For almost a decade, Col. Ryszard Kuklinski betrayed the Communist leadership of Poland, cooperating with the CIA in one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. But even after freedom came to Poland a riddle remained - was Kuklinski a patriot or a traitor? In August 1972, Ryszard Kuklinski, a highly respected colonel in the Polish Army, embarked on what would become one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. Despite the extreme risk to himself and his family, he contacted the American Embassy in Bonn, and arranged a secret meeting. From the very start, he made clear that he deplored the Soviet domination of Poland, and believed his country was on the wrong side of the Cold War. Over the next nine years, Kuklinski rose quickly in the Polish defense ministry, acting as a liaison to Moscow, and helping to prepare for a hot war with the West. But he also lived a life of subterfuge - of dead drops, messages written in invisible ink, miniature cameras, and secret transmitters. In 1981, he gave the CIA the secret plans to crush Solidarity. the West. He still lives in hiding in America. Kuklinski's story is a harrowing personal drama about one man's decision to betray the Communist leadership in order to save the country he loves. Through extensive interviews and access to the CIA's secret archives on the case, Benjamin Weiser offers an unprecedented and richly detailed look at this secret history of the Cold War.

SILENT NIGHT brings to life one of the most unlikely and touching events in the annals of war. In the early months of WWI, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides left their trenches, laid down their arms, and joined in a spontaneous celebration with their new friends, the enemy. For a brief, blissful time, remembered since in song and story, a world war stopped. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible. Germans placed candle-lit Christmas trees on trench parapets and warring soldiers sang carols. In the spirit of the season they ventured out beyond their barbed wire to meet in No Man's Land, where they buried the dead in moving ceremonies, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and joyously played football, often with improvised balls. The truce spread as men defied orders and fired harmlessly into the air. But, reluctantly, they were forced to re-start history's most bloody war. SILENT NIGHT vividly recovers a dreamlike event, one of the most extraordinary of Christmas stories.

At least 200,000 people died from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases in Spain during the 1940s. This book provides a political explanation for the famine and brings together a broad range of academics based in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to achieve this. Topics include the political causes of the famine, the physical and social consequences, the ways Spaniards tried to survive, the regime's reluctance to accept international relief, the politics of cooking at a time of famine, and the memory of the famine. The volume challenges the silence and misrepresentation that still surround the famine. It reveals the reality of how people perished in Spain because the Francoist authorities instituted a policy of food self-sufficiency (or autarky): a system of price regulation which placed restrictions on transport as well as food sales. The contributors trace the massive decline in food production which followed, the hoarding which took place on an enormous scale and the vast and deeply iniquitous black market that subsequently flourished at a time when salaries plunged to 50% below their levels in 1936: all contributing factors in the large-scale atrocity explored fully here for the first time.

This edited collection provides the first comprehensive history of Florence as the mid-19th century capital of the fledgling Italian nation. Covering various aspects of politics, economics, culture and society, this book examines the impact that the short-lived experience of becoming the political and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Italy had on the Tuscan city, both immediately and in the years that followed. It reflects upon the urbanising changes that affected the appearance of the city and the introduction of various economic and cultural innovations. The volume also analyses the crisis caused by the eventual relocation of the capital to Rome and the subsequent bankruptcy of the communality which hampered Florence on the long road to modernity. Florence: Capital of the Kingdom of Italy, 1865-71 is a fascinating study for all students and scholars of modern Italian history.

The reign of Alexander I was a pivotal moment in the construction of Russia's national mythology. This work examines this crucial period focusing on the place of the Russian nobility in relation to their ruler, and the accompanying debate between reform and the status quo, between a Russia old and new, and between different visions of what Russia could become. Drawing on extensive archival research and placing a long-neglected emphasis on this aspect of Alexander I's reign, this book is an important work for students and scholars of imperial Russia, as well as the wider Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period in Europe.

The decades after 1750 saw the Ottoman Empire undergo tremendous stresses that culminated in the first stirrings of nationalism among Christian subjects and an irrevocable commitment to reform by the Muslim state. By 1830, Serbs and Greeks had fought successfully for autonomy or independence, and Sultan Mahmud II had prepared the way for the Tanzimat by abolishing the Janissary Corps and other discredited institutions. In spite of the importance of this era for both Ottoman and Balkan history, marking as it does the transition from the pre-modern to the modern, scholars have shown remarkably little interest in the factors triggering such important developments. The contributors to this volume examine instances of problems affecting the Balkans and of state efforts to fix them. Issues considered include law and justice, centralization and provincial autonomy, taxation and land disputes, and the stresses of war. The cases studied here should give both the specialist and the general reader a clearer picture of the forces of change at work in the most important region of the empire during this era of transition.

The decades after 1750 saw the Ottoman Empire undergo tremendous stresses that culminated in the first stirrings of nationalism among Christian subjects and an irrevocable commitment to reform by the Muslim state. By 1830, Serbs and Greeks had fought successfully for autonomy or independence, and Sultan Mahmud II had prepared the way for the Tanzimat by abolishing the Janissary Corps and other discredited institutions. In spite of the importance of this era for both Ottoman and Balkan history, marking as it does the transition from the pre-modern to the modern, scholars have shown remarkably little interest in the factors triggering such important developments.The contributors to this volume examine instances of problems affecting the Balkans and of state efforts to fix them. Issues considered include law and justice, centralization and provincial autonomy, taxation and land disputes, and the stresses of war. The cases studied here should give both the specialist and the general reader a clearer picture of the forces of change at work in the most important region of the empire during this era of transition.

This book offers the first comprehensive study of Byzantine influence on the art and iconography of East Central Europe. Petr Balcarek focuses on the Byzantine cultural and religious legacy in the Czech lands, thereby bringing to light rarely seen images and presenting fresh hypotheses based on newly-explored theological interpretations and historical evidence. Including a discussion of the Czech and Slovak historiography on Byzantine studies, the work analyses significant artistic and iconographical artefacts in light of the intricate historical and political relationships that shaped Byzantine presence in these territories, comparing them with similar objects from other areas of Byzantine influence in order to draw wide-reaching conclusions.