Russian Biographies

In this darkly funny and irreverent memoir, the daughter of a mail-order bride unpacks her undocumented childhood in America. The perfect listen for fans of the jaw-dropping twists of 90 Day Fiancé and the emotional gut punch of I’m Glad My Mom Died. Growing up undocumented in Houston, Texas...

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius...

'HUGELY IMPRESSIVE' - THE INDEPENDENT 'AN ASTONISHINGLY FINE HISTORY' - COUNTRY LIFE 'FASCINATING' - DAILY MAIL The history of the world's most successful military alliance, from the wrecked Europe of 1945 to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. As they signed NATO into being after World War II...

Bloomsbury presents Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie, read by Orlando Wells. A superbly crafted and humane portrait of the final days of the last Romanovs – Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra. Complementing his Pulitzer prize-winning Peter the Great, in this commanding book...

Winner of the Costa Biography Award What makes a Stalin? Was he a Tsarist agent or Lenin's bandit? Was he to blame for his wife's death? When did the killing start? Based on revelatory research, here is the thrilling story of how a charismatic cobbler's son became a student priest, romantic poet...

The diplomat and historian George F. Kennan (1904-2005) ranks as one of the most important figures in American foreign policy. Drawing on many previously untapped sources, Frank Costigliola's biography offers a new picture of a man of extraordinary ability and ambition whose idea of containing the Soviet Union helped ignite the Cold War but who spent the next half century trying to extinguish it. Always prescient, Kennan in the 1990s warned that the eastward expansion of NATO would spur a new cold war with Russia.

Bestselling author Douglas Century reveals the untold story of the epic rise and fall of Boris Nayfeld, also known as Biba, one of the most notorious Russian mob bosses of our era. Boris Nayfeld, a.k.a. “Biba,” is the last living boss of the old-school Russian mob in America, and he’s...

A hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. The spectre of the lustful Siberian holy man and peasant still casts its eerie shadow over Russia's bloody twentieth century. Numerous biographies, novels, and films recount his...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Kursk: A Time To Die by Robert Moore, read by Pete Cross. At 11.30 a.m. on Saturday 12 August 2000, two massive explosions roared through the shallow Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. The Kursk, pride of the Northern Fleet and the largest attack...

Seven Million Dollar Spy reveals, for the first time, the inside story of the dramatic US counterintelligence operation that resulted in the capture of the most dangerous mole working for Russia inside US intelligence. Now, the former senior KGB spy, to whom the US paid seven million dollars for Moscow's file on the mole, is identified by both his real and code names.

She wasn’t just a spy. She was the face of a new era of espionage. In 2010, Anna Chapman was arrested as part of a secret Russian spy ring operating inside the United States. Young, attractive, and deeply embedded in American society, Chapman wasn’t the spy of Cold War films—she was...

Winner of the Costa Biography Award What makes a Stalin? Was he a Tsarist agent or Lenin's bandit? Was he to blame for his wife's death? When did the killing start? Based on revelatory research, here is the thrilling story of how a charismatic cobbler's son became a student priest, romantic poet...

'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra ... Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair' Economist It was history's most successful political partnership - as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary...

Steinbeck and Capa’s account of their journey through Cold War Russia is a classic piece of reportage and travel writing. Just after the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union...

Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms provides the first comprehensive account of what was once hailed by a leading American newspaper as the greatest spy story of World War II. This dramatic yet little-known saga, replete with telephone taps, kidnappings, and police surveillance, centres on the furtive escapades of Tyler Kent, a handsome, womanising 28-year-old Ivy League graduate who doubles as a US Embassy code clerk and Soviet agent.

Кто такой Иван Кулибин? Что он изобрёл и как сложилась судьба этих изобретений? Иван Кулибин был великим механиком и изобретателем, гением-самоучкой, имя которого со временем стало нарицательным. Но если вы попробуете вспомнить, что он изобрёл, то в лучшем случае в голову придут часы «Павлин» из Эрмитажа (которые он не построил, а лишь починил). Мы же хотим рассказать вам о подлинном пути знаменитого мастера. Кулибин придумал множество удивительных вещей, которые опередили своё время.

A “masterful” (The Washington Post Book World) account of the quest to solve one of the great mysteries in Russian history—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and Catherine the Great “Riveting . . . unfolds like a detective story.”—Los...

Артур Конан Дойл—знаменитый британский писатель, автор книг о Шерлоке Холмсе, ставших классикой детективного жанра. Истории, где логика и наблюдательность сочетаются с приключениями и юмором, экранизировались множество раз, вдохновляли на создание мультфильмов и игр. За свою долгую жизнь Дойл успел не только реализоваться как писатель, но и поработать врачом и журналистом, а также проявить себя как политический активист. Эта краткая биография расскажет о жизни известного писателя. Когда он открыл в себе дар рассказчика? Как его учёба в медицинском колледже повлияла на образ Шерлока Холмса?

Сергей Павлович Королёв—легендарная личность, выдающийся инженер-­конструктор и талантливый менеджер. Его вклад в развитие российской космонавтики и ракетостроения трудно переоценить. В этой биографии авторы показывают новому поколению ребят, что подлинный лидер может вести за собой людей к самым невероятным вершинам и через самые суровые испытания.

Мы знаем Туве Янссон как знаменитую финскую детскую писательницу и художницу. Ей удалось подарить читателям из самых разных стран уютный мир, куда можно вернуться в любом возрасте–мир Муми-троллей. Эти милые и мудрые персонажи стали частью общечеловеческой культуры. Но Туве Янссон была не только сказочницей. Она всю жизнь писала картины, рисовала комиксы, работала в театре, а ещё стала знаменитой взрослой писательницей. Эта биография расскажет не только о том, как были придуманы знаменитые муми-тролли.