Es ist ein Jahr, in dem alles möglich scheint. Und doch wohnt dem gleißenden Anfang das Ahnen des Verfalles inne. Literatur, Kunst und Musik wussten schon 1913, dass die Menschheit ihre Unschuld verloren hatte. Florian Illies lässt dieses eine Jahr, einen Moment höchster Blüte und zugleich ein Hochamt des Unterganges, in einem grandiosen Panorama lebendig werden.

Im glühend heißen Sommer 1933 spitzt sich die politische Lage in Europa zu - und die der Familie Mann: Thomas und Katia Mann und ihre sechs Kinder sind nach abenteuerlichen Fluchten im Juni in dem verträumten Hafenort Sanary am französischen Mittelmeer gestrandet. Und jetzt wissen sie alle weder vor noch zurück.

Er war der Organisator der Judenvernichtung: Adolf Eichmann. Wie konnte er sich nach dem Krieg fünfzehn Jahre lang verstecken? Wie gelang es ihm, 1961 in Jerusalem mit seinem Auftritt vor Gericht so viele davon zu überzeugen, dass sein Denken banal und er gerade darum nicht böse sei? Bettina Stangneths aufsehenerregendes Buch zeichnet das Bild eines gefährlichen Tricksers und Täuschers, der...

Ilya Venyavkin, author of ‘The Temple of War,’ explored the life trajectories and ideological perspectives of several public figures who played a key role in Russia's transformation from the unstable democracy of the early 1990s to the deeply militarized and chauvinistic autocracy of the early 2020s. Satirist Mikhail Zadornov, Army General Sergei Surovikin, security officer Nikolai Patrushev,...

His new book, ‘The Dark Side of the Earth,’ is a deeply personal reconstruction of the last thirty years of the Soviet Union, chronicling its journey from the dawn of the space age, the peak of the Soviet empire, to stagnation, and then to perestroika, a series of crises, and collapse. It's also a book about the people, contemporaries, and participants in those events. Among them are Mikhail...

‘When We Sing, the Wind Rises: A Brief History of Popular Music in 21st-Century Russia’ is a book by Alexander Gorbachev, journalist, music critic, and former editor-in-chief of Afisha. It explores the relationship between the fastest form of art and its surrounding time and space, and how Russian-language music has changed during the various periods of the Putin era. Featured artists include...

Konstantin Gaaze's book, ‘Where Dictatorships Are Drifting,’ chronicles the historical evolution of Russian autocracy, culminating in a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country. In pondering why Russia attacked Ukraine, the author dismisses two well-worn theories—the country's eternal historical fate and the sinister personality of its ruler. Instead, he presents the results of his...

The second volume covers perhaps the most glorious decade in Russian history—1815–1825. This is a decade of complete peace. For Russia, all wars are over. Europe recognizes the authority of the country that liberated it from Napoleon's rule. Emperor Alexander is called the ‘Agamemnon of Europe,’ compared to the leader of the Achaean kings in the legend of the Trojan War. Alexander establishes a...

The third volume is devoted to the first period of Nicholas Pavlovich's reign. The nature of ‘Knight Nicholas,’ as he was called in childhood, the ‘Don Quixote of autocracy,’ as he was later called, was infused with the absolute conservatism of his mentors, the historian Nikolai Karamzin and General Matthias Lambsdorff: the individual is insignificant, the state is valuable in itself. An inept...

The book ‘Deal with the Devil: German-Russian Relations between the First and Second World Wars’ is a compact and extremely engaging presentation of the history of the Russian and German peoples, filled with events of historic proportions. With captivating dynamism and literary precision, Sebastian Hafner describes the twists and turns in relations between nations that sometimes fought each...

Kirill Kobrin is a writer, historian, journalist, or, as he puts it, ‘a European writer and historian writing in Russian.’ His heroes include Wenceslas Hollar, Franz Kafka, Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Mann, Edward Gibbon, the author himself, and all of us who unfortunately found ourselves in this time and place.

In this seminal work, celebrated political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski delivers a provocative, revolutionary geostrategy for American preeminence in the twenty-first century. The United States’ crucial task, he argues, is to become the sole political arbiter in Eurasia and prevent the emergence of any rival power threatening our material and diplomatic interests. The Eurasian landmass, home...