Richard Fitzpatrick selects an eclectic mix of summer reading options

JULIAN BARNES transports us back to the former Soviet Union’s days of “endless terror” for his first novel since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2011. 

GERMANY: The 3,900kg granite head of Vladimir Lenin that was removed from a Berlin square in 1991 has been unearthed for an exhibition.

Top Western diplomats headed to Kiev today to try to defuse a stand-off between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s government and thousands of demonstrators, following a night in which police in riot gear dismantled protesters’ encampments outside government buildings.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Ukraine’s capital yesterday, toppling a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and blockading key government buildings in an escalating stand-off with the president over the future of the country.

Anti-government protesters have toppled the statue of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in central Kiev amid huge protests gripping Ukraine.

Lenin’s Kisses

When Vladimir Putin says the US is endangering the global economy by abusing its dollar monopoly, he’s not just talking.

July

LAST Sunday, at Béal na mBláth, Enda Kenny brought Vladimir Lenin to Ireland.

Two Moscow art curators are facing prison after being accused of staging a show that allegedly mocked religion.

A bomb today blew a large hole in one of Russia’s best-known statues of Vladimir Lenin.

Ninety years after he was executed, Tsar Nicholas II is leading a tight race to be named the greatest Russian in history.

The 437 youths who were detained after overnight clashes with police in Copenhagen have been released, but will all be charged later, police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said today.

Police clashed with rock-throwing youths in the centre of the Danish capital after officers prevented the crowd from reaching a vacant building they have tried to use as a place for parties and concerts.

A team of British and Canadian explorers endured seven weeks of howling winds and sub-zero temperatures to become the first expedition to reach the geographic centre of Antarctica on foot.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez declared he would nationalise electrical and telecommunication companies, taking a bold step toward increasing state control as he promised to transform Venezuela into a socialist country.

A top Russian Orthodox official today said the country’s dominant church believed the body of Bolshevik Revolution leader Vladimir Lenin should be removed from display in a Red Square mausoleum and buried.

A new square in the Baltic city of Kaliningrad will be named after Vladimir Lenin, complete with a restored statue of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution leader.

A new square in the Russian city of Kaliningrad will be named after Vladimir Lenin, complete with a restored statue of the Bolshevik Revolution leader, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported today.

An influential Russian governor seen as being close to President Vladimir Putin today called for Vladimir Lenin’s body to be removed from its Red Square mausoleum and buried, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

From Australia to Zimbabwe, millions of people took to the streets today to mark May Day with protests, violence, demonstrations and, in some causes, enjoyment.