Mark Galeotti Bücher

Russland ist eine der mächtigsten Nationen der Erde, mit einer imposanten Kultur, aber auch einer langen Geschichte von Krieg und Frieden, Leid, Katastrophen und blutigen Revolutionen. Der Russland-Experte Mark Galeotti widmet sich in seiner Erzählung diesem komplexen Land, das einen entsetzlichen, für den Westen unverständlichen Krieg gegen die Ukraine begonnen hat. Er durchleuchtet die russische Geschichte von ihren Anfängen mit der Kiewer Rus über den Aufstieg und Fall der Romanows, schildert die kommunistische Revolution unter Lenin und den stalinistischen Terror bis in die heutige post-sowjetische Autokratie Putins. Kann man dieses Land je verstehen? Mark Galeotti liefert die wichtigsten historischen Eckpunkte und Einblicke in die Entwicklung dieses so rätselhaften wie spannenden Landes.

Storm-333, the operation to seize Kabul and assassinate Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin, was at once a textbook success and the start of a terrible blunder. It heralded the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, an operation intended to be a short, largely symbolic show of force, yet which quickly devolved into a gritty ten-year counter-insurgency that Moscow was never able to win. Nonetheless, Storm-333 was a striking success, and despite initial concerns that it would be an impossible achievement, it saw a relative handful of Soviet special forces drawn from the KGB and the military seize the heavily defended presidential palace, neutralise the city's communications and defences, and open Kabul to occupation. The lessons learned then are still valid today, and have been incorporated into modern Russian military practice, visible most recently in the seizure of Crimea in 2014. Written by a recognised expert on the Soviet security forces, drawing extensively on Russian sources, and fully illustrated with commissioned artwork, this is the most detailed and compelling study of this fascinating operation available in English. -- Provided by publisher

Mark Galeotti's new study of both the combat vehicles of Russia's legendary Spetsnaz special forces and the whole range of unique and modified vehicles that Russia's elite units use, from combat snowmobiles to the world's biggest water-cannon.

It is the Year of Our Lord 1510, and one has to wonder how differently history could have played out if Niccolò Machiavelli, the military commissioner of the Republic of Florence, had not understood the true scale of Leonardo da Vinci's genius. In such a world, the visionary might simply have wasted his time painting portraits of women and doodling in a sketchbook. Instead, he unleashed a technological revolution where primitive computers, decorated with delicately painted cupids, run on water clocks; spring-powered tanks whir across the battlefield, cannons thundering from their flanks; and gliders flit across perfectly blue Tuscan skies.Gran Meccanismo is a roleplaying game of swashbuckling adventure in a Renaissance Italy where Florence's winding alleys play host to spies, scholars, and sell-swords alike. Players are nobles, mercenaries, inventors, and artisans who may find themselves crossing wits with Machiavelli, avoiding the dangerous charms of Lucretia Borgia, or hearing Christopher Columbus telling tales of the new world he has discovered...

'Absolutely gripping, deeply authoritative, hugely important and lethally lurid' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The World: A Family History Yevgeny Prigozhin emerged as one of the most dangerous warlords in the world and as one of Vladimir Putin's chief rivals in Russia's tumultuous political climate, exiled after leading Wagner's attempted coup and killed in a mysterious plane crash. But what is the truth about this enigmatic figure, his role in the war with Ukraine, and the chaos unleashed across Russia by his turn against Putin? And, in the aftermath of his death, what is next for Russia in the new stage of late Putinism that Prigozhin's life forged? Drawing on years of research, this book traces the rise of Russia's most prominent non-state actor and examines the political climate that propelled a convicted gangster with no government office to the formidable role he came to occupy. An essential story of Russia's recent history, Downfall is also a compelling insight into its likely future.

Using specially commissioned artwork, this is the engrossing story of the victory at Kulikovo in 1380 that heralded the birth of Russian statehood.The 13th-century Mongol conquest of the Rus'--the principalities of Russia--was devastating and decisive. Cities were lain waste, new dynasties rose, and for a hundred years the Russians were under unquestioned foreign rule. However, the Mongols were conquerors rather than administrators and they chose to rule through subject princes. This allowed the Rurikid dynastic princes of Moscow to rise with unprecedented speed.With the famed 'Mongol Yoke' loosening, Grand Prince Dmitri of Moscow saw in this an unparalleled opportunity and rebelled. On September 7 1380, his 60,000 troops crossed the Don to take the battle to Mamai's 125,000, which included Armenian and Cherkessk auxiliaries and Genoese mercenaries.

This book cuts through the misunderstandings about Russia's geopolitical challenge to the West, presenting this not as 'hybrid war' but 'political war.' Russia seeks to antagonise: its diplomats castigate Western 'Russophobia' and cultivate populist sentiment abroad, while its media sells Russia as a peaceable neighbour and a bastion of traditional social values. Its spies snoop, and even kill, and its hackers and trolls mount a 24/7 onslaught on Western systems and discourses. This is generally characterised as 'hybrid war, ' but this is a misunderstanding of Russian strategy. Drawing extensively not just on their writings but also decades of interactions with Russian military, security and government officials, this study demonstrates that the Kremlin has updated traditional forms of non-military 'political war' for the modern world. Aware that the West, if united, is vastly richer and stronger, Putin is seeking to divide, and distract, in the hope it will either accept his claim to Russia's great-power status - or at least be unable to prevent him. In the process, Russia may be foreshadowing how the very nature of war is changing: political war may be the future. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, war studies, Russian politics and security studies.

An in-depth look at the struggle between the charismatic rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, 'The Lion of Panjshir', and the Soviet forces who fought to control the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan

An authoritative analysis of how Putin's Russia conquered the Crimea in 2014 using 'grey zone' warfare techniques, blending operations by anonymous special forces with cyber, sabotage, and propaganda. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 was almost bloodless – fought as much through propaganda, cyberattacks and subversion as by force of arms – but it is crucial for our understanding of both modern warfare and recent Russian history. Ironically, this slick triumph eventually led to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest and costliest conventional war in Europe since 1945. This is a fascinating account of the Crimea conquest from a supremely qualified expert on modern Russian forces. Illustrated throughout, it explores how Russia developed its new model of 'hybrid' or 'grey zone' warfare, and planned and deployed it against Crimea, from the choreographed appearance of 'spontaneous' protesters through to the deployment of unbadged Russian elite forces. In this book Mark Galeotti explores the lessons that Russia, Ukraine, and the West took from it – correctly and mistakenly – and how this apparently textbook operation sowed the seeds that would erupt so catastrophically in 2022.