Quite good as a detailed examination of the major battles as well as smaller engagements but annoying for the "uninitated" in certain matters. Although there is an Errata page at the back, continual mistakes mean you can't even trust that. The maps of the battles are quite detailed but graphically poor although probably "homemade", and fail to mark all the locations mentioned in the text. (The Borodino 2 page spread has the pages in reverse order.) An overall map showing the locations of the battles would have been helpful - I'm still looking for Mir! The orders of battle are good but it's not clear what all the numbers mean, and the order of battle of the Danish Division is given but not mentioned in the main text. An index to the maps and appendices would have been useful. I suppose these are trivial faults given the enormity of the task.

Nafziger's massive tome on Napoleon's ill-fated Russian campaign of 1812 has many important and postive points that makes the book a must to include in a Napoleonic library. The most useful aspects are the orders of battle, and the combat descriptions of the numerous tactical confrontations. So, for "raw" information presented, the book rates "5 stars." Less useful are the less-than-professionally done maps, which are difficult to read and the graphics not very pleasing to the eye. If you can get by these detriments, the maps can be useful. Even less reader-friendly is some of the author's prose, which can be accounted for since this was Nafziger's first "major" work." All the aforementioned, however, is good when compared to the horrendously condescending and insulting "Introduction" penned by the vitriolic David Chandler. Why the publisher, or the author, thought that having this "intro" and Chandler's name on the cover would help the sales of this book is a complete mystery. Chandler has the audacity, as the writer of an introduction for another person's book, to insult the author by calling into question Nafziger's research and conclusions, and then Chandler ends his diatribe by saying that if Nafziger does not agree with him (Chandler), then Chandler begrudgingly admits that this is Nafziger's right! There is no rating possible that can properly convey the total worthlessness of this Chandlerian tripe, which unmistakably conveys the idea that David Chandler believes that he and he alone is the sole fountainhead of knowledge concerning this fascinating period of history. I am hopeful that Mr Nafziger will some day have the opportunity to remove from future reprintings of this book the offensive rantings of one incredibly over-rated and egocentric English historian.

I enjoy this book very much. So many maps and OBs. This is like a paradise for every wargamer! Nafziger is OK. He does not present the French as the cute and neat boys, and the Russians as the ugly ones. I recommend this book for you.

The RED ARMY is a good hastely review of the RCW from the Red Army view. I recommend it to all. However, some of the information is incorrect and OOB chart are wrong. The book is basically an extremely edited version of the Soviet encyclopedia "Civil War and Military Intervention in the SSSR". Many of the entries in Red Army are from the encyc. word for word and sometimes the best info is left out or conclusions incorrect. Granted the Osprey format does not have a lot of room for text. Its companion the White Army is more detailed where the Red Army is terrible general in detail. If you could see the source for the info you would understand what has been left out. I liked the book, but was left with more questions than when I started.

This is a rather nice volume (typical of most Osprey's Men-at-Arms series) that has one thing that stands out: the wonderfull colour plated illustrated by Russian artist Andrei Karachtchouk.The figures in his paintings---be they Russian Volunteer Officers, Former-Czarist guards, Ukranian nationalists, Islamic Basmachi rebels---are all full of character! This book will no doubt serve as a uniform guide to many modellers and wargamers out there!
The book itself is a rather "dry" read, compromising mainly of army lists for the different White Armies in the different fronts of the war in Russia; but nevertheless, the photographs and colour plates accompanying the text is outstanding!
Highly recommended for the modeller and wargamer, although others should look for a more detailed "in depth" book on the campaigns and overall history of the Russian Civil War.

The art in this ospery edition is really quite good. There is a great amount of attention paied to uniform details. The birsk 48 page read provided some useful insight into the structure of the White Army of the Russian Civil War such as there close collaboration with Kuban and Don Cossacks also the multi-layered nature of the anti-Bolshevik movement as a whole from the right wing monarchists to the arachist partisans that fought red and white. i really loved the plates on the black uniformed officers units. Buy it!!!

