In the madness of World War II, a dutiful Russian soldier is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to ten years in a Siberian labor camp. So begins this masterpiece of modern Russian fiction, a harrowing account of a man who has conceded to all things evil with dignity and strength.

First published in 1936, this classic novel has as its theme the struggle of the individual against the state. It portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. It tells of a young woman's passionate love, held like a fortress against the corrupting evil of a totalitarian state. It is a not a story of politics, but of the men and women who have to struggle...

"Boris Pasternak's Widely acclaimed novel comes gloriously to life in a magnificent new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhnosky, the award-winning translators of war and Peace and Anna karenina, and to whom. The New York Review of Books declared. "the English-speaking world is indebted."" "First published in Italy in 1957 amid internatrional controversy--the novel was banned in the Soviet Union Until 1988. and Pasternak declined the...

A discussion of the early history of Russia to the rise of Communism, and how each period of history affected the land and the people.

Tom Rob Smith-the author whose debut, Child 44, has been called "brilliant" (Chicago Tribune), "remarkable" (Newsweek) and "sensational" (Entertainment Weekly)-returns with an intense, suspenseful new novel: a story where the sins of the past threaten to destroy the present, where families must overcome unimaginable obstacles to save their loved ones, and where hope for a better tomorrow is found in the most unlikely of circumstances...

The triumphs, tragedies, passions, and struggles of successive generations of four families are shaped by the turbulent events and forces of Russian history, from ancient times to the twentieth century. Spanning 1800 years of Russia's history, people, politics, and culture, Edward Rurtherford, author of the phenomenally successful Sarum: The Novel of England, tells a grand saga that is as multifaceted as Russia itself. Here is a story of a great civilization...

A largely autobiographical account of a group of people who pass through the cancer wing of a provincial Soviet hospital in 1955, it is a vivid portrait of individuals in isolation whose collective concern is disease. Through stories of patients and doctors, political prisoners and bureaucrats, the young and the old, it probes the fears and the hopes of an entire cross-section of Soviet society. Cancer ward has been seen as a metaphor for the malignancy...

The best-selling author of Operation Mincemeat presents a definitive portrait of the notorious 20th-century spy that discusses his rise in MI6, high-profile intelligence friendships and 20-year espionage operation that culminated in his 1963 defection to Moscow. "Kim Philby was the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War - while...

In the early years of World War II, Josef Stalin issued an order that made the Soviet Union the first country in the world to allow female pilots to fly in combat. Led by Marina Raskova, these three regiments, including the 588th Night Bomber Regiment--nicknamed the "night witches"--faced intense pressure and obstacles both in the sky and on the ground. Some of these young women perished in flames. Many of them were in their teens when they went to...