A Portrait Of All The Russians

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Portrait of a Russian Province

Author : Catherine Evtuhov
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 0822977451
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

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Book Synopsis Portrait of a Russian Province by : Catherine Evtuhov

Download or read book Portrait of a Russian Province written by Catherine Evtuhov and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2011-11-13 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Several stark premises have long prevailed in our approach to Russian history. It was commonly assumed that Russia had always labored under a highly centralized and autocratic imperial state. The responsibility for this lamentable state of affairs was ultimately assigned to the profoundly agrarian character of Russian society. The countryside, home to the overwhelming majority of the nation's population, was considered a harsh world of cruel landowners and ignorant peasants, and a strong hand was required for such a crude society. A number of significant conclusions flowed from this understanding. Deep and abiding social divisions obstructed the evolution of modernity, as experienced "naturally" in other parts of Europe, so there was no Renaissance or Reformation; merely a derivative Enlightenment; and only a distorted capitalism. And since only despotism could contain these volatile social forces, it followed that the 1917 Revolution was an inevitable explosion resulting from these intolerable contradictions—and so too were the blood-soaked realities of the Soviet regime that came after. In short, the sheer immensity of its provincial backwardness could explain almost everything negative about the course of Russian history. This book undermines these preconceptions. Through her close study of the province of Nizhnii Novgorod in the nineteenth century, Catherine Evtuhov demonstrates how nearly everything we thought we knew about the dynamics of Russian society was wrong. Instead of peasants ground down by poverty and ignorance, we find skilled farmers, talented artisans and craftsmen, and enterprising tradespeople. Instead of an exclusively centrally administered state, we discover effective and participatory local government. Instead of pervasive ignorance, we are shown a lively cultural scene and an active middle class. Instead of a defining Russian exceptionalism, we find a world recognizable to any historian of nineteenth-century Europe. Drawing on a wide range of Russian social, environmental, economic, cultural, and intellectual history, and synthesizing it with deep archival research of the Nizhnii Novgorod province, Evtuhov overturns a simplistic view of the Russian past. Rooted in, but going well beyond, provincial affairs, her book challenges us with an entirely new perspective on Russia's historical trajectory.

First Person

Author : Vladimir Putin
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 0786723270
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis First Person by : Vladimir Putin

Download or read book First Person written by Vladimir Putin and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2000-05-05 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who is this Vladimir Putin? Who is this man who suddenly--overnight and without warning--was handed the reigns of power to one of the most complex, formidable, and volatile countries in the world? How can we trust him if we don't know him? First Person is an intimate, candid portrait of the man who holds the future of Russia in his grip. An extraordinary compilation of over 24 hours of in-depth interviews and remarkable photographs, it delves deep into Putin's KGB past and explores his meteoric rise to power. No Russian leader has ever subjected himself to this kind of public examination of his life and views. Both as a spy and as a virtual political unknown until selected by Boris Yeltsin to be Prime Minister, Putin has been regarded as man of mystery. Now, the curtain lifts to reveal a remarkable life of struggles and successes. Putin's life story is of major importance to the world.

Self-Portrait with Russian Piano

Author : Wolf Wondratschek
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374720274
Total Pages : 135 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Self-Portrait with Russian Piano by : Wolf Wondratschek

Download or read book Self-Portrait with Russian Piano written by Wolf Wondratschek and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A legendary literary figure who initiated a one-man Beat Generation in his native Germany, Wolf Wondratschek “is eccentric, monomaniacal, romantic—his texts are imbued with a wonderful, reckless nonchalance.”* Now, he tells a story of a man looking back on his life in an honest Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man. Vienna is an uncanny, magical, and sometimes brutally alienating city. The past lives on in the cafes where lost souls come to kill time and hash over the bygone glories of the twentieth century—or maybe just a recent love affair. Here, in one of these cafes, an anonymous narrator meets a strange character, “like someone out of a novel”: a decrepit old Russian named Suvorin. A Soviet pianist of international renown, Suvorin committed career suicide when he developed a violent distaste for the sound of applause. This eccentric gentleman—sometimes charming, sometimes sulky, sometimes disconcertingly frank—knows the end of his life is approaching, and allows himself to be convinced to tell his life story. Over a series of coffee dates, punctuated by confessions, anecdotes, and rages—and by the narrator’s schemes to keep his quarry talking—a strained friendship develops between the two men, and it soon becomes difficult to tell who is more dependent on whom. Rhapsodic and melancholic, with shades of Vladimir Nabokov, W. G. Sebald, Hans Keilson, and Thomas Bernhard, Wolf Wondratschek's Self-Portrait with Russian Piano is a literary sonata circling the eternal question of whether beauty, music, and passion are worth the sacrifices some people are compelled to make for them. “A romantic in a madhouse. To let Wondratschek’s voice be drowned in the babble of today’s literature would be a colossal mistake.” —*Patrick Süskind, international bestselling author of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Kosmos: A Portrait of the Russian Space Age

