From 1979 to 1989 Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed thousands of casualties on both sides. While the Soviet Union talked about a 'peace-keeping' mission, the dead
Extraordinary stories about what it was like to be a Soviet child during the upheaval and horror of the Second World War, from Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich
What did it mean to grow up in the
On 26 April 1986 the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occured in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. While the official Soviet narrative downplayed the accident's
*BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*
The long-awaited translation of the classic oral history of Soviet women’s experiences in the Second World War - from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“Why
"Why, having stood up for and held their own place in a once absolutely male world, have women not stood up for their history? A whole world is hidden from us. Their war remains unknown... I want to
'A major work by one of our greatest living historians. . . an immense achievement' - Jane Graham, Big Issue
'Astonishing. . . Like the great Russian novels, these testimonials ring with emotional