Russia Books

Trans-Siberian Handbook: Seventh Edition of the Guide to the World's Longest Railway Journey (Trailblazer Guides)

Bryn Thomas

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Trailblazer Publications Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $11.62

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Railroads -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Railroads -> General AAS
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With over 90,000 copies now sold, this is the most popular Trans-Siberian guidebook. A trip across Siberia on the longest continuous railway track in the world is undoubtedly the journey of a lifetime. It's also a convenient way to reach China, Mongolia, or Japan. Tickets are not expensive or difficult to arrange. Readers can now travel almost anywhere they want in Siberia: we tell them how to organize a trip, where to get tickets, and where to go.

>Kilometer-by-kilometer route guide -- covering the entire routes of the Trans-Siberian, Trans-Manchurian, and Trans-Mongolian railways with thirty-eight strip maps in English, Russian, and Chinese: readers can see where they are as they travel
>Siberia and the railway -- the detailed history of Siberia, the construction of the railway and the running of the Trans-Siberian today are of great interest not only to visitors but also to armchair travelers
>City guides with maps -- the best sights, places to stay, and restaurants for all budgets: Moscow, St Petersburg, Ulan Bator, Beijing, and twenty-three towns in Siberia
>Nutshell information on Minsk, Berlin, Baltic Republics, Helsinki, Hong Kong, and Tokyo
>Rail fares and timetables
>Seventh edition includes seventy maps
>Plus Russian and Chinese phrases

Imperium

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $8.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Eastern
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> World -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Sine qua non 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

A lyrical masterpiece by this superlative writer! Nowhere have I found a dissection of the Evil Empire done with such fluid verse. He goes from the periphery into the heart of the beast and everywhere he discovers that appearances deceive and what seems to signal change is really a re-hash of old. Kapuczinski's sharp analysis and trenchant comments will be sorely missed!

Kapuscinski rulez! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book, all of Kapuscinski`s books are great. It takes you for a journey you don`t expect. Great style and I always regret it`s over, after I finish to read his book.

Recommended 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this book after reading about the author in the Wall Street Journal. He died earlier this year. The author, a journalist, kept two notebooks while on assignments throughout the world, one for his assignment and one for himself. In this book he combined his observations from several trips he took within Russia and its states over a span of many decades. At times his writing style can be quite poetic, and the book is not unlike a travel book, although Soviet Russia was not a friendly place at the times of his visits. I intend to read his other books, and highly recommend this one.

Editorial Review:

By "the conjuror extraordinary of modern portage" (John le Carre)--a personal, brilliantly detailed exploration of the almost unfathomably complex Soviet empire. "When a writer of Mr. Kapuscinski's genius writes of the snows and the steppes of Siberia, of the doomed Aral Sea and Kiev . . . no pictures are necessary."--The Wall Street Journal. First time in paperback.

Moscow (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

DK Publishing

Amazon Price: $15.64 List Price: $23.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DK Travel Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $9.31

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> Moscow
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good, but light on practical information. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book does a good job covering all the main sites of Moscow. The illustrations are very detailed and intense. I think it would best fit someone who is only in Moscow for a day or two, and just wants to hit a few of the touristy attractions. I bought this book, but also purchased the Fodor's guide to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Fodor's has much much more practical information - such as best days and times to see certain things, places to avoid, where to buy the best souvenirs, where to stay away from .. etc. It is also much more subjective and they offer their opinions on certain sites. This guide does not offer this subjectivity, and only offers very general and limited practical information.

Editorial Review:

A pocket-sized city guide with a large-scale street map. "AA CityPacks" are specially designed for the short break city visitor. Organise your time with recommended day itineraries, walks and excursions. The Top 25 sights, arranged from west to east across the city, are highlighted and give you all the accompanying detail you need such as prices and opening times. The best features of the city are all described - galleries, museums, parks and much more. Information is presented in easy-reference lists - restaurants, pubs, bars, cafes, different types of shop, all kinds of nightlife - concerts, opera, cinemas, theatres, and places to stay to suit all budgets. Every guide comes with a separate street map and a protective plastic wallet.

In Siberia

Colin Thubron

Amazon Price: $14.65 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $2.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Former Soviet Republics & Siberia
Subjects -> History -> Russia
Subjects -> History -> World -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Siberia explores a region of astonishments, where "white cranes dance on the permafrost, where a great city floats lost among the ice floes, where mammoths sleep under glaciers." Colin Thubron's latest chronicle also delivers its subject from rumor into reality. An expanse larger than the entire United States, Siberia is undoubtedly a country of contrasts, which elicits from the author both awe and melancholy. Here on one hand is a northern wilderness "shattered into a jigsaw of ponds and streams," and on the other a "black detritus of factories and ruins." No less memorable than the landscape are the people that Thubron encounters. He gathers their stories like rough jewels, showing us a self-proclaimed descendant of Rasputin, an isolated Jewish community, and a parade of "indestructible babushkas."

