Toward the Rising Sun: Russian Ideologies of Empire and the Path to War with Japan by David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye

What a name.

Russian Orientalism by David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye

Gonna give it to myself.

Other Russias by Victoria Lomasko

Russian General Staff and Asia, 1860-1917 by Alex Marshall

All you could ever hope to know about Russian officers' careers in the 1860s.

Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia by Samuel Charap and Timothy J. Colton

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy

Fortunately everyone dies.