A Ukrainian tank steers his way on a road in the northeastern city of Trostyanets, on March 29, … [+] 2022. Recently published books can help readers better understand Russia and the war in Ukraine. (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

News reports that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin may soon meet have returned Russia and Ukraine to the headlines. Many people may believe they lack the context to evaluate daily events taking place across the globe. Fortunately, recently published books can help readers better understand Russia and the war in Ukraine. Here is a list of must-read books. (An earlier article also provided a list of books on Russia and Ukraine.)

Russian Politics: A Very Short Introduction By Brian Taylor

Syracuse University professor Brian Taylor, author of Russian Politics: A Very Short Introduction, packs a wealth of analysis and interesting facts into a compact book. Taylor explains the Soviet Union’s failed economic model, Stalin’s state-sanctioned arrests (and murders) and the downfall of the USSR. He notes that Marx didn’t provide Soviet leaders with a roadmap for instituting communism other than abolishing private property.

In the 1990s, Russia started over as a “new country,” but Russian and Soviet history still influences its political and economic choices. Taylor describes the state’s significant role in Russia’s economy, the “failed experience of democratic constitutionalism,” the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s “ambiguous legacy” and Vladimir Putin’s march toward authoritarianism. The book is ideal for anyone who wants a better context for understanding news reports about Putin and Russia.

Forged in War: A Military History Of Russia From Its Beginnings To Today By Mark Galeotti

Mark Galeotti, a historian and an expert on Russia, has written an excellent book, Forged in War: A Military History Of Russia From Its Beginnings To Today. Galeotti also recently wrote, with Anna Arutunyan, Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the New Fight for the Future of Russia and hosts the informative podcast In Moscow’s Shadows.

Russia’s history is so long that one can glide over several centuries, including the “Time of Troubles,” and still read about another five centuries filled with more familiar events. Many readers will enjoy the chapters on the defense of Stalingrad, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and the Tsarist Empire’s collapse after Russia entered World War I.

Galeotti notes that success can breed disaster. He explains that the Kremlin succeeding in small-scale military operations, such as in Georgia, using only “a cherry-picked small proportion of the overall force,” contributed to the belief that invading Ukraine would be a cakewalk. “It would prove the success of these better units that would give Putin a mistaken sense of his armed forces as a whole, and lead him into a disastrous miscalculation,” writes Galeotti.

Galeotti concludes: “The tragedy in question—for Russia’s neighbors, of course, but also for the Russians themselves—is how far this pervasive sense of insecurity has bred a strategic culture that sees the world primarily in terms of threats and presents attack as the best means of defense.” He hopes healthier attitudes will someday emerge in Russia.

The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History By Serhii Plokhy

In The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, Harvard University professor Serhii Plokhy provides a definitive account of the history leading up to Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. No one can read Plokhy’s book and fail to appreciate that Russia’s strategy for many years—up to the present—has been to control Ukraine, disarm its military and choose a leadership to Putin’s liking. In succinct chapters, Plokhy explains the key episodes in Russia-Ukraine relations following Ukraine’s independence after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, forced into exile, provides a vivid account of Russia and Putin’s march toward invading Ukraine. He refutes Putin’s version of Ukraine’s history, including the myth that Lenin created Ukraine.

Other worthwhile books that delve into the history of Russia and its efforts to dominate Ukraine include Intent To Destroy by Eugene Finkel and Collisions by Michael Kimmage.

Another book, In Their Own Words: How Russian Propagandists Reveal Putin’s Intentions, by Julia Davis, provides an analysis of Russian state media propaganda directed against Ukraine, the United States and other targets. Four months before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Davis wrote, “The Kremlin’s propaganda campaign at home is getting people ready for a ‘reluctant’ move into Ukraine.”

Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence By Yaroslav Trofimov

For a well-written narrative that covers the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one should read Yaroslav Trofimov’s book Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence. The day before Russia invaded, Trofimov, the Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent, was in Kyiv and Petro Poroshenko, the country’s former president, tipped him off about the invasion.

“Outside Ukraine, hardly anyone believed that the nation had a chance in the face of a Russian onslaught, no matter how valiantly it resisted,” writes Trofimov. “A Russian triumph within days was a foregone conclusion, Western intelligence services predicted.” Trofimov tells the story of how so many people, including Vladimir Putin, could be so wrong.

Two more books tell the story of the run-up to the war and its early battles through different frameworks. In I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv, Illia Ponomarenko, a reporter for the Kyiv Independent reporter, writes from the perspective of a Ukrainian citizen. In The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine, Financial Times journalist Christopher Miller describes key moments in Ukraine’s recent history, from his arrival in 2010 through the country’s fight for survival after the 2022 Russian invasion.

Another recommended book, A Small, Stubborn Town, by Andrew Harding, tells the story of Voznesensk and how its residents resisted Russia’s invasion. The War For Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire by Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army, provides an excellent analytical perspective of how the two sides have prosecuted the war.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (R), his daughter Daria (2R), son Zakhar (2L) and wife … [+] Yulia (L) arrive at a polling station during to the Moscow city Duma elections in Moscow on September 8, 2019. (VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP via Getty Images)

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Patriot: A Memoir By Alexei Navalny

Knowing that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison gives his book Patriot: A Memoir a sense of foreboding. A companion to the memoir is the excellent documentary Navalny, which earned an Academy Award in 2023. The documentary contains riveting footage of the investigation that uncovered the Russian government’s plot to kill Navalny. After being poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in an assassination attempt in Russia in August 2020, only an evacuation to a German hospital saved his life.

Few people’s daily problems reach the level of Navalny’s suffering. Reading a book about a man who endured so much and kept his sense of humor offers perspective on life. He sought to bring democracy and human rights to a country that grew increasingly authoritarian and often punished dissent more harshly than other crimes. During the war with Ukraine, while Navalny suffered a virtual life sentence in prison, the Russian government pardoned murderers, even a serial killer, willing to fight in the war.

Two questions may interest readers: 1) After being imprisoned, did Navalny expect to die? And 2) Why did Alexei Navalny return to Russia to face imminent peril after he recovered in Germany from the assassination attempt?

Navalny writes that during his wife Yulia’s first extended visit following his post-Germany imprisonment, he found a private spot and whispered, “Listen, I don’t want to sound dramatic, but I think there’s a high probability I’ll never get out of here. Even if everything starts falling apart, they will bump me off at the first sign the regime is collapsing. They will poison me.”

His wife responded, “I know. I was thinking that myself.”

“Let’s just decide for ourselves that this is most likely what’s going to happen,” he said. The calm and lack of tears from his wife, Yulia, led Navalny to write, “It was one of those moments when you realize you found the right person. Or perhaps she found you.”

Navalny writes that it never crossed his mind to remain outside Russia. He wanted to fight for his country’s future and was willing to sacrifice his life. It is easy to conclude that Alexei Navalny died a hero.