Russia Books

Obviously if there is one picture that symbolizes "The End of the Cold War," then that would be the Berlin Wall coming down, and indeed on the cover of this final volume in "The Cold War" series that picture is front and center. Flanking it are pictures of President George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. Now, I have no problems with the latter, but if we are talking about the American presidents who were responsible for bringing the Cold War to an end then we are talking Richard Nixon, for opening up detente with the Soviets and visiting Red China, and Ronald Reagan, who effectively bankrupted the U.S.S.R. by pushing for this Strategic Defense Initiative and forcing the Soviets to try and keep pace. Fortunately, both Nixon and Reagan are given due credit in this informative volume written by Christine Hatt.

Although this is one of several volumes in this series--which includes books on "The Causes of the Cold War," "The Cuban Missile Crisis," and "The Vietnam War"--it does encompass more than the entire lifetime of any young readers who crack it open. Hatt begins with the Changing Time presented by the first half of the 1970s, when the Cold War became dramatically less frosty because of the policy of detent pursued by Nixon and his national security adviser/secretary of state Henry Kissinger. After getting into the specifics of what that meant (new relations with China, SALT I, the end of the Vietnam War, etc.), Hatt presents the Carter years as the collapse of detente, and the Reagan years as "Cold War II." At that point the push for SDI (a.k.a. "Star Wars") and problems in Poland that resulted in the birth of the Solidarity trade union, set the stage for the end game of the Cold War.

Consequently, Hatt does a very nice job of setting up how the time for reform arrived in the Soviet Union, and how Mikhail Gorbachev pushed the U.S.S.R. in the new directions of "perestroika" (restructuring the economy) and "glasnost" (increased political openness). The end of the Cold War resulted in widespread changes, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, the reunification of Germany, and finally the internal collapse of the Soviet Union. Ironically, Gorbachev ended up falling to Boris Yeltsin after the August Coup by the hard-line communists in 1991. Hatt also touches on the legacy of the Cold War, in terms of what it has meant for the United States, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and the rest of the world.

The final word on the subject is the ironic statement of Lawrence Eagleburger, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, who pointed out that: "For all its risk and uncertainties, the Cold War was characterized by a remarkably stable and predictable set of relationships among the great powers." If young readers can appreciate how this statement would be supported by the world in which they now live, where we are currently under an orange/high level of alert, then they will begin to grapple with some of the bigger issues that are confronting the political leaders and citizens of the world today. "The End of the Cold War" is divided into discreet units in each chapter, and illustrated with dozens of historic photographs. This might be ancient history now, but it sure was not when I was the same age as the young students for whom this is intended.

great for everybody who is interested in russin culture

When I was studying Russian history for my final year in High school, I used this book extensively. It is a detailed, thorough and invaluable reference tool, but in many ways it's also enjoyable and witty. I studied only 19th century Russia, but I went on to read Westwood's account of Russia in the 20th century, simply because it was so interesting. A top book for anyone!

This dictionary contains terminology and abbreviations related to oil and gas geology and geophysics, well drilling, technological process of well pumping; collection, development of oil and gas fields; transportation and storage of oil and gas; construction and operation of pipe-lines, compressor stations and other objects; oil chemistry and oil refinery; operation, technical maintenance, provision of reliability, repair, standardization and certification of oil and gas equipment; economics of oil and gas industry...
Have I forgotten something?
It's a good dictionary well deserving its 5-star rating.

This is an unusual book - a dictionary and a phrasebook under the same cover. I found it very helpful when obtaining a full medical history and performing an exam of a patient. It has all the needed vocabulary; all the questions that are generally asked by a doctor.
The following part of the book has 21 history cases: from cardiac arrest to appendicitis, from chest pain to asthmatic attack in a child, to drug overdose, knee injury, etc. There are separate chapters with practical words related to operative surgery, medical administration, etc.
This book also includes a chapter with medical abbreviations, and examples of doctor's referral, discharge and some other letters commonly used by doctors.

"From Grizzly Bear to Teddy Bear: Gorbachev and his Illusion of a `Common European Home'"

Jacques Levesque, The Enigma of 1989: the USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). 267 pp. trans from French by Keith Martin.