Berlin is an interesting and I agree knowing commentator, but one gets the feeling that he understands there is something awry in Communism, but he's not quite sure what. His ideas of freedom are on the mark, but in the post-Communist world they don't quite get to the point. I highly reccomend papal biographer and political pholosopher George Weigel's recent commentaties, (available online). Liberalism was not and is not a sufficient answer to utopian ideology, which Berlin nevertheless correctly asserts will inevitably degenerate into totalitatianism. Even more, in the post-cold war world, relativism has usurped "true" freedom, which presents perhaps an even more dangerous problem than the Soviet one.

This book provides an excellent introduction to the history of Russian thought. I supplemented it with the pertinent chapters of Billington's "The Icon and the Axe" to piece together a general outline of the evolution of Russian political philosophy. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention to Berlin's own philosophizing, but then that wasn't my objective. I found one of his general observations about Russian thought to be particularly useful, i.e. the tendency to follow an idea through to its fullest consequences, no matter how extreme or objectionable. The book nicely sets the stage for how Marxism was able to take hold, showing that it was in some ways an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, intellectual development. The problem is, now that the book has allowed me to cobble together a general framework of Russian thought, the only possible next step is to start directly reading Hegel and Marx! And who wouldn't try to put off a daunting task like that?

This is one of these intellectual & spiritual odysseys of the mind that, after you've digested them, remain embedded in the protoplasm of your mental being. All the Russian 19th century greats (except Pushkin and Dostoevsky ) are here: Herzen, Belinsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Bakunin. In a book so saturated with ideas, it is not easy to make a pick- my favorite ones are:

-the hedgehog and the fox metaphor ("The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing"). Human beings are categorized as either "hedgehogs" (whose lives are embodiment of a single, central vision of reality according to which they "feel", breathe, experience and think- "system addicts", in short. Examples include Plato, Dante, Proust and Nietzsche.) or "foxes" ( who live rather centrifugal than centripetal lives, pursue many divergent ends and, generally, possess a sense of reality that prevents them from formulating a definite grand system of "everything"-simply because they "know" that life is too complex to be squeezed into any Procrustean unitary scheme. Montaigne, Balzac, Goethe and Shakespeare are, in various degrees, foxes.)

-precarious position of liberalism-something Berlin was well aware of. A "non-belief belief", liberalism certainly doesn't satisfy "deeper" human needs; also, it managed, following its very nature, to stay away from planned genocides & siren songs of totalitarian power. Yet- Berlin has failed (maybe due to the "history of ideas" nature of this compilation of essays) to answer more fundamental questions plaguing liberal mindset: is it fit to grapple with the 20th/21st century burning issues ? Or- has it mutated into a dark parody of itself, making a pact with postmodern imperial power(s) as represented by X-Filesque military & financial "Free World" greedy elites which batten on the unenviable position of the much of the globe (Latin America, Africa, East Europe & the greater part of Asia) ?

-on strong side, essays on Herzen (Berlin's hero), Turgenev ("Fathers and Children" controversy) and Bakunin (juxtaposed to Herzen) are fresh, universal & not dated at all. Tolstoy is covered unsurpassably, and I doubt it can be done better. On the other hand, some essays, like those on Russia and 1848 revolutions, German Romanticism and Russian populism, although brilliantly weaven, are, in my opinion, more of historical interest than pertinent to our contemporary metastable anxiety condition.

Be as it may: this is an exquisite intellectual tapestry. Buy it.

Hochschild is obviously a talented writer, and he does a great job of tackling a very difficult subject. However, often as he was drawing me in, he would throw in an anti-American non-sequitor, like comparing the people in the Gulag to the homeless in America. Huh? I'm not without compassion, but that is comparing one man's cut finger to another man's cut from the guillotine. Hochschild would be well served to leave his alternative agenda out of this book and focus on the subject at hand. The victims of the Gulag deserve nothing less.

However, if you can ignore these occasional comments which are out of place and inappropriate, The Unquiet Ghost is a solid effort which worth reading.

Several reviews of this book have splendid remarks and thoroughly profound analyses. But, is the subject of this book, the despotic Joseph Stalin and what is remembered about him, really reaching out to its readers?

