Best Books About Soviet Union

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Henrietta Naughton

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Aug 4, 2024, 11:47:01 PM8/4/24

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RobertChandler, one of the best known translators of Russian literature, recommends some of his favourite tales of Soviet Russia. There's the one about a dog in space and the one about the Soviet caf which stocked nothing but champagne and Mars bars...

Mary Elise Sarotte, holder of the Kravis Chair in Historical Studies at Johns Hopkins, discusses five books on the end of the Cold War and East Germany's attempts to grapple with its new future post-reunification

The author and academic talks about KGB tricks to get American victims of the Great Depression in Russia to take Soviet citizenship. 'They had to hand over their American passports temporarily and never saw them again'

Dr Stephen Lucas is a partner in the banking group of an international law firm, Linklaters LLP and a student of Soviet law. He recommends books on communist legislation in the former USSR

Russian literature specialist Michael Nicholson, Emeritus Fellow at University College, Oxford, talks us through the best books to learn more about the great Soviet dissident and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

I had the great pleasure to talk to Coach Tabachnik, who I will call Ben in the rest of the article. I found him to be the most knowledgeable man about sprinting with whom I have ever had a conversation with. He was in the United States after an exhausting trip that finally landed him and his family in Baltimore.

He was very creative, but that made little difference under his circumstances. He wanted to teach speed to sprinters. Thank goodness Frank Costello was the strength coach at the University of Maryland and made it possible for Ben to talk at a seminar in Memphis, Tenn. All the coaches were overwhelmed and he got a chance, after all that is what he wanted to prove that he had a system that would make someone run faster.

Drugs or no drugs, his concepts on the training of a youth to Elite athlete is a guide-line from which to teach. Ben had many training innovations one of which was the speed-chute. He saved this device until arriving in the United States.

It seems to me that the difference between philosophy of the United States and the Soviet Union was the United States looks for a better athlete, and the Soviet Union looked for a better training system to make a better athlete. In the book Soviet Training and Recovery Methods Ben takes the reader through the greatest training methodologies ever devised.

Two things come to mind first, a large amount of money was spent on the training of their coaches and athletes. This is not the case in the USA. It may appear to many that are consumed by professional sports, but do not look at the athletes, rather the coaches. Many have not tried to educate themselves past their college degrees. One should be equally equipped to coach a 10-year-old as a pro.

The Soviet Union would have their youth go to a sport school to determine what sport one should enter by the evaluations undertaken at the school. This is referred to as the Rule of Three. After the three years of GPP they are entered into a sport that is best suited for the child by their physical abilities as well as their psychological state.

You will learn that the Soviet Union had two degrees, one for teaching and one for coaching. Westside is attempting to do the same in the USA. Students can only receive teaching. Like the Soviet Union, Westside has a coaching certificate that is very extensive consisting of 12 or so books and many hours of DVDs.

The key to success is a long-term plan. Remember they start at nine or 10, so at 20 years old they have 10 years of sustained efforts at one sport. Then their sports career begins. Be sure not to push the young athlete too fast, or they could burn out far from reaching their upmost potential. This happens in the US far too often. A lesson to be learned for sure.

The Soviets had so many researchers, but no way to get the information to all the other coaches. There is a different problem in the USA. There is no connection between science and team coaches. Ben talks about the importance of top coaches and trainers in all sports. A country needs to put its entire effort into teams that will excel in specific sports, and not waste time on certain sports that they will have little chance of winning.

All training methods must blend together including restoration and pharmaceuticals. This is not the case here. The West has no such plan for training an eight-year-old up to maybe 32-years-old. This leads to a lack of preparation from beginning to the end of a sports career. The parent will always choose the education path for their kids, but not their sports career. This, of course, will lead to a lack of preparation.

Ben talked about choosing the best special exercises for the right athlete. You will find that weight training builds a large amount of base strength and jumping, not Olympic lifting, builds explosive strength.

There is so much information I cannot begin to talk about everything that is covered in this fine book. It is hard to find and expensive, up to $600, but if you canfind a copy, I highly suggest you buy it. You will see why it costs so much. It is worth it.

Because the Cold War was so long and had many players and events, a lot of fascinating books have been written about it. Here is a look at 10 of the best Cold War history books for adults. These tales of espionage and intrigue detail a time of suspicion and fear not that far in the past, and include true stories that read like bestselling spy novels.

The Compatriots is a comprehensive look at the exodus of Russian citizens that began at the end of the 19th century, and how Russia took advantage of it by turning some emigrants, including Leon Theremin, the inventor of the theremin, into spies for Moscow. It also looks at the suspicion and persecution Russians abroad faced all over the world.

Above and Beyond is the tense true story of the bravery of two U-2 pilots, Rudy Anderson and Chuck Maultsby, who risked their lives carrying out secret missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis under the leadership of President Kennedy.

Odd Arne Westad delivers a thorough, recent examination of the Cold War, from beginning to end, detailing not just the United States' and Russia's involvement, but also the effect it had all over the globe.

This deep dive explains 1983, one of the most dangerous years of the Cold War. It was when President Reagan launched the Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative to protect the United States from missiles, which alarmed the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, who in turn ramped up the Soviet nuclear defense.

Robert Service recounts the beginning of the end of the Cold War. After decades of tension and the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, the US and Russia had reached a peaceful settlement, due largely in part to the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union in 1985.

The Moscow Rules is a real-life spy story told by the spies themselves! Antonio Mendez and his future wife Jonna were CIA operatives spying on Moscow in the 1970s. The tactics they developed helped CIA officers to outmaneuver the KGB.

Blind Man's Bluff details the use of submarines during the Cold War. They were used to spy on Russia, by tapping underwater telephone cables and using other listening devices. The book also discusses daring missions, lost submarines, and the time Howard Hughes was recruited to steal a Soviet submarine.

Liberty Hardy is a Book Riot senior contributing editor and velocireader in the great state of Maine, where she reads 500-600 books a year and lives with her three cats, who were not alive during the Cold War.

2021 will mark the 30th anniversary of the end of the Cold War, which was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, marked by spying, McCarthyism, and looming nuclear war for over four decades.

Here are eight of the best Cold War history books for adults, whether you are looking to learn a general overview of the decades-long rivalry or explore deep dives into particular events. Both history buffs and readers looking to start learning about the Cold War will find these fascinating.

This book details the true story of Vasili Mitrokhin, a secret dissident who worked in the KGB archive, who smuggled out copies of its most highly classified files every day for twelve years. The possession of these KGB documents by the FBI was the largest, most extensive look the United States has ever had inside the organization.

Journalist Christian Caryl examines the many important events that transpired in 1979 that led to the beginnings of the end of the Cold War. These events include changes in the international economy, the start of revolutionary Islam as a global political force, and the beginning of the resistance movements in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan.

Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985 was the start of the last years of the Cold War. Prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy examines Gorbachev's resignation as Soviet prime minister in 1991 and the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union, using recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants.

Homeward Bound is an in-depth examination of the Cold War on citizens in the United States, and how the threat of nuclear war affected the men, women, and children of America. From the fear of Communists to the rise in fallout shelters and the practice of bomb drills in school, the Cold War had a lasting impact on the people who lived through it, especially in the two decades following World War II.

An extensively researched recent overview of the Cold War, this book benefits from many recent revelations and unsealed documents. Westad provides a thorough look at the factors that contributed to the start of the Cold War, the numerous countries that were affected by it besides the United States and Russia, and the events that led to its end.