Download Free Istemi Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Istemi and write the review.

One of the most ambitious and wildly inventive novels to have come out of Russia in years, this short novel embraces the Brehznev years, the USSR's disintegration, and capitalist shock therapy in the post-Soviet blocThe eponymous hero, part of a brood of bored science students, helps concoct a strategy game set in different eras where each "ruler" of his territory competes in Orwellian permanent war. But the KGB uncovers highly plausible and suspicious military plans and a long penance for each "combatant" ensues. All too late, Istemi is the first to realize the mysterious and disturbingly prophetic nature of a seemingly innocent invention. He is powerless as events long foretold for each unfold, including a hellish tour of duty in Afghanistan, incarceration in an asylum, and mindless bureaucratic drudgery—but what fate awaits Istemi as communist absurdist reality turns into postcapitalism nightmare?
“I did remember: Whenever we moved our troops, advanced or retreated, we had written ‘your turn,’ usually just ‘Y.T.,’ to confirm that we’d made our final decision . . . Looking at the letters now, I felt something in the world change forever.” Ukraine, 1984. The Soviet Union is creaking toward collapse, and a group of bored radiophysics students devise a strategy game to keep themselves entertained. But war games are no joke, and no sooner does their game get underway than the KGB pulls the students in for questioning. Eventually they’re released, but they remain marked men. Twenty years later, capitalism is in full swing when one member of the group, Davidov, receives an e-mail with a familiar ultimatum attached, signed, eerily, “Y.T.” Someone has revived the game, but it’s not any of his friends from the university . . . and the consequences now feel more real than ever. The first English-language publication of a major Russian novelist, Y.T. follows an innocent-seeming game to its darkest places, and the result is a disturbing vision of war and tyranny. Y.T. is a wildly inventive novel that explores the banality deep in the heart of a paranoid totalitarian state.
This book helps Christian voters and politicians think through two perennial questions. Are we required to apply the judicial laws of the Old Testament to our present-day political contexts? And if we are required to obey these laws, how shall we do so? Against the historic Protestant consensus that posits Christians as bound to advocate and apply only the moral principles underlying these laws, Christian Reconstructionists have recently argued that obedience to and promotion of all divinely unamended Mosaic civil laws remains the Christian's new covenant duty. After testing the most thorough statement of the Reconstructionist view--as presented by the late Greg Bahnsen in his Theonomy in Christian Ethics--against Scripture and the Westminster Confession, How Firm a Foundation? demonstrates that the Reconstructionist ethical perspective is unbiblical, unconfessional, and ultimately unhelpful, while the historic Protestant position expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith remains the biblical and useful perspective Christians need to guide contemporary uses of the Mosaic judicial laws.
"Though the book was first published in German in 1988, this English version includes many revisions and updates and will be the definitive English-language study of the Avar empire for years to come. It will be invaluable for those interested in medieval history or in the impact of nomadic steppe empires on sedentary civilizations." ― Choice The Avars arrived in Europe from the Central Asian steppes in the mid-sixth century CE and dominated much of Central and Eastern Europe for almost 250 years. Fierce warriors and canny power brokers, the Avars were more influential and durable than Attila's Huns, yet have remained hidden in history. Walter Pohl's epic narrative, translated into English for the first time, restores them to their rightful place in the story of early medieval Europe. The Avars offers a comprehensive overview of their history, tracing the Avars from the construction of their steppe empire in the center of Europe; their wars and alliances with the Byzantines, Slavs, Lombards, and others; their apex as the first so-called barbarian power to besiege Constantinople (in 626); to their fall under the Frankish armies of Charlemagne and subsequent disappearance as a distinct cultural group. Pohl uncovers the secrets of their society, synthesizing the rich archaeological record recovered from more than 60,000 graves of the period, as well as accounts of the Avars by Byzantine and other chroniclers. In recovering the story of the fascinating encounter between Eurasian nomads who established an empire in the heart of Europe and the post-Roman Christian cultures of Europe, this book provides a new perspective on the origins of medieval Europe itself.