Russia Books

This book is the first full-length account of how the end of the former Soviet Union is attributable to the hand of God through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The author show how the events in Eastern Europe are connected to the requests and prophecies Our Lady made at Fatima in 1917, and he describes authentic spiritual signs and testimonies that clearly demonstrate Mary's presence at key turning points in the series of changes that have occurred.

Among the fascinating items included in the book are the reasons for Pope John Paul's decision to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sister Lucia's statements on the consecrations of 1982 and 1984, Mikhail Gorbachev's article thanking Pope John Paul for the crucial role he played in bringing about the changes in Eastern Europe, the Pope's reply and his appraisal of Mr. Garbachev, the first Russian Catholic pilgrimage to Fatima, the first Mass from Fatima broadcast throughout Russia, and the remarkable story of the Slovak bishop who said Mass secretly inside the Kremlin.

A New Postscript for this Revised Edition describes Russia since the collapse of Communism, the situation of the Catholic Church inside the former Soviet territories, Pope John Paul's linking of Fatima with the Divine Mercy, and his vision of the future.
--- from book's back cover

I am happy theese kind of books still exist on the Earth! If not this book, nobody will have a chance to realise the Georgian injustice to Abkhazia and the fact of commiting genocide to the nation, that now has only about 300 people left worldwide.

These poems are far beyond the times they were written. It is a pity that Gennady Aygi, the best Russian poet ever, died in despair with no support from the Russian government.

This is one of the great hidden treasures of European literature. Prior to being published in English in 2005, this book was only published once in 1943 and lost forever for most people. This is a great book about the death of European civilization as it was known prior to World War I. It's a lamentation not just on pre-revolutionary Russia by General Tamarin and Wislicenus, but of pre war France by Vermandois. Aldanov calls it the passing away of 19th century civilization, which does come to the same thing.
The book is very well writen. It has wit, melancholy, and some action. Hopefully with this new reprinting of the novel it won't be lost for the public again.

This book tells the fascinating story of the role of the church, particularly the Roman Catholic church, in the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This subject has received precious little coverage in the popular press, but cannot be ignored by serious students of history. The author takes the position that it was neither Mikhail Gorbachev, nor Ronald Reagan alone that did it (brought down the Yalta imperial system), but the undeniable and inexorable faith of many Christians throughout Europe. The collapse of Communism had its roots in the early work of Pope Pius, Pope John XXIII, Paul VI and finally the Polish pastor/dramatist/linguist Karol Woytyla, who became Pope John Paul II. The close identification of Catholicism with the Polish history kept the national character alive and ultimately denied the power of tyranny in Poland and elsewhere. I recommend this book to anyone who is skeptical of the biases of the press

This is a large, excellent book on the traditional Russian art of lacquered miniature painting. Over 250 color reproductions of the works of Masters are featured. This is really the definitive book on the craft. The art is famous for its tiny, but finely-detailed illustrations of folk tales or village life, painted free-hand with a homemade brush of a single squirrel or sable hair. Real gold leaf and mother-of-pearl insets add to the beauty and value of the paintings, which are created on papier-mache' shkatulki (boxes) or plaques. Many layers of lacquer finish the artwork, giving it a long-lasting, lustrous, three-dimensional quality (and incidentally, its name). Each creation can take several months, or as much as a year, to complete. Some of the rarest, most magnificent paintings are presented in these pages. The book contains a history of the craft and its Masters. Also included are short essays on each of the four schools -- the villages of Palekh, Kholui, Mstera, and Fedoskino -- which have produced generations of painters in this enduring and endearing folk art.

Jakobson, who was Finland's ambassador to the UN and to Sweden, captures Finnish culture extremely well. Beginning with a basic history of Finland, Jakobsen goes on to describe the Finnish problems during World War II with useful details. This of course, is important to know for his analysis of Finnish foreign policy during the cold war. Jakobsen offers a new view of Finland during this period, counter the popular idea of 'The Finland syndrome' which was unfortunately associated with Finland during this time. I studied in Turku during 1999 (Turun Kaupporkorkeakoulu). I wished I would have read this book before I went as it provides true insight into Finnish culture and history!

This book is a ground-breaking work, at least among the English language publications. The little-known eastern Finno-Ugric peoples have so far seemed to receive scant attention in the West, and this is one of the few topics about which I found more books published in my native Hungarian (in a fellow Finno-Ugric country) than in English.
Most publications on the Finno-Ugric peoples tend to be linguistic or ethnographic descriptions, and for history one had to be content with short introductory chapters in these, or in general histories of Russia or Siberia (of which Forsyth's "A History of the Peoples of Siberia" stands out) where the treatment of the Finno-Ugrics is invariably limited.

