Alexandra Kollontai was a major figure in the Russian revolutionary movement, an activist from the 1890s, a pioneer of women's liberation and one of the founders of International Women's Day. This new collection is a wide-ranging selection of her writings from the revolutionary struggle, from her first discovery of Marx in her twenties, to her place in the first Bolshevik government, and her fight to defend Soviet power. Edited and translated by Cathy Porter, this collection includes artic...

When Sofia Behrs married Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of "War and Peace", husband and wife regularly exchanged diaries covering the years from 1862 to 1910. Sofia's life was not an easy one: she idealized her husband, but was tormented by him; even her many children were not an unmitigated blessing. In the background of her life was one of the most turbulent periods of Russian history: the transition from old feudal Russia to the three revolutions and three major international wars. Yet i...

"There was no writer like him. . . prophetic assurance mixed with surrealistic humour and hard-edged social satire: a unique combination" (Arthur Miller)This volume brings together fresh new translations of four of his most popular plays, more than ever relevant today. In R. U. R., the Robot - an idea Çapek was the first to invent - gradually takes over all aspects of human existence except procreation; The Insect Play is a satirical fable in which beetles, butterflies and ants giv...

For over seventy years the Kremlin was the bastion of the all-powerful Soviet rulers. A great deal is known about the men who held millions of fates in their iron grip, yet little is known about the women-the wives and mistresses-who shared their lives. They took part in the Revolution and its aftermath, bore children, and suffered abuse; some were arrested and sent to Siberia, driven to suicide, or even murdered. In 1991 the KGB granted the author access to its secret files, which, togeth...

Four key new translations of plays (including three previously unpublished works) written at the turn of the 20th century, charting the descent of Russia into revolutionHailed by Chekhov as the voice of his time, Gorky's four plays offer a panoramic view of Russia in the throes of revolution.THE ZYKOVS is set shortly before the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. Antipa Zykov is a merchant adventurer. His young wife, Pavla is an unworldly convent-bred girl, too weak to re...

“[A] testament to a great spirit, a woman who lived in terrifying proximity to one of the greatest writers of all time, and who understood exactly the high price she would have to pay for this privilege.”—Jay Parini, author of The Last StationTranslated by Cathy Porter and with an introduction by Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing, The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy chronicles in extraordinary detail the diarist’s remarkable marriage to the legendary man of letters, Count Leo Tolstoy, ...

This audiobook is narrated by Azalea Labs using an AI-generated voice. Kremlin Wives by Larissa Vasilieva and Cathy Porter unveils the hidden lives of the Soviet leaders' wives, women long shrouded in mystery and silence. Moving beyond the official narratives, this book delves into their personal stories, exploring their roles, relationships, and the profound impact they had on the tumultuous seventy-five years of Soviet history.

The landmark story of Bush-Gorbachev diplomacy: "No one has ever given as complete and compelling an account of the higher reaches of foreign policy" ( Time).December 1989. The Berlin Wall had fallen. Millions across the Eastern Bloc were enjoying new freedoms. And the USSR was falling apart. But the peaceful end of the Cold War was far from assured, requiring the leaders of rival superpowers to look beyond the animosities of the past and embrace an uncerta...

For thousands of years, pirates have terrorized the ocean voyager and the coastal inhabitant, plundered ship and shore, and wrought havoc on the lives and livelihoods of rich and poor alike. Around these desperate men has grown a body of myths and legends-fascinating tales that today strongly influence our notions of pirates and piracy. Most of these myths derive from the pirates of the Golden Age,” from roughly 1655 to 1725. This was the age of the Spanish Main, of Henry Morgan and Black...

How Churchill Saved Civilization resolves the lingering mysteries surrounding the causes of the Second World War, and what transpired during the war to bring its end result. It proposes answers to such questions as Why were the Allies unprepared?”, Why did France collapse so quickly?”, Why didn’t the British government accept Hitler’s peace proposals?” and Why did the Germans allow Hitler to obtain life and death control over them?”But the book’s main ...

Subject of the upcoming film Free State of Jones, this book provides recollections of the man who took on the Confederacy during the Civil War and established the liberated Mississippi county.Soldier, Father, Rebel. Outlaw. A man of deep convictions, Captain Newt Knight disagreed with the values of the South and was accused of deserting the Confederate army. He was a believer in doing what was just. During the Civil War, he formed his own band of deserters...

Popular history of the finest sort . . . an excellent book worthy to rank with Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August and Alan Moorehead’s Gallipoli.” -The New York TimesOn June 28, 1914, in the dusty Balkan town of Sarajevo, an assassin fired two shots. In the next five minutes, as the stout middle-aged Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Habsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife bled to death, a dynasty-and with it, a whole way of life-began to topple.