Young Stalin – Simon Sebag Montefiore

Montefiore delves into Stalin’s formative years with such depth, unveiling previously undisclosed details through meticulous research. From Stalin’s challenging upbringing in Georgia to his ascent within Lenin’s Bolshevik circles, the narrative unfolds. But, the question remains: does this exploration give us a better understanding of the ruthless character that Stalin became?

Ferrante Fever – A review of the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante

More so than any other series I have read, Ferrante’s saga feels like a continuum. The division of the body of work in four books serves but practical purposes, without having an impact in the rhythm of the narrative.

In the dream house – Carmen Maria Machado

One question is persistent throughout Carmen Maria Machado’s new memoir about an abusive same-gender relationship: How did we get here? Followed, usually, by: Is this the last straw?

Part I: Hitler Invades the Balkans and How extreme weather saved the USSR

Since Stalin knew a German attack was coming for the USSR, he played for time to advance his own war preparations. Mussolini’s failed invasion of Greece in 1940, meant that Hitler would have to send his own forces to Greece in the spring of 1941. To do this, however, Hitler needed an alliance with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (countries that border Greece). Stalin therefore sought to upset Hitler’s diplomacy in the Balkans.

Who was Yuri Gagarin?

Contrary to popular belief, Neil Armstrong was not the first person to travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere into the dark silence of space. 27 year old Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, achieved a major milestone in the ongoing space race between the USA and USSR when his capsule Vostok 1 completed its orbit of earth on April 12 1961. Despite Gagarin’s hero status in the USSR, Vostok 1 remains overshadowed by the American Apollo 11 mission that allegedly landed humans on the moon. So who was cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin?

Understanding Stalin.

War itself is an extremity of politics. Within war, the furthest extremity would be a war of extermination. How this type of thinking might come about is not easy to understand. A normal human being would not think of such a project. Yet prescriptions for mass murder can be found in the writings of Marx and Engels, in the secret protocols of the Soviet and Red Chinese militaries, and in Hitler’s private (and public) conversations.

Why hasn’t anyone ever apologised for Hiroshima?

The nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 killed something like 100 000 people in one go, and after all this time it might be thought that nothing remains to be said about it, but if we’re going to commemorate Remembrance Day, we might as well divulge into remembering this too.

Scars of the Romanian revolution still healing after 30 years.

When a friend of mine returned from an 18 month Erasmus program at The University of Bucharest in Romania, the country’s image took a battering in my mind from the stories he returned laden with. Hospitals randomly bolted shut with planks of wood smack bang in the middle of the day, to patients in other hospitals inexplicably bandaged from head to toe like mummies. The most notable however, being the story of his university classmate (notorious amongst friends for his snakeskin cowboy boots) offering him his sister as a token of appreciation for helping him in an English translation project. My interest in this country of Southeast Europe was peaked.

An evening with Michael Pollan – Exploring the taboo topic of Psychedelic drugs.

When most people turn 60, they decide to take up a new hobby. That wasn’t the case for acclaimed writer, journalist and essayist Michael Pollan. Last night I had the opportunity to watch the author of six New York Times best sellers speak at the Sydney Opera House on his experience taking Psychedelic drugs in his late 50’s. His in depth exploration on the taboo topic revealed what they have taught him about his own mind, and the very nature of consciousness itself.