Stalins Quest For Gold

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Stalin's Quest for Gold

Author : Elena Osokina
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501758527
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin's Quest for Gold by : Elena Osokina

Download or read book Stalin's Quest for Gold written by Elena Osokina and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stalin's Quest for Gold tells the story of Torgsin, a chain of retail shops established in 1930 with the aim of raising the hard currency needed to finance the USSR's ambitious industrialization program. At a time of desperate scarcity, Torgsin had access to the country's best foodstuffs and goods. Initially, only foreigners were allowed to shop in Torgsin, but the acute demand for hard-currency revenues forced Stalin to open Torgsin to Soviet citizens who could exchange tsarist gold coins and objects made of precious metals and gemstones, as well as foreign monies, for foods and goods in its shops. Through her analysis of the large-scale, state-run entrepreneurship represented by Torgsin, Elena Osokina highlights the complexity and contradictions of Stalinism. Driven by the state's hunger for gold and the people's starvation, Torgsin rejected Marxist postulates of the socialist political economy: the notorious class approach and the state hard-currency monopoly. In its pursuit for gold, Torgsin advertised in the capitalist West, encouraging foreigners to purchase goods for their relatives in the USSR; and its seaport shops and restaurants operated semilegally as brothels, inducing foreign sailors to spend hard currency for Soviet industrialization. Examining Torgsin from multiple perspectives—economic expediency, state and police surveillance, consumerism, even interior design and personnel—Stalin's Quest for Gold radically transforms the stereotypical view of the Soviet economy and enriches our understanding of everyday life in Stalin's Russia.

Stalin's Quest for Gold

Author : Elena Osokina
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501758535
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin's Quest for Gold by : Elena Osokina

Download or read book Stalin's Quest for Gold written by Elena Osokina and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stalin's Quest for Gold tells the story of Torgsin, a chain of retail shops established in 1930 with the aim of raising the hard currency needed to finance the USSR's ambitious industrialization program. At a time of desperate scarcity, Torgsin had access to the country's best foodstuffs and goods. Initially, only foreigners were allowed to shop in Torgsin, but the acute demand for hard-currency revenues forced Stalin to open Torgsin to Soviet citizens who could exchange tsarist gold coins and objects made of precious metals and gemstones, as well as foreign monies, for foods and goods in its shops. Through her analysis of the large-scale, state-run entrepreneurship represented by Torgsin, Elena Osokina highlights the complexity and contradictions of Stalinism. Driven by the state's hunger for gold and the people's starvation, Torgsin rejected Marxist postulates of the socialist political economy: the notorious class approach and the state hard-currency monopoly. In its pursuit for gold, Torgsin advertised in the capitalist West, encouraging foreigners to purchase goods for their relatives in the USSR; and its seaport shops and restaurants operated semilegally as brothels, inducing foreign sailors to spend hard currency for Soviet industrialization. Examining Torgsin from multiple perspectives—economic expediency, state and police surveillance, consumerism, even interior design and personnel—Stalin's Quest for Gold radically transforms the stereotypical view of the Soviet economy and enriches our understanding of everyday life in Stalin's Russia.

Stalin's Wine Cellar

Author : John Baker
Publisher : Random House Australia
ISBN 13 : 1761043668
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (61 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalin's Wine Cellar by : John Baker

Download or read book Stalin's Wine Cellar written by John Baker and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adventure of a lifetime to buy Stalin's secret multimillion dollar wine cellar located in Georgia; it is the Raiders of the Lost Ark of wine. In the late 1990s, John Baker was known as a purveyor of quality rare and old wines. He was the perfect person for an occasional business partner to approach with a mysterious wine list that was different to anything John, or his second-in-command, Kevin Hopko, had ever come across. The list was discovered to be a comprehensive catalogue of the wine collection of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. The wine had become the property of the state after the Russian Revolution of 1918, during which Nicholas and his entire family were executed. Now owned by Stalin, the wine was discreetly removed to a remote Georgian winery when Stalin was concerned the advancing Nazi army might overrun Russia. Half a century later, the wine was rumoured to be hidden underground and off any known map. John and Kevin embarked on an audacious, colourful and potentially dangerous journey to Georgia to discover if the wines actually existed; if the bottles were authentic and whether the entire collection could be bought and transported to a major London auction house for sale. Stalin's Wine Cellar is a wild, sometimes rough ride through the glamorous world of high-end wine.