Although Jacques Levesque's book The Enigma of 1989 contains few startling revelations, it highlights succinctly the larger ironies of Gorbachev's foreign policy in the last years of the Soviet empire. This highly readable book consists of three parts: one dealing with "the place of Eastern Europe in Gorbachev's political project; another examining individual East European countries; and the third part focusing on German reunification and the end of the Warsaw Pact. Since the book seems to be more about Gorbachev and the USSR than Eastern Europe, the original French title, La Fin d'un Empire, captures the book's essence a bit better than the one provided for the English translation: [The End of an Empire]. One irony that Levesque articulates to some degree concerns Gorbachev's motives for perestroika, and novoe myshlenie [new thinking]. Was Gorbachev truly inspired by these new ideas, or was he merely making a virtue out of a necessity? In the beginning of his book, Levesque points out how the USSR was lagging behind economically, despite its success in projecting military power in the 1970s. The war in Afghanistan in particular was draining Soviet resources. NATO officials had decided to place Pershing II missiles in Europe, and Reagan initiated the Star Wars project, with which Soviet leaders knew they could not compete. By withdrawing from Afghanistan, initiating bold disarmament proposals, disavowing the use of military force to solve conflicts, praising and paying dues to the United Nations, Gorbachev could score great public relations successes and put Reagan on the defensive for dubbing the USSR the "Evil Empire." Gorbachev was saavy, probably the most highly educated Soviet General Secretary. He was no doubt conscious of the practical advantages of his ideas. Yet later events indicate that Gorbachev may have begun to believe his own ideas too intensely, to the point of naivety .For example, in a 1997 speech at Rice University in Texas, when former Secretary of State James Baker awarded him the Enron Prize for Public Service, Gorbachev explained that perhaps the Soviet Union actually "won" the Cold War because it first understood that 21st century problems require global efforts and that the superpowers' arms race was suicidal. As Levesque points out, from 1985 to 1987, Gorbachev focused most on improving Soviet-American relations, by building the United States' trust in the USSR, by initiating arms control proposals, and other measures. He spoke repeatedly about "replacing the balance of power" with a "balance of interests." But in focusing on the United States-Levesque argues-Gorbachev "neglected" Eastern Europe, the traditional Soviet sphere of influence (p. 90). By claiming repeatedly that the Soviet Union would no longer "interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states" and no longer use military force to settle conflicts, Gorbachev won the admiration of many Americans, but also undercut the authority of the communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe. How could Gorbachev genuinely have believed that after forty-odd years of maintaining hegemony over Eastern Europe by the use or threat of military force, that Moscow could retain that power without such pressure? Did he really believe, to quote Levesque, that "perestroika could co-opt a significant part of the opposition through its progression," so that "the [communist parties in each of the Warsaw Pact countries], acting through the Popular Fronts, could become their own opposition?" (p. 82). At other times, Gorbachev behaved contradictorily: sometimes pressing for more reform, at other times temporizing (p. 84). Levesque also reminds his readers that Gorbachev and some of his colleagues may have already decided to relieve themselves of Eastern Europe, which had become a financial burden-costing the USSR perhaps $18 billion per year since the early 1980s (p. 88). END

This is the story of miraculous happenings in the life of a minister in his escape from Siberia. It is a wonderful story.

Rosa Luxemburg was a visionary socialist in Germany during the early twentieth century, who insisted that ordinary working people could fight and win battles for not only improvements in their daily working conditions, but also the struggle to create a society based on justice and equality. The Essential Rosa Luxemburg: Reform or Revolution and The Mass Strike presents the full text of Rosa Luxemburg's classics "Reform or Revolution" and "The Mass Strike", enhanced with extensive explanatory notes, appendices, and introductions. The two most pivotal concepts discussed are the questions of whether capitalism can be reformed and refined into a system of justice, and what efforts are most needed to bring about such a transformation? "Producers' cooperatives can survive within capitalist economy only if they manage to suppress, by means of some detour, the capitalist-controlled contradiction between the mode of production and the mode of exchange. And they can accomplish this only by removing themselves artificially from the influence of the laws of free competition. And they can succeed in doing the last only when they assure themselves beforehand of a constant circle of consumers, that is, when they assure themselves of a constant market." A treasure of political science history, offering valuable insights that transcend its time.

Pohl's painstakingly accurate description of Stalin's horrific crimes of ethnic cleansing provides excellent insight into Stalin's corrupt regime. Pohl's analysis of the development of the economy in remote areas of the Soviet Union rounds out an extremely informative and well-written book. This book is essential to understanding Stalin and his influence on Soviet history and economy.

The World Explorer series by Prentice Hall is a great set of world geography books. In this book, they focus on the Europe and Russia.

The book is broken down into chapters on the physical geography of Europe and Russia, the extensive history of each, dating back to the early Romans and Greeks, and units on the cultures of the two. My favorite chapter is the history chapter, as it explores ancient Romans and Greeks, and goes into some mythology.

This book also has great photos and portraits to go along with the fact being presented in the text. The pages are not cluttered with any non-sense; it just gives the most important facts and moves on.

The book also expands much on the cultures of Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Russia. The culture chapters include information on each country, with ethnicites, religions, food, and lifestyles.

This is the book that I used in class for a few months, and it's very easy to comprehend with and is to study from. Each chapter is broken down into anywhere from 3 to 5 sections, each section having a short review with a few questions. At the conclusion of each chapter there are Critical Thinking questions, a vocabulary segment, a review of the main ideas presented in the chapter, a map activity, among many other things.

The Europe and Russia book apart of the World Explorer series, is a fun and easy way to learn the necessities that need to be known in the geography of these two places. I recommend the whole series for a fun, efficient way to learn geography. This is a must buy. And unlike other textbooks, this is very affordable. A must buy!

Happy Learning