The Pushkin House Book Prize is an annual book prize, awarded to the best

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

writing on

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in the English language. The prize was inaugurated in 2013. The prize amount as of 2020 has been £10,000. The advisory board for the prize is made up of Russia experts including

Rodric Braithwaite Sir Rodric Quentin Braithwaite, (born 17 May 1932) is a retired British diplomat and an author. Public life Braithwaite was educated at Bedales School and Christ's College, Cambridge. After his military service, he joined HM Diplomatic Service ...

, Andrew Jack,

Bridget Kendall Bridget Kendall (born 27 April 1956) is an English journalist who was the BBC's Diplomatic correspondent working for the corporation's radio and television networks. Since July 2016, she has been Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge: the first woman ...

, Andrew Nurnberg, Marc Polonsky, and Douglas Smith.

Shortlists and Winners

2022

Judges:

Evgenia Arbugaeva Evgenia Arbugaeva (born 1985) is a photographer of the Russian Arctic. Having grown up in Yakutsk, she has an empathy with the people living in the far north and the difficult living conditions they experience, and several of her photographic p ...

, Baroness Deborah Bull,

Archie Brown Archibald or Archie Brown may refer to: * Archibald Brown (architect) (1881–1956), American architect * Archibald G. Brown (1844–1922), British minister * Archie Brown (historian) (born 1938), British political scientist and historian * Archie ...

Dmitry Glukhovsky Dmitry Alekseyevich Glukhovsky (russian: Дми́трий Алексе́евич Глухо́вский, born 12 June 1979) is a Russian author and journalist best known for the science fiction novel ''Metro 2033'' and its sequels. As a journal ...

Ekaterina Schulmann Ekaterina Mikhailovna Schulmann (russian: Екатерина Михайловна Шульман, ; ); born 19 August 1978) is a Russian political science, political scientist specializing in legislative processes. Schulmann is an associate profe ...

. Shortlist: * Frank Billé and

Caroline Humphrey Caroline Humphrey, Baroness Rees of Ludlow, (''née'' Waddington; born 1 September 1943) is a British anthropologist and academic. Biography Humphrey's father was the biologist Conrad H. Waddington. Her mother was her father's second wife, ar ...

, ''On the Edge: Life along the Russia-China Border'' * Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet and Ben Noble, ''Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future?'' * Timothy Frye, ''Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia'' *

Thane Gustafson Thane Gustafson (born 1944) is a professor of political science at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., United States. He specializes in comparative politics and the political history of Russia and the former USSR. Life Gustafson holds deg ...

, ''Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change'' * Mary Sarotte, ''Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate'' (WINNER) *

Maria Stepanova Maria Alexandrovna Stepanova (russian: Мари́я Алекса́ндровна Степа́нова; born 23 February 1979) is a Russian professional and Olympic basketball player. In the United States, she played for the Phoenix ...

, ''In Memory of Memory'' *

Deyan Sudjic Deyan Sudjic (born 6 September 1952) is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in the fields of design and architecture. He was formerly the director of the Design Museum, London.LSE"Advisory board" retrieved 17 May 2013 Life and care ...

, ''Stalin’s Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow'' * Lucy Ward, ''The Empress and the English Doctor: How Catherine the Great Defied a Deadly Virus'' * Elizabeth Wilson, ''Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia'' *

Vladislav Zubok Vladislav Zubok (Владислав Мартинович Зубок; born 16 April 1958) is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and a Head of the Russia International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. Zubok is a spe ...

, ''Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union''

2021

Judges: Fiona Hill,

Declan Donnellan Declan Michael Martin Donnellan (born 4 August 1953) is an English film/stage director and author. He co-founded the Cheek by Jowl theatre company with Nick Ormerod in 1981. In addition to his Cheek by Jowl productions, Donnellan has made theat ...

, Sergei Medvedev, George Robertson,

Shortlist: *

, ''The Human Factor'' (WINNER) *

Catherine Belton Catherine Elizabeth Belton is a journalist and writer. From 2007 to 2013, she was the Moscow correspondent for the ''Financial Times''. In '' Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West'', published in 2020, Belton exp ...

, ''Putin’s People'' *

Evgeny Dobrenko Evgeny Dobrenko (born 4 April 1962) is a Russian-American historian. Born in Odessa, he moved to Moscow and worked at Moscow State University and the Russian State University of Humanities. He emigrated to the US and worked at Duke University, Sta ...

, ''Late Stalinism'' *

Jonathan Schneer Jonathan Schneer (born August 9, 1948) is an American historian of modern Britain whose work ranges over labor, political, social, cultural, and diplomatic subjects. He is an emeritus professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition ...

