One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the 'Dirlewanger Special Unit.' Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. One month later, it fought one of its most controversial actions near the town of Ipolysag, Hungary. As a result of its overly hasty and haphazard deployment, lack of heavy armament, and a confusing chain of command, it was virtually destroyed by two Soviet mechanized corps.
Consequently, the Wehrmacht leadership blamed Dirlewanger and the performance of his troops for the encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest that led to the annihilation of its garrison two months later. The brigade's defeat at Ipolysag also led to its compulsory removal from the front lines and its eventual shipment to a rest area where it would be completely rebuilt. Despite its lackluster performance, the brigade was rebuilt again but never recovered from the thrashing it received at the hands of the 6th Guards Army.
Since its founding in 1995, the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service, has regained the majority of the domestic security functions of the Soviet-era KGB. Under Vladimir Putin, who served as FSB director just before becoming president, the agency has grown to be one of the most powerful and favored organizations in Russia. The FSB not only conducts internal security but also has primacy in intelligence operations in former Soviet states. Their activities include anti-dissident operations at home and abroad, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, criminal investigations of crimes against the state, and guarding Russia's borders.
In The Russian FSB, Kevin P. Riehle provides a brief history of the FSB's origins, placed within the context of Russian history, the government's power structure, and Russia's wider culture. He describes how the FSB's mindset and priorities show continuities from the tsarist regimes and the Soviet era. The book's chapters analyze origins, organizational structure, missions, leaders, international partners, and cultural representations such as the FSB in film and television.
Based on both English and Russian sources, this book is a well-researched introduction to understanding the FSB and its central role in Putin's Russia.
In October 1941, Hitler launched Operation Typhoon-the German drive to capture Moscow and knock the Soviet Union out of the war. As the last chance to escape the dire implications of a winter campaign, Hitler directed seventy-five German divisions, almost two million men and three of Germany's four panzer groups into the offensive, resulting in huge victories at Viaz'ma and Briansk-among the biggest battles of the Second World War. David Stahel's groundbreaking new account of Operation Typhoon captures the perspectives of both the German high command and individual soldiers, revealing that despite success on the battlefield the wider German war effort was in far greater trouble than is often acknowledged. Germany's hopes of final victory depended on the success of the October offensive but the autumn conditions and the stubborn resistance of the Red Army ensured that the capture of Moscow was anything but certain.
This classic Soviet Union history traces the USSR from 1917, to its fall, offering 'a master class in understanding the structures and intricate workings of the Soviet system' (Ian Kershaw, historian and Hitler biographer).
Today, the Soviet Union remains the most extraordinary but tragic attempt to create a society beyond capitalism. Yet its history was one that for a long time proved impossible to write.
In The Soviet Century, Moshe Lewin follows this history in all its complexity, guiding us through the inner workings of a system which is still barely understood. In the process, he overturns widely held beliefs about the USSR's leaders, the State-Party system, and the powerful Soviet bureaucracy.
Departing from a simple linear history, The Soviet Century traces all the continuities and ruptures that led from the founding revolution of October 1917, to the final collapse of the late 1980s and early 1990s, passing through the Stalinist dictatorship, the impossible reforms of the Khrushchev years, and the glasnost and perestroika policies of Gorbachev.
In Collisions, Michael Kimmage, a historian and former State Department official who focused on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, offers a wide-angle, historically informed account of the origins of the current Russia-Ukraine war.
From the halls of power in Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow to the battlefields of Ukraine, Kimmage chronicles Putin's ascendancy to the Russian presidency, delves into multiple American presidencies and their dealings with Russia and Europe, and recounts Europe's efforts to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union. He tells the story of how Ukraine went from an embattled country on the edge of Europe to a formidable military power capable of pushing back the Russian military. Just as importantly, Kimmage captures how the current war has transformed multiple centers of power-from China to the United States-and dramatically altered the path of globalization itself. He makes the case that the war in Ukraine has shifted the direction of major macro-trends in world politics, contributing to the fragmentation of international politics, higher inflation, greater food insecurity, and the general collapse of arms control. These intersecting dangers amount to a new age of global instability, born in war and in the collision between Russia and the United States that has brought the world to the brink of a new Cold War.
