TLS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 FINANCIAL TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE RUSSIAN BOOK PRIZE 2016 'Magisterial...reveals how much is at stake for world order in Ukraine and Syria.' Rachel Polonsky 'As much as anything, World War I turned on the fate of Ukraine' The decision to go to war in 1914 had catastrophic consequences for Russia. The result was revolution, civil war and famine in 1917-20, followed by decades of communist rule. Dominic Lieven's powerful and original book, based on exhaustive and unprecedented study in Russian and many other foreign archives, explains why this suicidal decision was made and explores the world of the men who made it, thereby consigning their entire class to death or exile and making their country the victim of a uniquely terrible political experiment under Lenin and Stalin. Dominic Lieven is a Senior Research Fellow of Trinity College,Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His book Russia Against Napoleon (Penguin) won the Wolfson Prize for History and the Prize of the Fondation Napoleon for the best foreign work on the Napoleonic era

'A compulsive page-turner... a triumph of brilliant storytelling... an instant classic that is an awesome, remarkable and exuberant achievement' Simon Sebag Montefiore Winner of the Wolfson History Prize and shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize In the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his empire lay in ruins, and Russia had triumphed. This is the first history to explore in depth Russia's crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars, re-creating the epic battle between two empires as never before. Dominic Lieven writes with great panache and insight to describe from the Russians' viewpoint how they went from retreat, defeat and the burning of Moscow to becoming the new liberators of Europe; the consequences of which could not have been more important. Ultimately this book shows, memorably and brilliantly, Russia embarking on its strange, central role in Europe's existence, as both threat and protector - a role that continues, in all its complexity, into our own lifetimes.

Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. Many regard this savage civil war as the most influential event of the modern era. An incompatible White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky's Red Army and Lenin's single-minded Communist dictatorship. Terror begat terror, which in turn led to even greater cruelty with man's inhumanity to man, woman and child. The struggle became a world war by proxy as Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while armed forces from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia played rival parts. Using the most up to date scholarship and archival research, Antony Beevor, author of the acclaimed international bestseller Stalingrad, assembles the complete picture in a gripping narrative that conveys the conflict through the eyes of everyone from the worker on the streets of Petrograd to the cavalry officer on the battlefield and the woman doctor in an improvised hospital.

Предлагаю читателю второе исправленное и дополненное издание этой книги. Первое издание автор поспешно готовил к августу 2014 года, к столетней годовщине начала Первой мировой войны. Книга вышла в издательстве Franc-Tireur, USA. Через год после выхода моей книги появилось фундаментальное исследование причин войны, а именно труд Доминика Ливена, старшего научного сотрудника Тринити Колледжа Кембриджского университета в Великобритании: «Навстречу пламени: империя, война и конец царской России» (Dominic Lieven, Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, UK: Penguin, Random House, 2015). В нем я нашел достаточно подтверждений правильности моей концепции и посчитал необходимым свою книгу дополнить с учетом этого многостороннего исследования, которое я настойчиво рекомендую читателю. Я прослеживаю только один фактор в возникновении и ходе этой войны, до сего времени ускользавший от внимания историков. Предлагаемая читателю книга представляет собой опыт политической герменевтики. В ней автор прослеживает развитие одного конструкта национального самосознания: возникнув в Старом Свете, этот конструкт, перебравшись в Америку, преобразуется в иммигрантской действительности в другой, уже специфически американский конструкт, хотя и с сильным европейским компонентом. Будучи же в измененном виде вновь импортирован назад в Старый Свет, он оказывается способным мимикрироваться под новый контекст, порождая, в свою очередь, прямо противоположные, враждебные друг другу конструкты. Они же, сами оказавшись орудием в информационной войне, становятся силой, развязывающей войну реальную. В случае настоящего исследования речь идет о Первой мировой войне и русской православной епархии в Америке, в большинстве состоящей из бывших униатов-русинов, иммигрантов из Австро-Венгрии, – епархии, которая, сама того не сознавая, сыграла решающую роль в развязывании этой войны.

