Catherine Merridale

A gripping thriller and Belkin is a character many readers will want to encounter again THE TIMES A heartbreaking and passionate novel of the cruelty and fragility of love death and life in Stalinist Russia SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIOREMoscow 1934 Moscow s glittering new subway is under construction at last The first line will run through the centre of the city cutting deep through Moscow soil But futures cannot be created without digging up the past Though Russia s leaders want to build a glorious Soviet capital what holds them in a fatal grip is history old mud and bones Anton Belkin is an Investigator at the Procuracy a sensitive job at a dangerous moment on the road to the Show Trials He is also someone who needs to keep his head down His artist father was once the darling of the revolutionary avant garde a painter whose work could inspire devotion and great sacrifice But now his dreams are out of place too loud and red in Stalin s world of sterile rules and rubber stamps Anton is dragged into a murder case A prominent archaeologist working alongside the subway dig has been killed in a deserted mansion Though Anton doesn t want the job his former lover Vika who is now a powerful member of the secret police browbeats him into paying a visit t

El primer libro centrado en este momento preciso que cambió la historia: El tren de Lenin. Los orígenes de la revolución rusa. En los primeros meses de 1917, cuando se iniciaba en Rusia la revoluci

Descripci#n y estudio pormenorizado, ameno, lleno de historia humana, del ej#rcito de Stalin. El frente m#s decisivo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, donde se dieron los combates m#s encarnizados, fue el frente oriental. All# la m#s formidable m#quina de combate de esa guerra, el Ej#rcito sovi#tico, primero contuvo y luego arroll# a la Wehrmacht. Los ivanes, los humildes soldados sovi#ticos, son los protagonistas de esta historia humana y militar, aclamada por la cr#tica, de un momento decisivo de la historia del siglo XX. Stalin, que con las purgas de los a#os treinta debilit# extremadamente su Ej#rcito, fue capaz, sin embargo, de organizar una de las maquinarias de guerra m#s eficaces, engranadas y dispuestas para el sufrimiento y la victoria de la historia. Vencedor de las potentes y equipadas divisiones alemanas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su fuerza se debi# a factores como la juventud de los soldados y los oficiales, el compromiso con la "gran guerra patria" contra la invasi#n nazi y los aciertos t#cticos y estrat#gicos del estado mayor. A partir del estudio de esos factores y de las circunstancias y condiciones de vida de muchos de los soldados, Merridale recorre los frentes y los oficiales, las decisiones y el hero#smo,

Une semaine qui changera le monde. Février 1917 : Lénine vit en Suisse, exilé ; Pétrograd s’enflamme. Persuadé de passer à côté de son destin, il cherche par tous les moyens à regagner la Russie. Les

Une semaine qui changera le monde. Février 1917 : Lénine vit en Suisse, exilé ; Pétrograd s’enflamme. Persuadé de passer à côté de son destin, il cherche par tous les moyens à regagner la Russie. Les

30 millions de Soviétiques mobilisés entre 1939 et 1945 ; 27 millions de morts, dont 8 dans les rangs de l’armée : ces quelques chiffres suffisent à témoigner de l’ampleur du carnage subi par l’Union

Essential reading, not just for those interested in the Eastern Front, but for anyone who wants to understand Russia. Antony Beevor, Sunday Times They died in their millions, shattered by German shells and tanks, freezing behind the wire of prison camps, driven forward in suicidal charges by the secret police. Yet in all the books about the Second World War on the eastern front, there is very little about how the Russian soldier lived, dreamed and died.Catherine Merridales discovery of archives of letters, diaries and police reports have allowed her to write a major history of a figure too often treated as part of a vast mechanical horde. Here are moving and terrible stories of men and women in appalling conditions, many not far from death. They allow us to understand the strange mixture of courage, patriotism, anger and fear that made it possible for these badly fed, dreadfully governed soldiers to defeat the Nazi army that would otherwise have enslaved the whole of Europe. The experience of the soldiers is set against a masterly narrative of the war in Russia. Merridale also shows how the veterans were treated with chilling ingratitude and brutality by Stalin, and later exploited as icons of the Great Patriotic War before being sidelined once more in Putins new capitalist Russia.

THE TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016Twice I missed my stop on the Tube reading this book... this is a jewel among histories David Aaronovitch, The TimesThe suberb, funny, fascinating story of Lenins trans-European rail journey to power and how it shook the world - Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard Books of the Year A gripping account of how, in the depths of the First World War, Russias greatest revolutionary was taken in a sealed train across Europe and changed the history of the worldBy 1917 the European war seemed to be endless. Both sides in the fighting looked to new weapons, tactics and ideas to break a stalemate that was itself destroying Europe. In the German government a small group of men had a brilliant idea: why not sow further confusion in an increasingly chaotic Russia by arranging for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the most notorious of revolutionary extremists, currently safely bottled up in neutral Switzerland, to go home?Catherine Merridales Lenin on the Train recreates Lenins extraordinary journey from harmless exile in Zurich, across a Germany falling to pieces from the wars deprivations, and northwards to the edge of Lapland to his eventual ecstatic reception by the revolutionary crowds at Petrograds Finland Station.With great skill and insight Merridale weaves the story of the train and its uniquely strange group of passengers with a gripping account of the now half-forgotten liberal Russian revolution and shows how these events intersected. She brilliantly uses a huge range of contemporary eyewitnesses, observing Lenin as he travelled back to a country he had not seen for many years. Many thought he was a mere useful idiot, others thought he would rapidly be imprisoned or killed, others that Lenin had in practice few followers and even less influence. They would all prove to be quite wrong.