Taagepera's book now largely fills this gap!
It is detailed history of all but the smallest of these nations (including the Samoyeds) right up to the mid-1990-es.
After introductory chapters on the Finno-Ugric nations in the World context and on the independent Finno-Ugric countries of the EU, he describes the history of each eastern group in separate chapters (40-50 pages on each). While "traditional" culture is described briefly and the long history of contact with the Russians is dealt with in depth, the major focus is on the recent developments and prospects for the future.
Unlike some other books, this one doesn't see all these ethnic groups (and their languages) as doomed, though it does advocate that a greater extent of autonomy is required to help them survive as distinct nations.
The last chapter is devoted to examining chances of this being granted in today's Russia. While the politics of that vast country are ever-changing, current trends unfortunately give little reason to be optimistic.

It is a pity that the relatively high price of this book may limit its readership... :-(

"Woodrow Wilson never banged his shoe on a lectern, threatening to bury anyone. He never claimed to be a Berliner, nor offered to name names. But a ... book by Donald E. Davis and Eugene P. Trani ... makes the case that Wilson was, all the same, the first cold warrior. According to [this book] when Wilson was inaugurated in 1913, the American diplomatic corps in Russia was a shambles. Wilson entered the presidency avowedly uninterested in foreign affairs. He was quickly faced with a world war and then, in 1917, the Russian Revolution. Afraid of how the new government in Russia would affect the outcome of the war and uncertain how to talk productively to the radical Bolsheviks, Wilson embarked on a policy of diplomatic quarantine that lasted until 1933, prefiguring the Cold War."
--not reviewed by author, but taken from the Indiana University's Alumni Magazine's independent review

This book, written by a former inmate, describes no fewer than 1,976 concentration camps in the Soviet Union, as of early 1980. Estimates of the population were in the millions. The author provides exact addresses as well as all the necessary instructions for reaching the camps, prisons and psychiatric prisons, inviting the reader to visit the inmates and their families; needless to say, few Western tourists accepted this challenge, amid their enthusiasm for détente and the Bolshoi Ballet.

The author describes a world of watchtowers manned by guards bearing machine guns, and electrically charged barbed-wire fences; he portrays prisoners in columns or transport vehicles, prisoners attacked by dogs, prisoners in camp uniforms with numbers across their chests, women prisoners, child and teenage prisoners (p3). These are people persecuted for thinking differently; reading "forbidden" philosophical, political or religious books; posting notices; raising a flag; demanding religious instruction for their children; or undertaking a private commercial initiative (pp3-4). Such were the "crimes" for which millions of Soviet citizens were savagely punished.

Perhaps the most distressing part of this work is the very first section, which lists 119 prisons and concentration camps built specifically for women and children (pp14-22): a picture of inmates at Orel, a camp with 3,000 children, contains a sign with the words "Honest work: the road home to the family," an obvious parallel with the Nazi slogan "Work shall set you free" ("Arbeit macht frei") (p16). As the author records, these camps were characterised by extreme violence and sadistic cruelty: thus in Novosibirsk, club-carrying guards "subject the young prisoners (aged 10 to 18) to merciless beatings" while children are sent to hard labour projects; in Gornyi, children endure backbreaking duties, despite the prevalence of hunger, while "[t]hose who fall ill and request transfer to a hospital are beaten;" and in Gor'kii, the victims were so brutalised that "[m]any of the children fell ill and died for lack of medical attention" (p18).

Then there is the short section entitled "Extermination Camps" (pp31-5), listing camps where prisoners, "forced to work under dangerously unhealthy conditions for the Soviet war machine, face a virtually certain death" (p31). The author identifies three categories: (1) camps where almost no-one ever comes out alive (the prisoners work in uranium mines and uranium enrichment plants); (2) camps where the prisoners are used for dangerous work in the arms industry (the prisoners perform high-risk duties in military nuclear plants); (3) camps where prisoners are used for dangerous work causing disability and fatal illness (the prisoners operate machines without ventilation). No fewer than 41 extermination camps are listed. By the second edition, the author had discovered another camp in Khaidarovka, where "prisoners die while mining uranium," and "a death camp with uranium mines" in the desert at Kul-Kuduk (p366); that brought the total to 43.

Next the author documents the existence of 85 psychiatric prisons, where mentally healthy human beings were administered heavy doses of neuroleptic drugs; where inmates were bound so that the victim's body becomes compressed as if in a vice; and where prisoners were beaten by criminals and subjected to electric shocks at the slightest provocation (p47). Former inmate Vladimir Bukovsky recalled the injections of sulfazine, which caused an abscess, high temperature and intense pain; torture with insulin shocks; and treatment with high doses of haloperidol to lower the dopamine level, inducing Parkinson's disease (Index on Censorship, October 2001). As the author points out, these horrors were inflicted as punishment for political dissent, for seeking to emigrate, or merely for expressing a belief in God.

The author reports that some camp inmates were driven to the point where they branded anti-communist slogans on their foreheads. At first, these were cut out of their flesh. Subsequently, the offenders were "tried in secret and shot" (p370).