The Baton and the Cross : Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin, Lucy Ash

The Baton and the Cross : Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin, Lucy AshNew Paperback For more than a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has shown astonishing survival skills from the Mongol yoke to tsarist demagoguery and enlightenment, from Soviet atheism to the chaotic 1990s. Now again, it is at the right hand of power, sanctifying Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. In this provocative new book, Lucy Ash reveals how, under Putin, religion is being stripped of its spiritual content and used as a weapon to

and TikTok (@lonelyplanet)

he discovers that the stories of the people and places that birthed them are just as fascinating as the creatures themselves

An engaging blend of conservation stories and humorous

and a myriad of tools

Callum impulsively decides to stay (and doesn't bother telling his parents)

to have a name and a history

Mission Europe examines why women were recruited

to ward off loneliness

it almost destroyed her

In due course

As she tracks the criminals

A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer's love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural