Recommended books for understanding Russia
Year of Publication: 2024
Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia
By Adrian Karatnycky
Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability
By Michael Kimmage
New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West
By David E. Sanger
Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Uses of War
By Leon Aron
My Russia
By Mikhail Shishkin
Year of Publication: 2023
Getting Russia Right
y Thomas Graham
Russia’s War against Ukraine
By Gwendolyn Sasse
Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet: A Family Story of Exile and Return
By Megan Buskey
Georgian and Soviet: Entitled Nationhood and the Specter of Stalin in the Caucasus
By Claire P. Kaiser
China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord
By Philip Snow
Year of Publication: 2022
Digital Activism in Russia: The Communication Tactics of Political Outsiders
By Sofya Glazunova
Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao
By Joseph Torigian
The Shortest History of the Soviet Union
By Sheila Fitzpatrick
The Story of Russia
By Orlando Figes
Putin vs. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia
By Samuel A. Greene and Graeme B. Robertson
Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
By Mark G. Pomar
Russian Information Warfare: Assault on Democracies in the Cyber Wild West
By Bilyana Lilly
The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell For Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It
By Mikhail Khodorkovsky, with Martin Sixsmith
Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine
By Anna Arutunyan
Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine: Invasion Amidst the Ashes of Empires
By Samir Puri
Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture
By Janusz Bugajski
Russia:Myths and Realities
By Rodric Braithwaite
Russia’s Path to the High-Tech Battlespace
By Roger N. McDermott
Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition
By Andrew Monaghan
The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today
By Hal Brands
Riddle, Mystery, and Enigma: Two Hundred Years of British–Russian Relations
By David Owen
War with Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate
By Stephen F. Cohen
Year of Publication: 2021
Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (New Edition)
By Andrew Wilson
Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union
By Vladislav M. Zubok
Putin’s Labor Dilemma
By Stephen Crowley
Resurrected: Its Purpose and Power in a New Global Order
By Kathryn Stoner
Assignment Russia: Becoming a Foreign Correspondent in the Crucible of the Cold War
By Marvin Kalb
In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir
By Emil Draitse
Spymaster’s Prism: The Fight against Russian Aggression
By Jack Devine
Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia
By Timothy Frye
Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America
By Rebekah Koffler
Year of Publication: 2020
Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
By Thomas Rid
The Hacker and the State: Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics
By Ben Buchanan
The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare
By Christian Brose
Substate Dictatorship: Networks, Loyalty, and Institutional Change in the Soviet Union
By Yoram Gorlizki and Oleg Khlevniuk
Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
By Catherine Belton
Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia’s Quest for World Power
By Gregory Afinogenov
Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives
By Philip N. Howard
Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace
By Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis
Year of Publication: 2019
Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth
By Rachel Maddow
Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest
By Angela Stent
Post Putin: Succession, Stability, and Russia’s Future
By Herman Pirchner Jr.
Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy
By Anders Åslund
From Russia with Blood: The Kremlin’s Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin’s Secret War on the West
By Heidi Blake
The Age of Sharp Power: China, Russia and Iran. The Interference is not Soft. The Italian Case
By Paolo Messa
Year of Publication: 2018
The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
By Timothy Snyder
Year of Publication: 2017
Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder
By Amy Knight
The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev
By Vladislav Zubok