, ''The Lockhart Plot'' *

Andrei Zorin Andrei Andreyevich Zorin (russian: Андрей Андреевич Зорин; born 4 May 1997) is a Russian football player plays for FC Alay in the Kyrgyz Premier League. Club career He made his debut in the Russian Football National League for ...

, ''Leo Tolstoy'' *

Katherine Zubovich Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

, ''Moscow Monumental''

2020

Judges:

Serhii Plokhy Serhii Plokhy, or Plokhii ( uk, Сергій Миколайович Плохій, russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Пло́хий; born 23 May 1957) is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, whe ...

, Celestine Bohlen, Julia Safronova, and Richard Wright. Shortlist: * Sergei Medvedev - ''The Return of the Russian Leviathan'' (WINNER) *

Brian Boeck Brian J. Boeck is an American historian. He obtained his doctorate in Russian history from Harvard University, and now teaches Russian and Soviet history at DePaul University in Chicago. His biography of the Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov was publ ...

- ''Stalin's Scribe: The Life of Mikhail Sholokhov'' * Kate Brown - ''Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future'' *

Bathsheba Demuth Bathsheba Rose Demuth is an environmental historian; she is the Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Environment and Society at Brown University. She specializes in the study of the Russian and North American Arctic. Her interest in this ...

- ''Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait'' *

Owen Matthews Owen Matthews (born December 1971) is a British writer, historian and journalist. His first book, ''Stalin's Children'', was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award, the Orwell Prize for political writing, and France's Prix Médicis E ...

- ''An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent'' *

Joan Neuberger Joan Neuberger is an American historian. She obtained a bachelor's degree in Russian literature at Grinnell College in 1975, and a doctorate in Russian history at Stanford University at 1985. She now teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, wh ...

- ''This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia''

2019

Judges: Rachel Campbell-Johnson, Alexander Drozdov,

Sergei Guriev Sergey Maratovich Guriyev (russian: Серге́й Мара́тович Гури́ев, os, Гуриаты Мараты фырт Сергей / Gwyriaty Maraty fyrt Sergej) is a Russian economist, who is Provost and a professor of economics at t ...

(chair),

Alexis Peri Alexis Peri is an Americans, American historian. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and currently teaches Russia, Russian and Soviet history at Boston University. Her book ''The War Within'' (Harvard University Press, ...

, Andrei Zorin. Shortlist: *

- ''Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe'' (Penguin) (WINNER) * Taylor Downing - ''1983: The World at the Brink'' (Little, Brown Book Group) *

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti (born October 1965) is a London-based political scientist, lecturer and writer on transnational crime and Russian security affairs and director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence. He is an honorary professor at the UCL School of Sl ...

- ''The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia'' (Yale University Press) *

Ben Macintyre Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre (born 25 December 1963) is a British author, reviewer and columnist for ''The Times'' newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies. Early life Macintyre is the elder son of Ang ...

- ''The Spy and the Traitor'' (Viking) * Eleonory Gilburd - ''To See Paris And Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture'' (Harvard University Press) *

Katja Petrowskaja Katja Petrowskaja (russian: link=no, Екатерина Мироновна Петровськая, uk, Катерина Миронівна Петровська; born 3 February 1970) is a Kiev born German prose writer and journalist. Biogra ...

- ''Maybe Esther: A Family Story'' (4th Estate)

2018

Judges: Rosalind Blakesley, Oleg Budnitsky,

Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicepr ...

(chair),

Dervla Murphy Dervla Murphy (28 November 1931 – 22 May 2022) was an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books, writing for more than 50 years. Murphy is best known for her 1965 book '' Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle'', about a ...

, John Thornhill. Shortlist: *

- ''The War Within: Diaries From the Siege of Leningrad'' (Harvard University Press) (WINNER) * Victoria Lomasko - ''Other Russias'' (translated from the Russian by

Thomas Campbell Thomas Campbell may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Thomas Campbell (poet) (1777–1844), Scottish poet * Thomas Campbell (sculptor) (1790–1858), Scottish sculptor * Thomas Campbell (visual artist) (born 1969), California-based visual artist ...

) (Penguin, first published by n+1) (BEST RUSSIAN BOOK IN TRANSLATION) *

- ''Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation'' (Profile Books) *

Olivier Rolin Olivier Rolin (born 14 May 1947, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French writer. He won the Prix Femina in 1994, for his novel ''Port-Soudan''. His brother Jean Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean ( ...

- ''Stalin’s Meteorologist: One Man’s Untold Story of Love, Life, and Death'' (translated from the French by

Ros Schwartz Ros Schwartz is an English literary translator, who translates Francophone literature into English. In 2009 she was awarded the Chevalier d’Honneur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her services to French literature. Career Alongside li ...

