 the following two years of GDP growth rate showed an increase of 6.3 and 10.0 percent.

J.M. Letiche describes the third phase, which began in fall 2000 and continues to this day, as "the post-crises transition." Within this phase fall the efforts of Putin's government to manage the rise in prices, reorganize the banking industry, lower taxes, and bring the national budget into order. Known in this connection is Vladimir V. Putin's statement when appointed as prime minister in 1999: "If I can help save Russia from collapse, then I'll have something to be proud of" (p.8). Depreciation, increase of the price of oil, and economic reform are therefore the three factors that since then have encouraged domestic and foreign entrepreneurs to make investments.

This analysis of Russia's economic development would seem overly optimistic, if J.M. Letiche had failed to address the Yukos-crisis, the still dominant corruption, and the great difficulties in governmental administrative reform. A separate chapter deals with the Yukos-crisis, starting with the occupation of Yukos's headquarter by police in July 2003, and the relations between Yukos, Gazprom and Rosneft. Interesting in this connection is the information, for outsiders quite obscure, about the sale and naturalization methods in December 2004 and, because of that, the disadvantageous impacts on foreign investment.

The last two chapters of this book address the projected economic growth of Russia and explore the necessary conditions for sustainable Russian growth. In keeping with the author's area of expertise, the discussion applies mainly to trade policy. J.M. Letiche calls upon the U.S. to abolish the "Jackson-Vanek Amendment," viewing as long overdue the removal of the 1976 congressional ruling which binds US trade facilitation to Russia's emigration policy; an amendment which is a relic of the cold war. Also a downsizing of US and EU import quotas in the agricultural and steel industries would render a valuable contribution towards intensifying trade between Western countries and Russia. Letiche ascribes great importance to the future relations of Russia to the WTO. The acceptance of Russia into the WTO would undoubtedly relax the current trade differences between Russia and many members of the WTO. At the same time a membership in the WTO would mean for Russia the opportunity to bring the free trade agreement of 2003 between Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus to the currently valid World Trade Organization.

The concluding statements contain precisely formulated demands on Russia as a trade partner. The integration of Russia into today's World Trade Organization would call for an added effort on Russia's part. Addressed are the following areas: a divestiture of Duma and industry, a simplification of customs' clearance (with clearly formulated customs tariff), the fight against corruption in granting of import licenses, banking reform, the liberalization of radio, television, and press, opening of the border to skilled workers from the west, improvement of efficiency of Russian production plants (e.g. like the collaboration signed by Putin in 2006 between the largest six aircraft manufacturers) and the improvement of efficiency in the automobile industry.

Contemporary world trade literature refers greatly to the current world trade organization in the form of the WTO, to recent Free Trade Agreements and the relationships between the industrial countries from the West and Far East, in particular China. John M. Letiche's work unlocks for the reader a new and previously more hidden view of world trade, and clarifies the recently growing importance of Russia as a world trade partner. The handy publication provides further references, a detailed index and contains a vast amount of data, processed with the experience of an economist who dedicated himself throughout his life to trade policy, and who always, on a scientifically and advisory level, critically analyzed and participated in the creation of West-East trade relations.

Richard Senti, ETH Zürich, November 2007

As someone who is very concerned about current international relations between the United States and Russia, this book offers excellent insight into Putin's current economic policies, and his ability to initiate the recovery of Russia's economy. But what makes this book so brilliant is that you do not have to be an economist to understand it. Written in down-to-earth, cogent language, John Letiche's book provides a solid basis for understanding the circumstances that affect Russia's economic policies, and offers advice for the future of peaceful international relations between Russia and the West. I've also read Alan Greenspan's newest book, The Age of Turbulence, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Letiche's research of Putin's economic policies also provides an in-depth analysis toward many of the claims that Greenspan makes in his chapter, "Russia's Sharp Elbows".

A word to the wise: Obviously, the book is quite expensive, but I was able to circumnavigate paying for it by asking the acquisitions department of my school's library to order the book, which allowed myself and other students the opportunity to read the book without having to pay for it directly.

This book is VERY comprehensive and yet very easy to read. It gives historical background and event details without being boring. Its sections covering Imperial Russia (foreign policy, arts & literature, politics, etc) are amazing and not often found in modern books. I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the history of Russia!

