From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the Steppes of Central Asia, Russia's forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world's wooded lands. The Oak and the Larch is the first-ever English-language exploration of this vast expanse - a dazzling environmental history of Russia that offers an urgent new understanding of the nature of Russian power, and of Russia's ideas of itself. Inspired by the majestic oak, which towers over the country's western heartland, and the hardy Siberia...

"Troublesome Words is an engaging, erudite and witty exploration of the origins of the Russian language. Simon Franklin sets out in an accessible way how Russian speakers have made sense of the world throughout Russia’s turbulent and often violent history. He maps out the religious, political, societal and cultural forces that have shaped today’s Russian language, the uses to which it is put by Russia’s political leaders, and how “non-normative” use of language is used to challenge authority....

The first English language translation of Varlam Shalamov’s memoirs of the twenties, originally written in 1962.  Set in the heady atmosphere of revolutionary Moscow, The Twenties is the young poet and communist Varlam Shalamov’s celebration of the new culture of the Revolution, the brave crazy brilliance of his generation of writers, the mass poetry readings, the boundless optimism and creativity. Shalamov writes of them all with the wonderful subtlety and empathy and humour that secured him...

Siberia's story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell.Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos - grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, and humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood.How these pianos...

"Deliciously entertaining" - Financial Times "Gripping [...]  bursting with extraordinary characters and anecdotes" - Sunday Telegraph "An extraordinary tale, enthrallingly told" - Gramophone In “Diaghilev's Empire”, Christiansen paints a vivid portrait of Serge Diaghilev – an art connoisseur with no dance training who nonetheless assembled a constellation of talent. With artists like Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso, he transformed ballet into a bold, modern a...

“The Sound of Utopia” vividly depicts the lives of Soviet composers and musicians navigating the demands and dangers of creating art under Stalin. Krielaars examines how they balanced artistic ambition with political pressures, revealing the compromises, challenges and creativity that shaped their art – and painting a portrait of music under fear. When Stalin came to power, making music in Russia became dangerous. Composers now had to create work that served the socialist state, and all art...

During the Cold War, ten million books were secretly smuggled across the Iron Curtain to fight a war of ideas. George Minden’s CIA ‘book programme’ infiltrated banned titles across borders, aiming to quietly turn readers into dissidents. Charlie English tells this astonishing story of spycraft, courage and the enduring power of the printed word. The astonishing story of the ten million books that were smuggled across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. For almost five decades after the Seco...

Alienation, generational tensions, rampant nationalism and the pervasiveness of atomic danger are all topics that haunted late Soviet citizens, and those fears are reflected in the films meant to represent their horror genre. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, production of horror movies from independent filmmakers and Hollywood skyrocketed. It was a time of intense Cold War conflict and a resurgence of conservative ideals. It’s not difficult to imagine that the ascent of horror occu...

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2026 A spellbinding first-hand account of art, survival and resistance in wartime Ukraine 'The most beautifully written, moving book I can ever remember reading' PHILIPPA PERRY Charlotte Higgins never imagined she would report on a war. But in the autumn of 2022, seven months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she travelled there to find out how artists and writers were reflecting the devastating events in their work. The exp...

The fascinating story of football in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid. From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers' bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest's Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskás and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England, the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the collapse of communism. Jonathan Wilson has ...