) (Penguin) *

Yuri Slezkine Yuri Lvovich Slezkine (Russian: Ю́рий Льво́вич Слёзкин ''Yúriy L'vóvich Slyózkin''; born February 7, 1956) is a Russian-born American historian and translator. He is a professor of Russian history, Sovietologist, and Directo ...

- ''The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution'' (Princeton University Press) *

William Taubman William Chase Taubman (born November 13, 1941 in New York City) is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 200 ...

- ''Gorbachev: His Life and Times'' (Simon & Schuster)

2017

Judges:

Anne Applebaum Anne Elizabeth Applebaum (born July 25, 1964) is an American journalist and historian. She has written extensively about the history of Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She has worked at ''The Econo ...

Petr Aven Petr Olegovich Aven (also transliterated Pyotr Aven; russian: Пëтр Олегович Авен; Latvian: Pjotrs Avens; born 16 March 1955) is a Russian oligarch, businessman, economist and politician who also holds Latvian citizenship. Until M ...

Simon Franklin Simon Franklin is Professor of Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is a Fellow of Clare College. In 2007 he was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements in research in R ...

(chair),

Dominic Lieven Dominic Lieven (born 19 January 1952) is a research professor at Cambridge University (Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College) and a Fellow of the British Academy and of Trinity College, Cambridge. Education Lieven was educated at Downside Sch ...

, Charlotte Hobson. Shortlist: * Rosalind Blakesley - ''The Russian Canvas: Painting in Imperial Russia 1757-1881'' (Yale University Press) (WINNER) *

Teffi Nadezhda Alexandrovna Teffi (russian: Наде́жда Алекса́ндровна Тэ́ффи; , Saint Petersburg – 6 October 1952, Paris) was a Russian humorist writer. Together with Arkady Averchenko she was one of the prominent authors of t ...

- ''Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea'' (translated by Robert Chandler,

Elizabeth Chandler Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (December 24, 1807November 2, 1834) was an American poet and writer from Pennsylvania and Michigan. She became the first female writer in the United States to make the Abolitionism in the United States, abolition of ...

, Anne Marie Jackson and Irina Steinberg with an introduction by Edyth C. Haber) (Pushkin Press) (BEST RUSSIAN BOOK IN TRANSLATION) *

Daniel Beer Daniel Beer (born 1973) is a British historian and Professor of Modern History at Royal Holloway, University of London. His book, ''The House of the Dead'', won the 2017 Cundill History Prize and was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize. Sele ...

- ''The House of the Dead'' (Allen Lane) *

Anne Garrels Anne Longworth Garrels (July 2, 1951 – September 7, 2022) was an American broadcast journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, as well as for ABC and NBC, and other media.Engle, Jane"From Beijing to Baghdad, G ...

- ''Putin Country'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *

Simon Morrison Simon Morrison is a scholar and writer specializing in 20th-century music, particularly Russian, Soviet, and French music, with special interests in dance, cinema, aesthetics, and historically informed performance based on primary sources. He has ...

- ''Bolshoi Confidential'' (Fourth Estate) *

Simon Sebag Montefiore Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore (; born 27 June 1965) is a British historian, television presenter and author of popular history books and novels, including ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar' (2003), Monsters: History's Most Evil Men and ...

- ''The Romanovs'' (Orion)

2016

Judges:

Geoffrey Hosking Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to: People * Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name * Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the m ...

Anne McElvoy Anne McElvoy (born 25 June 1965) is a British journalist, contributing to ''The Economist'', London ''Evening Standard'', and the BBC. Early life McElvoy attended St Bede's RC Comprehensive School in Lanchester, County Durham, and read German ...

, Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill. Shortlist: *

- ''Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia'' (Penguin) (WINNER) *

Oleg Khlevniuk Oleg Vitalyevich Khlevniuk ( rus, Олег Витальевич Хлевнюк, born 7 July 1959 Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR) is a historian and a senior researcher at the State Archive of the Russian Federation in Moscow.Nora Seligman Favorov) (Yale University Press) (BEST RUSSIAN BOOK IN TRANSLATION) *

Gabriel Gorodetsky Gabriel Gorodetsky (born 13 May 1945) is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and emeritus professor of history at Tel Aviv University. Gorodetsky studied History and Russian Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and went on to ...

, editor - ''Maisky Diaries: Red Ambassador to the Court of St James’s 1932-43'' (Yale University Press) *

Bobo Lo Bobo Lo (Chinese: 罗波波；born 1959) is a Chinese Australian writer and foreign policy expert. He received his MA from Oxford University and his PhD from the University of Melbourne. From 1995 to 1999, he served as a diplomat in Moscow, as Fi ...

- ''Russia and the New World Disorder'' (Brookings Institution) *

Alfred Rieber Alfred J. Rieber (born 1931) is an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history. Biography He graduated ''magna cum laude'' from Colgate University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his MA (1954) and PhD (195 ...

