Download or read book To Kill a Tsar written by Andrew Williams and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From glittering ballrooms To The cruel cells of the House of Preliminary Detention, from the British Embassy To The undergroundpresses of the revolutionaries, 'To Kill a Tsar' is a gripping thriller set in a world of brutal contrasts.
Download or read book To Kill a Tsar written by Andrew Williams and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book To Kill a Tsar written by G. K. George and published by New Acdemia+ORM. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unusual Russian police detective must stop a plot to kill the tsar in this historical thriller. Eccentric and fiercely independent Inspector Vasiliev exposes a conspiracy by a high-ranking nobleman and a top official in the secret police to assassinate the tsar in late imperial Russia. He finds unexpected help from Irina, a member of the revolutionary underground, with whom he falls in love . . . "Unique among books about Russia written by western authors: being extremely rich in details it contains no factual errors at all.” —Alexei Miller, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Scientific Information in Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow “In this masterful thriller, [G.K. George] meets us at the crossroads of history and literature. He deftly portrays the tensions and dynamics of life in Imperial Russia on the eve of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, an event that set the stage for the Russian Revolution. In the process, the author creates unforgettable characters such as Inspector Vasili Vasiliev, the Swan, and the Magician.” —Ben Eklof, Professor of History, Indiana University “A true thriller, with all the delightful trimmings of a masterful historical narrative. Alfred Rieber (alias, G.K. George) lures you into the turbulent, terrorist times of Russia in the 1880s, from glittering balls in noble palaces to mystical forests in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Erotic rituals of a religious sect called the Jumpers come frighteningly alive in this compelling narrative that is ethnographically and historically rich with plausible detail.” —Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Research Professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Georgetown University “With his unsurpassed knowledge of Russian history, [G.K. George] brings the terrorist crisis of the late 1870s and early 1880s to life in this exciting historical thriller. To Kill a Tsar traces the conspiracy that led to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in a plot filled with surprising twists and dramatic encounters between ardent young radicals and their adversaries from the security police. Along with compelling portraits of such real-life historical figures as the ill-fated Tsar, Rieber has created a complex and appealing hero, Inspector Vasiliev. Guided by the inspector, a master of disguise, and his faithful peasant sergeant, readers meet aristocrats and beggars and travel from high society salons to the slum hideouts of thieves and revolutionaries. . . . I recommend To Kill a Tsar to all readers who love action, intrigue, and vivid characters.” —Adele Lindenmeyr, Professor of History, Villanova University
Download or read book Alexander II written by Edvard Radzinsky and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-11-14 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles the Romanov Dynasty tsar as one of Russia's most forward-thinking rulers, documenting his efforts to redefine history by bringing freedom to his country, and describing the series of assassination attempts that eventually ended his life.
Download or read book Tsar written by Ted Bell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-08-06 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Somewhere in Russia is a man so powerful that no one even knows his name. Yet though he is all but invisible, he is pulling strings - and pulling them hard. For suddenly Russia is a far bigger threat than even the most devoted Cold War warriors ever thought possible. With her finger on the switch to the European economy and her sights on the American jugular, Russia gains a new leader. Not just a president, he has been appointed Tsar, a signal to the world that the old imperial power is back - and plans to have her day. At the same time, a mysterious killer brutally murders an innocent American family, literally blowing up the small midwestern town in which they lived. Just a taste, according to the new Tsar, of what will happen if America does not step aside in preventing Russia's plans to 'reintegrate' her rogue states. Onto this nightmarish stage steps special agent extraordinaire Alex Hawke, the only man - both the British and Americans agree - who can stop the madness.
Download or read book The Odd Man Karakozov written by Claudia Verhoeven and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 4, 1866, just as Alexander II stepped out of Saint Petersburg's Summer Garden and onto the boulevard, a young man named Dmitry Karakozov pulled out a pistol and shot at the tsar. He missed, but his "unheard-of act" changed the course of Russian history-and gave birth to the revolutionary political violence known as terrorism. Based on clues pulled out of the pockets of Karakozov's peasant disguise, investigators concluded that there had been a conspiracy so extensive as to have sprawled across the entirety of the Russian empire and the European continent. Karakozov was said to have been a member of "The Organization," a socialist network at the center of which sat a secret cell of suicide-assassins: "Hell." It is still unclear how much of this "conspiracy" theory was actually true, but of the thirty-six defendants who stood accused during what was Russia's first modern political trial, all but a few were exiled to Siberia, and Karakozov himself was publicly hanged on September 3, 1866. Because Karakozov was decidedly strange, sick, and suicidal, his failed act of political violence has long been relegated to a footnote of Russian history. In The Odd Man Karakozov, however, Claudia Verhoeven argues that it is precisely this neglected, exceptional case that sheds a new light on the origins of terrorism. The book not only demonstrates how the idea of terrorism first emerged from the reception of Karakozov's attack, but also, importantly, what was really at stake in this novel form of political violence, namely, the birth of a new, modern political subject. Along the way, in characterizing Karakozov's as an essentially modernist crime, Verhoeven traces how his act profoundly impacted Russian culture, including such touchstones as Repin's art and Dostoevsky's literature. By looking at the history that produced Karakozov and, in turn, the history that Karakozov produced, Verhoeven shows terrorism as a phenomenon inextricably linked to the foundations of the modern world: capitalism, enlightened law and scientific reason, ideology, technology, new media, and above all, people's participation in politics and in the making of history.