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON PRIZE 2013The extraordinary story of the Kremlin - from prize-winning author and historian Catherine MerridaleBoth beautiful and profoundly menacing, the Kremlin has dominated Moscow for many centuries. Behind its great red walls and towers many of the most startling events in Russias history have been acted out. It is both a real place and an imaginative idea; a shorthand for a certain kind of secretive power, but also the heart of a specific Russian authenticity. Catherine Merridales exceptional book revels in both the drama of the Kremlin and its sheer unexpectedness: an impregnable fortress which has repeatedly been devastated, a symbol of all that is Russian substantially created by Italians. The many inhabitants of the Kremlin have continually reshaped it to accord with shifting ideological needs, with buildings conjured up or demolished to conform with the current rulers social, spiritual, military or regal priorities. In the process, all have claimed to be the heirs of Russias great historic destiny.

A gripping thriller and Belkin is a character many readers will want to encounter again THE SUNDAY TIMESRemarkable If only all first novels were as enthralling as this FINANCIAL TIMESMerridales talents as a Russia expert and writer combine to beam light on the depths of Moscows underworld THE SUN Moscow, 1934. When a body is discovered during the construction of the glittering new Moscow subway, Investigator Anton Belkin wants nothing to do with the case. It will mean asking difficult questions of all the wrong people, and Anton has a very personal reason to keep his head down. But he has not reckoned with Vika, his former lover and now influential member of the secret police, who is adamant Anton is the best man for the job. Buried in the tunnels beneath the capital is a dangerous secret, but one entangled in a sticky web of political and personal rivalries, deceptions and betrayals. Soon Anton must choose between his conscience and saving those he loves from the vengeful grip of the Soviet state. ___ Both a brilliant thriller and a historical record of the ambition, terror and deviousness of that black era in Russian history Gareth Rubin, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Turnglass

En los primeros meses de 1917, cuando se iniciaba en Rusia la revolución, en medio de las intrigas de agentes y espías que trataban de sacar partido de la confusa situación del país, el gobierno aleman decidio ayudar a un grupo de revolucionarios exiliados en Suiza para que regresaran a Rusia, con la esperanza de que contribuyesen a apartarla de la guerra. Lenin y sus acompañantes atravesaron Alemania en un vagon sellado y, a traves de Suecia y de Finlandia, consiguieron llegar a Petrogrado. Una vez alli, Lenin combatio los propositos de quienes se contentaban con que la revolucion condujese a establecer una republica burguesa, y fijo como objetivo el paso inmediato al socialismo: a una sociedad sin estado y sin clases. Asi comenzo un nuevo rumbo para una revolucion que iba a cambiar la historia del mundo. Catherine Merridale nos ofrece una fascinante y documentada interpretacion de estos acontecimientos y de sus protagonistas: una vision innovadora que nos ayudara a superar los topicos establecidos.

Descripción y estudio pormenorizado, ameno, lleno de historia humana, del ejército de Stalin. El frente más decisivo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, donde se dieron los combates más encarnizados, fue el frente oriental. Alli la mas formidable maquina de combate de esa guerra, el Ejercito sovietico, primero contuvo y luego arrollo a la Wehrmacht. Los ivanes, los humildes soldados sovieticos, son los protagonistas de esta historia humana y militar, aclamada por la critica, de un momento decisivo de la historia del siglo XX. Stalin, que con las purgas de los años treinta debilito extremadamente su Ejercito, fue capaz, sin embargo, de organizar una de las maquinarias de guerra mas eficaces, engranadas y dispuestas para el sufrimiento y la victoria de la historia. Vencedor de las potentes y equipadas divisiones alemanas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su fuerza se debio a factores como la juventud de los soldados y los oficiales, el compromiso con la gran guerra patria contra la invasion nazi y los aciertos tacticos y estrategicos del estado mayor. A partir del estudio de esos factores y de las circunstancias y condiciones de vida de muchos de los soldados, Merridale recorre los frentes y los oficiales, las decisiones y el heroismo, y ofrece un aterrador testimonio de los metodos de los comisarios politicos -autenticos lideres y correas de transmision de la ideologia oficial- y de la ferrea disciplina existente en las primeras lineas de combate, asi como del pesimo trato que Stalin les dio tras la victoria en la guerra. El resultado es una brillante e innovadora obra de historia militar, que describe por vez primera el frente oriental desde el punto de vista del soldado de a pie, desplazando a los dictadores que han protagonizado los libros sobre este tema en los ultimos sesenta años.

En los primeros meses de 1917, cuando se iniciaba en Rusia la revolución, en medio de las intrigas de agentes y espías que trataban de sacar partido de la confusa situación del país, el gobierno aleman decidio ayudar a un grupo de revolucionarios exiliados en Suiza para que regresaran a Rusia, con la esperanza de que contribuyesen a apartarla de la guerra. Lenin y sus acompañantes atravesaron Alemania en un vagon sellado y, a traves de Suecia y de Finlandia, consiguieron llegar a Petrogrado. Una vez alli, Lenin combatio los propositos de quienes se contentaban con que la revolucion condujese a establecer una republica burguesa, y fijo como objetivo el paso inmediato al socialismo: a una sociedad sin estado y sin clases. Asi comenzo un nuevo rumbo para una revolucion que iba a cambiar la historia del mundo. Catherine Merridale nos ofrece una fascinante y documentada interpretacion de estos acontecimientos y de sus protagonistas: una vision innovadora que nos ayudara a superar los topicos establecidos.