As one of the heroes of the 1917 February Revolution and then Prime Minister at the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky was passionately, even fanatically, lauded as a leader during his brief political reign. Symbolic artefacts – sculptures, badges and medals - featuring his likeness abounded. Streets were renamed after him, his speeches were quoted on gravestones and literary odes dedicated to him proliferated in the major press. But, by October, Kerensky had been unceremoniously dethroned in the Bolshevik takeover and had fled to Paris and then to the US, where he would remain exiled and removed from his former glory until his death. The breakneck trajectory of his rise and fall and the intensity of his popularity were not merely a symptom of the chaos of those times but offer a window onto a much broader historical phenomenon which did not just begin with Lenin and Stalin – the cult of the leader. In this major new study of the Russian leadership cult, Boris Kolonitskii uses the figure of Kerensky to show how popular engagement with the idea of the leader became a key component of a cultural re-imagining of the political landscape after the fall of the monarchy. A parallel revolution was taking place on the level of creating a resonant political vocabulary where one had not existed before, and it was in the shared exercise of bestowing and dissolving authority that a politicised way of seeing began to emerge. Kolonitskii plots the unfurling of this symbolic revolution by examining the tapestry of images woven by Kerensky and those around him, and, in so doing, exposes his vital role in the development of nascent Soviet political culture. This highly original portrait of a revolutionary sheds new light on the cult of Kerensky that developed around this charismatic leader during the months following the overthrow of the tsar. It will be of value to students and scholars of Russian history and to those interested in political culture.

A Cuban spymaster plans an escape to Florida—but lethal complications await—in a suspenseful tale that’s “beautifully crafted from start to finish” (Library Journal, starred review). Only ninety miles of open water separate Florida from Cuba, but after decades of Communist rule, the two tropical paradises couldn’t be more different. In Havana, spymaster Victoria Valiente, head of Cuban Intelligence’s vital Miami Desk, and her computer-expert husband are tired of their sacrifices. After planning a multimillion-dollar electronic heist, they try to pull the wool over the Chief’s eyes and escape to freedom—but first they have to elude a world of espionage as cutthroat as anything from the height of the Cold War. As both governments draw out all the players—including a gardener with more abilities than just a green thumb, secret foreign operatives, the FBI, and an unsuspecting former English teacher—Victoria and her husband must try to survive in the dangerous zone between the neon streets of Miami and the crumbling facades of Havana . . . “Victoria Valiente may well be one of the most fascinating characters to appear in a crime novel in my memory.” —The Baltimore Sun “An exhilarating espionage tale.” —Financial Times “A well-plotted, compelling tale of the infrastructure of spies, politics, and ordinary people . . . Latour takes the reader on an armchair trip from Miami neighborhood to the heart of Havana, delivering a cityscape that is as multilayered as his plot.” —Houston Chronicle

In this gripping narrative, John Koehler details the widespread activities of East Germany's Ministry for State Security, or "Stasi." The Stasi, which infiltrated every walk of East German life, suppressed political opposition, and caused the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of citizens, proved to be one of the most powerful secret police and espionage services in the world. Koehler methodically reviews the Stasi's activities within East Germany and overseas, including its programs for internal repression, international espionage, terrorism and terrorist training, art theft, and special operations in Latin America and Africa. Koehler was both Berlin bureau chief of the Associated Press during the height of the Cold War and a U.S. Army Intelligence officer. His insider's account is based on primary sources, such as U.S. intelligence files, Stasi documents made available only to the author, and extensive interviews with victims of political oppression, former Stasi officers, and West German government officials. Drawing from these sources, Koehler recounts tales that rival the most outlandish Hollywood spy thriller and, at the same time, offers the definitive contribution to our understanding of this still largely unwritten aspect of the history of the Cold War and modern Germany.

The palace was several hundred years old, a sort of haphazard medieval city containing church buildings, stables, army barracks - and the offices and homes of the ministers of the Revolutionary Government, in a Communist satellite country somewhere in Europe. The palace rose starkly and threateningly out of the marshes, its three great gilt domes reminding observers of the glittering monarchies that once resided there. But all was changed, all was forbidding. "We stand too high to be human, Katarin", says the President of the country to his tempestuous, unloving wife. The revolution, which made him absolute ruler, has also taken him away from Katarin, dehumanizing him and his power-ridden ministers. Katarin, in defiance of the restrictions that bind her life, takes a lover, finding herself liberated even as she senses that the consequences are sure to be disastrous.

OUT OF DARKNESS is the fourth in The Cold War Series by Chris Adams and continues to characterize the turbulent unrest in the lives of the Russian people under the yoke of communism. Once again, he draws from his extensive background in strategic air operations and lengthy travels in the former Soviet Union to create this historical novel. His featured character, Sasha Katsanov, a highly trained and skilled Soviet spy, continues to move from one exciting adventure to the next. The son of a Soviet general, he is also greatly influenced by a doting mother who holds deep anti-communist sentiments. The story witnesses Sasha's development of his own self-doubts, vision and eventual participation in the ultimate implosion of the Soviet Empire. Consistent with his previous novels, the story includes high adventure, spy intrigue and excitement. The author alludes to the fact that many of the episodes are based on similar events that actually took place during the Cold War.