Предлагаю читателю второе исправленное и дополненное издание этой книги. Первое издание автор поспешно готовил к августу 2014 года, к столетней годовщине начала Первой мировой войны. Книга вышла в издательстве Franc-Tireur, USA. Через год после выхода моей книги появилось фундаментальное исследование причин войны, а именно труд Доминика Ливена, старшего научного сотрудника Тринити Колледжа Кембриджского университета в Великобритании: «Навстречу пламени: империя, война и конец царской России» (Dominic Lieven, Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, UK: Penguin, Random House, 2015). В нем я нашел достаточно подтверждений правильности моей концепции и посчитал необходимым свою книгу дополнить с учетом этого многостороннего исследования, которое я настойчиво рекомендую читателю. Я прослеживаю только один фактор в возникновении и ходе этой войны, до сего времени ускользавший от внимания историков. Предлагаемая читателю книга представляет собой опыт политической герменевтики. В ней автор прослеживает развитие одного конструкта национального самосознания: возникнув в Старом Свете, этот конструкт, перебравшись в Америку, преобразуется в иммигрантской действительности в другой, уже специфически американский конструкт, хотя и с сильным европейским компонентом. Будучи же в измененном виде вновь импортирован назад в Старый Свет, он оказывается способным мимикрироваться под новый контекст, порождая, в свою очередь, прямо противоположные, враждебные друг другу конструкты. Они же, сами оказавшись орудием в информационной войне, становятся силой, развязывающей войну реальную. В случае настоящего исследования речь идет о Первой мировой войне и русской православной епархии в Америке, в большинстве состоящей из бывших униатов-русинов, иммигрантов из Австро-Венгрии, – епархии, которая, сама того не сознавая, сыграла решающую роль в развязывании этой войны.

As World War One rumbles to a close Russia is wracked by bloody civil war. Communist control on the country is slipping, and in the struggle the Imperial family have become a very valuable commodity, a trump card to be played at an opportune moment. When ex-Tsarist agent Pyotr Ryzhkov is picked up by the Bolshevik secret police, he has two choices: find the Romanovs, or face the firing squad. It appears that one choice is little better than the other as he ventures into the war-torn city where they are rumoured to be held. Yekaterinburg is at the end of the line, a frontier town cut off from Moscow by the White Russians and their allies. It is a nest of foreign spies armed with gold and guns, Bolsheviks determined to sell the family to the highest bidder, and local soviets desperate to kill them. Whispers and rumour flood the city, but in the fog of war Ryzhkov knows that only the last man to see the Romanovs can ever know the truth.

Empress Celene of Orlais rose to the throne of the most powerful nation in Thedas through wisdom, wit, and ruthless manipulation. But her empire is under threat from within by imminent war. Alliances are forged and promises broken as the battle for the throne of Orlais begins. But in the end, the elves who hide in the forests or starve in the alienages may decide the fate of the masked empire.

Empress Celene of Orlais rose to the throne of the most powerful nation in Thedas through wisdom, wit, and ruthless manipulation. But her empire is under threat from within by imminent war. Alliances are forged and promises broken as the battle for the throne of Orlais begins. But in the end, the elves who hide in the forests or starve in the alienages may decide the fate of the masked empire.

While most of the world was lauding the stability and economic growth that Vladimir Putin's ex-KGB regime had brought to Russia, Edward Lucas was ringing alarm bells. First published in 2008 and since revised, The New Cold War remains the most insightful and informative account of Russia today. It depicts the regime's crushing of independent institutions and silencing of critics, taking Russia far away from the European mainstream. It highlights the Kremlin's use of the energy weapon in Europe, the bullying of countries in the former Soviet empire, such as Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine – and the way that Russian money weakens the West's will to resist. Now updated with an incisive analysis of Russia's seizure of Crimea and its destabilisation of Ukraine, The New Cold War unpicks the roots of the Kremlin's ideology and exposes the West's naive belief that Putin's sinister and authoritarian regime might ever be a friend or partner.

Hailed by George Bernard Shaw as 'useful [corrective] to the romantic conception of war', R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End is an unflinching vision of life in the trenches towards the end of the First World War, published in Penguin Classics. Set in the First World War, Journey's End concerns a group of British officers on the front line and opens in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed. Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of Journey's End in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a remarkable anti-war classic. R.C. Sherriff (1896-1975) joined the army shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, serving as a captain in the East Surrey regiment. After the war, an interest in amateur theatricals led him to try his hand at writing. Following rejection by many theatre managements, Journey's End was given a single performance by the Incorporated Stage Society, in which Lawrence Olivier took the lead role. The play's enormous success enabled Sherriff to become a full-time writer, with plays such as Badger's Green (1930), St Helena (1935), and The Long Sunset (1955); though he is also remembered as a screenplay writer, for films such as The Invisible Man (1933), Goodbye Mr Chips (1933) and The Dam Busters (1955).

