Russia Books

I read this book in german a few years back. The german publisher in paper back, "Heiko Haumann:Geschichte der Ostjuden", was Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. It was a fascinating read. If you want to know about jews and the lives they led in europe during the last millenium, this is the book for you. I intend to read " A History of East European Jews" as a refresher. Geschichte der Ostjuden

This first volume of the history of Russian Christianity deals with the period from Apostle Andrew to the death of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, a period of almost 1600 years. The information provided is intensive and objective, dealing with the events, people and politics of the development and expansion of Christianity in Russia. The book covers the earliest of traditions, the rise and dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church, the many dissenters and sectarians that evolved over the centuries and their persecution, and the influx of Catholicism and Judaism and other minority religions into Russia. The history covers the involvement of tsars and princes, as well as saints and serfs, and monks and mystics .
(This 3-volume series of the history of Christianity in Russia will extend to the conclusion of Soviet authority in 1990.)

The content of this 2nd volume of the history of the Christianity of Russia is the period beginning about 1586, with the initiation of the effort toward establishing a Russian patriarchate, and concluding in 1741, at the death of Empress Anne. The periods covered are the Patriarchal Era and the Holy Synod under Tsar Peter the Great. The 2 appendixes consist of the confession read by Dimitri Tveritinov to the Holy Synod, prior to his release from 10 years of custody, along with a short dissertation on Russian Orthodox monasteries used as prisons. The history includes the rise and fall of such immense Russian historical figures such as Patriarch Job, Tsar Boris Godunov, pseudo-Dimitri's 1 and 2, Patriarch Nikon, arch-priest Avvakum, Tsar Peter the Great, Theofan Prokopovich, as well as the initiation of the Old Believers' movement, and the mass dissension from Russian Orthodoxy after the abolition of the patriarchate and the institution of the Holy Synod.

This third volume on the History of Russian Christianity deals with the period 1725 through 1894, from the death of Tsar Peter the Great to the ascension of Tsar Nicholas II. Known as the Synodal Era of Russian Orthodoxy, this is the era of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, the persecution of the adamant Metropolitan Arsenius, the towering figure of Konstantin Pobedonostsev, and the great tsars of 19th-century Russia. This is the era of the rise of the dissenters and sectarians. The history of Old Believers is discussed, along with the evolution of innumerable sectarian groups and their persecution, including the Iconoclasts, Judaizers, Dukhabors, Molokans, Khlisti, Skoptzi, Stundists and Mennonites, and the many other small sects. The Christian philosophies of Grigori Skovoroda and Leo Tolstoy are examined as well.

For years I've looked for a truly excellent, comprehensive history of the USSR's early formative years. There are a few, but this is the best I've found for a serious student. This work by Carr & Davies is focused on the economic development, the struggles over priorities and strategies, and the reasons why the USSR took the path it did.

The most obvious feature of this work is that it is LONG. Two large volumes devoted to three years in the life of a country--and devoted explicitly to the economic modalities of that country (Carr also has written copiously on the early USSR's other issues, such as foreign policy and political turmoil) suggest that Carr sought to furnish the definitive account.

The book employs a semi-encyclopedic organization: "Part One: the Economic Order" addresses the collectivization of agriculture as a complex process, molded by Russia's distinctive customs and class structure; the development of industry; Leninist mobilization of labor; trade and distribution in a Leninist economy; finance; and planning.

These works are largely free of ideological polemics; for the most part, decisions and actions are treated as responding to known pressures and dilemmas. Yet the style of exposition is lively and candid, so that it is a pleasure to read: fortunate, considering each volume is a thousand pages.

CAVEAT: Readers will surely understand, of course, that Carr & Davies completed this in 1970. Since then, with the collapse of the USSR, an abundance of archived material has become available. However, I doubt anyone who had read neither this work nor any of its breadth would be able to grasp the significance of post-92 revelations.

The book is a bit dated with its prose, but it's a first hand account, and to get all this information from 1918-19 and get it published in 1920, is quite a feat considering how well it is written. 2,000 copies were issued in 1920. If you can get your hand on one it will cost 500 plus dollars, but getting your had on one would be hard. As the authors state, these 2,000 copies were made for the 5,000 troups and their families that went over there. Luckily, in 2003 a limited edition of 300 copies were made. At present you can still find one for under $60. If you have intest in this subject I would buy. The top books on this subject 1. Russian sideshow, 2. When Hell Froze over, 3. The Midnight War. All three mention this book, and use lots of the information contained in this book. However, for example, my uncle was killed in Maximovskaya, and only in this book The American Expedition do I find this village mentioned.