This book can abruptly remind us of the generalities of life all over the world (i.e. psychological and physical abuse) when it comes to the terror of Stalin. The life and people around him he was ceaselessly suspect of doesn't necessarily mean it, his terrror, could never happen again, even on the smallest scale. Terror cannot be quantified. No, what Stalin did was and is as pervasive as any cult of personality.

This book decidely opens the door to many perceptions of what Stalin's terror meant, and sadly, still means all over the world. Ever carry your friend or your child on your shoulders as a joke or for fun? A friend of Stalin's did this to him and was later shot. But after this despot died, people mourned and when the new leadership came into being, the terror then manifested itself in the people. They basically reiterated towards the new order all that had held them in complete and utter fear of for more than a generation. This book documents this.

It's a book about how unstable people are who have been victims their whole lives, whether they knew it not, and how they come to realize life for others and themselves. It could be a book about life in general when we think of victims of any type of terror and suppression. Their messages to us could be of caution but on the other hand, of propagation, believing the terror to have some substantiation.

This book is a good read. But it requires a healthy open mind.

Every once in a while, you read a book that teaches you so much. This is such a book. I learned so much about Stalin and life in Russia under Stalin. Also you see how Stalin effects life in Russia to this day. This is a great book!

This recent addition to the study of the Eastern Front of WWII provides a detailed look at the Soviet actions in the spring and summer of 1943 preparing for the action around the Kursk salient. The translation of the Soviet General Staff Study, there is not as much propaganda included as one might expect; rather, this is an internal look at the battle shortly after its completion that was meant to provide a guide to other Red Army units of the lessons of Kursk. The study forthrightly identifies failures in engineering, aviation and anti-tank gunnery.

With eleven chapters, 33 maps and 40 tables covering force ratios, kilometers of trenches dug, ration of weapons to kilometer of frontage, relative combat power projection assessments, this study reads like a scientific text. In fact, after Stalin's purges of the officer corps in the later 1930's, the Soviets were forced to search for a scientific approach to the art of war, because they had so few generals and colonels who could practice the intangibles.

The description of the preparations for the battle is the strength of the book. The intelligence staff, and operational planners, correctly identified the most likely thrust of the German offensive as early as March. Evaluating the force structure remaining after the surrender of the 6th Army's surrender at Stalingrad, and the known German tactics, the staff was able to predict the attack on the northern and southern flanks of the salient, and begin preparing a defense in depth. The focus of effort was the engineering work, and propositioning of ammunition and fuel for the fight. The force was also restructured to provide a very heavy mobile counterattack force that comprised almost 1/3 of the total force structure available, and almost 80% of the available tanks.

The Germans used new tanks, the 'Tigers', and new self-propelled assault guns together with integrated air in a new attack grouping at Kursk. This grouping penetrated Soviet defenses, and caused general havoc in the front two lines, but it lacked sufficient combined arms combat power to achieve a rupture of the lines that would allow an exploitation force through. In general terms, the Germans should have attacked with infantry to clear through the minefields, obstacles, automatic weapons and mortars, and then allowed the assault grouping of tanks and self propelled guns through. The integration of air directly with the assault groups was very effective, but the Soviets mention that the result of so much German air against the front lines was almost total freedom of movement from the rear for operational and even strategic reserves.

The actual fighting of the battle is not exhaustively covered in this book; if you are looking for tank on tank details from Prohkorovka, this is not the book for you. If you want to get a sense of the level of detail required to successfully plan modern combined arms combat, this is a must read.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the best volume ever produced on the fateful Battle Of Kursk, probably real turning point of WWII and one of the most misunderstood and overlooked battles in recent history. It is - more or less - a straightforward translation of the general study on the battle that the Soviet General Staff (under a collective authorship) wrote in 1944. Guess what? It is a technical, sometimes brutally candid account of the battle as seen from different point of view: the Gernman plans and offensive, the Soviet defense, the aerial battle, the artillery, and - of course - the tank manouvers. Even if the style is - naturally, given the origins of this volume - often dry and matter of fact, it is nonetheless a mandatory read for every Eastern Front enthusiast. It is all here - countless first hand infos on the battle, hour-by-hour accounts of the action, loads of maps (albeit not always well readable), details on tactis and strategy... the only thing missing is the dreaded "human angle", but given that personal accounts are - often - just an excuse for melodrama and manipulation of the reader, if you're serious on history I'll not miss it a bit. It astonishing how balanced and objective this study is (possibly because it was for "internal circulation", and not for the general public) and it make some sort of ironic comparison with the lack of anything like that on the German side - the OKW study on the battle looks like it was written by von Manstein's lawyer! All in all - another invaluable service by col. Glantz to the dwindling community of Eastern Front historians...