Download or read book The Poison Tide written by Andrew Williams and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2012-08-16 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1915. German guns are on their way to Ireland. The British government faces its worst nightmare; insurrection at home while it struggles with bloody stalemate on the Western Front. A British spy, Sebastian Wolff of the new Secret Service Bureau, is given the task of hunting down its enemies: one a traitor reviled by the society that honoured him as a national hero; the other a German-American doctor who, instead of healing the sick, is developing a terrifying new weapon that he will use in the country of his birth. Wolff's mission will take him undercover into the corridors of power in Berlin, then across the Atlantic in a race against time to prevent the destruction of the ships and supplies Britain so desperately needs to stave off defeat.
Download or read book Secret Lives of the Tsars written by Michael Farquhar and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Michael Farquhar doesn’t write about history the way, say, Doris Kearns Goodwin does. He writes about history the way Doris Kearns Goodwin’s smart-ass, reprobate kid brother might. I, for one, prefer it.”—Gene Weingarten, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Washington Post columnist Scandal! Intrigue! Cossacks! Here the world’s most engaging royal historian chronicles the world’s most fascinating imperial dynasty: the Romanovs, whose three-hundred-year reign was remarkable for its shocking violence, spectacular excess, and unimaginable venality. In this incredibly entertaining history, Michael Farquhar collects the best, most captivating true tales of Romanov iniquity. We meet Catherine the Great, with her endless parade of virile young lovers (none of them of the equine variety); her unhinged son, Paul I, who ordered the bones of one of his mother’s paramours dug out of its grave and tossed into a gorge; and Grigori Rasputin, the “Mad Monk,” whose mesmeric domination of the last of the Romanov tsars helped lead to the monarchy’s undoing. From Peter the Great’s penchant for personally beheading his recalcitrant subjects (he kept the severed head of one of his mistresses pickled in alcohol) to Nicholas and Alexandra’s brutal demise at the hands of the Bolsheviks, Secret Lives of the Tsars captures all the splendor and infamy that was Imperial Russia. Praise for Secret Lives of the Tsars “An accessible, exciting narrative . . . Highly recommended for generalists interested in Russian history and those who enjoy the seamier side of past lives.”—Library Journal (starred review) “An excellent condensed version of Russian history . . . a fine tale of history and scandal . . . sure to please general readers and monarchy buffs alike.”—Publishers Weekly “Tales from the nasty lives of global royalty . . . an easy-reading, lightweight history lesson.”—Kirkus Reviews “Readers of this book may get a sense of why Russians are so tolerant of tyrants like Stalin and Putin. Given their history, it probably seems normal.”—The Washington Post
Download or read book Sofia Perovskaya Terrorist Princess written by Robert Riggs and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of Sofia Perovskaya (1853-1881). Perovskaya was a key leader in Narodnaya Volya, the terrorist group that assassinated Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881. Her father was the Governor of St. Petersburg, making her evolution into a terrorist all the more remarkable and paradoxical.
Download or read book The Last of the Tsars written by Robert Service and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of the last eighteen months of Tsar Nicholas II's life and reign from one of the finest Russian historians writing today. In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now Robert Service, the eminent historian of Russia, examines Nicholas's life and thought from the months before his momentous abdication to his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times, but Service's deep understanding of the period and his forensic examination of previously untapped sources, including the Tsar's diaries and recorded conversations, as well as the testimonies of the official inquiry, shed remarkable new light on his troubled reign, also revealing the kind of Russia that Nicholas wanted to emerge from the Great War. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic and political ferment in Russia that followed the February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, and the beginnings of Lenin's Soviet socialist republic.
Download or read book To Kill Rasputin written by Andrew Cook and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-10-21 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The murder of Rasputin on the night of 17 December 1916 has always seemed extraordinary: first he was poisoned, then shot and finally drowned in a frozen river by Russian aristocrats fearful of his influence on Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.
Download or read book To Kill Rasputin written by Andrew Cook and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-10-21 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The murder of Rasputin on the night of 16-17 December 1916 has always seemed extraordinary: first he was poisoned, then shot and finally drowned in a frozen river by Russian aristocrats fearful of his influence on Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Or was he? Dramatic new evidence from previously unpublished documents, diaries, forensic reports and intelligence records now means the plot takes a remarkable twist. Grigori Rasputin is probably one of the best-known but least understood figures in the events that ultimately led to the downfall of the Russian tsars. His political role as the power behind the throne is obscured today, as it was then, by the fascination with his morality and private life. Andrew Cook's re-investigation of Rasputin's death reveals for the first time the real masterminds behind the murder of the 'mad monk'. Why does the story of a peasant from a distant Siberian village becoming the all-powerful favourite of the last Russian tsar excite us more than almost any other episode in Russian history? Why are there more lies and concealment than truth in the story of his murder? Was this extraordinary man an evil demon who brought down the royal family, or somebody who could have been its saviour? 'To Kill Rasputin' finally provides the answers to the many mysteries surrounding this pivotal moment in Russian history.
