Experts > Oliver Bullough

Oliver Bullough's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Oliver Bullough recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Oliver Bullough's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1

A Dirty War

The Chechen War was supposed to be over in 1996 after the first Yeltsin campaign, but in the summer of 1999, the new Putin government decided, in their own words, to 'do the job properly'. Before all the bodies of those who had died in the first campaign had been located or identified, many more thousands would be slaughtered in another round of fighting.

The first account to be written by a Russian woman, A Dirty War is an edgy and intense study of a conflict that shows no sign of being resolved. Exasperated by the Russian government's attempt to manipulate media coverage...
more
Recommended by Oliver Bullough, and 1 others.

Oliver BulloughYes. Politkovskaya’s book A Dirty War is about the way the Russians conquered Chechnya in 1999-2000. It’s a really powerful account written in the immediate aftermath of the events, bringing to life the brutal mistreatment of Chechens and the destruction of Grozny by Russian forces. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

2

Nation Killers

Recommended by Oliver Bullough, and 1 others.

Oliver BulloughI think The Nation Killers is a slightly neglected book in a way because in Cold War times what you thought about the Soviet Union was conditioned by what side of the political debate you were on. Robert Conquest’s experiences in Bulgaria after the Second World War and the way that the Communists had taken power there filled him with disgust and prompted him to take an anti-Stalinist stance. He... (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

3

The Nart sagas are to the Caucasus what Greek mythology is to Western civilization. This book presents, for the first time in the West, a wide selection of these fascinating myths preserved among four related peoples whose ancient cultures today survive by a thread. In ninety-two straightforward tales populated by extraordinary characters and exploits, by giants who humble haughty Narts, by horses and sorceresses, "Nart Sagas from the Caucasus" brings these cultures to life in a powerful epos.

In these colorful tales, women, not least the beautiful temptress Satanaya, the mother of...

more
Recommended by Oliver Bullough, and 1 others.

Oliver BulloughThis is a collection of folk tales of the Circassians, Abkhaz and other peoples from Western Caucasus who had a corpus of legends that were their equivalent of Greek myths. I actually had one read at my wedding. They’re very peculiar stories with lots of parallels with the Greek myths. For example, there’s an Achilles character called Sosruquo who, instead of having a weak point in his heel, has... (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

4

A Hero of Our Time

Excerpt: ...strict rules of the best taste less
Recommended by Oliver Bullough, and 1 others.

Oliver BulloughLermontov wrote this novella directly after the unsuccessful Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nikolai I in 1825 which led to savage repression and resentment amongst young members of the intelligentsia who lost the ability to express themselves in any way. Many troublesome young intellectuals were punished by being sent to the Caucasus, which turned out to be a much freer environment for writers.... (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

5
Russia's attempt to consolidate its authority in the North Caucasus has exerted a terrible price on both sides since the mid-nineteenth century. Michael Khodarkovsky's book tells the story of a single man with multiple allegiances and provides a concise and compelling history of the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas. After forays beginning in the late 1500s, Russia tenuously conquered the peoples of the region in the 1850s; the campaign was defined by a cruelty on both sides that established a pattern repeated in our own time, particularly in Chechnya.

At the...
more
Recommended by Oliver Bullough, and 1 others.

Oliver BulloughJ F Baddeley was an English journalist and businessman who travelled extensively in Russia and the Caucasus in the 19th century. He knew the Caucasus as well as any foreigner and wrote a great deal about his experiences there. This is the more well known of his two books on the Caucasus which focuses on the resistance of the Chechens and Dagestanis to the Russian conquest. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

Don't have time to read Oliver Bullough's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.