Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Making use of recently opened archives he has been able to piece together the private as well as the public life giving the first complete picture of Lenin. This biography simultaneously provides an account of one of the greatest turning points in modern history. Through the prism of Lenins career Service examines events such as the October Revolution & the ideas of Marxism-Leninism the one-party state economic modernisation dictatorship & the politics of inter-war Europe. In discovering the origins of the USSR he casts light on the nature of the state & society which Lenin left behind & which have not entirely disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. Immensely scholarly but also vivid & readable. This is a splendid book much the best that I have ever read about Lenin.. .I was overwhelmed by the power & vividness of this portrait
- Dominic Lieven Sunday Telegraph". He has managed skilfully to depict the surreal life of an obsessive brilliant & stubborn individual
- " Guardian". Lenins life was politics but Service has succeeded in keeping Lenin the man in focus throughout.. . This book deserves a place among the best studies of one of the most fascinating figures in modern history
- Harold Shukman " The Times"."


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Between 1914 & 1945 European society was in almost continuous upheaval enduring two world wars the Russian Revolution the Holocaust & the rise & fall of the Third Reich. In his remarkably ambitious & powerful narrative historian Robert Gellately argues that these tragedies are all inextricably linked & that to consider them as discrete events is to misunderstand their entire genesis & character. Crucially Gellately makes clear how previous studies comparing the Soviet & Nazi dictatorships are fatally flawed by neglecting the importance of Lenin in the unfolding drama & in his rejection of the myth of the good Lenin creates a ground-breaking account of all three dictatorships. The result is a monumental work of history. ...

On 8 September 1941 eleven short weeks after Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa his brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union Leningrad was surrounded. The siege would not be lifted for two & a half years & during the 872 days of blockade & bombardment as many as two million Soviet lives would be lost. Had the city fallen the history of the Second World War
- & of the twentieth century
- would have been very different. Leningrad is a gripping narrative history interwoven with personal stories
- immediate accounts of daily siege life drawn from diarists & memoirists on both sides. These twentieth-century European civilians living through unbearable hardship reveal the terrible details of life in the blockaded city: the all-consuming & daily search for food; crawling up ice-rounded steps on hands & knees hauling a bucket of water; a woman who has just buried her father noticing how the cemetery guards have used a frozen corpse with outstretched arm & cigarette between its teeth as a signpost to a mass grave; another using a dried pea to make a rattle for her evacuated grandsons first birthday & putting it away in a drawer when she hears six months later that he has died of meningitis. In Leningrad Anna Reid answers many of the previously unanswered questions about the siege. How good a job did Leningrads leadership do
- would many lives have been saved if it had been better organised? How much was Stalins & Moscows wariness of western-leaning Leningrad (formerly the Tsars capital St Petersburg) a contributing factor? How close did Leningrad come to falling into German hands? & above all how did those who lived through it survive?



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When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 he intended to capture Leningrad before turning on Moscow. Soviet resistance forced him to change tactics: with his forward troops only thirty kilometres from the citys historic centre he decided instead to starve it out. Using newly available diaries & government records Anna Reid describes a citys descent into hell
- the breakdown of electricity & water supply; subzero temperatures; the consumption of pets joiners glue & face cream; the dead left unburied where they fell
- but also the extraordinary endurance bravery & self-sacrifice despite the cruelty & indifference of the Kremlin.

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When the German High Command encircled Leningrad it was a deliberate policy to eradicate the citys civilian population by starving them to death. As winter set in & food supplies dwindled starvation & panic set in. A specialist in battle psychology & the vital role of morale in desperate circumstances Michael Jones tells the human story of Leningrad. Drawing on newly available eyewitness accounts & diaries he shows Leningrad in its every dimension including taboo truths long-suppressed by the Soviets such as looting criminal gangs & cannibalism. But for many ordinary citizens Leningrad marked the triumph of the human spirit. They drew deeply on their inner resources to inspire comfort & help one another. At the height of the siege an extraordinary live performance of Shostakovichs Seventh Symphony profoundly strengthened the citys will to resist. When German troops heard it in their trenches one remarked: We began to understand we would never take Leningrad. Yet Leningrads self-defence came at a huge price. When the 900-day siege ended in 1944 almost a million people had died & those who survived would be permanently marked by what they had endured as this superbly insightful & moving history shows. ...

Its Lennys first day at playschool & hes a bit nervous. Mum takes him there & he meets a little girl called Lucy who looks after him. Lenny & Lucy sing a song do some drawing ride the tricycles & play with a ball. Then after a drink of juice its time for a story. When its time to go home Lenny wants to stay a bit longer to play with his new friend. & he cant wait to come back tomorrow. ...

Here are the Mini Monster Mates who live in the same monster-land as the award winning Boris Sid Wendy & friends. We have already met Ernie who likes to spot colours; & Norman who can't resist sticking his nose in & counting all kinds of smelly things. Now we meet Lenny Long Legs who likes to try out opposites. ...

Before becoming Zoey's favourite professor & the House of Night's powerful horse mistress Lenobia was just a normal 16-year-old girl
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When theres no more room in Hell or if they just get a little bit bored the dead shall walk the earth! Lenore the cute little dead girl is back determined to carry on exactly where she left off being beastly to Mr. Gosh accidentally squishing a variety of small cute animals making friends with vampires & spam witches & avoiding the armles of Heck. ...

Take a trip into the dark surreal world of a little dead girl with a knack for (often) unintentional mayhem in this remastered newly-coloured gothic classic! Lenore might only be small but her talent for mischief
- & occasional wanton destruction
- is anything but. Featuring stories about limbless cannibals clock monsters cursed vampire dolls taxidermied friends an obssesed would-be lover & more fuzzy animal mutilations than should be legal never has the term something for everyone seemed more sinister & bizarre. A massive cult hit on both sides of the Atlantic Lenore is one of the funniest darkest cutest creepiest characters on the marketplace today.

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