This is a true story of two siblings, Sophie and David, who are separated by the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I. Sophie and her family immigrated to America in 1913, but David stayed in Russia, and was drafted into the tsars army. Their families stayed in touch until the mid 30s, when one could be arrested for receiving mail or packages from America or Germany. Then silence. For a long time, the relatives in America thought their cousins were dead. The silence was broken sixty years later, when Donna and Lilli, granddaughters of Sophie and David, providentially met in Germany. Born only one day apart, the two cousins have each exchanged information about what happened during those years of separation and silence. They write, visit back and forth, and even took a frightening trip to Russia, where Donna began to understand what the family had to endure under Communism. In these pages, you will meet Russian rulers from Catherine the Great to Mikhail Gorbachev, and see how their decisions impacted our cousins who still lived in Russia. The Iron Curtain lifts for us to get a glimpse of what life was like in Russia after Sophie immigrated before WWI and the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Donna and Lilli have joined together to tell the many dramatic stories in the familys fight for survival.

This volume makes available transcripts and commentary from the secret correspondence between former Chechen foreign minister Ilyas Akhmatov and Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. This correspondence provides revelatory insights into both men's attempts to secure Western support for a peaceful transition to an independent Chechnya.

The New York Times bestseller with more than 1 million copies sold worldwide | Soon to be a Hulu limited series starring Joey King and Logan Lerman Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds. “Love in the face of global adversity? It couldn't be more timely.” —Glamour It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety. As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere. An extraordinary, propulsive novel, We Were the Lucky Ones demonstrates how in the face of the twentieth century’s darkest moment, the human spirit can endure and even thrive.

"A riveting look at Cold War journalism behind the Iron Curtain by a Russian-American reporter who was later falsely accused of spying and thrown into a Russian prison. Daniloff sheds light on such prominent figures as Nikita Khrushchev, Henry Kissinger, and suspected spies Frederick Barghoorn, John Downey, and Sam Jaffe"--Provided by publisher.

The study revolves round the relationship between space and transitional identity in Kazakhstan in the post-Soviet period. Emergent discourses about cosmopolitanism suggest multiple interactions in a transitional space. The cosmopolitanism of our times implies the dynamic responses of communities in transition. The diversities and heterogeneities instead of the specifics, the encounters, the networks, the challenges, the ways of living, the multitude of fates need to be considered. The picture is far bigger as there are infinite ways of being and belonging. The images are of the many, and as suggested here, relate to the Kazakh conscience. The Kazakh conscience represents a repertoire of diverse opinions regarding Eurasianism, intellectuals’ reformist agenda, zhuz legacy, people’s histories. What stands out is the wider milieu of a cosmopolitan Almaty which is the home of a cultural elite or a citified Astana that has been showcased as the “appropriate site” of the Kazakhs’ steppe identity. The variety is also seen in the case of Uyghur neighbourhoods of Almaty, in the frontiers of Akmolinsk oblast reminiscent of Tsarist Russia’s Cossack military fortresses, in gulag memorials near Astana and in the Caspian hub Atyrau that is iconised as the oil fountain of the present century. Kazakh borderlands have a completely different profile—that of shared spaces. The Kazakhs’ attachment to their homeland is a constant—but the question is whether that territorial reality fits into other paradigms of identity and belonging. Such questions arise in the case of Mongolian Kazakhs and Uyghurs of Semirechie—in both cases the sentiment of place is strong compared to the overwhelming global experiences of the mainland Kazakhs. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Felicia, gifted with her knowledge of European languages, flees with her toddler son from Warsaw as war rages. Her physician husband is sent to the war front as part of the Polish army. Her neutral haven is soon taken over by Russian military. They arrest her and put her and her son on a cattle car train that ends up in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, at a Russian-run prison camp. After Russia is invaded by Hitler, an amnesty is declared. The prisoners fortunes change for the better. In an astonishing twist, Felicia and her camp friends are all eventually allowed to return to Poland on a fascinating train ride. Concerned about her prospects, she seeks refuge elsewhere, for a time in France and, eventually, in America.