(Part 2) Best historical russia biographies according to redditors
We found 401 Reddit comments discussing the best historical russia biographies. We ranked the 135 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
For everyone reading this, I highly recommend his book Red Notice, Bill Browder's memoir about his time investing in ex-soviet bloc countries and Russia. He goes into grim detail about Magnitsky and the corruption at every level of government in Russia.
Red Notice on GoodReads.
Red Notice on Amazon.
Since I don't see it linked, I want to recommend Massie's Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman for a more detailed, but still engrossing, account of the Russian royal court (including quite a bit of detail about the in turns insufferable and pitiful Peter III) during this period.
whilst this was the experience of an overwhelming majority of soviet POWs, particularly in cases of mass surrender, it was not always the case; an individual surrendering "Ivan" might be incorporated into a unit to carry out basic cleaning duties or mine clearance, essentially working as a squad's servant. I forget the nickname granted to them for now.
also, from 1942 others still were incorporated into german slave labour programmes. still a ghastly experience.
I would recommend this book on the subject:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivans-War-Army-1939-45-Inside/dp/0571218091/ref=pd_cp_b_0
Robert Massie in Peter the Great, setting the scene for the Great Northern War, actually puts several pages describing the Swedes as a great power and what a ferocious military machine they had. It's been over a decade since I've read the book, but I remember their infantry being especially fearsome.
Here are two my favourite ww2 memoirs :
Tank Rider by Bessonov, a Soviet officer who started the war just a little bit after the Kursk battle and went to Berlin, riding with his company on tanks of the forward elements, always at the spearhead of thr attack. https://www.amazon.com/Tank-Rider-Into-Reich-Army/dp/1510712399
Penalty Strike
The memoirs of a Soviet officer who also started his fight in 43 and went all the way to Germany, officially serving in a penal battalion. He was not sentenced, it was his job to command the officers who were sentenced to fight in penal battalions. He was wounded in the head by a German sniper in the end of the war but lived, and was even a commendant of Leipzig for some time.
Tells you in depth how penal battalions acted, so after reading this you will have a lot less stereotypes about the Soviet penal system. Highly recommend this book. Unfortunately, Pylcin has died last year.
https://www.amazon.com/Penalty-Strike-Commander-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811735990
I think Pacific Islander beyond New Zealand is really interesting. One book I enjoyed on the history of Hawaii was The Shoals of Time.
Another time to explore would be the Russian Expansion into Siberia, Kamchatka, and the Bering Expedition. My most recent favorite book that I recommend to everyone I meet is about the Bering expedition to Alaska called Where the sea breaks its back. It's a gripping story that reads like fiction and the author is incredible.
I hope this thread blows up some because I think it's a great question and I want to reap the rewards. Also please post any specific books you've enjoyed related to the New Zealand history.
Peasants level? I would assume then that you mean the Red Army. Try the following:
Blood on the Shores
Over the Abyss
Through the Maelstrom
Red Sniper on the Eastern Front
Panzer Destroyer
Guns against the Reich
Catherine the Great, of course! I just finished reading this incredible biography on her, which I can't recommend enough. She started off as a minor German princess, the pawn of her ambitious mother trying to make an advantageous political marriage, yet won the hearts of Russia and transformed it into an immensely powerful nation at the forefront of the Enlightenment. She vaulted it forward culturally, medically, politically, and scientifically. She volunteered herself for the first smallpox vaccines in Russia and strongly advocated for their use. Seriously inspiring lady. I first had my interest piqued about her when reading The Great Upheaval, which is also excellent, but you really must check out Portrait of a Woman.
User is accused and punished for posting amazon referral links
These are the links posted from the comment history.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009EE17RI/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3BKVPMIK7AAAX&coliid=I27Z3NKLZKP725
http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Destroyer-Memoirs-Army-Commander-ebook/dp/B005D7FKJQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0GJ3FJ7Q23NVCGN38BCG
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Sniper-Eastern-Front-Pilyushin-ebook/dp/B005D7D5CA/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=041K2D1YQT52BW85V821
None of them are affiliate referral links.
Affiliate links include the line "tag=AffiliateID"
The links above include "ref=" which is a navigation switch or internal referral parameters. They are not affiliate links.
(explained here)
However, the mod has passed judgement and the user is oppressed and probably banned.
reddit is not a fair or safe place.
http://www.redditlog.com/snapshots/939921
Trump / Russia: A Definitive History was released this morning. I haven't started reading it yet but I am told that it is hugely damning.
>Is the 45th President of the United States under the control of a foreign power? Award-winning Associated Press reporter Seth Hettena untangles the story of Donald Trump’s long involvement with Russia in damning detail—including new reporting never before published.
[...]
>In Trump/Russia: A Definitive History, Seth Hettena chronicles the many years Trump has spent wooing Russian money and power. From the collapse of his casino empire—which left Trump desperate for cash—and his first contacts with Russian deal-makers and financiers, on up to the White House, Hettena reveals the myriad of shady people, convoluted dealings, and strange events that suggest how indebted to Russia our forty-fifth president might be.
