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Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has reshaped history. In the
decades after the collapse of Soviet communism, the West convinced
itself that liberal democracy would henceforth be the dominant,
ultimately unique, system of governance. An outburst of Western
triumphalism proclaimed a US-led unipolar world entitled to
‘impose democracy’ on countries that failed to recognise the
new order. Politicians foretold the universalisation of Western
values as the final, enduring form of human society, a hubris that
shaped how the West would treat Russia for the next two decades.
But history wasn’t over. Subsequent events proved it is unwise to
make predictions, especially about the future. In February 2022,
Vladimir Putin took great delight in proving it. Putin is a
paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to
commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia
could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported
free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those
years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an
autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and
anti-Western militarism abroad. So, what happened? Was he lying
when he proclaimed his support for freedom, democracy and
friendship with the West? Or, was he sincere? Did he change his
views at some stage between then and now? And if that is the case,
what happened to change him? Putin and the Return of History
examines these questions in the context of Russia’s thousand-year
past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin’s
politics of aggression: the enduring terror of encirclement by
outsiders, the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the
state, the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human
lives in battle, the willingness to lie and deceive, the co-opting
of religion and the belief in Great Russia’s mission to change
the world.
'I'm a fairly calm fellow; I don't usually get het up about things.
But I was, let's say, concerned when I tuned into the Moscow Echo
radio station and heard that the Kremlin had put a price on my
head. The announcement didn't quite say 'dead or alive'. But it
came close...' Mikhail Khodorkovsky, March 2021 Mikhail
Khodorkovsky has seen behind the mask of Vladimir Putin. Once an
oil tycoon and the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out
against the corruption of Putin's regime - and was punished by the
Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth and jailed for over ten
years. Now freed, working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforced
exile, Khodorkovsky brings us the insider's battle to save his
country's soul. Offering an urgent analysis of what has gone wrong
with Putin, The Russia Conundrum maps the country's rise and fall
against Khodorkovsky's own journey, from Soviet youth to
international oil executive, powerful insider to political
dissident, and now a high-profile voice seeking to reconcile East
and West. With unparalleled insight, written with Sunday Times
bestselling author Martin Sixsmith, The Russia Conundrum exposes
the desires and damning truths of Putin's Russia, and provides an
answer to the West on how it must challenge the Kremlin - in order
to pave the way for a better future.
'I'm a fairly calm fellow; I don't usually get het up about things.
But I was, let's say, concerned when I tuned into the Moscow Echo
radio station and heard that the Kremlin had put a price on my
head. The announcement didn't quite say 'dead or alive'. But it
came close...' Mikhail Khodorkovsky, March 2021 Mikhail
Khodorkovsky has seen behind the mask of Vladimir Putin. Once an
oil tycoon and the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out
against the corruption of Putin's regime - and was punished by the
Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth and jailed for over ten
years. Now freed, working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforced
exile, Khodorkovsky brings us the insider's battle to save his
country's soul. Offering an urgent analysis of what has gone wrong
with Putin, The Russia Conundrum maps the country's rise and fall
against Khodorkovsky's own journey, from Soviet youth to
international oil executive, powerful insider to political
dissident, and now a high-profile voice seeking to reconcile East
and West. With unparalleled insight, written with Sunday Times
bestselling author Martin Sixsmith, The Russia Conundrum exposes
the desires and damning truths of Putin's Russia, and provides an
answer to the West on how it must challenge the Kremlin - in order
to pave the way for a better future.
'Essential ... endlessly fascinating ... to read Sixsmith is to
want to read more Sixsmith' Forbes More than any other conflict,
the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And,
nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its
legacy still endures - not only in our politics, but in our own
thoughts, and fears. Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives
and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions
and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a
psychological perspective. Revisiting towering personalities like
Khrushchev, Kennedy and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown
millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping
account of fear itself - and in today's uncertain times, it is more
resonant than ever.
'I'm a fairly calm fellow; I don't usually get het up about things.
But I was, let's say, concerned when I tuned into the Moscow Echo
radio station and heard that the Kremlin had put a price on my
head. The announcement didn't quite say 'dead or alive'. But it
came close...' Mikhail Khodorkovsky, March 2021 Mikhail
Khodorkovsky has seen behind the mask of Vladimir Putin. Once an
oil tycoon and the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out
against the corruption of Putin's regime - and was punished by the
Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth and jailed for over ten
years. Now freed, working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforced
exile, Khodorkovsky brings us the insider's battle to save his
country's soul. Offering an urgent analysis of what has gone wrong
with Putin, The Russia Conundrum maps the country's rise and fall
against Khodorkovsky's own journey, from Soviet youth to
international oil executive, powerful insider to political
dissident, and now a high-profile voice seeking to reconcile East
and West. With unparalleled insight, written with Sunday Times
bestselling author Martin Sixsmith, The Russia Conundrum exposes
the desires and damning truths of Putin's Russia, and provides an
answer to the West on how it must challenge the Kremlin - in order
to pave the way for a better future.
