The Red Commissar

A selection from his Bugulma stories (Hasek as Bolshevik and Red Commissar), some early Svejk stories, reminiscences of Hasek's apprenticeship days, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his political 'Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law'.

Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece "The Good Soldier Svejk." That has been described as 'Perhaps the funniest novel ever written.' Although his life was short and chaotic, Hasek did however write more as this volume tellingly reveals. In his preface, Cecil Parrott, translator and biographer of Hasek, crisply defines its purpose.. 'All the world has heard of Svejk, but few are familiar with the countless other characters Hasek created in his stories and sketches, which together with his feuilletons and articles are though to number some twelve hundred. The best of these deserve to be made available to the Western public and are included in this volume.' The range is wide. There is a selection from his Bugulma stories (Hasek as Bolshevik and Red Commissar), some early Svejk stories, reminiscences of Hasek's apprenticeship days, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his political 'Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law'.

A shocking insight into the brutalities faced by ordinary soldiers and the atrocities committed in the name of survival. Dispassionately we stared at the bloody scene. It had become an everyday sight. The 27th Penal Regiment care nothing for Hitler's war. They fight only to stay alive. But then they uncover the Soviet Army's biggest secret. A Russian commissar has hidden 30 million dollars of gold somewhere behind enemy lines. In a madcap scheme, Porta brokers a deal with the commissar: free passage for the Russians in return for a share of the gold. To find it, Sven and his comrades must be prepared to lie, steal and go behind the lines of the deadly Russian army...

After the 1917 revolution, Russia is teetering on the brink of civil war. When the Soviet head of state Lenin is shot by an assassin, CHEKA agent Anna Sokolova is tasked with hunting down British spy Sidney Reilly who set in motion an audacious plot to alter the course of Russian history. Meanwhile, in New York, an American WWI veteran William Arden sets sail on a mission to Russia that is not what it appears to be, and the true purpose of which even he may not yet fully comprehend. Their paths cross in Petrograd, and they become unlikely allies. As a bloody conflict ignites throughout Russia, Anna’s loyalties are tested. Can she save her country and not lose herself in the process? Based on historical events, Commissar is a gripping spy thriller about the little-known period of US and British intervention in the Russian Civil War (1918-22).

A disturbing glimpse into the manipulation of photographs by Stalin shows retouched portraits