>Using deeply researched reporting, along with newly uncovered information, court documents, and exclusive interviews with investigators and FBI agents, Hettena provides an expansive and essential primer to the Trump/Russia scandal, leaving no stone unturned.
[my emphasis]
Random question of the week: What book are you currently reading or what was the last book you read?
I'm currently reading a book on Catherine the Great. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. It's a great book so far.
|CIA was helping out sunni extremists in Chechnya since the 90's.
I sort of picked up on that reading the story of Fred Cuny:
[The Man Who Tried to Save the World The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of an American Hero] (http://www.amazon.com/Man-Tried-Save-World-Disappearance/dp/0385486669)
Guns against the reich
Panzer Destroyer
Red Sniper on Eastern Front
Btw, this photo from there is actually on the cover of the surgeon's memoir: http://www.amazon.com/The-Oath-Surgeon-Under-Fire/dp/0802714048
TV on same level as The Americans is hard, because it's by far the best show I've seen.
But try Ozark - excellent and the actress who plays Kimmie is in it. Homeland. Deutschland 83 & Deustchland 86 (86 is basically the second season of Deutschland 83, and there will be an 89 as well). The Handmaid's Tale.
As far as books:
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00C0ALX7M/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= - About cooking, yes, but also about everyday life in the USSR. Very sweet.
Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003K15IE4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= - This book (thinly veiled fiction) is a straightforward, but absolutely devastating read about Soviet-style totalitarianism and how everyday people made accommodations to be able to live in such a society. An amazing book. I'm on the stoic side as a reader, but there is one scene in there that catches me at the back of the throat every time I think of it.
The Charm School by Nelson Demille - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000SEGDRW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= - Honestly, this is no great work of literature, but a spy thriller focused on a Soviet school that trains spies to be "Americans"
Two more writers of note: Anne Applebaum and Svetlana Alexievich. Both write approachable non-fiction about Russia and have multiple, amazing books to check out.
Great first hand account of living there during the occupation - [Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto] (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Years-Warsaw-Ghetto-Witness/dp/1904859054) by Bernard Goldstein. I read it earlier this year and found it quite moving. The things people did for their freedom during the uprising is heartbreakingly brave.
If anyone is interested in Russian cooking; I highly recommend reading Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing.
Really entertaining read; goes through different decades of Russian history and cuisines in a Julie & Julia style.
Peter the Great, the Pulitzer Prize wining biography by Robert Massie is pretty hard to beat.
When I say they had a pretty good idea, I'm not implying that this was from experience, rather that they were more likely to have been aware of the realities of the awfulness of the eastern front due to the lack of cold war attitudes that were prevalent in the west. When I was a kid, the history books over here didn't want to portray the USSR as a victim.
Since the USSR dissolved, things are a bit more objective. And even before then, some of us did go out and find books that were more accurate than say, the works of 'Sven Hassel' which when I was younger, were some of the only first-hand (at least the first 2 books) accounts published in English. Apart from Harrison Salisbury's account of the Siege of Leningrad, it's difficult to think of a book about the eastern front that was written by Russian eye-witnesses and then translated into English before the collapse of the USSR. In more recent years, English speaking historians have been making a point of getting interviews with the few remaining eye witnesses. Part of the problem in this is, as you point out, that for many of the instances, there were no survivors to give an account.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make, was that it is possible for people to know how grim a series of events was, without having to have experienced it first-hand, as long as they've access to accounts from those who did get direct experience, like your great grandpa. And some of the more recent western authors have been putting the record straight, so some of us do have more of an idea than would have been the case a couple of decades ago.
I'll try and get a copy of When Titans Clashed, cheers for the reccomendation. By way of return, can I suggest Catherine Merridale's Ivan's war.
For Leningrad stuff, also of interest might be an online copy of Glantz's 900 Days, but I'd also say Salisbury's The 900 days is well worth a read.
I've read Robert Service's biography of modern Russia and it was excellent. He's a scholar of Russian history and he's written lengthy biographies of Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky. I think you should give him a try.
Maybe a story about humanitarian work?
Scott Anderson, The Man Who Tried To Save the World (1999). The story of disaster-relief expert Fred Cuny.
Robert Massie's Peter the Great spends a lot of time on that war. It's a fantastic book all around.
Some nice books for you to read describing the russian side:
On of the best documentaires i have seen about the eastern front is BBC's war of the Centrury, with interviews with russian and german veterans
Enjoy
I loved The Last Tsar. Fantastic story about the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra and their family's tragic end.
It's a terrible conspiracy, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is a great book, if you're interested! I need to get his other books on the family.
I've enjoyed the following, not being from that part of the world, culture or religion you'd have to take my insight with a grain of salt. There doesn't seem to be that much information about that part of the world, one of the reasons I find it so fascinating. It's fairly invisible. There is typically one viewpoint from this media, red team or blue team, nothing seems to be that unbiased. I found "The Oath" to be the most informative and interesting.