1917. Russia is dying amid war, revolution and terror. The birth
pains of the new world are a foretaste of the cruellest century. At
their heart is Sergei Yesenin, 22, a poet, lover, wounded veteran,
beautiful and afraid. Damaged by childhood abandonment, Sergei
fears the world, drinks, brawls and womanises. He battles life's
hurt with the charm of poetry and the drug of fame. But love is the
validation he seeks. His search for meaning in dark times will lead
him to passionate affairs with women and with men, until he
discovers the one person who might change his life. Zinaida Raikh,
exquisitely lovely, sensitive and gifted, offers Sergei the
redemption he craves. But love is the devil, and the devil is
fickle. This is the extraordinary tale of an extraordinary man. In
a country and an age when poets were stars, Yesenin was revered by
millions. Schoolchildren learned his verses by heart. Adolescent
girls copied them in their diaries. Red Army soldiers carried them
in their uniforms as they went into battle. Yuri Gagarin took them
into space. Yesenin's fame brought him meetings with the Tsar's
wife and daughters and with Rasputin before the Revolution; with
Trotsky and Kamenev, and a stormy marriage to the world's most
famous dancer, Isadora Duncan, after it. Like the fictional Yuri
Zhivago, he survived the turmoil of war and revolution and lived a
personal life of comparable drama. Visit his grave in Moscow and
you will find tramps waiting to recite his poetry. They expect a
little vodka money, but they too love this tender, troubled man,
dead now for nearly a hundred years. Bursting with the real-life
drama of love in turbulent times, An Unquiet Heart is a
magnificently wrought novel of passion and violence, triumph and
tragedy.
**FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING PHILOMENA, MADE INTO THE
AWARD-WINNING FILM STARRING STEVE COOGAN AND JUDI DENCH** Ayesha's
Gift is the true story of a young woman, born in Pakistan, living
in Britain, whose life is thrown into desperate turmoil by the
violent death of her father. The Pakistani authorities talk of
suicide, but why would Ayesha's happy, gentle father kill himself?
Ayesha's quest to find the truth takes her away from her safe
English existence and into Pakistan, where she is met with threats,
violence and smiling perjurers. She is warned that her life is in
danger; powerful, ruthless men have reasons to want her silenced.
But there are things she needs to know, that compel her to press on
with her search for the truth. Was her father an innocent victim?
Can she continue to revere the image of him she grew up with, that
of a good, loving parent? Or will she be forced to accept that her
father was not the person she thought he was? As the two countries
she had considered home reveal themselves as foreign and inimical,
Ayesha is forced to confront the tormented issues of identity and
belonging. When she travels to Pakistan, Martin Sixsmith goes with
her. A shared tragedy and an unlikely friendship lead them both to
question the things that give meaning to their lives, and
ultimately find solace in the common human values of kindness and
respect. 'Written at thriller pace.' Telegraph 'Wonderful ... What
I find so striking about Ayesha's Gift is that it's a book in which
the writer is changed by the writing of the book.' Andrew Marr
From the bestselling author of Philomena comes a beautiful and
heartbreaking tale about Sergei Yesenin, one of Russia's most
beloved poets. It vividly captures the extraordinary life of a man
navigating love, loss and loneliness in the midst of the Russian
Revolution. Sergei Yesenin is a young poet, formed by childhood
abandonment, set on becoming the most famous poet in Russia in a
time of war, revolution and terror. A sensitive soul in a senseless
time, searching for meaning through poetry, fame and passionate
affairs with both women and men - until a meeting with the
beautiful actress Zinaida Raikh changes everything. 'If thou art
near, I'll leave all behind, Renounce the world, the call of fame.
All I need is to kiss your hand, your lips, And hear you call me by
my name.' His success will bring him to the Tsar's family, to
Rasputin, Trotsky and to the world's most famous dancer, Isadora
Duncan. He befriends other prominent poets and is revered by
millions. Schoolchildren learn his verses by heart. Red Army
soldiers carry them going into battle. Yuri Gagarin would later
take them into space. But Yesenin's obsession with fame is
dangerous and destructive, for him, and for those who love him. An
Unquiet Heart is a magnificent insight into history, and into the
life of a tender, troubled man. This is a story about the power of
poetry in turbulent times, about triumph and tragedy and about how
true love never fades.
Inspiring the film starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, and
directed by Stephen Frears, Philomena is the tale of a mother and a
son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both
sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep.
With a foreword by Judi Dench, Martin Sixsmith's book is a
compelling and deeply moving narrative of human love and loss, both
heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive. When she fell pregnant as
a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the
convent at Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a fallen
woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took
him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for
adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to
attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next
fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was
searching for her from across the Atlantic. Philomena's son,
renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a
leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations.
But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal
not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS.
With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where
he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died
left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for
all involved.
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week 'It was time for a vivid, popular
history of the Cold War, and this is it' The Times 'Essential ...
endlessly fascinating ... to read Sixsmith is to want to read more
Sixsmith' Forbes More than any other conflict, the Cold War was
fought on the battlefield of the human mind. Nearly thirty years
since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures:
not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts and fears.
Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources,
Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the
Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological
perspective. Revisiting towering personalities like Khrushchev,
Kennedy and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who
were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping account of fear
itself - one which is more resonant than ever today.
"New York Times "Bestseller
Now a major motion picture starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan and
nominated for four Academy Awards: the heartbreaking true story of
an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 years
When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952,
Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a "fallen
woman." Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like
thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later,
Philomena decided to find him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena's son was
trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading
lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled to hide
secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party
and endanger his quest to find his mother.
A gripping expose told with novelistic intrigue, "Philomena" pulls
back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced
adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured a
lifelong separation.
Russia is a country of contradictions: a nation of cultural
refinement and artistic originality and yet also a country that
rules by 'the iron fist'. In this riveting history, Martin Sixsmith
shows how Russia's complex identity has been formed over a thousand
years, and how it can help us understand its often baffling
behaviour at home and abroad. Combining in-depth research and
interviews with his personal experiences as a former BBC Moscow
correspondent, Sixsmith skilfully traces the conundrums of modern
Russia to their roots in its troubled past, and explains the
nation's seemingly split personality as the result of influences
that have divided it for centuries. A Sunday Times bestseller,
Russia is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the
complex political landscape of this country, and its unique place
in the modern world.
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