To Kill a Tsar
To Kill a Tsar

Author: G. K. George

Publisher: New Acdemia+ORM

Published: 2010-06-15

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 1955835330

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An unusual Russian police detective must stop a plot to kill the tsar in this historical thriller. Eccentric and fiercely independent Inspector Vasiliev exposes a conspiracy by a high-ranking nobleman and a top official in the secret police to assassinate the tsar in late imperial Russia. He finds unexpected help from Irina, a member of the revolutionary underground, with whom he falls in love . . . "Unique among books about Russia written by western authors: being extremely rich in details it contains no factual errors at all.” —Alexei Miller, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Scientific Information in Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow “In this masterful thriller, [G.K. George] meets us at the crossroads of history and literature. He deftly portrays the tensions and dynamics of life in Imperial Russia on the eve of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, an event that set the stage for the Russian Revolution. In the process, the author creates unforgettable characters such as Inspector Vasili Vasiliev, the Swan, and the Magician.” —Ben Eklof, Professor of History, Indiana University “A true thriller, with all the delightful trimmings of a masterful historical narrative. Alfred Rieber (alias, G.K. George) lures you into the turbulent, terrorist times of Russia in the 1880s, from glittering balls in noble palaces to mystical forests in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Erotic rituals of a religious sect called the Jumpers come frighteningly alive in this compelling narrative that is ethnographically and historically rich with plausible detail.” —Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Research Professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Georgetown University “With his unsurpassed knowledge of Russian history, [G.K. George] brings the terrorist crisis of the late 1870s and early 1880s to life in this exciting historical thriller. To Kill a Tsar traces the conspiracy that led to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in a plot filled with surprising twists and dramatic encounters between ardent young radicals and their adversaries from the security police. Along with compelling portraits of such real-life historical figures as the ill-fated Tsar, Rieber has created a complex and appealing hero, Inspector Vasiliev. Guided by the inspector, a master of disguise, and his faithful peasant sergeant, readers meet aristocrats and beggars and travel from high society salons to the slum hideouts of thieves and revolutionaries. . . . I recommend To Kill a Tsar to all readers who love action, intrigue, and vivid characters.” —Adele Lindenmeyr, Professor of History, Villanova University

Alexander II
Alexander II

Author: Edvard Radzinsky

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2006-11-14

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 0743284267

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Profiles the Romanov Dynasty tsar as one of Russia's most forward-thinking rulers, documenting his efforts to redefine history by bringing freedom to his country, and describing the series of assassination attempts that eventually ended his life.

To Kill a Tsar
To Kill a Tsar

Author: Andrew Williams

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 9781445855073

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From glittering ballrooms To The cruel cells of the House of Preliminary Detention, from the British Embassy To The undergroundpresses of the revolutionaries, 'To Kill a Tsar' is a gripping thriller set in a world of brutal contrasts.

Tsar
Tsar

Author: Ted Bell

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-08-06

Total Pages: 565

ISBN-13: 1847399533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Somewhere in Russia is a man so powerful that no one even knows his name. Yet though he is all but invisible, he is pulling strings - and pulling them hard. For suddenly Russia is a far bigger threat than even the most devoted Cold War warriors ever thought possible. With her finger on the switch to the European economy and her sights on the American jugular, Russia gains a new leader. Not just a president, he has been appointed Tsar, a signal to the world that the old imperial power is back - and plans to have her day. At the same time, a mysterious killer brutally murders an innocent American family, literally blowing up the small midwestern town in which they lived. Just a taste, according to the new Tsar, of what will happen if America does not step aside in preventing Russia's plans to 'reintegrate' her rogue states. Onto this nightmarish stage steps special agent extraordinaire Alex Hawke, the only man - both the British and Americans agree - who can stop the madness.

The Poison Tide
The Poison Tide

Author: Andrew Williams

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Published: 2012-08-16

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 1848545835

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

1915. German guns are on their way to Ireland. The British government faces its worst nightmare; insurrection at home while it struggles with bloody stalemate on the Western Front. A British spy, Sebastian Wolff of the new Secret Service Bureau, is given the task of hunting down its enemies: one a traitor reviled by the society that honoured him as a national hero; the other a German-American doctor who, instead of healing the sick, is developing a terrifying new weapon that he will use in the country of his birth. Wolff's mission will take him undercover into the corridors of power in Berlin, then across the Atlantic in a race against time to prevent the destruction of the ships and supplies Britain so desperately needs to stave off defeat.