The Air War is the eighth book in the critically acclaimed epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky. An empress demands her birthright... All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, spies eye one another and ready their knives - while the people of Myna watch troops gather at its borders. Emotions run high as old fears reawaken. And in Collegium students argue politics, too late to turn the tide. At the heart of the Empire, new pilots complete their secretive training, generals are recalled to service and armies are readied to march. Their Empress, heir to two worlds, intends to claim her birthright. For nothing - either within the Empire or beyond it - will stand in her way.

It is AD 55. As trouble brews on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro must prepare for war... The wily Parthian Empire has invaded Roman-ruled Armenia, ousting King Rhadamistus. The King is ambitious and ruthless, but he is loyal to Rome. General Corbulo must restore him to power, while also readying the troops for war with Parthia. Corbulo welcomes new arrivals Cato and Macro, experienced soldiers who know how to knock into shape an undermanned unit of men ill-equipped for conflict. But Rhadamistus's brutality towards those who ousted him will spark an uprising which will test the bravery of the Roman army to the limit. While the enemy watches from over the border...

The news from the north is grim. An army is massing under the new king of Feal. They head towards Darien - city of the Twelve families - demanding allegiance, or war. Tellius, Speaker to the Council, knows this divided city will never stand against such a terrible foe. But Tellius has a plan. He will assemble a band of heroes. Men and women who once before aided Darien in her time of need. They will come if he calls. The army approaches. The trumpets of war sound. A great city holds its breath. And a desperate plan unfolds . . . Discover the first two instalments in the thrilling Empire of Salt series Darien and Shiang, perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Game of Thrones.

March is set towards the end of the American Civil War and follows General Sherman's epic march with sixty thousand Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, one of the major manoeuvres to bring the war to its conclusion. The March ranges widely over a diverse set of characters - each of whom is brilliantly realised - so that we see the war through the eyes of both white-skinned Pearl (daughter of slave and slave owner) and General Sherman; a deserting confederate who sets himself up as a photographer; a ruthless army surgeon who enjoys his reputation as an amputator; and the two brothers of a brutal slave owner who find themselves in uniforms facing Sherman's forces. Doctorow's narrative brilliantly blends the intimate and the epic, sweeping the reader along the route of Sherman's notorious march and making us care deeply about each individual's fate.

Jeremy Paxman's history of the British Empire accompanied by a flagship 5-part BBC TV series The influence of the British Empire is everywhere, from the very existence of the United Kingdom to the ethnic composition of our cities. It affects everything, from Prime Ministers' decisions to send troops to war to the adventurers we admire. From the sports we think we're good at to the architecture of our buildings; the way we travel to the way we trade; the hopeless losers we will on, and the food we hunger for, the empire is never very far away. In this acute and witty analysis, Jeremy Paxman goes to the very heart of empire. As he describes the selection process for colonial officers ('intended to weed out the cad, the feeble and the too clever') the importance of sport, the sweating domestic life of the colonial officer's wife ('the challenge with cooking meat was "to grasp the fleeting moment between toughness and putrefaction when the joint may possibly prove eatable"') and the crazed end for General Gordon of Khartoum, Paxman brings brilliantly to life the tragedy and comedy of Empire and reveals its profound and lasting effect on our nation and ourselves.

This seventh novel of the Green Rider series follows the adventures of messenger, magic wielder, and knight Karigan G'ladheon as she fights to save king and country from dark magic and a looming war After her capture at the hands of Grandmother and the Second Empire, Karigan G'ladheon is making halting progress towards recovery. Karigan takes on increasingly dangerous missions, haunted by the specter of her torturer, Nyssa, and sinking ever further into the mire of her recollections of the past and the losses she's sustained. Meanwhile, the forces of the Second Empire are moving on Sacoridia and their primary target is a vulnerable garrison that guards a crucial mountain pass. Faced with new fatherhood and a country on the verge of war, King Zachary sends a contingent of soldiers and Green Riders to the pass--but his own recovery from the events of the north is not yet complete either. Reunited with her fellow Riders at the pass, Karigan takes on a leadership role, but quickly finds that the Riders are not as she last left them. As tension mounts and war draws ever closer to the heart of Sacoridia, Karigan must discover what it truly means to be a Rider and a hero of the realm--and what sacrifices must be made to truly heal from her past.