Catherine Merridaleová
autor
Moscow Underground
'A gripping thriller and Belkin is a character many readers will want to encounter again' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Remarkable … If only all first novels were as enthralling as this' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Merridale’s talents as a Russia expert and writer combine to beam light on the depths of Moscow’s underworld' THE SUN Moscow, 1934. When a body is discovered during the construction of the glittering new Moscow subway, Investigator Anton Belkin wants nothing to do with the case. It will mean asking difficult questions of all the wrong people, and Anton has a very personal reason to keep his head down. But he has not reckoned with Vika, his former lover and now influential member of the secret police, who is adamant Anton is the best man for the job. Buried in the tunnels beneath the capital is a dangerous secret, but one entangled in a sticky web of political and personal rivalries, deceptions and betrayals. Soon Anton must choose between his conscience and saving those he loves from the vengeful grip of the Soviet state. ___ ‘Both a brilliant thriller and a historical record of the ambition, terror and deviousness of that black era in Russian history’ Gareth Rubin, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Turnglass
Moscow Underground
''A gripping thriller and Belkin is a character many readers will want to encounter again'' THE TIMES''A heartbreaking and passionate novel of the cruelty and fragility of love, death and life in Stalinist Russia'' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIOREMoscow, 1934.Moscow''s glittering new subway is under construction at last. The first line will run through the centre of the city, cutting deep through Moscow soil. But futures cannot be created without digging up the past. Though Russia''s leaders want to build a glorious Soviet capital, what holds them in a fatal grip is history: old mud and bones.Anton Belkin is an Investigator at the Procuracy, a sensitive job at a dangerous moment on the road to the Show Trials. He is also someone who needs to keep his head down. His artist father was once the darling of the revolutionary avant-garde, a painter whose work could inspire devotion and great sacrifice. But now his dreams are out of place, too loud and red in Stalin''s world of sterile rules and rubber stamps.Anton is dragged into a murder case. A prominent archaeologist, working alongside the subway dig, has been killed in a deserted mansion. Though Anton doesn''t want the job, his former lover, Vika, who is now a powerful member of the secret police, browbeats him into paying a visit to the site with her. Against his better judgement he is drawn to follow though, embarking on investigations that will almost certainly get him killed.Deep underground, he finds a priceless secret that could genuinely unlock the future but links him to a vicious internecine fight for power in the young Soviet state. In the process, he is forced to reconsider the history he shares with Vika and the bonds that bind them both.Moscow Underground is a sweeping novel of life, death and politics in the quicksand world of Stalin''s tyranny.
Lenin ve vlaku
Kniha Lenin ve vlaku sleduje průběh Leninovy cesty z curyšského exilu přes válkou rozvrácené Německo na sever k hranicím Laponska až po závěrečné nadšené uvítání revolučními davy na Finském nádraží v Petrohradu. Autorka v ní propojuje příběh zaplombovaného vlaku i jeho svérázných cestujících s liberální únorovou revolucí v Rusku. Detailně zobrazuje vzájemné průniky obou událostí. Při putování ve stopách Lenina vracejícího se po mnoha letech do vlasti využívá nepřebernou škálu soudobých očitých svědectví. Pro mnohé byl Lenin jen „užitečný hlupák“, jiní očekávali, že bude bez meškání uvězněn nebo zlikvidován, a zbytek byl přesvědčen, že má v praxi pramálo stoupenců a ještě menší vliv. Jak dnes víme, všichni se v tom fatálně mýlili. Nebýt geniálního nápadu několika německých úředníků umožnit nejproslulejšímu revolučnímu radikálovi Vladimiru Iljiči Leninovi, ukrývajícímu se v neutrálním Švýcarsku, odcestovat do vlasti, pak by možná v carském Rusku nedošlo k rozpoutání takového chaosu, jenž nakonec vedl k rozvrácení země a nastolení brutální bolševické diktatury.
Lenin on the Train
'Twice I missed my stop on the Tube reading this book...this is a jewel among histories' David Aaronovitch, The Times 'Catherine Merridale is one of the foremost foreign historians of Russia, combining wry insights with deep sympathy for the human beings suffering the tragedies she writes about...[Lenin on the Train] combines diplomatic intrigue, spycraft, towering personalities, bureaucratic bungling, military history and ideology.' Economist A gripping account of how, in the depths of the First World War, Russia's greatest revolutionary was taken in a 'sealed train' across Europe and changed the history of the world By 1917 the European war seemed to be endless. Both sides in the fighting looked to new weapons, tactics and ideas to break a stalemate that was itself destroying Europe. In the German government a small group of men had a brilliant idea: why not sow further confusion in an increasingly chaotic Russia by arranging for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the most notorious of revolutionary extremists, currently safely bottled up in neutral Switzerland, to go home? Catherine Merridale's Lenin on the Train recreates Lenin's extraordinary journey from harmless exile in Zurich, across a Germany falling to pieces from the war's deprivations, and northwards to the edge of Lapland to his eventual ecstatic reception by the revolutionary crowds at Petrograd's Finland Station. With great skill and insight Merridale weaves the story of the train and its uniquely strange group of passengers with a gripping account of the now half-forgotten liberal Russian revolution and shows how these events intersected. She brilliantly uses a huge range of contemporary eyewitnesses, observing Lenin as he travelled back to a country he had not seen for many years. Many thought he was a mere 'useful idiot', others thought he would rapidly be imprisoned or killed, others that Lenin had in practice few followers and even less influence. They would all prove to be quite wrong.
Vypredané
32,95 €
Ivanova válka
Osudy a zkušenosti ruského vojáka během druhé světové války na Východní frontě. Catherine Merridaleová shromáždila množství dopisů, osobních poznámek i oficiálních válečných zpráv. Podařilo se jí zpracovat stovky výpovědí přeživších očitých svědků války, pro svou práci získala dokumenty z archivu NKVD nebo zdravotnické záznamy o nemocných a raněných. Kniha tak podává živé svědectví o mužích, jdoucích v sebevražedných útocích na smrt, o jejich boji s vyzbrojenými německými tanky, proti kterým tito vojáci neměli mnoho šancí. Autorka se ve své práci snaží pochopit a vysvětlit, proč ruští vojáci bojovali tak obětavě a tak dlouho za režim, pro který měl jejich život hodnotu srovnatelnou s nábojem do děla. Válečné zkušenosti vojáků stojí proti oficiálnímu výkladu dějin druhé světové války v Rusku. Střetává se zde strach, zbabělost, rabování a znásilňování s neuvěřitelnou odvahou a nasazením těchto Ivanů, kteří za cenu miliónů obětí porazili nacistickou armádu.
Vypredané
17,81 €
