Soviet Memoirs

A gripping, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and contending forces in Tokyo during the volatile decade that led to World War II, as seen through the eyes of the American ambassador who attempted to stop the slide to war.

This journal of the invasion, a collection of Andrey Kurkov's writings and broadcasts from Kyiv, is a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a twenty-first-century war. Andrey Kurkov has been a consistent satirical commentator on his adopted country of Ukraine. His most recent work, Grey Bees, is a dark foreshadowing of the devastation in the eastern part of Ukraine in which only two villagers remain in a village bombed to smithereens. The author has lived in Kyiv and in the remote countryside of Ukraine throughout the Russian invasion.

Memoirs of a Madman or Diary of a Madman is a farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Along with The Overcoat and The Nose, Diary of a Madman is considered to be one of Gogol's greatest short stories. The tale centers on the life of a minor civil servant during the repressive era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. Diary of a Madman, the only one of Gogol's works written in first person, follows diary-entry format.

God & Spies is a firsthand account of America's greatest intelligence coup. Operation Ivy Bells was not a onetime intercept of foreign intelligence but an ongoing operation of multiple Soviet military channels! "How did I end up as a navy diver, 400 feet down in a frigid Russian sea? After making my dad totally disgusted with me, I set out to make him happy. 'Honor thy father' - I struggled with a decision to serve God. 'Lord, I will give my life to you and serve you if you let me make this dive.'"

This audiobook offers the first systematic analysis of Putin's two wars, placing the Second Chechen War and the War with Georgia of 2008 in their broader historical contexts. Drawing on extensive original Russian sources, Marcel H. Van Herpen analyzes in detail how Putin's wars were prepared and conducted and why they led to allegations of war crimes and genocide.

Previous histories have focused on the KGB, leaving military intelligence and the special service - which specialized in codes and ciphers - lurking in the shadows. Drawing on previously neglected Russian sources, Haslam reveals how both were in fact crucial to the survival of the Soviet state. This was especially true after Stalin's death in 1953, as the Cold War heated up and dedicated Communist agents the regime had relied upon - Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, Donald Maclean - were betrayed.

From comedian to president to freedom fighter, this is the story of Volodymyr Zelensky, the man who stood up to Vladimir Putin and forever changed the world. The authors of Zelensky chronicle his rise, discuss the changing attitudes toward him by Ukrainians there and abroad, and include some of his most stirring speeches.

On September 20, 1998, a Cuban-born former Red Army lieutenant named Jose Vigoa launched a series of raids on the Las Vegas Strip. During a 16-month spree, Vigoa robbed five world-class hotels, three armored cars, and one department store. The casinos hit were the MGM; the Desert Inn; the New York, New York; the Mandalay Bay; and the Bellagio. Lieutenant John Alamshaw, a 23-year-old veteran in charge of robbery detectives, was ordered to stop the robberies at all costs. He knew he was up against a mastermind. What he didn't know was that he was running out of time.

Arkadi Babtschenko kennt als ehemaliger Soldat die russische Armee aus ihrem Innersten; als kritischer, verfolgter Autor lebt er seit Jahren in der Ukraine und im Exil. Mit dieser einzigartigen Binnensicht beider Seiten schreibt er über die Situation seit 2014, wie niemand sonst es vermag – leidenschaftlich persönlich, stilistisch brillant und mit größter Kenntnis: Da sind die staatsnahen Medien, die mit Trash und Nationalkitsch einen "russischen Infantilismus" heranzüchten, ohne Würde und Scham.

"Unser Geschäft ist der Tod – und das Geschäft läuft gut." PMC (Private Military Company) WAGNER ist ein privates russisches Sicherheits- und Militärunternehmen, dessen Einheiten verdeckt operieren und als besonders brutal gelten. WAGNER war während der russischen Machtübernahme auf der Krim sowie in Syrien, im Sudan, in Mali aktiv und ist es aktuell auch in der Ukraine.

Prostitution, Raub, Drogen, Terror, Menschenhandel, Umweltverbrechen – nahezu allen kriminellen Taten ist eines gemeinsam: Sie lohnen sich nur, wenn Kriminelle die Herkunft ihrer schmutzigen Erträge verschleiern können – durch Geldwäsche. Geld ist eine Waffe: Kriminelle bestechen Politiker, beeinflussen Parlamentswahlen durch Fake News und destabilisieren mit Cyberattacken die Demokratie. Klar ist: Nimmt man Kriminellen das dreckige Geld, trifft man sie am härtesten. Doch Deutschland tut in dieser Hinsicht praktisch nichts.