I found the translation of the Soviet General Command Staff Study "The Battle for Kursk 1943" to be the best source of material on this pivital battle of WW2. Glanzt and Orenstein have done a masterful job in retaining the truely important information, while filtering out the the Soviet propaganda that usually creeps into Soviet material.

The serious student would be well advised to pay paticular attention to the sections dealing with air operations, engineering support, and command and control sections.

The maps and tables detailing positions and correlation of forces were paticularly informative.

The only critism that I would offer is that the maps need to be expanded. Althought the editors did a good job, in relation to other military histories, they could greatly improve their work with the addition of a large fold-out map detailing the area under study.

I'm really just beginning with this book, but it is already frustrating. Some reasons: Measurements are given oddly, like 1/2 pound flour, 2 glasses water. There will be an instruction to "bake" without mention of temperature or time. There will often be ingredients in the list which are not mentioned in the instructions. It seems to me that it was written as a technical reference for someone that already knew what they were doing in this cuisine. I strongly recommend that in future editions there be some editing and clarification done along with translation.

This is such a classic that it was intended, in the past, to be given to young housewives to be a much-used reference. As such, in addition to the predictable recipes for coulibiac (fish in pastry crust), sturgeon, borscht, kasha and Russian sweets, there is a wide variety of household food preservation and preparation you just don't find in today's cookbooks. Such as--butchering a pig and then portioning out, preserving and preparing the resulting meats. NOT for vegans or the fainthearted, believe me. Also, there are recipes for improving the flavor of homemade vodka (including how to make birch charcoal for the purpose.) And how to make imitation butter from mutton fat, how to get rid of the off-flavor in butter that is going rancid.

If you are a home-brewer, this is a surprisingly good book for making such things as mead and fruit wines and liquers. One caveat for the whole book; measurements are either baffling, in Russian terminology that has no English referent, or "two wineglasses" , etc. And for brewers, it requires some basic knowledge of the process.

For cooking, there are a lot of beef and fish recipes but the borscht recipes were disappointing as there were only of few of these and there are LOTS of ways to make borscht. However, for interesting reading on food history and technique, and for some authentic Russian cooking, this book is absolutely fascinating reading.

My grandmother immigrated to Canada from Russia well over a century ago and lived to the age of 104. With her she brought many authentic Russian recipes, but alas, they remained in her head and not on paper. This cookbook comes very close to the recipes I, as a child, can remember her preparing. Yes, it is true, that some aspects of the recipes found here are lost in the translation, particularly when it comes to measurements; however, in reality, that is how my grandmother, and many Russian homemakers in her time, prepared a meal. There was no such thing as a teaspoon of this or a cup of that. Accurate meansurements would have meant nothing to my grandmother, for like many immigrants in the 1800's she had little scholastic education. Her education came from the "school of hard knocks" and life's experiences. Measurements included "a little of this a small handful of that." I can remember her placing three fingers in a small cup and when the liquid reached the top, that was how much one used. Confusing? Yes, for the traditional chef, it would be. However, as one becomes experienced with Russian cooking, the delicious recipes found here will not seem like such a challenge to prepare - trial and error is often the best way of learning.

This book is better than Erickson's in many ways. I did wish
King could have told us more about Alix's childhood and family.
Read Mager's bio of Grand Duchess Elizabeth for a better narrative on this point. Some of King's phrasing is awkward (he
repeats the word "pair" too often when referring to 2 people.
Overall, this is a pretty good book, as long as you consult
other books to flesh it out.