Woven among the often bitter and eroding memories of a Siberian past is a sense of new freedom. After all, this is the first time in Russia's history when foreigners can travel freely throughout the region--and its inhabitants can comment openly about their government without fear of reprisal. Thubron coaxes an institute official at the Akademgorodok Praesidium to speak his mind:

His face was heavy with anger. "We have one overriding problem here. Money. We receive no money for new equipment, hardly enough for our salaries. There are people who haven't been paid for six months." Then his anger overflowed. He was barking like a drill sergeant. "This year we requested funds for six or seven different programmes! And not one has been accepted by the government! Not one!"

Thubron's portrait is as elegant as it is evocative. But just as notably, his journey to the east manages to break the long and destructive Siberian silence. --Byron Ricks

The Icon and the Axe : An Interpretive History of Russian Culture

James Billington

Amazon Price: $15.64 List Price: $23.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $3.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Russian Culture Viewed Through A Prism 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is an impressive chronicle on Russian culture, emphasising its `intellectual and artistic' qualities over the past six centuries and bringing many unknown facets to light. Billington speaks of three `forces' in particular that dominate the main narrative; `The natural surroundings, the Christian heritage, and the Western contacts of Russia'. Each of these themes reveals a wealth of insight and understanding; `the natural surroundings' become an elemental power where a...`Telluric sense of communion with the earth' alternates `with a restless impulse to be `skitaltsy' or wanderers over the Russian land'. `The Christian heritage,' looks at Russian Orthodoxy in the broader context of an all encompassing `spiritual culture' that `permeates' through all of life; and `the Western contacts of Russia' relates the growing inevitability of Russia impinging upon Europe and itself being altered through European currents of action and thought. We read how... `Catherine substituted the city for the monastery as the main centre of Russian culture. She, and not Peter, closed down monasteries on a massive scale'...and so on for page after page, as though mining a rich seam. This is a hugely ambitious book that succeeds triumphantly and is truly worth the immersion!

Editorial Review:

"A rich and readable introduction to the whole sweep of Russian cultural and intellectual history from Kievan times to the post-Khruschev era." - Library Journal. Illustrations, references, index.

St. Petersburg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

DK Publishing

Amazon Price: $22.54 List Price: $23.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DK Travel Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $8.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> St. Petersburg
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Eyewitness Travel Guides Does It Again 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Eyewitness Travel Guides once again lives up to its motto: "The guides that show you what others only tell you." While other guides are long on talk about St. Petersburg, this guide adds hundreds of photos, detailed illustrations, diagrams, maps, and time-lines to bring the city and its surrounding areas to life. Paging through it is like vacationing in St. Petersburg without the cost of going there. Fortunately, the book also includes what you need to know and how to manage when you are there.

Good Travel Info 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Great book. Glossy Paper and small enuf to carry along. Recommend DK books

Eyewitness Travel St. Petersburg 2007 edition 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book helped me a lot on my visit to St. Petersburg as I don't know Russian. The maps have the street names in English and Cyrillic Also the street index. There is also a metro map with stations written in both languages. The metro map and phrase book at the end - should be written in bigger letters. The book is very colorful and helps you to identify the sights and find your way.
I didn't read all the history section which seems very detailed but for a traveler - there should be a summery page of the important events and people who had an impact on St. Petersburg's history and Architecture.
Information that I found lacking or should be improved (Only from my experience in the city and I didn't see or visit all the sites)
1.Yosupuv Palace - no information about the beautiful interior and collections (p. 120) A gallery or hall guide should be added.
2. There are three guided walks ( P. 133-139) but a very important one "Dostoevsky walk" ("Crime and Punishment") around the area of Sennaya Ploshchad is missing . there is a small map on p.115 with "sights at glance" without the buldings were Dostoevsky lived. There is a mention of him on page 123 with limited information.
A map, the walk and more information linking the area to the relevant books (" Crime & Punishment"," The Gambler" etc.) must be added.
3. Traskoe Selo or Pushkin (P.152-155) - no mention of the impressive Holocaust "Formula of Grief " also not on the map on page 155.

Editorial Review:

EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDES are organised district by district, with a systematic, thematic approach. Significant sights in each area, and star features in each major sight, as well as shopping, accommodation and dining information, are shown alongside colour 3-D maps, town maps, thematic maps, cutaways and floorplans.

Russian: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Russian Edition)

James Jenkin, Lonely Planet Phrasebooks

Amazon Price: $8.99 List Price: $8.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lonely Planet Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $3.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Reference -> Dictionaries & Thesauruses -> Foreign Language -> Russian
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> Instruction -> Russian
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> Instruction -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Handy Language Guide for those Discovering Russia 3 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

As the founder of Discovering Russia, a company devoted to enriching cultural and business travel to Russia, we are always looking for good travel books to recommend for our clients. "Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook" is such a volume for those who are trying to learn more than the barest of phrases.

Many guidebooks include a few pages in the back with a Russian alphabet and brief phrase guide (including Lonely Planet's various guides to Russia). This is a good book for those looking to learn a few phrases as well as basic grammar. The size is perfect for a traveler to supplement their basic guidebook when touring.

As most with most other dictionaries, "Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook" does NOT have clear syllable stress marks, which are very important in Russian. Also, many of the phrase choices are almost archaic in contemporary Russia (and the inclusion of vulgarity is a complete waste of space).

The "Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook" is useful bridge between the brief phrase lists in guidebooks and a minicourse in Russia. It is useful for travelers to carry around during their journey of Discovering Russia.

Marc David Miller, Discovering Russia, New York

Editorial Review:

Don't let your Russian experience become Russian Roulette! Pick up this phrasebook instead, and begin communicating with ease.

*Comprehensive food section
*Tips on cultural etiquette
*Useful phrases for finding accomodations, dealing with health emergencies and hitting the town
*Easy-to-use pronunciation guide
*Two way dictionary and sentence builder

The Road Gets Better From Here

Adrian Scott

Amazon Price: $16.95 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $16.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Reference -> Writing -> Travel
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With virtually no experience and absolutely no support, Adrian rides a basic stock motorbike 20,000kms across nine countries in three months to fulfill a lifelong dream. He sets off from the bleak, windswept former gulag gateway city of Magadan in a remote corner of Siberia, but before the day is out he crashes badley, breaking his bike and seriously injuring himself. He is completely alone. He struggles on through swamps, bogs and mud tracks and nearly drowns in the icy rapids along Stalin's infamous Road of Bones. Although it is summer in Siberia, it is freezing and the driving rain is relentless. When the sun does appear, he is attacked by fierce squadrons of giant mosquitoes and, with wild bears roaming, he cannot stop, often riding for days at a time. Sheer physical strength saves his life on numerous occasions. He battles on deep into central Russia, across the vast Steppes of Kazakhstan and on through the scaring Taklimakan Desert in remote western China. He scales the breathtaking Pamirs and rides across the roof of the world before entering the fabled Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Chive. He scurries across oddball Turkmenism, and on across ancient Persia before finally arriving at his destination, exotic Istanbul. At every turn, Adrian is adopted by a vast array of characters, each with stories to tell and who, extraordinarily, expect nothing in return; tough Siberian truck drivers, frontier road workers, border guards desperate villagers, drug-addled soldiers and crazy modern-day traders, each insisting that he join them in their homes to share their lives and most of their provisions. It is these encounters which provide such a rich and compelling subtext to his extraordinary journey.

Frommer's Moscow & St. Petersburg (Frommer's Complete)

Angela Charlton

Amazon Price: $14.99 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Frommers Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $8.34

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> Moscow
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> St. Petersburg
Subjects -> Travel -> Asia -> Russia -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Lightweight guide with plenty of fluff 3 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

I was very disappointed by this book, which feels largely like a cut-and-paste job. It opens with a bunch of general travel advice and then goes on to describe a few things to do and see in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Many blocks of text are repeated in various parts of the book and I felt the actual amount of information about things to do and see in these two amazing cities was pretty limited, especially given the number of pages I carried around with me. I found all the hotel info I needed on the Internet (see tripadvisor.com) and would have liked this book better if they'd left out all the hotel info and left out the repetition.

I feel like I could write you a better travel guide after spending just one week with natives in each city. Surely somebody else has done a better job!

Editorial Review:

• Savvy insider tips on exploring the treasures of the Hermitage Museum and the Kremlin.
• Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.
• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.
• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com

King of Russia: A Year in the Russian Super League

Dave King, Eric Duhatschek

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Emblem Editions Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $11.91

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Sports -> Biographies -> Hockey
Subjects -> Sports -> Hockey -> General
Subjects -> Sports -> Hockey -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A revealing look inside the Russian Super League by its first Canadian coach.

Until now no Canadian had penetrated the coaching ranks of Russian hockey, but the year after the NHL lockout, Dave King became head coach of the Metallurg Magnitogorsk. From the beginning, King, Canada’s long-time national coach and former coach of both the Flames and Blue Jackets, realized he was in for an adventure. His first meeting with team officials in a Vienna hotel lobby included six fast-talking Russians and the “bag-man” — assistant general manager Oleg Kuprianov, who always carried a little black bag full of U.S. one hundred dollar bills.

The mission seemed simple enough: keep the old Soviet style combination play on offence, but improve the team’s defensive play — and win a Russian Super League Championship. Yet, as King’s diary of his time in Russia reveals, coaching an elite Russian team is anything but simple. King of Russia details the world of Russian hockey from the inside, intimately acquainting us with the lives of key players, owners, managers, and fans, while granting us a unique perspective on life in an industrial town in the new Russia. And introducing us to Evgeni Malkin, Magnitogorsk’s star and the NHL’s newest phenomenon.


From the Hardcover edition.