Russia in the Countries & Regions series from Lonely Planet, market-leading comprehensive guides aimed at independent travellers & serving a large range of international destinations. Frank & informal in style, the guides explore an extensive range of sights, activities, accommodation, restaurants & nightlife & are designed for practical use while travelling on the road. Written & researched by a team of experts, each book is independent in its recommendations & suggestions, often offering individual takes on individual destinations. Widely recognised for their reliability, each Lonely Planet country & region guide has the same layout. Introductory sections profile the destination with individual chapters on particular highlights, getting started, (including when to go) itineraries, history, culture, arts, food & drink & the environment. Each guide is organised geographically by region, with individual sections detailing an extensive range of sights, places of interest, attractions, restaurants, nightlife, accommodation & any local activities. The guides have detailed explanations of historical context where relevant. There is also practical guidance on ...

Winston Churchill famously described Russia as `a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma`. Even today it remains a country little understood by the West. But as a resurgent world power, with an energy-rich economy, we ignore Russia at our peril. In this timely & revealing portrait, distinguished author & broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby crosses eight time zones & covers 10, 000 miles, from Murmansk in the Arctic Circle to the Asian city of Vladivostok, in an attempt to get beneath the skin of modern Russia. Travelling by road, rail & boat, his epic journey takes him from the neo-classical splendor of St Petersburg to remote & inaccessible parts of Siberia. At the heart of this magisterial account are Jonathan`s encounters with a diverse range of ordinary Russians
- from urban intellectuals & the new class of entrepreneurs, to impoverished peasants & Russia`s ethnic minorities struggling to cling to their distinctive identities. Jonathan was the only British television journalist to interview President Gorbachev during the Cold War, &, returning to Russia for the first time since those days, he discovers a land transformed. But despite economic progress, he finds aspects of Russian society deeply troubling, & takes an unflinchingly critical look at the way Russia has been run during the Putin years. For Jonathan, crossing the immense Russian landmass became as much an interior journey as an exterior one, & the book contains painfully honest passages as he struggles to meet the challenges of an arduous film trip against the backdrop of great turbulence in his personal life. Filled with a dazzling array of historical & literary references, ” Russia
- A Journey to the Heart of a Land & Its People” is a riveting & illuminating account of modern Russia.

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Russia is a country of contradictions: a nation of cultural refinement & artistic originality & yet also a country that rules by `the iron fist`, with an ingrained eagerness to sacrifice the individual for the collectivist cause. In this riveting history, Martin Sixsmith shows how Russia`s complex identity has been formed over a thousand years, & how it can help us understand its often baffling behaviour at home & abroad. Combining in-depth research with his personal experiences as BBC Moscow correspondent for almost twenty years, Sixsmith tells Russia`s full & fascinating story, from its foundation in the last years of the tenth century to the first years of the twenty-first, skilfully tracing the conundrums of modern Russia to their roots in its troubled past. Covering politics, music, literature & art, he explores the myths Russians have created from their history, & explains the nation`s seemingly split personality as the result of influences that have divided it for centuries. Accompanying a landmark BBC Radio 4 series, & marking the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR, ” Russia” is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political landscape of Russia, & its unique place in the modern world. ...

Russia is a country of contradictions, a nation of cultural refinement & artistic originality & yet also a country that rules by `the iron fist`. In this riveting history, Martin Sixsmith shows how Russia`s complex identity has been formed over a thousand years, & how it can help us understand its often baffling behaviour at home & abroad. Combining in-depth research & interviews with his personal experiences as a former BBC Moscow correspondent, Sixsmith skilfully traces the conundrums of modern Russia to their roots in its troubled past, & explains the nation`s seemingly split personality as the result of influences that have divided it for centuries. ”A Sunday Times” bestseller, Russia is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political landscape of this country, & its unique place in the modern world. ...