This book is a good retelling of the facts, with some new theories added (King's ideas about the influence of the Empress's childhood, for one) and some academic theses give the popular treatment for the first time. On the latter score, this biography, for example, is the first Romanov book which does not repeat the old stereotype that Rasputin was exploiting the trust of the Imperial family for political ends, but rather adopts the more credible line that he simply agreed with their own views. The political context is presented a little superficially, with no attention being given to the Empress's real reasons for selecting particular ministers, and the assumption made (all too easy with hindsight) that she was pursuing an illogical and doomed course. Dominic Lieven's "Nicholas II" is a good alternative picture, locating her strategies firmly in the populist tradition of the later nineteenth century. In some ways the book does not fulfill the promise of its introduction, which hints at a totally new picture. However, it is a good read and a good introduction for newcomers, and the character it presents, if less attractive, is a more lively and interesting one than that in the celebrated 'Nicholas and Alexandra'. It redresses the balance of the latter by actually discussing the Empress's work beyond the political sphere, in particular her interest in girls' education. For a fuller picture of her political role, see Joseph Fuhrmann's footnotes to her edited correspondence with her husband.

In this wonderfully nuanced book, Greg King explores one of the most complex and contraversial figures in Russian history. Alexandra Romanov was universally reviled by the Russian people and scorned by the Russian aristocracy. King does an excellent job of exposing the woman beneath the legend. One the one hand you see the exceptionally devoted wife and mother who desperately fights to preserve her family and their heritage. On the other hand, you see an unyielding and essentially stupid autocrat who is unable and unwilling to accept wise counsel or clearly see the dangers all around her. The story of Rasputin is the perfect example. She remains desperately devoted to the Russian holy man because of her belief that he can save her hemophiliac son despite the overwhelming evidence that he is a serious threat to the empire.

Alexandra is a fascinating subject, and King's balanced analysis of her character and her impact on the history of Russia is excellent. King combines excellent research with complelling story-telling. This book leaves you with a sense of sympathy for such a misunderstood woman and a simultaneous frstration that she was so stubbornly misguided in her attempts to influence political events.

This volume constitutes six stories by Gogol of which two are the most famous; "The Overcoat", a wonderful psychological story which was made into a film in the USSR many years ago, and "The Nose", a satire of Russian middle level officials of the early 19th century. Taken as a book, though, these tales full of dreams, asides, and great prolixity are not a major literary landmark on the world stage. Russian literature, as one of the world's greatest collections of works, offers a lot more in my opinion. Gogol, while perhaps a brilliant star for some national literatures, can only be considered a minor writer in Russia, especially if read in English as translated by David Magarshack, whose style can hardly be called 'contemporary'. While it's true that Gogol had a good sense of humor, if a little bizarre, it comes across in this translation as childish. (I must hasten to add that I don't know Russian.)

"The Terrible Vengeance" is a rather tedious fairy tale with an incestuous theme, while "The Portrait" bears some likeness to a certain, later work by Oscar Wilde. Though the idea is interesting, Gogol, as in several other stories, just doesn't know when to let go. The story "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" contains lively humor and many colorful characters. I enjoyed it the most of all, but it was only the beginning of a larger work, which unfortunately seems never to have been completed.

Some analysts (see the Introduction by the translator)have read into Gogol's work pre-revolutionary predictions of violent change or a rising up of the lower classes. I think such an idea is far-fetched. Similarly, while it is true that Gogol's tales and stories do contain struggles between good and evil, the same can be said of an enormous number of folk tales, religious works, and literary pieces by writers in every language. It is interesting to read Gogol's work to widen your knowledge of Russian and world literature. That is a source of satisfaction, but perhaps not enough. Several of the stories are good, but they don't measure up to his longer works---"Dead Souls" and "The Government Inspector". I would read them first, before this lesser book.

I was just looking and found that a book of Gogol's stories were #3 on University of Southern California's list. I was proud to see this. I'm one of Gogol's biggest fans and I keep it a secret because his talent is special, serious and fun. The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, Dead Souls and The Nose...what more can you say. The first time I read Overcoat it was in a book of Greatest Short Novels my father had given me. I still hold on to this collection because of Gogol. To me, the Faulkner and James Joyce works included are mere book ends. Overcoat, along with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, stand alone.