Author :
Publisher : Princeton Architectural Press
ISBN 13 : 1568983085
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (689 download)

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Book Synopsis Kosmos: A Portrait of the Russian Space Age by :

Download or read book Kosmos: A Portrait of the Russian Space Age written by and published by Princeton Architectural Press. This book was released on 2001-11 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inherent contradictions of the Space Age -- the mixture of technologies high and low, of nostalgia and progress, of pathos and promise -- are revealed in Kosmos, Adam Bartos's astonishing photographic survey of the Soviet space program. Bartos's fascination with this subject led him to seek out places like the bedroom where Yuri Gagarian slept the night before his history-making flight into space, located in the Baiknour Cosmodrome, the one-time top-secret space complex in the Kazakh desert. Kosmos presents 94 of Bartos's photographs, rich with the incongruities of the history, science, culture, and politics of the Space Age.

A Gentleman in Moscow

Author : Amor Towles
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1448135508
Total Pages : 547 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (481 download)

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Book Synopsis A Gentleman in Moscow by : Amor Towles

Download or read book A Gentleman in Moscow written by Amor Towles and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers Soon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov From the number one New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel 'A wonderful book' - Tana French 'This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don't miss it' - Chris Cleave 'No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year '[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself.' - Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year 'Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism' - The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all? A BOOK OF THE DECADE, 2010-2020 (INDEPENDENT) THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 ONE OF BILL GATES'S SUMMER READS OF 2019 NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS WEEK AWARD

The Russian Empire

Author : Chloe Obolensky
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Russian Empire by : Chloe Obolensky

Download or read book The Russian Empire written by Chloe Obolensky and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Former People

Author : Douglas Smith
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 1466827750
Total Pages : 763 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Former People by : Douglas Smith

Download or read book Former People written by Douglas Smith and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epic in scope, precise in detail, and heart-breaking in its human drama, Former People is the first book to recount the history of the aristocracy caught up in the maelstrom of the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of Stalin's Russia. Filled with chilling tales of looted palaces and burning estates, of desperate flights in the night from marauding peasants and Red Army soldiers, of imprisonment, exile, and execution, it is the story of how a centuries'-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the Tsar and Empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia. Yet Former People is also a story of survival and accommodation, of how many of the tsarist ruling class—so-called "former people" and "class enemies"—overcame the psychological wounds inflicted by the loss of their world and decades of repression as they struggled to find a place for themselves and their families in the new, hostile order of the Soviet Union. Chronicling the fate of two great aristocratic families—the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns—it reveals how even in the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on. Told with sensitivity and nuance by acclaimed historian Douglas Smith, Former People is the dramatic portrait of two of Russia's most powerful aristocratic families, and a sweeping account of their homeland in violent transition.

The Russian Vision

Author : David Jackson
Publisher : Antique Collector's Club
ISBN 13 : 9781851497744
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (977 download)

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Book Synopsis The Russian Vision by : David Jackson

Download or read book The Russian Vision written by David Jackson and published by Antique Collector's Club. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ilya Repin (1844-1930) is a key figure of Russian nineteenth-century realism; this presents the life and work of the most celebrated Russian painted of his generation. A painter of immense technical and aesthetic talent, Ilya Repin's vibrant, colourful and highly topical canvases offer a fascinating panorama of all strata of life in late-Tsarist Russia and a microcosm of the issues that preoccupied Russian thought during this crucial period of historical change. Ilya Repin (1844-1930) is a key figure of Russian nineteenth-century realism; his career spanned a period of huge cultural, social and political change, bearing witness to the challenge to the Russian autocracy, the coming of the October Revolution and the dawn of the Soviet Union. From humble peasant beginnings Repin rose to a place of artistic pre-eminence and international acclaim and was the most important influence in shaping a distinctly Russian school of art. Through a series of successful but controversial works he addressed such issues as the hard lives of the peasants, the fate of revolutionary activists and Russian history, as well as painting some of the nation's greatest cultural figures, many of whom - such as Tolstoy, Mussorgsky and Gorky - he counted as personal friends. 'The Russian Vision: The Art of Ilya Repin' presents the life and work of the most celebrated Russian painted of his generation. A comprehensive survey of Repin's oeuvre, featuring a wealth of little-seen paintings; dramatic, distinctive images that evoke the hardships, pleasures and everyday routines of Russian society in the twilight years of Tsarist rule. Having declined in the twentieth century, Repin's reputation is growing again. Combining close readings of all his major canvases, as well as many of his lesser-known works, within the broader context of Russian art, society and culture, written in an accessible style, David Jackson's book, featuring more than 100 colour plates of Repin's work, and telling the story of his life, will do much to help restore his stature.

