Новинки Кэтрин Мэрридейл

Владимир Ильич, вы шпион? На этот вопрос вождь мировой революции мог бы с полным правом ответить отрицательно: Ленин не был немецким шпионом, поскольку не передавал Германии никакой секретной информации. Но он, без всякого сомнения, был немецким агентом, поскольку выполнял задание германского Главного штаба и, по всей видимости, получал за это деньги. Книга британского историка Кэтрин Мерридейл, ведущего специалиста по русской революции, подробно описывает одну из самых зловещих тайных операций в истории: переправку группы большевиков из Швейцарии в Россию в апреле 1917 года. Семидневное путешествие третьим классом из Цюриха в Петербург…

Каким было отношение к смерти в дореволюционной России и как оно изменилось с приходом ко власти большевиков? Как повлияла на отношение человека с загробным миром богоборческая политика советского правительства? Что больше всего запомнили те, кто пережил заключение в сталинских лагерях? За что сражались и умирали наши солдаты во Второй мировой войне? Почему стал возможен Большой террор? От чего граждане России умирали в 30-х, 60-х и 90-х? Невероятно скрупулезное и захватывающее исследование Кэтрин Мерридейл посвящено темам смерти и памяти, одним из ключевых во всей нашей культуре. И российский XX век дал здесь невероятное количество…

A gripping, meticulously researched account of Lenin’s fateful 1917 rail journey from Zurich to Petrograd, where he ignited the Russian Revolution and forever changed the world.

In April 1917, as the Russian Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication sent shockwaves across war-torn Europe, the future leader of the Bolshevik revolution Vladimir Lenin was far away, exiled in Zurich. When the news reached him, Lenin immediately resolved to return to Petrograd and lead the revolt. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia’s adversaries. Millions of Russians at home were suffering as a result of German aggression, and to accept German aid—or even safe passage—would be to betray his homeland. Germany, for its part, saw an opportunity to further destabilize Russia by allowing Lenin and his small group of revolutionaries to return.

Now, in Lenin on the Train, drawing on a dazzling array of sources and never-before-seen archival material, renowned historian Catherine Merridale provides a riveting, nuanced account of this enormously consequential journey—the train ride that changed the world—as well as the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen. Writing with the same insight and formidable intelligence that distinguished her earlier works, she brings to life a world of counter-espionage and intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism.

When Lenin arrived in Petrograd’s now-famous Finland Station, he delivered an explosive address to the impassioned crowds. Simple and extreme, the text of this speech has been compared to such momentous documents as Constantine’s edict of Milan and Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses. It was the moment when the Russian revolution became Soviet, the genesis of a system of tyranny and faith that changed the course of Russia’s history forever and transformed the international political climate.

1917. aastaks tundus, et sõda Euroopas kestab igavesti. Mõlemad vaenupooled võtsid kasutusele uusi relvi ja taktikaid ja ideid, et lõpetada patiseis, mis Euroopat hävitas. Saksa valitsuses torkas väikesele grupile pähe hiilgav mõte: miks mitte külvata veel enam segadust juba niigi kaootilisel Venemaal, saates Vladimir Iljitš Lenini, tol hetkel turvaliselt Šveitsis redutava kurikuulsa äärmuslase, kodumaale tagasi. Catherine Merridale'i "Lenin rongis" taaselustab Lenini ebatavalise rongireisi Zürichist, kus ta ohutuna eksiilis viibis, läbi sõjast laastatud Saksamaa kaugele põhja, Lapimaa piirile ja sealt edasi Petrogradi Soome vaksalisse, kus teda tervitas juba ekstaatiline rahvahulk. Merridale põimib oskuslikult ja asjatundlikult rongi ja selle eriskummaliste reisijate loo kaasakiskuva ülevaatega nüüdseks pooleldi unustuse hõlma vajunud Vene revolutsioonist ning näitab, kuidas need kaks kokku said. Paljud pidasid Leninit kasulikuks idioodiks, paljud arvasid, et ta arreteeritakse ja hukatakse niipea, kui kodumaale jõuab, paljud, et tal oli vähe järgijaid ja veel vähem mõjuvõimu. Nagu selgus, eksisid nad kõik rängalt.

In April 1917, as Tsar Nicholas II's abdication sent shockwaves across war-torn Europe, the future leader of the Bolshevik revolution, Vladimir Lenin, was far away, exiled in Zurich. To lead the revolt, Lenin needed to return to Petrograd immediately. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia's adversaries and betraying his homeland. Bringing to life a world of counter-espionage, intrigue, wartime desperation, illicit finance, and misguided utopianism,Catherine Merridale provides a riveting account of this pivotal journey as well as the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen.

Both 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 Russia's history have been acted out. It is both a real place and an imaginative idea, - a shorthand for a certain kind of secretive state power, but also the heart of a specific Russian authenticity.
Catherine Merridale's exceptional new 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 ruler's social, spiritual, military or regal priorities. In the process, all have claimed to be the heirs of Russia's great historic destiny. From its deepest basements to the red star on the Saviour Tower, the Kremlin preserves traces of all its roles, from sacred Orthodox religious site to tyrants' lair, from sumptuous palace to greasy Bolshevik canteen.
The Kremlin is one of the very few buildings in the world which still keeps its original, late medieval function: as a palace, built to intimidate the ruler's subjects and to frighten foreign emissaries. Red Fortress brilliantly conveys this sense of the Kremlin as a stage set, nearly as potent under Vladimir Putin as it was under earlier, far more baleful inhabitants.

They died in vast numbers, eight million men and women driven forward in suicidal charges, shattered by German shells and tanks. They were the soldiers of the Red Army, an exhausted mass of recruits who confronted Europe's most lethal fighting force and by 1945 had defeated it. For sixty years, their experiences were suppressed, replaced by patriotic propaganda. We know something of how the soldiers died, but nearly nothing about how they lived, let alone how they saw the world or why they fought. In this monumental work of investigation, Catherine Merridale rescues the Russian rank and file from the official piety of war memorials, offering at once a gripping history of Stalin's conscripts and a masterly narrative of the Eastern Front.

Drawing on previously closed military and secret police archives, interviews with surviving soldiers, and private letters and diaries, Catherine Merridale presents here the first comprehensive history of the thirty million soldiers of the Red Army.

During the twentieth century, Russia, Ukraine, and the other territories of the former Soviet Union experienced more bloodshed and violent death than anywhere else on earth: fifty million dead in an epic of destruction that encompassed war, revolution, famine, epidemic, and political purges. In Night of Stone, Catherine Merridale asks Russians difficult questions about how their country's volatile past has affected their everyday lives, aspirations, dreams, and nightmares. Drawing upon evidence from rare Imperial archives, Soviet propaganda, memoirs, letters, newspapers, literature, psychiatric studies, and interviews, Night of Stone…