Sean McMeekin

A ground-breaking history of the Second World War, told from the Soviet perspective. In this remarkable, ground-breaking new book, Sean McMeekin marks a generational shift in our view of Stalin as an ally in the Second World War. Stalin's only difference from Hitler, he argues, was that he was a successful murderous predator. With Hitler dead and the Third Reich...

Step into the turbulent and transformative final years of the Ottoman Empire with Sean McMeekin's The Ottoman Endgame, an extraordinary single-volume history that chronicles the epic struggle of a vast empire facing the winds of change during the early 20th century. This captivating narrative begins in September 1911 with Italy's audacious invasion of Ottoman Tripoli, setting off a series of...

At the turn of the century, the Russian economy was growing by about 10% annually and its population had reached 150 million. By 1920, the country was in desperate financial straits and more than 20 million Russians had died. By 1950, a third of the globe had embraced communism. The triumph of Communism sets a profound puzzle. How did the...

How Lenin’s regime turned Russia’s priceless cultural patrimony into armoured cars, trains, planes, and machine guns Historians have never resolved a central mystery of the Russian Revolution: how did the Bolsheviks, despite facing a world of enemies and leaving nothing but economic ruin in their path, manage to stay in power through five long years of civil war? In this...

It is well worth reading. — Wall Street Journal A sweeping, unsparing history of the oppression meted out to billions of people by Communist regimes. — TLS Three decades since the Soviet Union’s collapse prompted Francis Fukuyama to proclaim the 'End of History', things look different. Russia may no longer be Communist, but Stalin is more admired there than at...