Anna Reid (born 1965) is an English journalist and author whose work focuses primarily on the

history of Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and i ...

Early life

Reid read law at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and studied Russian History at the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

School of Slavonic and East European Studies. After working as a consultant and business journalist, she moved to Kyiv, where she was the Ukraine correspondent for the

Economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

from 1993 to 1995. From 2003 to 2007, she worked for the British think-tank

Policy Exchange Policy Exchange is a British conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". Policy Exchange is a registered charity; it most ...

, editing several of their publications and running the foreign affairs programme.

Works

Reid has published three books on East European history: ''Borderland: A Journey Through the history of Ukraine,'' ''The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia,'' and ''Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II: 1941-1944.'' Critics have praised her for her highly descriptive narratives of the locations she studies. She has received especially high praise for ''Leningrad'', which is the first 21st-century book-length account of the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

(modern-day

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

) by the Germans from 1941 to 1944. In its use of newly discovered primary sources from the Siege, including private diaries of ordinary citizens who suffered from cold and starvation during the winter of 1941-1942, the book has been called "a relentless chronicle of suffering." Her most recent book, ''A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War'', chronicles the

Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions that began in 1918. The initial impetus behind the interventions was to secure munitions and supply depots from falling into the German ...

, was published in 2023.

Selected bibliography

* * * * A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War. Basic Books. 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Anna Living people The Economist people Historians of Eastern Europe 1965 births Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies