[OrigamiSensei]

The horrors of Nazism are pretty much apparent to most people, however the horrors of the Soviet Union are less widely known. Two excellent books on this subject are Gulag by Anne Applebaum and The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about the system of labor camps and how the Soviet economy relied on their slave labor.

Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 by Catherine Merridale is an engaging investigation into the life of the average Soviet soldier during the Second World War, evoking both the brutality of the conflict and the stoic bravery of the common soldier.

August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a sweeping, majestic account of the disaster that befell Tsarist Russia in the opening campaign of the Great War. If you get the right version it may also contain some other additional stories about Russia before the Great War, a fascinating and somewhat neglected subject.