The Odd Man Karakozov
The Odd Man Karakozov

Author: Claudia Verhoeven

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2011-01-15

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 080146028X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On April 4, 1866, just as Alexander II stepped out of Saint Petersburg's Summer Garden and onto the boulevard, a young man named Dmitry Karakozov pulled out a pistol and shot at the tsar. He missed, but his "unheard-of act" changed the course of Russian history-and gave birth to the revolutionary political violence known as terrorism. Based on clues pulled out of the pockets of Karakozov's peasant disguise, investigators concluded that there had been a conspiracy so extensive as to have sprawled across the entirety of the Russian empire and the European continent. Karakozov was said to have been a member of "The Organization," a socialist network at the center of which sat a secret cell of suicide-assassins: "Hell." It is still unclear how much of this "conspiracy" theory was actually true, but of the thirty-six defendants who stood accused during what was Russia's first modern political trial, all but a few were exiled to Siberia, and Karakozov himself was publicly hanged on September 3, 1866. Because Karakozov was decidedly strange, sick, and suicidal, his failed act of political violence has long been relegated to a footnote of Russian history. In The Odd Man Karakozov, however, Claudia Verhoeven argues that it is precisely this neglected, exceptional case that sheds a new light on the origins of terrorism. The book not only demonstrates how the idea of terrorism first emerged from the reception of Karakozov's attack, but also, importantly, what was really at stake in this novel form of political violence, namely, the birth of a new, modern political subject. Along the way, in characterizing Karakozov's as an essentially modernist crime, Verhoeven traces how his act profoundly impacted Russian culture, including such touchstones as Repin's art and Dostoevsky's literature. By looking at the history that produced Karakozov and, in turn, the history that Karakozov produced, Verhoeven shows terrorism as a phenomenon inextricably linked to the foundations of the modern world: capitalism, enlightened law and scientific reason, ideology, technology, new media, and above all, people's participation in politics and in the making of history.

The Kitchen Boy
The Kitchen Boy

Author: Robert Alexander

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2003-01-27

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1101200367

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient), directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) Drawing from decades of work, travel, and research in Russia, Robert Alexander re-creates the tragic, perennially fascinating story of the final days of Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov as seen through the eyes of their young kitchen boy, Leonka. Now an ancient Russian immigrant, Leonka claims to be the last living witness to the Romanovs’ brutal murders and sets down the dark secrets of his past with the imperial family. Does he hold the key to the many questions surrounding the family’s murder? Historically vivid and compelling, The Kitchen Boy is also a touching portrait of a loving family that was in many ways similar, yet so different, from any other. "Ingenious...Keeps readers guessing through the final pages." —USA Today

The Last of the Tsars
The Last of the Tsars

Author: Robert Service

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1681775727

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A riveting account of the last eighteen months of Tsar Nicholas II's life and reign from one of the finest Russian historians writing today. In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now Robert Service, the eminent historian of Russia, examines Nicholas's life and thought from the months before his momentous abdication to his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times, but Service's deep understanding of the period and his forensic examination of previously untapped sources, including the Tsar's diaries and recorded conversations, as well as the testimonies of the official inquiry, shed remarkable new light on his troubled reign, also revealing the kind of Russia that Nicholas wanted to emerge from the Great War. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic and political ferment in Russia that followed the February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, and the beginnings of Lenin's Soviet socialist republic.

Tsarina
Tsarina

Author: Ellen Alpsten

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2020-11-10

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1250214459

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme." —Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter “[Alpsten] recounts this remarkable woman’s colourful life and times." —Count Nikolai Tolstoy, historian and author Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna: the first woman to rule Russia in her own right. Ellen Alpsten's rich, sweeping debut novel is the story of her rise to power. St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna, as ambitious, ruthless and passionate as Peter himself. Born into devastating poverty, Catherine used her extraordinary beauty and shrewd intelligence to ingratiate herself with Peter’s powerful generals, finally seducing the Tsar himself. But even amongst the splendor and opulence of her new life—the lavish feasts, glittering jewels, and candle-lit hours in Peter’s bedchamber—she knows the peril of her position. Peter’s attentions are fickle and his rages powerful; his first wife is condemned to a prison cell, her lover impaled alive in Red Square. And now Catherine faces the ultimate test: can she keep the Tsar’s death a secret as she plays a lethal game to destroy her enemies and take the Crown for herself? From the sensuous pleasures of a decadent aristocracy, to the incense-filled rites of the Orthodox Church and the terror of Peter’s torture chambers, the intoxicating and dangerous world of Imperial Russia is brought to vivid life. Tsarina is the story of one remarkable woman whose bid for power would transform the Russian Empire.

Eye of the Red Tsar
Eye of the Red Tsar

Author: Sam Eastland

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2010-04-27

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0553907662

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Sam Eastland's Shadow Pass. Shortly after midnight on July 17, 1918, the imprisoned family of Tsar Nicholas Romanov was awakened and led down to the basement of the Ipatiev house. There they were summarily executed. Their bodies were hidden away, the location a secret of the Soviet state. A decade later, Pekkala, once the most trusted secret agent of the Romanovs, is now Prisoner 4745-P, banished to a forest on the outskirts of humanity. But the state needs Pekkala one last time. His mission: catch the assassins who slaughtered the Romanovs, locate the royal child rumored to be alive, and give Stalin the international coup he craves. Find the bodies, Pekkala is told, and you will find your freedom. In a land of uneasy alliances and lethal treachery, pursuing clues that have eluded everyone, Pekkala is thrust into the past where he once reigned. There he will meet the man who betrayed him and the woman he loved and lost in the fires of rebellion—and uncover a secret so shocking that it will shake to its core the land he loves.