In November 1941, Hitler ordered German forces to complete the final drive on the Soviet capital, now less than 100 kilometers away. Army Group Center was pressed into the attack for one last attempt to break Soviet resistance before the onset of winter. From the German perspective, the final drive on Moscow had all the ingredients of a dramatic final battle in the east, which, according to previous accounts, only failed at the gates of Moscow. David Stahel challenges this well-established narrative by demonstrating that the last German offensive of 1941 was a forlorn effort, undermined by operational weakness and poor logistics and driven forward by what he identifies as National Socialist military thinking. With unparalleled research from previously undocumented army files and soldiers' letters, Stahel takes a fresh look at the battle for Moscow, which even before the Soviet winter offensive, threatened disaster for Germany's war in the east.
Drawing on a wide range of unpublished material and observations gathered from his visit to Yugoslavia in 1999, Michael Parenti challenges mainstream media coverage of the war, uncovering hidden agendas behind the Western talk of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and democracy.
In this timely and incisive book, Sergei Medvedev argues that Russia's war in Ukraine was not merely a whim of Putin's obsession: rather, it was the result of two decades of authoritarian degradation and post-imperial ressentiment, a culmination of Putin's regime and of Russia's entire imperial history. Building on his prize-winning book The Return of the Russian Leviathan, Medvedev argues that it was not only Putin that started this war, but Russia itself, which, by and large, has imagined and embraced it with enthusiasm, seeking to relive its own military glory and colonial past.
This book explores why there is a major war again in Europe. Putin's actions need to be understood if not forgiven. With the Ukraine conflict seen as a proxy war of NATO versus Russia, how likely is the fighting to spread?
The author, a highly respected journalist and political commentator, explains why Russia invaded a sovereign neighbor. To what extent did NATO's expansion to Russia's borders in the aftermath of the Cold War provoke Putin? Did the West's recent humiliating defeats in the Middle East and South Asia encourage Putin to exploit what he saw as its decadent strategic weakness and lack of resolve? What were the reasons for Russia's savage behavior in Ukraine? How might the Ukraine war end and what will the post-bellum world look like?
The war in Ukraine has had worldwide impact with cost of living, food and energy crises, and raised the risk of nuclear Armageddon by accident or intent. It examines the complex military and political issues in layman's language while the story is told as a compelling historical narrative.
Professor Moorcraft, who has worked in Ukraine and has witnessed Russian troops in action in Afghanistan, is superbly qualified to write this work.
Издательство «Ардис» представляет исторические повести Всеволода Никаноровича Иванова «Иван III» и «Ночь царя Петра».
В «Иване Третьем» изображено время конца татаро-монгольского ига и укрепления могущества московского князя, собравшего под свою руку разрозненные русские земли, мелкие княжества и города, и положившего начало европейской политике Русского централизованного государства.
В «Ночи царя Петра» даны картины борьбы боярского уклада против петровских реформ. Неизвестный эпизод этой борьбы – столкновение царевича Алексея Петровича с отцом – предстает под пером Вс. Иванова во всей красочности и достоверности.
Содержание
Иван III
Глава 1. Предвесенняя ночь в Москве
Глава 2. Беседы у постели…
Глава 3. Забота строительная
Глава 4. Забота новгородская
Глава 5. Забота ордынская
Глава 6. Растоптанная басма
Глава 7. Нерушимая оборона
Глава 8. Победа
Ночь царя Петра
Глава 1. Привезли!
Глава 2. Сны Авдотьи-царицы
Глава 3. Пропал царевич
Глава 4. Почт-карета в Курляндии
Глава 5. Розыск
Глава 6. В Вене
Глава 7. Кто прав, отец ли, сын ли
Глава 8. В замке Эренберг
Глава 9. В Неаполе
Глава 10. В Лондоне
Глава 11. Алексей Петрович Бестужев-Рюмин
Глава 12. Карл XII
Глава 13. Петр Андреевич Толстой
Глава 14. Манифест к народу
Глава 15. Суд и смерть
![[Russian] - Иван III. Ночь царя Петра Audiobook](https://covers.audiobooks.com/images/covers/large/4099995316728.jpg)