Donald Rayfield

De la inspección minuciosa e inteligente llevada a cabo por Donald Rayfield en todos los archivos de Rusia que custodian documentos relacionados con Antón Chéjov, y de su cuidada elaboración posterior, nace la que se considera la mejor biografia sobre el escritor ruso. La edicion en español de 'Anton Chejov. Una vida' es un impresionante trabajo que cubre lagunas y saca a la luz aspectos nuevos del caracter y la vida del escritor. Su lectura, con testimonios en ocasiones sorprendentes, nos acerca a la fuente de experiencias que nutria su ficcion y nos ofrece la oportunidad de asistir al proceso de escritura de la obra de un gran autor.

The great Russian explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky (1839-1888) made an indelible contribution to the worlds atlases, and its store of zoological and botanical knowledge, as a consequence of his four arduous and dangerous expeditions through the Central Asia of Western Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan and Northern Tibet. Donald Rayfields biography of Przhevalsky - first published in 1976 and drawing on the exporers diaries, letters, and published works - tells the thrilling story of the explorers groundbreaking journeys, undertaken in an age of extreme political sensitivity between Russia, China and Britain. A rich portrait emerges of an extraordinary Byronic character who was ill-suited to civilisation but much at home with the loneliness and hardship of the nomadic life. A rigorous army officer and a phenomenal shot, gifted also with a photographic memory, Przhevalsky became one of the most widely-admired men in Russia, and Rayfield adroitly explores the grounds of his reputation.

The description definitive is too easily used, but Donald Rayfields biography of Chekhov merits it unhesitatingly. To quote no less an authority than Michael Frayn:With question the definitive biography of Chekhov, and likely to remain so for a very long time to come. Donald Rayfield starts with the huge advantage of much new material that was prudishly suppressed under the Soviet regime, or tactfully ignored by scholars. But his mastery of all the evidence, both old and new - a massive archive - is magisterial, his background knowledge of the period is huge; his Russian is sensitive to every colloquial nuance of the day, and his tone is sure. He captures a likeness of the notoriously elusive Chekhov which at last begins to seem recognisably human - and even more extraordinary.Chekhovs life was short, he was only forty-four when he died, and dogged with ill-health but his plays and short stories assure him of his place in the literary pantheon. Here is a biography that does him full justice, in short, unapologetically to repeat that word definitive.I dont remember any monograph by a Western scholar on a Russian author having such success. . . Nikita Mikhalkov said that before this book came out we didnt know Chekhov. . . The author doesnt invent, add or embellish anything . . . Rayfield is motivated by the Westerners urge not ot hold information back, however grim it may be. Anatoli Smelianski, Director of Moscow Arts Theatre SchoolIt is hard to imagine another book about Chekhov after this one by Donald Rayfield. Arthur Miller, Sunday TimesDonald Rayfields exemplary biography draws on a daunting array of material inacessible or ignored by his predecessors. Nikolai Tolstoy, The Literary ReviewDonald Rayfield, Chekhovs best and definitive biographer. William Boyd, Guardian

The first history in English for over 100 years of the Crimean Tatars

La horrible historia del estalinismo ha de ser contada. Esta magn#fica y definitiva obra muestra la Rusia estalinista bajo una perspectiva nunca vista hasta ahora. Stalin lleg# al poder y se mantuvo en #l gracias a sus colaboradores. #l fue el centro del estalinismo, pero no su #nico art#fice. #Qu# motiv# a quienes estuvieron a su lado? #Qu# relaciones mantuvieron con el r#gimen y con su dirigente? #De qu# manera se interrelacion# el terror que contribuyeron a crear y el que ellos mismos sent#an ante el dictador? Este libro reconstruye los mecanismos psicol#gicos de un r#gimen y el funcionamiento de una pir#mide, cuya c#spide era Stalin. El autor se centra en las cinco cabezas del Servicio Secreto y del Ministerio del Interior rusos entre 1918 y 1953: Dzierzynski, Menzhinski, Yagoda, Yezhov y Beria; los motivos que les llevaron a colaborar con Stalin; y las razones por las cuales miles de personas trabajaron para ellos. Para entender las motivaciones de Stalin, el autor analiza su infancia de ni#o maltratado, su paso por el seminario, su car#cter de v#ctima resentida del poder imperial, su experiencia como bandido y su condici#n de psic#pata, tambi#n aplicable a sus verdugos.