This book does notleave out any details. Everything from foriegn policy to arts and literature is mentioned. This book is so well written it even works well as a quick resource guide. It it really ashame that this book is out of print.

Comparatively little is known about Russia's economic mobilization during World War I. However, it was a rapidly expanding Russian economy that spurred a slower growing Germany to a 'preventive' war in 1914 - the longer Germany waited the more uneven the contest would be in economic terms. Apparently, no one either in Germany or Russia bothered to look at a map - almost all of Russia's imports and exports passed through either the Dardanelles or the Baltic, both of which were easily closed. And when these were closed by Turkey and Germany, Russia's international trade (and military imports) quickly evaporated and their economic problems really began.

Peter Gatrell, the author, organizes the book into 11 chapters covering: military administration, educated society and volunteer economic organizations, soldiers/workers/peasants/refugees, tsarist rule, the lack of industrial coordination, financing, food shortages, pogroms and discrimination, the Provisional Gov't, social collapse, and a final accounting. Gatrell concludes that the collapse of Tsarist gov't (compared to other belligerent nations which didn't experience revolution) was that ordinary Russians had no legitimate way to voice their protests, institute reforms, and participate more meaningfully in gov't. The result was the February and then the October Revolutions.

This is one of the very few books written about economic mobilization during WWI, and the only one I have found exclusively about the Russian experience. (About half of Gatrell's huge list of sources come from little-used Russian-language documents.) The book is well-organized, easy to read, and certainly well-documented. Suggestions I would make for Gatrell's future work include a detailed investigation of the Russians' seriously flawed railway management and its affects on the economy and any discussion of economic contigency planning by the Tsarist gov't in the event the Baltic and Dardanelles were closed to them for importing/exporting.

An excellent source for Russia's economic involvement in WWI!

The usual treatment given to the Russians in regard to their actions during World War I has been one of two choices. On the one hand there was the seemingly minor inconvenience (to the Germans) of the Battle of Tannenberg which took some divisions from France. On the other hand was the impact on Russia itself as a precursor to the revolution a few years later.

In this book the author, an expert on Russian history, has written an excellent history of the actions of the Russians during the war. This includes not only the military campaigns but the impact on the Russian citizens, both the elite and the plebeian. Like the rest of the world, Russian industry was mobilized to dramatically increase production. In Tsarist Russia this was somewhat less effective than in other places like the United States. Likewise Russia had problems in feeding themselves.

These situations seem to have started the problems that remained with the Soviet Union for generations to come. This is a book that points out the beginnings of recent history as we have come to know it.

Every student of 20th-century history knows that the Marshall Plan reconstructed Western Europe after World War II, but not so many know that America's Lend-Lease aid played a comparable role in winning the war itself.This is because the main recipient of the aid, the Soviet Union, consistently downplayed its significance, not wanting to acknowledge the weaknesses in its system of government. Every Soviet leader, from Stalin to
Gorbachev, pretended that American aid was just something extra, almost a trifle, while state historians assigned it an arbitrary figure of 4 percent of the Soviet war production. Those historians abroad who accepted Soviet statistics perpetuated this myth. Now Albert Weeks sets the record straight.

After the collapse of the Soviet system, Russian historians were able to look into the archival files and total up the real figures. One study, by M.N. Suprin, calculates the caloric content of Lend-Lease foodstuffs sent to the USSR, divides the total by the caloric needs of the Red Army and arrives at a stunning conclusion: "The foodstuffs provided by Lend-Lease to the USSR would have sufficed to feed an army of ten million men for 1,688 days, that is, for the course of the entire war." Another study, by Boris Sokolov, which translates as THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR, estimates that the US supplied 92.7% of the USSR's railroad equipment, including locomotives and rails, and from 15% to 90% of production in all other categories. Weeks, who reads Russian, surveys these recent studies and cites them to show that Lend-Lease was indeed "Russia's Life-Saver."