The Forsaken

Author : Tim Tzouliadis
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0748130314
Total Pages : 582 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (481 download)

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Book Synopsis The Forsaken by : Tim Tzouliadis

Download or read book The Forsaken written by Tim Tzouliadis and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the great movements of population to and from the United States, the least heralded is the migration, in the depths of the Depression of the nineteen-thirties, of thousands of men, women and children to Stalin's Russia. Where capitalism had failed them, Communism promised dignity for the working man, racial equality, and honest labour. What in fact awaited them, however, was the most monstrous betrayal. In a remarkable piece of historical investigation that spans seven decades of political change, Tim Tzouliadis follows these thousands from Pittsburgh and Detroit and Los Angeles, as their numbers dwindle on their epic and terrible journey. Through official records, memoirs, newspaper reports and interviews he searches the most closely guarded archive in modern history to reconstruct their story - one of honesty, vitality and idealism brought up against the brutal machinery of repression. His account exposes the self-serving American diplomats who refused their countrymen sanctuary, it analyses international relations and economic causes but also finds space to retrieve individual acts of kindness and self-sacrifice.

Goldfinder

Author : Keith Jessop
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0471045462
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Goldfinder by : Keith Jessop

Download or read book Goldfinder written by Keith Jessop and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-02-28 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The True Story of $100 Million in Lost Russian Gold -and One Man's Lifelong Quest to Recover It Keith Jessop and Neil Hanson "Outstanding, inspiring, and beautifully told. No true tale of the sea makes better reading."-Clive Cussler Here is the true tale of a small-time salvage diver, the crushing depths of the sea, and the richest prize ever found-$100 million in pure gold. Follow salvage diver Keith Jessop as he battles nature, governments, traitors, salvage monopolies, and, of course, lawyers to claim the grand prize of wrecks-the HMS Edinburgh. Filled with ten tons of Russian gold, the ship had been sought by many, but never found. Through unyielding determination, extraordinary physical prowess, and keen intelligence, Keith Jessop risks all to reach his final destination, and keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

A Full-Value Ruble

Author : Kristy Ironside
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674251644
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis A Full-Value Ruble by : Kristy Ironside

Download or read book A Full-Value Ruble written by Kristy Ironside and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new history shows that, despite MarxismÕs rejection of money, the ruble was critical to the Soviet UnionÕs promise of shared prosperity for its citizens. In spite of Karl MarxÕs proclamation that money would become obsolete under Communism, the ruble remained a key feature of Soviet life. In fact, although Western economists typically concluded that money ultimately played a limited role in the Soviet Union, Kristy Ironside argues that money was both more important and more powerful than most histories have recognized. After the Second World War, money was resurrected as an essential tool of Soviet governance. Certainly, its importance was not lost on Soviet leaders, despite official Communist Party dogma. Money, Ironside demonstrates, mediated the relationship between the Soviet state and its citizens and was at the center of both the governmentÕs and the peopleÕs visions for the maturing Communist project. A strong rubleÑone that held real value in workersÕ hands and served as an effective labor incentiveÑwas seen as essential to the economic growth that would rebuild society and realize CommunismÕs promised future of abundance. Ironside shows how Soviet citizens turned to the state to remedy the damage that the ravages of the Second World War had inflicted upon their household economies. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, progress toward Communism was increasingly measured by the health of its citizensÕ personal finances, such as greater purchasing power, higher wages, better pensions, and growing savings. However, the increasing importance of money in Soviet life did not necessarily correlate to improved living standards for Soviet citizens. The Soviet governmentÕs achievements in Òraising the peopleÕs material welfareÓ continued to lag behind the WestÕs advances during a period of unprecedented affluence. These factors combined to undermine popular support for Soviet power and confidence in the Communist project.

Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg

Author : Francine Hirsch
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0199377936
Total Pages : 561 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg by : Francine Hirsch

Download or read book Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg written by Francine Hirsch and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nuremberg Trials (IMT), most notable for their aim to bring perpetrators of Nazi war crimes to justice in the wake of World War II, paved the way for global conversations about genocide, justice, and human rights that continue to this day. As Francine Hirsch reveals in this new history of the trials, a central part of the story has been ignored or forgotten: the critical role the Soviet Union played in making them happen in the first place. While there were practical reasons for this omission--until recently, critical Soviet documents about Nuremberg were buried in the former Soviet archives, and even Russian researchers had limited access--Hirsch shows that there were political reasons as well. The Soviet Union was regarded by its wartime Allies not just as a fellow victor but a rival, and it was not in the interests of the Western powers to highlight the Soviet contribution to postwar justice. Stalin's Show Trials of the 1930s had both provided a model for Nuremberg and made a mockery of it, undermining any pretense of fairness and justice. Further complicating matters was the fact that the Soviets had allied with the Nazis before being invaded by them. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 hung over the courtroom, as did the fact that the everyone knew that the Soviet prosecution had presented the court with falsified evidence about the Katyn massacre of Polish officers, attempting to pin one of their own major war crimes on the Nazis. For lead American prosecutor Robert Jackson and his colleagues, focusing too much on the Soviet role in the trials threatened the overall credibility of the IMT and possibly even the collective memory of the war. Soviet Justice at Nuremberg illuminates the ironies of Stalin's henchmen presiding in moral judgment over the Nazis. In effect, the Nazis had learned mass-suppression and mass-murder techniques from the Soviets, their former allies, and now the latter were judging them for crimes they had themselves committed. Yet the Soviets had borne the brunt of the fighting--and the losses--in World War II, and this gave them undeniable authority. Moreover, Soviet jurists were the first to conceive of a legal framework for viewing war as a crime, and without that framework the IMT would have had no basis. In short, there would be no denying their place at the tribunal, nor their determination to make the most of it. Illuminating the shifting relationships between the four countries involved (the U.S., Great Britain, France, and the U.S.S.R.) Hirsch's book shows how each was not just facing off against the Nazi defendants, but against each other and offers a new history of Nuremberg.

Soviet Chess 1917-1991

Author : Andrew Soltis
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476611238
Total Pages : 479 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

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Book Synopsis Soviet Chess 1917-1991 by : Andrew Soltis

Download or read book Soviet Chess 1917-1991 written by Andrew Soltis and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This large and magnificent work of art is both an interpretive history of Soviet chess from the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991 and a record of the most interesting games played. The text traces the phenomenal growth of chess from the Revolutionary days to the devastations of World War II, and then from the Golden Age of Soviet-dominated chess in the 1950s to the challenge of Bobby Fischer and the quest to find his Soviet match. Included are 249 games, each with a diagram; most are annotated and many have never before been published outside the Soviet Union. The text is augmented by photographs and includes 63 tournament and match scoretables. Also included are a bibliography, an appendix of records achieved in Soviet national championships, two indexes of openings, and an index of players and opponents.

Roosevelt and Stalin

Author : Susan Butler
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1101874627
Total Pages : 642 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Roosevelt and Stalin by : Susan Butler

Download or read book Roosevelt and Stalin written by Susan Butler and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hugely important book that solely and fully explores for the first time the complex partnership during World War II between FDR and Stalin, by the editor of My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin (“History owes a debt to Susan Butler for the collection and annotation of these exchanges”—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr). Making use of previously classified materials from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, and the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, as well as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and three hundred hot war messages between Roosevelt and Stalin, Butler tells the story of how the leader of the capitalist world and the leader of the Communist world became more than allies of convenience during World War II. Butler reassess in-depth how the two men became partners, how they shared the same outlook for the postwar world, and how they formed an uneasy but deep friendship, shaping the world’s political stage from the war to the decades leading up to and into the new century. Roosevelt and Stalin tells of the first face-to-face meetings of the two leaders over four days in December 1943 at Tehran, in which the Allies focused on the next phases of the war against the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia; of Stalin’s agreement to launch another major offensive on the Eastern Front; and of his agreement to declare war against Japan following the Allied victory over Germany. Butler writes of the weeklong meeting at Yalta in February of 1945, two months before Roosevelt’s death, where the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was agreed on and postwar Europe was reorganized, and where Stalin agreed to participate in Roosevelt’s vision of the United Nations. The book makes clear that Roosevelt worked hard to win Stalin over, pursuing the Russian leader, always holding out the promise that Roosevelt’s own ideas were the best bet for the future peace and security of Russia; however, Stalin was not at all sure that Roosevelt’s concept of a world organization, even with police powers, would be enough to keep Germany from starting a third world war, but we see how Stalin’s view of Roosevelt evolved, how he began to see FDR as the key to a peaceful world. Butler’s book is the first to show how FDR pushed Stalin to reinstate religion in the Soviet Union, which he did in 1943; how J. Edgar Hoover derailed the U.S.-planned establishment of an OSS intelligence mission in Moscow and a Soviet counterpart in America before the 1944 election; and that Roosevelt had wanted to involve Stalin in the testing of the atomic bomb at Alamogardo, New Mexico. We see how Roosevelt’s death deeply affected Stalin. Averell Harriman, American ambassador to the Soviet Union, reported that the Russian premier was “more disturbed than I had ever seen him,” and said to Harriman, “President Roosevelt has died but his cause must live on. We shall support President Truman with all our forces and all our will.” And the author explores how Churchill’s—and Truman’s—mutual mistrust and provocation of Stalin resulted in the Cold War. A fascinating, revelatory portrait of this crucial, world-changing partnership.

