‘The World of the Cold War’ by Vladislav Zubok–book review
A section of the Berlin Wall, February 2023 © James Rodgers IN HIS IMPRESSIVE NEW HISTORY of this ‘confrontation–the greatest that the world has seen so far’, Vladislav Zubok shows us a leader in the Kremlin who ‘assumed he could act like the Russian tsars had done in the...
Reporting on The Putsch to Save Soviet Power: Moscow, August 19, 1991
To mark the anniversary of the attempted coup in Moscow on August 19, 1991, I am sharing an extract from Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin that covers those days that decided the fate of the dying Soviet Union. DECLARING THAT GORBACHEV had resigned for health...
Alexander Werth Reporting from Stalingrad in World War II–Conclusion
This is the second and final part of my article on Alexander Werth’s reporting from the Soviet Union during World War II. You can read the first part here, and the whole article on the website of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television where it was first...
Book Review: ‘How Finland Survived Stalin’ by Kimmo Rentola
I have not posted on here for some weeks because research for my next book, on Russia and The West since the end of the Cold War, has been my priority. I have, though, done some journalism, a review of How Finland Survived Stalin (yale.edu). I have published the...
Berlin: the Soviet Union and Germany; Russia and Ukraine; War and Peace
A detail of a mosaic at the Soviet War memorial, Treptower Park, Berlin, February 2023. © James Rodgers. This post is a longer version of an article I wrote for The New European, published April 19 2023. You can read the article here. ‘GLORY’, THE GILDED TILES that spell...
Assignment Moscow: new edition out on May 18
THE NEW EDITION OF ‘ASSIGNMENT MOSCOW: REPORTING ON RUSSIA FROM LENIN TO PUTIN’ will be published in the U.K. and U.S. on May 18. It includes new material covering the Covid-19 pandemic; the jailing of the Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, and, of course, Russia’s escalation of its war...
Journalism in the Russia-Ukraine War, and soaring sales of ‘1984’: recent podcast and radio interviews
THIS MONTH I have recorded two new podcast interviews, the first for Silicon Curtain with Jonathan Fink If you have not come across this series, do take a look at the other interviews, too. Jonathan gets excellent guests and the audience continues to grow. This time, Jonathan and I...
ASSIGNMENT MOSCOW: NEW COVER DESIGN FOR NEW EDITION
THE NEW EDITION of my most recent book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin will be published in May next year. It is updated with new material on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That new material includes interviews with some of the journalists who felt forced...
Journalism, History, and a farewell to a new generation
MY FIRST INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT was in a past century, to a place that no longer exists. This week, I have been thinking a lot about that–for the story I covered then dominates Europe as it has not done since, and, on Friday 10th June, was the reason a president...
REPORTING RUSSIA: LIVE BOOK EVENT AT THE FRONTLINE CLUB, LONDON, 10 MAY 2022
Russia’s war in Ukraine has put journalism on the frontline both in covering the fighting itself, and in the way that new laws have made independent journalism in Russia all but impossible. These are just some of the issues I will be discussing in conversation with Nanette van der...