Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Republics
In the recent profusion of books on Stalin's Soviet Union, Leon Trotsky has seemed almost forgotten, but now along come two new biographies -- one a full-life study, the other a detailed tale of his Mexican exile.
No living Russian knows more about Soviet and Russian policy in the Middle East than Primakov, and none has known more key figures from the region better.
At every turn, Bobelian argues, from the post-World War I peace to the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass genocide resolutions in the 1990s, the Armenian cause has fallen victim to broken Western promises and been sacrificed to the priorities of others.
The canvas that Pomper so richly fills with the details of Ulyanov's precocious teenage intellectual interests and his path from a preoccupation with zoology to revolution and, ultimately, to terrorism makes for very engaging reading.
How the blood-soaked states that emerged from the horrors that befell the Balkans in the 1990s should go about reconciling victims, punishing victimizers, and coming to terms with their pasts has become a sad challenge in the post-Cold War world. Alas, Subotic argues, the progress made in moving from an-eye-for-an-eye politics to due process in international and national courts and truth commissions is deceptive.