This story, one of Gogol's most famous is skillfully narrated to reflect the author's frustration with civil service and the plight of the poor, and will evoke an emotional response among listeners. Akakii Akakievich is a lowly government clerk. When winter begins he notices that his old overcoat is beyod repairing. He manages to save money for a new, luxurious coat. His colleagues at the office arrange a party for his acquisition. But his happiness proves to be short-lived. On the way home he is attaced by thieves and robbed of his coat. To recover his lost possession, Akakievich asks help from an Important Person, a director of a department with the rank of general. He treats Akakievich harshly and Akakievich dies of fright within three days. One night when the Important Person is rerutning home, he is attacked by a ghost, late Akakii Akakievich, who steals his overcoat. The stealing of outer garments continue, even though now the ghost is a big man with a moustache and enormous fists. A simpler, if perhaps more prosaic, way of restating the general thrust of the storyline would be to say that 'The Overcoat' is like a good poem. It can be endlessly annotated, interpreted, dissected, but still emerges whole and fresh, like a new morning...

Alexander Elder,a New York-based, Russian immigrant provides a fascinating view of one of the most extraordinary developments of the late 20th century. The emergence of capitalism and democracy in Russian will be one of history's great chapters, full of stories about fortunes won and lost by intelligent investors. Elders' book captures all the hope and potential as well as the difficulties of the Russian people as they struggle with new ways of doing things and new ways of living. Written in clear, easy style, the book takes you through Russia's new economic structure; markets, stock offerings, investment options, etc. Additionally, since Elder is a pyschiatrist as well as investor, the book is full of insight into the Russian personality and the emerging struggle for economic stability.This book is fascinating for those with a global perspective, for those interested in developing countries, or for those interested in finding the next remarkable investment opportunity.

Dr. Elder's book, "Rubles to Dollars", was presented to me before my first trip to Russia four years ago. I was skeptical about reading it because it was supposed to be about the economy and financial markets. Not being a "finance person" I figured the book would be a bit on the dull side; consequently, I let it sit on the shelf for four years. During my summer break from the university, where I presently teach in Petrozavodsk, Russia, I decided to pick up the book again. I read it critically cover to cover and was actually quite impressed.
About the first three fourths of the book are all his insights into what doing business in Russia is like today and how Russia's history has shaped this misunderstood topic. The historical analysis and his observations on Russian psychology are dead on. The chapters that deal with the transition from the Soviet Era and present day Russian attitudes to the government and crime are particularly accurate and enriching.
The only problem with the book is its last few chapters on financial advice. The problem arises because the book went to print right before the 1998 currency collapse, which changed the whole country. However, in the last four years, by all appearances, Russia is back to where Dr. Elder was writing about before the collapse. In the book he acknowledges this timeliness of the financial information and how his advise could be obsolete by the time the reader gets the book, but, all in all, I agree with his insight and predictions for Russia's future.
Even if the specific financial advice is dated the overall theme is still acurate and his insights, though mostly about Moscow, would give you an idea about what it means to live in Russia on a daily basis. I haven't read a book that better explains what modern Russian life is like and I would look forward to a new addition to see to Dr. Elder has to say about Russia's financial situation today.

Dr. Elder has done it again. Just as he did in Trading for a Living he has taken a complex subject and made it amazingly clear. This however, is not a book for beginning traders. Because of his unique background as both Russian and American Dr. Elder is able to dig out information about the Russian economy and political situation that few others could. He paints, with a fine brush, an incredible picture of a sleeping giant in the process of awakening. The picture isn't always rosey and he let's us know the inherent dangers associated with the political instability and the role the crimminal element plays in the financial markets and business world. The opportunities are not sugar coated and yet are presented with such clarity that a shrewd investor has enough detailed information to allow him get right in and start making money. Long term investors with deep pockets have a once in a lifetime opportunity to not only line their own pockets but, to help a hard working and well educated people. If you want to really get to know the Russian people this is your book. Our politicians would do well to read this book and take notes. Once I began reading this book I couldn't put it down.