Stalin
Siberia: always a byword for despotism
Owen Matthews on the horrific early history of the largest open-air prison in the world
The hopeless wasteland of modern Russia
‘Gilded doorknobs,’ spits a Party diehard as she contemplates the blessings of the Soviet Union’s collapse. ‘Is this freedom?’ Dozens…
Enver Hoxha: Stalin’s devilish disciple
In his final public appearance, the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha addressed a Tirana crowd to commemorate the capital’s liberation from…
Britain needs a museum of communist terror
We need a museum to help us remember that
1956: the year of living dangerously
The book of the year has long been a favoured genre in popular history, and is a commonplace today. While…
The tortured genius of Shostakovich
When I look at the black-and-white photograph of Julian Barnes on the flap of his latest book, the voice of…
What happened to British communism?
Like most trade unionists in the 1970s and 80s I worked with a fair few communists. Men like Dickie Lawlor,…
The history of Ukraine — from Herodotus to Hitler
Timothy Snyder traces Ukraine’s complex history from its classical heritage to the present day
A short history of statue-toppling
Sculptural topplings provide an index of changing times, says Martin Gayford
General Anders to the rescue
Until Poland joined the EU in the 1990s, the biggest single influx of Poles into this country was in the…
Ferninand Porsche: from the Beetle to the Panzer tank
The aggressive character of the famous German sports car, in a sort of sympathetic magic, often transfers itself to owner-drivers.…
How the pixel became a key feature of drone warfare
I hadn’t really thought much about pixels before, despite spending a large portion of my day looking at them. After…
What does it really mean to have a tyrannical father?
What was it like, asks Jay Nordlinger, to have Mao as your father, or Pol Pot, or Papa Doc? The…
Thank god for bored wives: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the ENO reviewed
‘Kiss me, Sergei! Kiss me hard! Kiss me until the icons fall and split!’ sings Katerina Ismailova, adulterous antiheroine of…
Alger Hiss: Tricky Dick’s scapegoat
In the more than 40 years since Richard Nixon resigned as president — disgraced as much by his inveterate lying…
What drove Europe into two world wars?
Sir Ian Kershaw won his knight’s spurs as a historian with his much acclaimed two-volume biography of Hitler, Hubris and…
The second world war — according to Stalin’s ambassador to London
Ivan Maisky was the Russian ambassador in London from 1932 to 1943, and his knowledge of London, and affection for…
Charles Moore’s Notes: I’ve rarely written a word in favour of Edward Heath, but I don’t believe these accusations
As someone who has rarely written a sentence in praise of the late Sir Edward Heath, I hope I can…
Leonid Yakobson: the greatest ballet genius you’ve never heard of
On YouTube there’s a brief dance video of a Viennese waltz so enchanting that not even Fred and Ginger in…
Both lyricist and agitator: the split personality of Vladimir Mayakovsky
Why increase the number of suicides? Better to increase the output of ink! wrote Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1926 in response…
The gripping story of the failed NKVD officer who fooled the FBI and the CIA
This is not quite another story about a man who never was. But it is about a man who certainly…
Why Putin is even less of a human than Stalin was
LBC likes to tell us it’s ‘Leading Britain’s Conversation’, though in the case of weekday pre-lunch presenter James O’Brien you’ll…
The madness of Nazism laid bare
‘If the war is lost, then it is of no concern to me if the people perish in it.’ Bruno…
Hiding in Moominland: the conflicted life of Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson’s father was a sculptor specialising in war memorials to the heroes of the White Guard of the Finnish…
Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin: ‘The KGB put a microphone in our marriage bed'
Ismene Brown talks to the Russian super-couple Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin about ballet, opera and the KGB
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