History Books

An encyclopedic and richly detailed history of everyday life in the Soviet Union

Linda Himelstein’s critically acclaimed biography of Russian vodka scion Pyotr Smirnov is the sweeping story of entrepreneurship, empire, and epicurean triumph unlike anything the world has ever seen before.

In this saga of brilliant triumphs and magnificent failures, David E. Hoffman, the former Moscow bureau chief for the Washington Post, sheds light on the hidden lives of Russia's most feared power brokers: the oligarchs.

Dmitri Volkogonov emerged as the preeminent Russian historian of this century. His crowning achievement is the account of the seven General Secretaries of the Soviet Empire in Autopsy for an Empire, a book that tells the history of the Soviet failure.

Solomon Volkov, a Russian emigre and acclaimed cultural historian, has written the definitive cultural biography of St. Petersburg and its transcendent artistic and spiritual legacy.

An essential insight into Russia’s relations with Ukraine, the US and beyond

The acclaimed author of Sovietistan travels along the seemingly endless Russian border and reveals the deep and pervasive influence it has had across half the globe.

The Story of Russia is a fresh approach to the thousand years of Russia’s history, concerned as much with the ideas that have shaped how Russians think about their past as it is with the events and personalities comprising it.

The definitive story of a game so great, even the Cold War couldn't stop it

From former NPR Moscow correspondent Gregory Feifer comes an incisive portrait that draws on vivid personal stories of the forces that have shaped the Russian character for centuries-and continue to do so today.

A New York Times bestseller, this definitive history of Ukraine is “an exemplary account of Europe’s least-known large country” (Wall Street Journal).

Russia’s epic story told in an accessible, lively and short form, using the country's fascinating history to help us understand its actions today and what the future might hold