Oleg Khlevniuk's Russian archive work on researching the true extent of the destruction of humans under Stalin is by far the best work in the field. By painstakingly analyzing secret reports, top secret letters between Commissars, censuses, official data, the Chrushchov era KGB research, etc. he is capable of giving an authoritative and absolutely fair analysis of exactly what went on in the GULAG system in particular and Stalinism as a whole, how many people were affected and how, and what this means for the accuracy of the 'popular view' of Stalin's crimes.

Contrary to Conquest, Malia, Montefiore etc. etc. he presents the facts and the documents as they are and lets them speak for themselves, instead of going on and on about the moral/sentimental issues without any thorough factual backing, as almost all such popular writers on the USSR do. Certainly no fan of Stalin either, he manages to present the simple facts in such a clear and well-evidenced way that he does justice to all involved. An impressive achievement considering the political meaning of the subject.

This fascinating survey of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia offers histories of all the important communities in the East including in Bulgaria, Czechslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Russia and Yugoslavia. Obviously other Gypsy communities are left out, such as those in Greece, Albania and Turkey. But such is life, the book stands alone nonetheless.

Each chapter is a veritable encyclopedia of Gypsy life. For instance on Bulgaria the book describes how Gypsy women refused to don the Muslim veil forced upon Muslim women after the Turkish colonization of Eastern Europe. The book is packed full of data and demographics. For instance we learn that in 1910 there were 120,000 Roma listed on the census and in 1930 the estimate was 140,000. Muslim Gypsies were forcibly expelled from Bulgaria after the war. The book details the various anti-Gypsy laws that existed from Turkish times to the era of fascism and Communism. Usually disguised as `anti-nomadism' laws the target was obvious.

In Czechslovakia the Roma worked as castle musicians and metal workers in the 16th century. In 1780 there were 43,000 Roma in Slovakia. In addition the Gypsys of Slovakia survived the war because of the intervention of the Slovak leader Jozef Tiso and his desire, despite being an ally of Hitler, to have his country free of Nazism. Roma in enighbouring lands were not so luck and the Holocaust destroyed many communities.

In Rumania, long home to one of the largest concentrations of Roma they totaled according to estimates almost half a million or 2% of the population in 1977. In 1992 some claimed there were 2.2 million Gypsies a total of 10% of the population of the country.

In Yugoslavia the Gypsies were part of a patchwork of nationalities that hated one another. One time they were viewed by Serbs in the 1920s as being allied to the Muslim Albanians but later the reverse would happen when the Croatian Ustasha Nazi collaborator Catholic government would exterminate the Gypsy population of Croatia and after the Nato `liberation' of Kosovo the same would happen in 1999 when Muslim Albanians cleansed the land of Gypsies (there had been 14,000 in Kosovo in 1971). In Macedonia the largest Gypsy community was constructed in the 1960s called Suto Orizari. In 1991 there were 200,000 Roma in Macedonia.

This is simply a fascinating book that anyone with an interest in minorities, European history of Gypsies should get. One unfortunate fact: the book does not mention if there were any contacts between Gypsy communities and Jewish ones.

Seth J. Frantzman

This is the first and probably still the best history of russian and polish jews. Written in russian before the WWI it did appear in english in three volumes in 1916, 1918 and 1920. ( up to my knowledge there is no russian edition of the book) Book of S. W. Baron written some 50 years after has aditional information but still book of Dubnow gives a lot of original research for the first time. Aniway it is different in approach with underlying philosophy of Dubnow's jewish history.

Like the Abel Paz classic,"Durrutti,The people armed."This is one essential book.Second only to Durrutti in time.The place for the drama is the Ukraine,circa,1917-20.The history of the Makhnovista's is truly epic,gut wrenching and incredible.It is almost totally forgotten or ignored now,yet,this is one of those points in History with a capital H.The ripples of these extraordinary events and superhuman feats are still rippling outward in spite of several genocides wreaked on this reigon.The writers style seems a little old fashioned and unusual,yet, you get drawn in by the human interest story of the education and stellar rise of a genuine working class hero and revolutionary Icon,"Batko",Nestor Makhno met the author in prison and learnt the basics of anarchism from him.They were released in the febuary revolution and their battles in the south against tyranny's of white and red armies have become the stuff of legend.The study of what ordinary people actually do in revolutionary periods is intrinsically interesting.I would suggest that close study of the makhnovist libertarian socialist revolution should be rewarding,if only for entertainment.(Its 70mm cinematic.)