Am 24. Februar 2022 schickte Wladimir Putin seine Armee gegen die Ukraine in den Krieg und traf damit eine Entscheidung, die das politische und ökonomische Gleichgewicht der ganzen Welt ins Wanken brachte. Der russische Angriffskrieg bringt unzählige menschliche Tragödien und immense materielle Zerstörung mit sich, und er wirft eine zentrale Frage auf: Wer ist Wladimir Putin, dieser Mann, der sich weigert, Lehren aus dem Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion zu ziehen, und der von der Rückkehr zu den Grenzen des Zarenreichs und der Wiedereinsetzung eines Regimes träumt, das sich der totalitären Methoden des Stalinismus bedient?

В Дневнике писателя, не имеющим аналогов в русской и зарубежной публицистике, Достоевский напрямую общается с читателями и словно приглашает присоединиться к обсуждению глубоких тем, которым посвящено все его творчество: человек и Бог, добро и зло, свобода и судьба России. В заметках 1876 года особое внимание он уделяет анализу мировой политики того времени и духовных болезней русского общества, оказавшемся во многом пророческим. А результатом его размышлений можно считать впервые опубликованную в ноябрьской главе повесть "Кроткая", где писатель исследует отношения тирана и жертвы на примере обычной семьи.

Nicolai Lilin ricostruisce la vita sorprendente e la folgorante ascesa politica di Vladimir Putin, da una misera casa popolare nel quartiere criminale di Leningrado alla poltrona presidenziale del Cremlino. Con il suo tipico stile potente che ti cattura e non ti lascia andare fino alla fine, Lilin indaga non solo la storia ma anche l'animo di Putin. Come in un romanzo ne racconta le origini, ne descrive le trasformazioni, ne ricorda i talenti che lo hanno portato a diventare il personaggio che conosciamo.

The First Counterspy is the story of spy, counterspy, and an American family unwittingly caught in its web. Until this case, the FBI had never recruited civilian counterspies to catch a Soviet agent. The first two were Larry Haas, a leading aviation engineer at Bell Aviation, and Leona Franey, head librarian at Bell's technical library. The FBI pitted them against Andrei Ivanovich Schevchenko, operating legally as one of the highest Soviet officials in the United States during WWII, and illegally as head of a wide-ranging spy network hidden within the American aviation industry.

При упоминании имени Михаила Афанасьевича Булгакова на память сразу приходят его Белая гвардия, Мастер и Маргарита или Собачье сердце. Эти без преувеличения гениальные романы выдержали многочисленные переиздания, были неоднократно экранизированы и по праву занимают самое почетное место в золотом фонде российской литературы.

John Cairncross was among the most damaging spies of the 20th century. A member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring, he leaked highly sensitive documents from Bletchley Park, MI6, and the Treasury to the Soviet Union...Based on newly released archival materials, this biography will be the first to cover the life and espionage of this singularly important spy.

Among the leaders of the 20th century, arguably none shaped the course of history as much as Vladimir Lenin. If Adolf Hitler had not inflicted the devastation of World War II upon Europe, it's quite likely that the West would consider Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) the 20th century's greatest tyrant. Along with Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky led the October Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and held crucial posts in the early Soviet governments.

In this crackling memoir, the journalist and novelist Michael Idov recounts the tempestuous years he spent living alongside - and closely observing - the media and cultural elite of Putin's Russia. After accepting a surprise offer to become the editor in chief of GQ Russia, Idov and his family arrive in a Moscow still seething from a dubious election and the mass anti-Putin rallies that erupted in response. Idov is fascinated by the political turmoil but nonetheless finds himself pulled in unlikely directions.

On a sunny September day in 1931, Soviet spy Stanislav Shumovsky walked down the gangplank of the SS Europa and into New York, concealed in a group of 65 Soviet students. Joseph Stalin had sent him to acquire American secrets to help close the USSR’s yawning technology gap. In this thrilling history, Svetlana Lokhova takes the listener on a journey through Stalin’s most audacious intelligence operation, piecing together every aspect of Shumovsky’s life and character using information derived from American and Russian archives.