Download or read book The Kitchen Boy written by Robert Alexander and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-01-27 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to be a major motion picture starring Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient), directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) Drawing from decades of work, travel, and research in Russia, Robert Alexander re-creates the tragic, perennially fascinating story of the final days of Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov as seen through the eyes of their young kitchen boy, Leonka. Now an ancient Russian immigrant, Leonka claims to be the last living witness to the Romanovs’ brutal murders and sets down the dark secrets of his past with the imperial family. Does he hold the key to the many questions surrounding the family’s murder? Historically vivid and compelling, The Kitchen Boy is also a touching portrait of a loving family that was in many ways similar, yet so different, from any other. "Ingenious...Keeps readers guessing through the final pages." —USA Today
Download or read book Triumph of a Tsar written by Tamar Anolic and published by Tamar Anolic. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Triumph of a Tsar is a work of alternate historical fiction in which the Russian Revolution of 1917 is averted, and the hemophiliac Alexei, son of Tsar Nicholas II, comes to the throne. In August, 1920, sixteen-year-old Alexei is enjoying his birthday celebrations when Nicholas dies suddenly. Overnight, Alexei becomes tsar of an empire that covers one-sixth of the world's landmass. The Great War is over, but Russia is still suffering from the devastation and poverty that it brought. Communists such as Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky view the political situation as ripe for revolution, but they realize that the popular Alexei stands in their way. To make matters worse, Alexei's hemophilia, the disease that has threatened him his whole life, returns to haunt him. With his life in constant danger from internal threats, Alexei must also navigate the external threats of fascism and Adolph Hitler. Slowly, Hitler's menace increases throughout Europe until he tries to kill Alexei himself. Only then does Alexei realize that another World War is the only way to stop his German enemy.
Download or read book Alexander I written by Marie-Pierre Rey and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand duke by Catherine the Great, he ascended to the throne in 1801 after the brutal assassination of his father. In this magisterial biography, Marie-Pierre Rey illuminates the complex forces that shaped Alexander's tumultuous reign and sheds brilliant new light on the handsome ruler known to his people as "the Sphinx." Despite an early and ambitious commitment to sweeping political reforms, Alexander saw his liberal aspirations overwhelmed by civil unrest in his own country and by costly confrontations with Napoleon, which culminated in the French invasion of Russia and the burning of Moscow in 1812. Eventually, Alexander turned back Napoleon's forces and entered Paris a victor two years later, but by then he had already grown weary of military glory. As the years passed, the tsar who defeated Napoleon would become increasingly preoccupied with his own spiritual salvation, an obsession that led him to pursue a rapprochement between the Orthodox and Roman churches. When in exile, Napoleon once remarked of his Russian rival: "He could go far. If I die here, he will be my true heir in Europe." It was not to be. Napoleon died on Saint Helena and Alexander succumbed to typhus four years later at the age of forty-eight. But in this richly nuanced portrait, Rey breathes new life into the tsar who stood at the center of the political chessboard of early nineteenth-century Europe, a key figure at the heart of diplomacy, war, and international intrigue during that region's most tumultuous years.
Download or read book Kill the Tsar written by K. C. Tessendorf and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 1986 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the comparatively liberal reign of Alexander II of Russia and the concurrent actions of radicals and terrorists, who sought political reform and eventually assassinated him.
Download or read book Tsarina written by Ellen Alpsten and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme." —Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter “[Alpsten] recounts this remarkable woman’s colourful life and times." —Count Nikolai Tolstoy, historian and author Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna: the first woman to rule Russia in her own right. Ellen Alpsten's rich, sweeping debut novel is the story of her rise to power. St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna, as ambitious, ruthless and passionate as Peter himself. Born into devastating poverty, Catherine used her extraordinary beauty and shrewd intelligence to ingratiate herself with Peter’s powerful generals, finally seducing the Tsar himself. But even amongst the splendor and opulence of her new life—the lavish feasts, glittering jewels, and candle-lit hours in Peter’s bedchamber—she knows the peril of her position. Peter’s attentions are fickle and his rages powerful; his first wife is condemned to a prison cell, her lover impaled alive in Red Square. And now Catherine faces the ultimate test: can she keep the Tsar’s death a secret as she plays a lethal game to destroy her enemies and take the Crown for herself? From the sensuous pleasures of a decadent aristocracy, to the incense-filled rites of the Orthodox Church and the terror of Peter’s torture chambers, the intoxicating and dangerous world of Imperial Russia is brought to vivid life. Tsarina is the story of one remarkable woman whose bid for power would transform the Russian Empire.
