The book examines political spying in Russia as a system of non-court and intrinsically illegal persecution of State offenders. The author, a well-known Russian historian, is making an attempt at analyzing the nomenclature of political crimes as well as the launching and evolution of the spying agencies including the role of their leaders. The book is unique in the scale of the material embraced and the detailed investigation of the spying techniques, right from the initial report to the authorities through the arrest to the death or release of the suspected political offender.

Renowned Russian historian, Viktor Berdinskikh, reveals a secret page of 20th century Russian history: the transportation of ethnic groups into special settlements in the 1930’s – 1940’s. Many studies have been devoted to the millions of prisoners of Stalin’s camps, but historical literature has largely overlooked the plight of the so-called ‘exiled peoples’. These Russian Germans, Kalmyks, Crimean Tartars and dispossessed peasants were uprooted from their lives and transported often thousands of miles from their homelands. Using archive material and unique historical evidence, the author studies both the mechanism of deportation and the system of special settlements in Russia’s far-north, Kazakhstan and Siberia. The consequences of Stalin’s wholesale dispossession of peasants and the national humiliation of millions of people are still perceived with anger by many inhabitants of Russia today.

The fate of the “Kolchak’s gold”, a part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire which ended up in the hands of the White army in 1918, is one of the most famous and thrilling mysteries of the Russian history of 20th century. The author of this book has managed to resolve this mystery with the help of the materials from the American, British and Russian archives. He followed the story of the money gained from selling that gold, which had been spent up to the end of 1950-ies. The purpose of this “historical investigation” was not only to draw a line under the long-term disputes on the fate of the “Kolchak’s gold”. The story of the “Kolchak’s gold” is that thread which keeps together the problems of the White Army’s story and its foreign financing; the relations of the White army and the allies, the Russian “diplomats in exile”, the Russian emigrants and some other issues.
Ultimately, this is yet another attempt of answering the key question of the Russian history of the 20th century: why did the Red army win in the Civil war, and not the White Army?

Editors Sergej Abashin, Dmitry Arapov, Nailia Bekmakhanova
140x215 (60x90/16), hardcover, 464 p., 2008
ISBN 9785867935719

The history of Russia’s relations with Central Asia is receiving more and more attention from scholars. Having secured independent status in 1991, the old Soviet republics — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — have come face to face with a dilemma: how to retrospectively write about that time, when the entire region lived within the bounds of the Russian Empire, and later as part of the Soviet Union. Was this a time of national oppression, repressions, and debasement of the people’s dignity and heritage, or, was it instead an epoch of progress, development, and integration with world civilization? What did Russia bring to the local populations: freedom and development, or a new enslavement and merciless colonial exploitation? The current endeavor of Russian scholars is to put forth their own view on the history of Central Asia during its time as part of the Russian Empire. These historians are attempting to overcome not only the narrow stereotypes that portray the relationship of Russia with its Central Asian territories as an absolutely progressive interaction, but also the clichés that interpret this relationship entirely negatively, as one full of mistakes and crimes on the part of Russia.

This study recreates the everyday life and mentality of Skoptsy who choose to become «eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake» (Mathew, 19:12). One of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, the Skoptsy survived despite persecution and thrived well into the twentieth century. The monograph is based on the little-known sources from the Museum of Religion and Atheism in Moscow and allows the Skoptsy a say in defining the meaning behind their sacrifice.

The well-known scholar has written a book about the age of Enlightenment, when Russia was undergoing great changes. To him, that period is to some extent reminiscent of a more recent time, 1992 to 1994. “Probably,” he says, “next generation historians will be looking for other things in 18th-century Russia, but the questions I have set in this book still seem topical to me.”

The author, a Professor Emeritus at the University of London, is one of the most prominent world experts on eighteenth-century Russia and the dean of British Slavists. This study is based on a wealth of sources and covers one of the most crucial periods in Russian history. Upon its publication, de Madariaga’s work was recognized by the international scholarly community as an outstanding achievement and instantly joined the ranks of «classic» works.

An empire is a backdrop against which various ethnic groups interact with each other and with the authorities. Aleksey Miller, a leading expert in the history of empires, takes us through the fascinating history of uprising and repression, struggle and cooperation, assimilation and dissimilation over four centuries of Romanov rule in Russia. This is the first time the Romanov empire has been viewed from the perspective of ethnicity and nationalism, and Miller reflects on how a history of an empire must transcend the baggage of national and regional narratives, while avoiding the pitfalls of the traditional imperial version of Russian history. In what way did Russian nationalism interact with the Empire? What was the importance of the ‘Jewish question’ for the Empire? Why were language and alphabet so important? What was more significant for the Romanovs: identity or loyalty? Why did all the continental empires on the periphery of Europe collapse during World War I? These questions and others will be broached in this groundbreaking book, which should be of interest to both professional historians and the general public.

This is a book about social, political and cultural encounters between the traditional Jewish community and the Russian imperial army. The author traces the history of relations between the Russian military authorities with the Jews of the Russian empire starting from 1827, when the Jews were drafted into the army for the first time, to the February revolution. The scholar puts the military and ethnic issues into a broader social and cultural context: he analyzes the literary images of Jewish soldiers in the Russian army, the attitudes of ministers of war and regimental commanders, the Duma debates and the bloody battles. The study is based on a wealth of unpublished materials from archives in Russia and abroad.

During the reign of Catherine the Great, a range of ancient myths and signs were borrowed from European culture to become the symbols of the imperial court and the new enlightenment Russia. This semiotic and mythical revolution was the hingepin of Catherine’s struggle to strengthen the Empire and its ideology. Vera Proskurina examines the underlying interrelation between literary texts and the political symbolism of 18th century Russia, and the growing dominance of symbols taken from European imperial culture.