Chronicling the Wild East

Birkbeck alumnus Martin Sixsmith (Diploma Applied Psychology, 2006) is author of our book of the month, the highly anticipated RUSSIA: A 1000 Year Chronicle of the Wild East. Accompanying a landmark 50 part BBC Radio 4 series, and marking the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR, Russia is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political and cultural landscape of Russia, and its unique place in the modern world.

Combining in-depth research, travel and interviews with his personal experiences as BBC Moscow Correspondent for many years, Sixsmith tells Russia’s full and fascinating story, from its shaky beginnings in the ninth century to the first years of the twenty-first, skilfully tracing the conundrums of modern Russia to their roots in its troubled past. Covering politics, music, literature and art, he explores the myths Russians have created from their history, and uncovers the roots of Russia’s split personality in the influences that have divided it for centuries.

“My aim in this book and accompanying radio series has been to put the events I witnessed into their proper historical context, to highlight the previous turning points in Russia’s history, those ‘moments of unruly destiny’ when she could have gone either way – down the path of reform that might have made her a liberal democracy, or down the continuing path of autocracy, at times totalitarian, repressive and dictatorial”

Before Birkbeck Martin Sixsmith studied at Oxford, Harvard, Leningrad and the Sorbonne. From 1980 to 1997 he was the BBC correspondent in Moscow, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and Warsaw. From 1997 to 2002 he worked for the British Government as Director of Communications and Press Secretary to Harriet Harman, Alistair Darling and Stephen Byers. He is now a writer, presenter and journalist. He has written two novels, Spin and I Heard Lenin Laugh, and is the author of four non-fiction titles – Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System; The Litvinenko File: The True Story of a Death Foretold; Putin’s Oil: the Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia and The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a Fifty Year Search.

Russia is published on 19 May 2011 by BBC books at £25 for the hardback edition.

Read more about Martin's new book and other alumni authors here.