**A critically acclaimed portrait of Vladimir Lenin, from one of the finest scholars of modern and Soviet era Russia.'This book deserves a place among the best studies of one of the most fascinating figures in modern history' – Harold Shukman, The Times**A colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated, Lenin’s full story remains somewhat unknown. Drawing on previously unopened archives, Robert Service pieces together public a...

This popular, concise and highly readable study discusses the key themes and debates about the Russian Revolution. Robert Service's lively analysis examines:- state and society under the Romanovs from 1900- The February and October Revolutions of 1917- The final years of the Romanov dynasty and the start of the Soviet order- Comparisons with political, social and economic trends elsewhere in the world- The extent to which the later development of the ...

Russia has long played an influential part in its world of Islam, and not all the dimensions are as widely understood as they ought to be. In Russia and Its Islamic World, Robert Service examines Russia's interactions with Islam at home and around the globe and pinpoints the tsarist and Soviet legacy, current complications, and future possibilities. The author details how the Russian encounter with Islam was close and problematic long before the twenty-first century and how Russia...

From acclaimed historian and author of Kremlin Winter and Blood on the Snow, a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia’s recent history: the August Coup.In the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through author...

'Lively and insightful' – The Times'Magnificent' – The Guardian'A masterly piece of scholarship, written like a political thriller' – The Irish Times‘Superb . . . A work of quite exceptional scholarship and narrative verve’ – Literary Review‘A must-read for those fascinated by the decline and fall of the USSR’ – Mark Galeotti'Immensely well-researched and compellingly written . . . grips the rea...

**In Blood on the Snow, Robert Service returns to the subject that has formed the backbone of his long and distinguished career: the Russian Revolution.'A terrific book about a terrifying subject by the best historian of Russia working today' – Michael Burleigh, author of The Third Reich**For Service, the great unanswered question is how to reconcile the two narratives that underpin the troubled events of 1917. One puts the blame squarely on Tsar Nicholas ...

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun," declared Robert Service as he related the fulfillment of a dying prospector's request. "The Cremation of Sam McGee" was based on one of many peculiar tales he heard upon his 1904 arrival in the Canadian frontier town of Whitehorse. Less than a decade after the Klondike gold rush, many natives and transplants remained to tell stories of the boom towns that sprang up with the sudden influx of miners, gamblers, barflies, and other fortune-s...

According to Wikipedia: "Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer, sometimes referred to as "the Bard of the Yukon". He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North, including the poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", "The Law of the Yukon", and "The Cremation of Sam McGee". His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector, not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was. In addition to his Y...

According to Wikipedia: "Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer, sometimes referred to as "the Bard of the Yukon".[1][2] He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North, including the poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", "The Law of the Yukon", and "The Cremation of Sam McGee". His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector, not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was. In addition to...

This new and revised edition of poems about the men and women of the North features the most loved ballads by Robert Service, and is illustrated with lively art by Marilen Van Nimwegen. While living in Whitehorse, Robert Service wrote The Cremation of Sam McGee, and other well-known poems. He wrote and published into his mid-eighties. He was quoted as saying, I just go for a walk and come back with a poem in my pocket.

A masterful and forensic study of the last year of Nicholas II’s reign, from a world-leading scholar of Russian history.‘Outstanding . . . essential reading’ – Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Mail on SundayIn March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Robert Service examines the last year of Nicholas's reign a...

Robert Service's The Penguin History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century provides a superb panorama of Russia in the modern age.Russia's recent past has encompassed revolution, civil war, mass terror and two world wars, and the country is still undergoing huge change.In his acclaimed history, now revised and updated with a new introduction and final chapter, Robert Service explores the complex, changing interaction between ru...