Beyond the raw figures, Weeks also explains the politics and inner workings of Lend-Lease, which President Roosevelt called the US "arsenal of democracy." As a longtime expert on Soviet Russia, he is able to explore the special relationship that FDR thought he had with Stalin, to sort out the Soviet spies operating on US soil and to look into such interesting topics as Armand Hammer's role in US-USSR relations. As an engaging writer, he handles the historical material with a modern sensibility, raising the questions of "trusting and verifying" and "the gratitude factor." I particularly liked his chapter on the USS Liberty Ship John Barry, which was sunk in the Arabian Sea by a
Nazi U-boat in August 1944. Its cargo included trucks, jeeps, steel rails and other standard provisions, but also 750 boxes of silver coins and, it is believed, $26 million of silver ingots. Was the ship headed for Iran, a transfer point for goods to the USSR? Was the bullion a gift from FDR to Uncle Joe? It's one of the many fascinating questions raised by this book. (See also STALIN'S SILVER by John Beasant.) The book concludes with some valuable tables of the standard Lend-Lease shipments.

RUSSIA'S LIFE-SAVER, in short, is another first-rate study by Albert Weeks. If you are interested in World War II, you will want this book. The publisher has set a high price on it, so if you can't afford it yourself ask your library to buy it. Every library should have it for today's readers and for future reference.

The long-time observer and analyst of the Soviet Union, Prof. Weeks documents an important chapter of US and Soviet history during World War II.

Based on the latest research from Russia, Weeks presents new findings about the vital importance of US aid to the Soviet Union of Dictator Joseph Stalin. Under the Soviet Regime, especially during Stalin's life-time, it was a rule to ignore or at least downplay the significance of any foreign aid to the Soviet victory in World War II. But the facts that Prof. Weeks is able to present to the Western reader demonstrate the opposite. Weeks cites a recent statement by President Putin, who officially acknowledged the vital importance of US Lend-Lease deliveries for the Soviet victory in World War II.

Weeks uses research by post-Soviet scholars in Russia that clearly shows crucial importance of Lend-Lease deliveries to Stalin's USSR. There are many facts and statistics about the amount of American aid to Russia that will be new to most readers. But Prof. Weeks doesn't stop there, he also paints a lively picture of the political developments leading to the decision of President Roosevelt to come to the rescue of the bloodiest Dictator of the 20th century, Joseph Stalin, in his fight against his opponent and recent collaborator, Hitler.

Prof. Weeks also demonstrates that Stalin was actively working through the channels of his espionage agencies to influence the US administration to deliver material aid to the USSR (he cites the Venona decrypts and material from Russia, most notably the NKVD's "Operation Snow"). It becomes clear that the large-scale infiltration of various US government branches by the Soviet espionage agencies played an important role in the speedy decision to send vast amounts of military and civilian goods to Stalin's Soviet Union. Stalin also ordered his agents to obtain military secrets from the US, both before and during the war, even when the Soviet Union was a nominal ally of the US.

At times, aid to the USSR was given priority over aid to Britain by President Roosevelt. Roosevelt's dubious and na?ve role in his dealings with Stalin is presented in some detail as well.

Weeks also shows that Stalin always rightly understood the might and potential of the American economic potential. US technical assistance had already played a major role in the mechanisation of both the Soviet agriculture and the Red Army. Stalin has been able to use the huge "tractor factories", built with the help of Ford, among others, to establish the necessary industrial base for the mechanisation of his huge tank forces before the outbreak of the Second World War.

The excellent mastery of both Russian and Soviet history allows the author to put the history of Lend-Lease into the wider context of American-Russian and American-Soviet political and economic relations, starting in Tsarist times.

After presenting Stalin's offensive war plans against Hitler in his equally superb book "Stalin's Other War. Soviet Grand Strategy 1939-45", Weeks again delivers important historical facts and puts them into proper context.

Despite the amount of data (quite rightfully) used in the book, Weeks' writing style makes reading about this often neglected aspect of history easy.

For any serious student of US-Soviet war-time relations, this is a must-read.

Best part of the book is the "aircraft Identification" It points out the subtle airframe differences between model numbers.

Very THOROUGH JOB! I wish I could find more like it for US Aviation! Please let me know if you know of any.

Information is presented in a readable, attractive and simple manner. Diagrams, color-drawings & comparison charts supplement photographs and make the book a must-buy. Development and modification history is also given for many planes.

I was introduced to this book by my Russian language & literature professor at college. I quickly tracked down a copy for my personal library.

This book has some AMAZING photographs!!! I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Russian or Soviet history or culture. A picture certainly is worth a thousand words!

I literally read this book twice. And as I turned the pages and saw breathtaking after breathtaking photograph and read the journalist's history of Russia, I kept reminding myself that this is not fiction. This books makes one pause and ponder ... a very long time.