In a prisoner-of-war camp in western Ukraine, a former miner from the east is being interviewed about how he ended up fighting for Russia. His speech is slurred and one arm paralysed: the results not

Andrew Kahn and Mark Lipovetsky, editors All the World on a Page A critical anthology of modern Russian poetry 560pp. Princeton University Press. £35 (US $39.95). Russian modernist poetry has long bee

In 1978, Soviet geologists stumbled upon a family living in a remote part of Siberia. Having moved there to escape religious persecution, they hadn’t interacted with the outside world for decades.

A Russia of trees and liberty and peace: ...

Maxim Gorky Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev Translated by Bryan Karetnyk 208pp. Fitzcarraldo Classics. Paperback. £14.99. Maxim Gorky was a dominant figure in Russian literature and pub

John Blair Killing the Dead Vampire epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World 536pp. Princeton University Press. £30 (US $35). A dead body, as anyone who has sat with one will know, is an unsettling