The history of Russia
- from Kievan Rus to Vladimir Putin Russia: A History cuts through the myths & mystery that have surrounded
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Russiain the Culture Smart range of pocket-sized guide books; providing detailed information on local customs, culture, etiquette & manners & ensuring that visitors are prepared for a diverse range of social environments. The series covers an extensive number of countries worldwide & are designed both for those working & living abroad, as well as for visitors who do not want to offend, either intentionally or inadvertently. Their aim is to prevent readers from making embarrassing mistakes & feel confident in unfamiliar situations, while preparing them before arrival on what to expect & how to behave. Each guide is arranged thematically, with dedicated individual chapters on land & people, values & attitudes, customs & traditions, making friends, people at home, ‘time-out’, travelling & communicating. There is also a separate chapter for business travelers, with important information on subjects such as business culture, meetings & making appointments. A Further Reading section also offers a list of recommended other history, travel literature & language titles available on the country. ...

Road Map of Russia (from Lake Baikal to Vladivostok east) published by Reise Know How. Terrain mapping, tourist information (places of interest, national parks …), sea links & index of cities included. Distances on main roads. City names are also written in Russian on the map. This detailed map of Russia is waterproof & tear resistant. ...

Russia: Urals to Lake Baikal covering south-central Russia at 1:2, 000, 000 on an indexed, waterproof & tear-resistant map with topographic & tourist information. Published by Reise Know-How as part of their highly acclaimed World Mapping Project, the map is double-sided to provide the best balance between a good scale & a convenient size sheet. The western half of the map starts well west the Urals to include Kazan, Ulyanovsk & Samara, & extends north to Surgut. In the east the map ends just beyond Irkutsk (PLEASE NOTE: Lake Baikal itself is not included) & extends north to Ust-Ilimsk & the bend of the Angara. Names of larger & selected smaller towns are given in both Cyrillic & Latin alphabets; smaller places, administrative units, geographical features & places of interest are in the Latin alphabet only. Road & rail networks are easy to see on a clear base which presents the region’s topography by altitude colouring with contours, numerous spot heights & names of mountain ranges. Swamps, marshes & seasonal lakes & rivers are also shown. Road network

Includes:: selected unsurfaced local roads & tracks, shows locations of petrol stations, gives driving distances on main & secondary routes, & indicates border crossings (including the M52 route from Novosibirsk across the Altai Mountains to Mongolia). The course of the Trans-Siberian railway line is easy to follow across the map & local airports are indicated. National parks & protected areas are marked & symbols highlight various places of interest, including locations with tourist accommodation, UNESCO World Heritage sites, museums, etc. The map has a latitude & longitude grid at intervals of 1º & an extensive index of place names, with an additional list of national parks. Map legend

Includes:: English.



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The recent tremendous changes in Russia have only enhanced the special fascination which this powerful, enigmatic country has so long held for the world at large. Russia`s history, from her beginnings as an illiterate pagan Slav community centered on Kiev to her twentieth-century superpower status, has its own unique rhythm, Appalling calamities have shaped Russia: the Tatar Yoke; the Time of Troubles; the Napoleonic invasion, two world wars separated by a great civil war; a multitude of famines & epidemics. Not least among these scourges have been leaders such as Ivan the Terrible & Joseph Stalin. A succession of governments
- Muscovite, Imperial & Soviet
- have, with the help of powerful political police organizations, dragooned a common people fatalistic, courageous, resillient & patient in suffering, yet liable to sudden explosions of collective rage. In this revised & updated edition, Ronald Hingley considers the recent astonishing developments: the first steps towards liberalization, the collapse of communist rule throughout Russia`s former satellite states, & above all the demise of Soviet communism & the disintegration of the USSR in the wake of Boris Yeltsin`s rise to power. Russia`s present troubles can be better comprehended as the latest chapter in a long & enthralling history; a history
- evoked here with the aid of over 200 illustrations
- which is now being energetically reassessed by the Russians themselves.



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Russia & Asia
- Nomadic & Oriental Traditions in Russian History in the Odyssey Guides series; aimed at travellers particularly
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