Best Historical Russia Biographies Books of 2025

Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home is a gripping memoir by Benjamin Hall, a veteran war reporter for Fox News. The book tells the story of his harrowing experience in Ukraine, where he was gravely injured in a Russian strike. Hall shares his journey of survival, from his ground-level view of the war to his dramatic rescue and arduous recovery. Through it all, his spirit remains undaunted, buoyed by the remarkable corps of people from around the world who banded together to get him to safety. This memoir is evocative, harrowing, and deeply moving, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the human experience of war.

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice is a captivating, real-life tale of Bill Browder's journey from a Wall Street maverick to an accidental activist who exposed corruption in Russia. The book reads like a classic thriller, with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city. It's a part John Grisham-like thriller, part business and political memoir that sheds light on the corruption and murder in Vladimir Putin's Russia. This book is a must-read for those interested in political leader biographies and international affairs.

Freezing Order is a captivating thriller chronicling Bill Browder's crusade against Putin's corrupt regime. The book is a sequel to Red Notice, another New York Times bestseller. Browder exposes how Putin's regime stole and laundered billions of dollars, and killed anyone who tried to stop them. He made it his life's mission to seek justice for his young lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in a Moscow jail. The book takes readers on an international adventure, revealing how Putin retaliated by using honey traps, hired process servers, and even murdered Browder's Russian allies. Freezing Order is a must-read, a gripping story that offers a timely reminder of the urgency of addressing the global plague of money laundering.

The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz is a captivating and well-researched account of the three young women who accompanied their fathers to the Yalta Conference in 1945. The book provides a glimpse into the political maelstrom and the post-war world through the eyes of Kathleen Harriman, Sarah Churchill, and Anna Roosevelt. The author skillfully weaves together their stories with historical events, revealing the human side underlying the politics. The Daughters of Yalta is an engrossing read that sheds light on the often-overlooked role of women in shaping history.

"Dead Mountain" is a thrilling nonfiction book that delves into the untold story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. In 1959, nine experienced hikers died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. The author, Donnie Eichar, takes readers on a journey through the hikers' own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, and dozens of interviews. He also retraces the hikers' fateful journey in the Russian winter. This New York Times and Wall Street Journal Nonfiction Bestseller is a fascinating portrait of young adventurers in the Soviet era. Overall, "Dead Mountain" is a must-read for anyone who loves true crime and mystery books.

The Cold War Navy SEAL by James Hawes is a thrilling account of the US's covert operations in North Vietnam and the Congo during the Cold War. Hawes, a former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor, takes readers on a journey through his experiences as he recruited and led a paramilitary navy on Lake Tanganyika to disrupt guerilla action in the Congo. Along the way, he battled rebels and discovered the location of Che Guevara, ultimately forcing him out of the country. Complete with never-before-seen photographs and interviews, this book provides unprecedented insight into a little-known chapter in US history.

A fascinating account of Nietzsche's travels in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, where he found inspiration for his major works. Nietzsche in Italy follows the troubled philosopher from Rome to Turin and describes his increasingly iconoclastic thought process, expressed in explosive books like Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil. The essay-form allows Pourtals a type of rhetorical flourish you wouldn't expect in a traditional biography. This classic biography is highly readable and will enthrall anyone interested in Nietzsche's relationship with the country that enriched his soul more than any other.

Lessons From The Edge: A Memoir is an inspiring and urgent memoir by Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. In this book, Yovanovitch talks about her career as a pioneering diplomat and how she advanced democracy in the post-Soviet world. She also shares her experience during the first impeachment of President Trump and how she was targeted by a smear campaign and abruptly recalled from her post in Kyiv, Ukraine. This book is a must-read for those interested in diplomacy, politics, and women's biographies.

The Story of a Life is an autobiographical masterpiece by the Soviet author Konstantin Paustovsky. This book is a memoir of Paustovsky's coming of age during World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the rise of the Soviet era. The first three books of Paustovsky’s epic autobiography are now available in a splendid new translation by Douglas Smith. The Story of a Life is an extraordinary work that captures all the beauty, turbulence, and injustice of Paustovsky's youth, and the strange blend of horrific violence and intoxicating hope that arrived with the revolution. It is a dazzling achievement of modern literature, and a must-read for anyone interested in Russian history and culture.

Frank Costigliola’s biography, Kennan: A Life between Worlds, delves into the complex life of George F. Kennan, a diplomat and historian who played a pivotal role in American foreign policy during the Cold War era. Despite being widely respected and honored, Kennan viewed his career as a failure. Costigliola draws on previously untapped sources to offer a new picture of the man who championed rational realism in foreign policy while being a trenchant critic of both communism and capitalism. The biography is an absorbing portrait of a remarkable individual whose ideas are still powerfully relevant today.