Iron Curtain

Author : Anne Applebaum
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385536437
Total Pages : 803 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis Iron Curtain by : Anne Applebaum

Download or read book Iron Curtain written by Anne Applebaum and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 803 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.

Drawing the Iron Curtain

Author : Maya Balakirsky Katz
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813577039
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (135 download)

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Book Synopsis Drawing the Iron Curtain by : Maya Balakirsky Katz

Download or read book Drawing the Iron Curtain written by Maya Balakirsky Katz and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the American imagination, the Soviet Union was a drab cultural wasteland, a place where playful creative work and individualism was heavily regulated and censored. Yet despite state control, some cultural industries flourished in the Soviet era, including animation. Drawing the Iron Curtain tells the story of the golden age of Soviet animation and the Jewish artists who enabled it to thrive. Art historian Maya Balakirsky Katz reveals how the state-run animation studio Soyuzmultfilm brought together Jewish creative personnel from every corner of the Soviet Union and served as an unlikely haven for dissidents who were banned from working in other industries. Surveying a wide range of Soviet animation produced between 1919 and 1989, from cutting-edge art films like Tale of Tales to cartoons featuring “Soviet Mickey Mouse” Cheburashka, she finds that these works played a key role in articulating a cosmopolitan sensibility and a multicultural vision for the Soviet Union. Furthermore, she considers how Jewish filmmakers used animation to depict distinctive elements of their heritage and ethnic identity, whether producing films about the Holocaust or using fellow Jews as models for character drawings. Providing a copiously illustrated introduction to many of Soyuzmultfilm’s key artistic achievements, while revealing the tumultuous social and political conditions in which these films were produced, Drawing the Iron Curtain has something to offer animation fans and students of Cold War history alike.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice

Author : Thomas Sowell
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743215079
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

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Book Synopsis The Quest for Cosmic Justice by : Thomas Sowell

Download or read book The Quest for Cosmic Justice written by Thomas Sowell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-06-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends. The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of fundamental principles of freedom -- amounting to a quiet repeal of the American revolution. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is the summation of a lifetime of study and thought about where we as a society are headed -- and why we need to change course before we do irretrievable damage.

Ukraine's Many Faces

Author : Olena Palko
Publisher : transcript Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3732866645
Total Pages : 443 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (328 download)

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Book Synopsis Ukraine's Many Faces by : Olena Palko

Download or read book Ukraine's Many Faces written by Olena Palko and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia's large-scale invasion on the 24th of February 2022 once again made Ukraine the focus of world media. Behind those headlines remain the complex developments in Ukraine's history, national identity, culture and society. Addressing readers from diverse backgrounds, this volume approaches the history of Ukraine and its people through primary sources, from the early modern period to the present. Each document is followed by an essay written by an expert on the period, and a conversational piece touching on the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine. In this ground-breaking collection, Ukraine's history is sensitively accounted for by scholars inviting the readers to revisit the country's history and culture. With a foreword by Olesya Khromeychuk.

Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century

Author : Magdalena Eriksroed-Burger
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 303120204X
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (312 download)

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Book Synopsis Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century by : Magdalena Eriksroed-Burger

Download or read book Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century written by Magdalena Eriksroed-Burger and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-02-27 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Eastern European consumer cultures in the twentieth century, taking a comparative perspective and conceptualizing the peculiarities of consumption in the region. Contributions cover lifestyles and marketing strategies in imperial contexts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; urban consumer cultures in the Interwar Period; and consumer and advertising cultures in the Soviet Union and its satellite republics. It traces the development of marketing throughout the century, and the changes in society brought about by democratization and the 'Americanization' of consumption. Taken together, the essays gathered here make a valuable contribution to our understanding of consumption and advertising in the region.

Henry VIII (Penguin Monarchs)

Author : John Guy
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141977132
Total Pages : 149 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Henry VIII (Penguin Monarchs) by : John Guy

Download or read book Henry VIII (Penguin Monarchs) written by John Guy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charismatic, insatiable and cruel, Henry VIII was, as John Guy shows, a king who became mesmerized by his own legend - and in the process destroyed and remade England. Said to be a 'pillager of the commonwealth', this most instantly recognizable of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: magnificent and vengeful; a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome; a talented, towering figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people's eyes when he talked to them. In this revealing new account, John Guy looks behind the mask into Henry's mind to explore how he understood the world and his place in it - from his isolated upbringing and the blazing glory of his accession, to his desperate quest for fame and an heir and the terrifying paranoia of his last, agonising, 54-inch-waisted years.

Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial

Author : Lynne Viola
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190674164
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial by : Lynne Viola

Download or read book Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial written by Lynne Viola and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the summer of 1937 and November 1938, the Stalinist regime arrested over 1.5 million people for "counterrevolutionary" and "anti-Soviet" activity and either summarily executed or exiled them to the Gulag. While we now know a great deal about the experience of victims of the Great Terror, we know almost nothing about the lower- and middle-level Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD), or secret police, cadres who carried out Stalin's murderous policies. Unlike the postwar, public trials of Nazi war criminals, NKVD operatives were tried secretly. And what exactly happened in those courtrooms was unknown until now. In what has been dubbed "the purge of the purgers," almost one thousand NKVD officers were prosecuted by Soviet military courts. Scapegoated for violating Soviet law, they were charged with multiple counts of fabrication of evidence, falsification of interrogation protocols, use of torture to secure "confessions," and murder during pre-trial detention of "suspects" - and many were sentenced to execution themselves. The documentation generated by these trials, including verbatim interrogation records and written confessions signed by perpetrators; testimony by victims, witnesses, and experts; and transcripts of court sessions, provides a glimpse behind the curtains of the terror. It depicts how the terror was implemented, what happened, and who was responsible, demonstrating that orders from above worked in conjunction with a series of situational factors to shape the contours of state violence. Based on chilling and revelatory new archival documents from the Ukrainian secret police archives, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial illuminates the darkest recesses of Soviet repression -- the interrogation room, the prison cell, and the place of execution -- and sheds new light on those who carried out the Great Terror.

Autocracy and Health Governance in Russia

Author : Vlad Kravtsov
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031057899
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis Autocracy and Health Governance in Russia by : Vlad Kravtsov

Download or read book Autocracy and Health Governance in Russia written by Vlad Kravtsov and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-07-14 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the first attempt to investigate how and to what extent authoritarian (personalistic) regimes fail to provide fundamental goods and services. For two decades, Russian authorities spent much effort and money to improve health administration, but most success stories are borderline fake. The failure is by design; because personalistic regimes rely on personalized exchanges and bargains instead of impersonal rules and permanent organizations, all actors put self-interest ahead of patients’ needs. It is a severe problem because authoritarian principals proclaim social betterment as their central goal -- and many Russians take such claims at face value -- but incentivize their agents to imitate progress and tolerate slipshod performance. The benefits of this investigation are three-fold. First, the book provides an analytical framework of bad governance rooted in the rational institutionalist tradition and connected to competence-control theory. Second, it gives a general readership interested in how Russia works a sense of the key political players’ mindset and the regime-induced constraints under which elites operate. Third, although the book investigates health governance exclusively, its analytical framework is portable to other issue areas and could be applied to explain how and why Russia evolved into an ineffective, coercive, and predatory state under Putin’s leadership.