- ''Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia'' (Cambridge University Press) * Robert Service - ''The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991'' (Pan Macmillan)

2015

Judges:

Lord Browne of Madingley Edmund John Phillip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, (born 20 February 1948) is a British businessman. He is best known for his role as the chief executive of the energy company BP between 1995 and 2007. This period has been described as ...

Dmitry Bykov Dmitry Lvovich Bykov ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Львович Быков, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈlʲvovʲɪdʑ ˈbɨkəf, a=Dmitriy L'vovich Bykov.ru.vorb.oga; born 20 December 1967) is a Russian writer, poet, literary critic and journalist.< ...

, Varya Gornostaeva,

Catherine Merridale Catherine Anne Merridale, FBA (born 12 October 1959) is a British writer and historian with a special interest in Russian history. Early life and education Merridale was born on 12 October 1959 to Philip and Anne Merridale. She was educated at ...

. Shortlist: *

- ''The Last Empire: The final days of the Soviet Union'' (Oneworld Publications) (WINNER) * Peter Finn and Petra Couvée - ''The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the battle over a forbidden book'' (Harvill Secker/Vintage Books) *

Jacek Hugo-Bader Jacek Aleksander Hugo-Bader (born 9 March 1957 in Sochaczew) is a Polish reporter and journalist fascinated by Russia and the Post-Soviet states, former Soviet Republics. Since 1990 he has worked for the ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' newspaper. Life and c ...

- ''Kolyma Diaries: A Journey into Russia’s haunted hinterland'' (translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones) (Portobello Books) *

Catriona Kelly Catriona Helen Moncrieff Kelly, FBA (born 6 October 1959) is a British academic specialising in Russian culture. From 1996 to 2021, she was Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of New College. In 2021, she was elected s ...

- ''St Petersburg: Shadows of the past'' (Yale University Press) *

Stephen Kotkin Stephen Mark Kotkin (born February 17, 1959) is an American historian, academic, and author. He is currently the John P. Birkelund '52 Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he is also co-director of the pro ...

- ''Stalin Volume I: Paradoxes of power, 1878-1928'' (Penguin Press) *

Peter Pomerantsev Peter Pomerantsev (; born Pyotr Igorevich Pomerantsev, russian: Пётр Игоревич Померанцев, label=none; born 1977) is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global ...

- '' Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia'' (Faber)

2014

Judges:

Boris Akunin Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ� ...

Viv Groskop Viv Groskop (born 8 July 1973) is a British journalist, writer and comedian. She has written for publications including ''The Guardian'', ''Evening Standard'', ''The Observer'', ''Daily Mail'', ''Mail on Sunday'' and ''Red'' magazine. She writes ...

Dr Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bi ...

(chair),

, Douglas Smith. Shortlist: *

- ''Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia's History'' (Allen Lane) (WINNER) *

Vladimir Alexandrov Vladimir Valentinovich Alexandrov (russian: Владимир Валентинович Александров; born 1938; disappeared 1985) was a Soviet/Russian physicist who created a mathematical model for the nuclear winter theory. He disappear ...

- ''The Black Russian'' (Head of Zeus) *

- ''Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America'' (Bloomsbury) * Anya von Bremzen - ''Mastering The Art of Soviet Cooking'' (Transworld) *

Sheila Fitzpatrick Sheila May Fitzpatrick (born June 4, 1941) is an Australian historian, whose main subjects are history of the Soviet Union and history of modern Russia, especially the Stalin era and the Great Purges, of which she proposes a " history from belo ...

- ''A Spy in the Archives: a Memoir of Cold War Russia'' (IB Taurus) * Stephen Walsh - ''Mussorgsky and His Circle: a Russian Musical Adventure'' (Faber and Faber)

2013

Judges: Sir Rodric Braithwaite, A.D. Miller, Rachel Polonsky, Lord Robert Skidelsky, Dmitri V. Trenin. Shortlist: * Douglas Smith - ''Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy'' (WINNER) *

- ''Iron Curtain'' *

Masha Gessen Masha Gessen (born 13 January 1967) is a Russian-American journalist, author, translator and activist who has been an outspoken critic of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the former president of the United States, Donald Trump. Gess ...

- '' The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin'' *

- ''Wheel of Fortune'' * Donald Raleigh - ''Soviet Baby Boomers'' *

Karl Schlögel Karl Schlögel (born 7 March 1948 in Hawangen Hawangen is a municipality in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany, with about 1,254 inhabitants. Hawangen is situated east of Memmingen. The town has a municipal association with ...

- ''Moscow 1937''

References

{{Reflist

External links

Pushkin House Book Prize website
Non-fiction literary awards 2013 introductions Books about Russia Russian literature-related lists