Russia

The Flight of Bonaparte from the Battle of Krasnoi, 1815. Artist: Sutherland, Thomas (1785-1838)

How Napoleon was humbled

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany, 1945. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Second World War

A war of words

Operation Barbarossa, which began on 22 June 1941, saw more than three million German troops surge into the Soviet Union along a front of more than 1,000 miles. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Second World War

Barbarossa and Britain

Christmas Day 1991: Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev broadcasts a message to his people announcing his resignation and the imminent dissolution of the USSR. (TV GRAB/AFP/Getty Images)

Does Russia need an iron fist?

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Illustration by Jonty Clark

Ye olde travel guide: St Petersburg 1725 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British prime minister Edward Heath with Olympic gold medal winner Mary Peters. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Communist sport: Cold War copycats

Trawler crew, c1900. (Photo by Past Pix/SSPL/Getty Images)

Toilers of the deep: the lives of Edwardian deep sea fishermen

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Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), pictured here c1895, is one of the most important figures in modern Russian literature. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

My history hero: Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Getty Images)

Communist Moscow