Kremlin Rising

Author : Peter Baker
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743281799
Total Pages : 475 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

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Book Synopsis Kremlin Rising by : Peter Baker

Download or read book Kremlin Rising written by Peter Baker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-06-07 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Hedrick Smith's The Russians, Robert G. Kaiser's Russia: The People and the Power, and David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb comes an eloquent and eye-opening chronicle of Vladimir Putin's Russia, from this generation's leading Moscow correspondents. With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia launched itself on a fitful transition to Western-style democracy. But a decade later, Boris Yeltsin's handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin, a childhood hooligan turned KGB officer who rose from nowhere determined to restore the order of the Soviet past, resolved to bring an end to the revolution. Kremlin Rising goes behind the scenes of contemporary Russia to reveal the culmination of Project Putin, the secret plot to reconsolidate power in the Kremlin. During their four years as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser witnessed firsthand the methodical campaign to reverse the post-Soviet revolution and transform Russia back into an authoritarian state. Their gripping narrative moves from the unlikely rise of Putin through the key moments of his tenure that re-centralized power into his hands, from his decision to take over Russia's only independent television network to the Moscow theater siege of 2002 to the "managed democracy" elections of 2003 and 2004 to the horrific slaughter of Beslan's schoolchildren in 2004, recounting a four-year period that has changed the direction of modern Russia. But the authors also go beyond the politics to draw a moving and vivid portrait of the Russian people they encountered -- both those who have prospered and those barely surviving -- and show how the political flux has shaped individual lives. Opening a window to a country on the brink, where behind the gleaming new shopping malls all things Soviet are chic again and even high school students wonder if Lenin was right after all, Kremlin Rising features the personal stories of Russians at all levels of society, including frightened army deserters, an imprisoned oil billionaire, Chechen villagers, a trendy Moscow restaurant king, a reluctant underwear salesman, and anguished AIDS patients in Siberia. With shrewd reporting and unprecedented access to Putin's insiders, Kremlin Rising offers both unsettling new revelations about Russia's leader and a compelling inside look at life in the land that he is building. As the first major book on Russia in years, it is an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the country and promises to shape the debate about Russia, its uncertain future, and its relationship with the United States.

Putin's People

Author : Catherine Belton
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374712786
Total Pages : 405 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Putin's People by : Catherine Belton

Download or read book Putin's People written by Catherine Belton and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller | A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Named a best book of the year by The Economist | Financial Times | New Statesman | The Telegraph "[Putin's People] will surely now become the definitive account of the rise of Putin and Putinism." —Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic "This riveting, immaculately researched book is arguably the best single volume written about Putin, the people around him and perhaps even about contemporary Russia itself in the past three decades." —Peter Frankopan, Financial Times Interference in American elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics in Europe. War in Ukraine. In recent years, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has waged a concerted campaign to expand its influence and undermine Western institutions. But how and why did all this come about, and who has orchestrated it? In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe. The result is a chilling and revelatory exposé of the KGB’s revanche—a story that begins in the murk of the Soviet collapse, when networks of operatives were able to siphon billions of dollars out of state enterprises and move their spoils into the West. Putin and his allies subsequently completed the agenda, reasserting Russian power while taking control of the economy for themselves, suppressing independent voices, and launching covert influence operations abroad. Ranging from Moscow and London to Switzerland and Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach—and assembling a colorful cast of characters to match—Putin’s People is the definitive account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.

Other Russias

Author : Victoria Lomasko
Publisher : Particular Books
ISBN 13 : 9781846149511
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (495 download)

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Book Synopsis Other Russias by : Victoria Lomasko

Download or read book Other Russias written by Victoria Lomasko and published by Particular Books. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a renowned graphic artist and activist, an incredible portrait of life in Russia today 'Victoria Lomasko's gritty, street-level view of the great Russian people masterfully intertwines quiet desperation with open defiance. Her drawings have an on-the-spot immediacy that I envy. She is one of the brave ones' - Joe Sacco, author of Palestine What does it mean to live in Russia today? What is it like to grow up in a forgotten city, to be a migrant worker or to grow old and seek solace in the Orthodox church? For the past eight years, graphic artist and activist Victoria Lomasko has been travelling around Russia and talking to people as she draws their stories. She spent time in dying villages where schoolteachers outnumber students; she stayed with sex workers in the city of Nizhny Novgorod; she went to juvenile prisons and spoke to kids who have no contact with the outside world; and she attended every major political rally in Moscow. The result is an extraordinary portrait of Russia in the Putin years -- a country full of people who have been left behind, many of whom are determined to fight for their rights and for progress against impossible odds. Empathetic, honest, funny, and often devastating, Lomasko's portraits show us a side of Russia that is hardly ever seen.

Rhythmic Form in Art

Author : Irma A. Richter
Publisher : Courier Corporation
ISBN 13 : 048614979X
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (861 download)

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Book Synopsis Rhythmic Form in Art by : Irma A. Richter

Download or read book Rhythmic Form in Art written by Irma A. Richter and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this captivating study, an influential scholar-artist offers timeless advice on shape, form, and composition for artists in any medium, illuminating the connections between art and science. 38 figures. 34 plates.

The Qїrghїz Baatïr and the Russian Empire

Author : Tetsu Akiyama
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004436138
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis The Qїrghїz Baatïr and the Russian Empire by : Tetsu Akiyama

Download or read book The Qїrghїz Baatïr and the Russian Empire written by Tetsu Akiyama and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Qїrghїz Baatïr and the Russian Empire Tetsu Akiyama gives a vivid description of the dynamism and dilemmas of empire-building in nomadic Central Asia from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, through reconstructing the biography of Shabdan Jantay uulu (ca. 1839–1912), a chieftain from the northern Qїrghїz (Kirghiz, Kyrgyz) tribes. Based on the comprehensive study of primary sources stored in the archives of Central Asian countries and Russia, Akiyama explores Shabdan’s intermediary role in the Russian Empire’s military advance and rule in southern Semirech’e and its surrounding regions. Beyond the commonly held stereotype as a “faithful collaborator” to Russia, he appears here as a flexible and tough leader who strategically faced and dealt with Russian dominance.

The Mysterious Portrait

Author : Nikolai Gogol
Publisher : Good Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 55 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mysterious Portrait by : Nikolai Gogol

Download or read book The Mysterious Portrait written by Nikolai Gogol and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2021-04-11 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Mysterious Portrait" by Nikolai Gogol. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

The Man Without a Face

Author : Masha Gessen
Publisher : Riverhead Books
ISBN 13 : 1594486514
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (944 download)

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Book Synopsis The Man Without a Face by : Masha Gessen

Download or read book The Man Without a Face written by Masha Gessen and published by Riverhead Books. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of Eastern Europe, Russia.

Lost Kingdom

Author : Serhii Plokhy
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465097391
Total Pages : 470 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Lost Kingdom by : Serhii Plokhy

Download or read book Lost Kingdom written by Serhii Plokhy and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine -- only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nation's history. Spanning over 500 years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin exploited existing forms of identity, warfare, and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. An authoritative and masterful account of Russian nationalism, Lost Kingdom chronicles the story behind Russia's belligerent empire-building quest.

For the Love of an Empress

Author : Lili Dehn
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781976062100
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (621 download)

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Book Synopsis For the Love of an Empress by : Lili Dehn

Download or read book For the Love of an Empress written by Lili Dehn and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-06 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Lili Dehn, who came to the last Russian Imperial Court as a young girl and who was destined to become one of the star-crossed Empress Alexandra's closest and most devoted confidantes, it was love at first sight: At last, advancing slowly through masses of greenery, came a tall and slender figure. It was the Empress. I looked at her, admiration in my heart and in my eyes. I had never imagined her to be half so fair and I shall never forget her beauty as I saw her on that July morning, although the Empress of many sorrows remains with me more as a moving and holy memory. She was dressed entirely in white, with a thin white veil draped round her hat. Her complexion was delicate, but when she was excited her cheeks were suffused with a faint rose flush. Her hair was reddish-gold, her eyes - those infinitely tragic eyes - were dark blue, and her figure was as supple as a willow wand. I remember that her pearls were magnificent and that diamond earrings flashed colored fires whenever she moved her head. She wore a simple little ring bearing the emblem of the Swastika, her favorite symbol - one that has given rise to so many conjectures and been quoted triumphantly as proof positive of her leanings toward the occult by those who are ignorant of what it really meant to her. On her escape to England after the Russian Revolution and after the execution of the Imperial Family, Lili became determined to tell the truth about Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra as she had known them over many years. To her certain knowledge, they had been among the kindest, the most decent and the most considerate of people imaginable, surrounded by a loving and devoted family. Those who said otherwise hadn't known them and had been systematically deceived by false rumors and relentless anti-Tsarist propaganda. It was time to set the record straight.