A. M. Nekrich, The Punished Peoples (New York, 1978), on the deportation of nationalities during the Second World War.
R. Pennington, Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat (Lawrence, Kan., 2001), on the significant role of women in the Soviet air force during the war.
C. Porter and M. Jones, Moscow in World War II (London, 1987), social history from perspective of sympathy for the Soviet government.
H. Ragsdale, The Soviets, the Munich Crisis, and the Coming of World War II (New York, 2004), recent survey of the diplomatic background to the outbreak of war.
A. Resis (ed.), Molotov Remembers (Chicago, IL, 1994), provides insights into Soviet policy in the 1940s and 1950s.
D. Reynolds (ed.), The Origins of the Cold War in Europe (New Haven, CT, 1994), collection of articles highlighting post-Cold War scholarship.
H. Shukman (ed.), Stalin’s Generals (New York, 1993), short biographies of top Soviet commanders during the war.
R. W. Stephan, Stalin’s Secret War: Soviet Counterintelligence against the Nazis, 1941–1945 (Lawrence, Kan., 2004), on Stalin’s actions to prevent Germany from recruiting agents in the Soviet military and intelligence.
R. Thurston and B. Bonwetsch (eds.), The People’s War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union (Urbana, Ill., 2000), wide-ranging essays on the war’s impact and popular reaction.
G. L. Weinberg, A World at Arms (Cambridge, 1994), prize-winning general history of the Second World War.
E. Zubkova, Russia after the War: Hopes, Illusions, and Disappointments, 1945–1957 (Armonk, NY, 1998), on public opinion in post-war Stalin era.
13. FROM STALINISM TO STAGNATION, 1953–1985
S. H. Baron, Bloody Saturday in the Soviet Union (Stanford, Calif., 2001), on the Novocherkassk strike of 1962 and its repression.
S. Bialer, Stalin’s Successors (Cambridge, 1980), on party leadership in post-Stalinist era.
V. Bonnell and G. Breslauer (eds.), Russia in the New Century: Stability of Disorder (Boulder, Colo., 2001), essays on the late Yeltsin era.
G. W. Breslauer, Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders (London, 1982), penetrating assessment of leadership styles and achievements.
R. A. Divine (ed.), The Cuban Missile Crisis (2nd edn., New York, 1988), contains new information and recollection of key participants.
J. Ellis, The Russian Orthodox Church (Beckenham, 1986), informed contemporary history.
L. Grau and M. A. Gress (eds.), The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost (Lawrence, Kan., 2002), the Russian General Staff’s post-mortem on the Afghan conflict, stressing Russia’s adaptation and the impact of American bounties and weapons for the insurgency.
G. A. Hosking, Beyond Socialist Realism (New York, 1980), scintillating analysis of ‘village writers’.
J. L. H. Keep, Last of the Empires (Oxford, 1995), sweeping recent history of post-war USSR.
N. S. Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (3 vols., Boston, MA, 1970–90), edited versions of memoirs.
P. Jones (ed.), The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization: Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era (London, 2006), essays on the impact of de-Stalinization on the public, policy, and culture.
S. N. Khrushchev, Khrushchev on Khrushchevism (Boston, 1990), memoir of Khrushchev’s son.
N. Lubin, Labour and Nationality in Soviet Central Asia (Princeton, NJ, 1984), on the complex problems of labour and economic development.
A. McAuley, Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union (Madison, 1979), on poverty and income distribution.
M. McCauley (ed.), Khrushchev and Khrushchevism (Bloomington, Ind., 1987), useful collection of essays.
———Nikita Khrushchev (London, 1991), reliable, up-to-date biography.
J. Millar (ed.), Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the U.S.S.R. (New York, 1987), results of survey of former Soviet citizens.
M. Shatz, Soviet Dissent in Historical Perspective (New York, 1980).
M. J. Sodaro, Moscow, Germany, and the West from Khrushchev to Gorbachev (Ithaca, NY, 1990), expert account.
W. Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and his Era (New York, 2003), standard political biography based on exhaustive research.
———S. Khrushchev, and A. Gleason (eds.), Nikita Khrushchev (New Haven, CT, 2000), informative collection of essays on Khrushchev and his role.
A. P. Van Goudoever, The Limits of Destalinization in the Soviet Union (London, 1986).
V. Zubok, A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (Chapel Hill, NC, 2007), informative survey of post-Stalinist foreign policy of the USSR.
14. A MODERN ‘TIME OF TROUBLES: FROM REFORMS TO DISINTEGRATION’ 1985–1999
A. Åslund, Gorbachev’s Struggle for Economic Reform (2nd edn., Ithaca, NY, 1991), critique of Gorbachev’s reforms, arguing in favour of a rapid transition to the market economy.
Z. Barany and R. G. Moser (eds.), Russian Politics: Challenges of Democratization (Cambridge, 2001), broad essays on politics, centre-periphery relations, economic reform, and the armed forces in the 1990s.
M. R. Beissinger, Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge, 2002), on the differentiated, but decisive impact of nationalist movements in the break-up of the USSR.
A. Brown, The Gorbachev Factor in Soviet Politics (2nd edn., New York, 1992), incisive analysis of Gorbachev’s role and significance.
———Seven Years That Changed the World: Perestroika in Perspective (Oxford, 2007), valuable retrospective on Gorbachev and perestroika, emphasizing the dynamics that drove policy and decision-making.
M. Buckley (ed.), Perestroika and Soviet Women (Cambridge, 1992), on the women’s question in the Gorbachev era.
P. Chaisty, Legislative Politics and Economic Power in Russia (New York, 2006), on lawmaking in post-Soviet Russia, emphasizing the parliament’s negative role (in delaying, obstructing legislation) prior to the emergence of Putin’s United Russia.
A. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev (University Park, Pa., 2000), valuable memoir by a close aide to Gorbachev.
T. J. Colton, Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia (Cambridge, Mass., 2000), detailed, sophisticated analysis of the 1995 parliamentary and 1996 presidential elections.
———Yeltsin: A Life (New York, 2008), definitive biography.
W. L. Daniel, E. Stewart, and H. Stewart, The Orthodox Church and Civil Society in Russia (College Station, Tex., 2006), analysis of three parishes during the renaissance of Orthodoxy in post-Soviet Russia.
C. Freeland, Sale of the Century: Russia’s Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism (New York, 2000), account of insider politics and corruption.
E. T. Gaidar, Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia (Washington, DC, 2007), informed assessment of the economic crisis and perestroika by the first prime minister in the Yeltsin government.