March 07, 2026

Putin and the Apartment Bombings


Putin and the Apartment Bombings

Few remember that Russian President Vladimir Putin, before he became president, was a wildly unpopular Prime Minister, serving in the final days of Boris Yeltsin's rule. Then came the 1999 apartment bombings throughout Russia, which killed hundreds and were publicly linked to Chechnya and led to the Second Chechnya War, which led to a rise in Putin's popularity, and his eventual reelection as president (having assumed the role at the end of 1999 when Yeltsin stepped down).

A new BBC podcast, The History Bureau, delves deeply into this important historical episode to ask a lot of questions and seek some answers, especially about the purported FSB involvement in the attacks. It's a daunting task, given the history of people investigating the bombings being murdered with poison, bullets, and more.

Pair this with the BBC's 2023 podcast that delved into Putin's biography and his unlikely rise, and you'll have hours of listening.

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A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

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Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

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White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

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From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

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September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

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A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

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