Books about Novgorod from Amazon.com

Long ago in the city of Novgorod there lived a poor musician named Sadko, whose fortunes change when he is called to play at the Sea King's sumptuous undersea palace. Adventure, romance--and a heartbreaking decision--await the musician when he encounters the Sea King's beautiful daughter, Volkhova..
Price: $75.19 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In Russia during the communist era, every family was affected by the godless tyranny. Practically every extended family had at least one person who was the victim of arrest, imprisonment, and/or death.

Right after the communist revolution in Russia, the migr press abounded with firsthand accounts of communist oppression. However, due to political fear, and the support in the West of socialist aspirations, most of the texts were soon hidden. Within enslaved Russia, all attempts to record the lives of the heroes of Orthodox confession were vicariously suppressed, and thus their stories remained alive only in the hearts of the faithful, who awaited a more favorable time to tell their God-inspired stories and the truth to the world.

Now these accounts are being brought to light together with information from newly opened KGB files, and Fr. Damascene's volumes are among the most important fruits of these efforts. His gigantic labor of collecting and publishing whatever has been miraculously preserved in Russia, and of verifying it with already existing information, is now presented in the English language.

The many eyewitness accounts draw the reader into personal contact with these righteous confessors, and brings a view of this confessive era into sharp focus. Their stories are unearthed as a vast wealth of inspiration and strength to endure trials for Christ's sake, and thereby to achieve union with God..
Price: $15.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1854 edition by Joseph Masters, London..
Price: $15.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Novgorod region of Russia is a sparsely populated area about the size of Ireland better known for its medieval archaeology and folklore than for anything else. Although Novgorod began the post-Soviet period with no unusual endowment of natural or human resources, it has attracted a large amount of foreign investment. Its dramatic economic success and political innovation have impressed observers. Local governments deliver benefits and services reliably, and the regional government responds quickly to citizens’ needs and demands. Something noteworthy is happening in Novgorod that does not square with familiar headlines about contemporary Russia: oligarchs and oil, ethnic tensions and corruption.

Nicolai N. Petro attempts to explain the Novgorod phenomenon by seeking answers at the regional level. Novgorod is, he finds, a model of effective democratic consolidation. Petro suggests that the region owes its unexpected recent success to its political elites, who have identified key cultural symbols and used those symbols to promote democratic development. Drawing on comparisons with other regions and countries, Petro finds that these cultural tactics often yield better results than do Western-style institutions and educational training programs.

"Current efforts to promote democracy focus too much on structural changes and not enough on the conditions needed to sustain them," Petro writes. "For the rule of law, free markets, and free and fair elections to gain broad public support, they must first make sense within the local cultural tradition." The unexpected success of regional democratic development in a country not known for its democratic traditions suggests that local governments can transform the burden of the past into an ally of change, a finding with implications for democratic development initiatives in other areas of the world..
Price: $32.51 [Notify me when price goes down.]