BOOKS-
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312071353/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585745650/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594486514/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594032017/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060011602/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1860468977/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470048662/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813124379/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400044111/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140257713/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140172866/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
DOCS-
На амазоне: Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2015 by Bill Browder
Must Read Bernard Goldstein's autobiographical account of the heroic Warsaw Uprising:
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto: The Stars Bear Witness
>Born in a small town outside of Warsaw in 1889, Bernard Goldstein joined the Jewish labor organization, the Bund, at age 16 and dedicated his life to organizing workers and resisting tyranny. Goldstein spent time in prisons from Warsaw to Siberia, took part in the Russian Revolution and was a respected organizer within the vibrant labor movement in independent Poland.
>In 1939, with the Nazi invasion of Poland and establishment of the Jewish Ghetto, Goldstein and the Bund went underground—organizing housing, food and clothing within the ghetto; communicating with the West for support; and developing a secret armed force. Smuggled out of the ghetto just before the Jewish militia’s heroic last stand, Goldstein assisted in procuring guns to aid those within the ghetto’s walls and aided in the fight to free Warsaw. After the liberation of Poland, Goldstein emigrated to America, where he penned this account of his five-and-a-half years within the Warsaw ghetto and his brave comrades who resisted to the end. His surprisingly modest and frank depiction of a community under siege at a time when the world chose not to intervene is enlightening, devastating and ultimately inspiring.
>“His active leadership before the war and his position in the Jewish underground during it qualify him as the chronicler of the last hours of Warsaw’s Jews. Out of the tortured memories of those five-and-a-half years, he has brought forth the picture with all its shadings—the good with the bad, the cowardly with the heroic, the disgraceful with the glorious. This is his valedictory, his final service to the Jews of Warsaw.”—Leonard Shatzkin
Our Band Could be Your Life
The Last Tsar
The Book of Basketball
I enjoyed The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz.
It is supposedly a true story, but this has been called in to question by some.
Either way, it was a good read.
Catherine the Great has a number of good biographies on her, Amazon should be able to list a few. Her reign and most of her life are well documented. I liked this one. Vlad the Impaler might be a little more difficult, I've never looked though.
There are many first hand account book out about the Eastern Front during WW2 on both sides. Some of which were diaries taken from dead soldiers who endured years of hardcore combat.
I suggest reading Eastern Inferno book. This German soldier died on the battlefield somewhere. His journals somehow survived and you can read about the real horrors of the Eastern Front fighting the Russians.
And for the Russian side check out Through the Maelstorm. This is one of the better books I've read for first hand accounts on the Russian side.
Any representation was going to be biased one way or another. They must have teamed up with Bobby disservice https://www.amazon.com/Trotsky-Biography-Robert-Service/dp/0674062256
Alexander Pylcyn memoirs on Amazon
Very interesting and rare - from penal company commander.
Cannot vouch for translation quality - I've read it in russian and it was lively, no-nonsense and coherent reading.
Walking like a boss? Read this some time...
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-True-Story-Freedom/dp/1558216847!
The Longest Walk
Check it out.
There is nothing like reading White Fang or Call of the Wild while in the Alaska backcountry. You start reading, and with no evidence of civilization suddenly it's 1890. Also read the short story, to build a fire.
Get a copy of a book or Robert Service poetry. You have to read the Cremation of Sam McGee at least once around a campfire (our most famous poem), it's even better if you cam manage to recite it from memory.
Here's a YouTube vid of Johnny Cache reciting it.
Here's one I read years ago where the sea breaks it's back it's the story of how captain Vitas Bearing and scientist George Stellar discovered Alaska. A truly harrowing tale.
this book is the memoirs or Dick Proenneke. He lived by himself in a cabin by a lake in remote Alaska for decades. The documentary based off of it (alone in the wilderness) is excellent but I haven't actually read the memoirs myself.
Since you're in the mountains read desperate passage this is an exceptionally well researched and written account of the Donner Party, it's chilling, I read while snow camping in the Chugach, powerful stuff.
Anther great thing to read in the wild, journals of famous adventurers. The Lewis and Clark diaries, for example.
A translation of the Poetic Edda (pretend your living in Viking times)
True Grit always an enjoyable slogging through untamed wilderness read.
Hatchet by Paulson, this book is aimed at a younger audience, but it's a good book for reading when out in the woods.
I'll second song of fire and ice, Alaska is the perfect place to read it and imagine themselves the king in the north, or wandering out beyond The Wall.
Also blood meridian is another good suggestion. Adventure in the wild lands with a big element of the unknown and sleeping under the stars. By that same token I'd recommend Dead Mans Walk by McMurtry, the fist prequel to Lonesome Dove, lots of slogging through the wilderness and mountains.
Those are all I can think of at the moment.
Also a note on into the wild, I've never read it but it a lot of people up here do not like it because it's caused a lot of people to come up and emulate the guy, some of them have died or almost died. So don't tell anything to the effect of that book being your inspiration for coming to alaska.
It's not a "theory" when all of the puzzle pieces have been exhaustively documented in the New York Times, Washington Post, Esquire, several books available on Amazon, and a documentary you can rent on your Apple TV or other streaming device.
Seth Hettena's book does a great job of consolidating the lot.
US has passed the Magnitsky Act, is in the works to expand it into a "global" act, Europe on the other hand still hasn't done jack shit on the matter, all the years-long campaigning by the activists notwithstanding.