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In 1988 Anne Applebaum, an American graduate of Yale and the London School of Economics, moved to Warsaw as a correspondent for The Economist and reported on the end of communism across the region. Fifteen years later she published Gulag: A History, built on newly opened Soviet archives and survivors’ memoirs, which estimates that about 18 million people passed through the camps between 1929 and 1953. It won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Her later books moved from the Soviet past to the present: Stalin’s famine in Ukraine, the friends from her own New Year’s Eve party in 1999 who turned to nationalist populism, and the networks that link today’s dictatorships. This guide covers her seven key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 1994–2024 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Anne Applebaum has written seven key books. The best known are Gulag: A History (2003), which won the Pulitzer Prize, Iron Curtain (2012), Red Famine (2017), Twilight of Democracy (2020) and Autocracy, Inc. (2024). Start with Twilight of Democracy, her shortest book, which links her history of the Soviet bloc to politics now.
Where to Start with Anne Applebaum
If you want a short way in
→ Twilight of Democracy (2020) — her personal account of why old friends turned to authoritarian politics.
If you want her defining book
→ Gulag (2003) — the Pulitzer-winning history of the Soviet camps.
If you want the history behind the war in Ukraine
→ Red Famine (2017) — Stalin’s famine of 1932–1933.
If you want to understand today’s dictatorships
→ Autocracy, Inc. (2024).
7 Anne Applebaum Books, in Order
Between East and West
Her first book, published by Pantheon in 1994, follows a journey through the borderlands between Poland and Russia, from Kaliningrad on the Baltic to Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way she meets Lithuanians, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians, and traces how the region’s borders and populations had shifted in the twentieth century.
Gulag
A history of the Soviet labour camps from their origins under Lenin, through the Great Purge and the Second World War, to their decline after Stalin’s death. Drawing on Soviet archives and on survivors such as Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, it describes arrest, interrogation, transport, work and death in the camps, and estimates that about 18 million people passed through them between 1929 and 1953. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, won the Duff Cooper Prize and won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Gulag Voices
A companion to Gulag, published by Yale University Press: extracts from the memoirs of former prisoners of the Soviet camps, selected and introduced by Applebaum, so that readers can hear the survivors in their own words.
Iron Curtain
How the Soviet Union imposed communist rule on Central and Eastern Europe in the decade after the Second World War, with a focus on Poland, East Germany and Hungary. Using archives in several languages and interviews with people who lived through it, she shows how the new regimes took over the police, the media, political parties, cultural organisations and the economy. It was a National Book Award finalist and won the 2013 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.
Red Famine
A history of the Ukrainian famine of 1932–1933, the Holodomor, which traces it to Stalin’s collectivisation of farming and argues that Soviet policy turned a food crisis into a catastrophe, alongside a campaign against Ukrainian language and culture. It draws on government reports, letters from villagers to Moscow and survivors’ accounts. It won the 2017 Duff Cooper Prize, making her the only author to win it twice, and the 2018 Lionel Gelber Prize.
Twilight of Democracy
The book opens with the New Year’s Eve party that Applebaum and her husband, the Polish politician Radosław Sikorski, gave on 31 December 1999, when most of their guests shared the same centre-right politics. Twenty years later, she writes, she would cross the street to avoid some of them. She uses their stories, and those of former allies elsewhere, to ask why writers and intellectuals in Poland, Hungary, Britain and the United States turned to nationalist and authoritarian politics.
Autocracy, Inc.
Published by Doubleday in 2024, it argues that today’s autocracies are held together less by ideology than by shared interests: networks of corruption, impunity and propaganda that link regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea and help each other stay in power. The same year she received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
In What Order to Read Anne Applebaum
Her books do not depend on each other, so you can read by subject. Read in publication order, though, they move forward in time: the Soviet camps, then the takeover of Eastern Europe after 1944, the Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s, and finally the authoritarian politics of the present.
Gulag is the longest, at almost 700 pages in hardback. If you want a lighter start, read Twilight of Democracy or Autocracy, Inc. first and go back to the histories they draw on.
A reading path
1. Twilight of Democracy (2020)
2. Gulag: A History (2003)
3. Iron Curtain (2012)
4. Red Famine (2017)
5. Autocracy, Inc. (2024)
Everything Else Anne Applebaum Published
Beyond the 7 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Co-written books
2
2 books · 2012–2021
- 2012From a Polish Country House Kitchena cookbook of Polish recipes, written with Danielle Crittenden
- 2021Wybóra Polish-language book, with Donald Tusk
The years · 1964–2024
Quick facts about Anne Applebaum
- Known for
- Anne Applebaum is known for her histories of Soviet repression in Eastern Europe and for her journalism on how modern authoritarian regimes gain and keep power.
- 1964
- Born in Washington, D.C.
- 1988
- Moves to Warsaw for The Economist
- 2003
- Gulag: A History
- 2013
- Becomes a Polish citizen
- 2024
- Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
- Born
- 25 July 1964, Washington, D.C.
- Education
- Yale University (BA, 1986); London School of Economics (MA, 1987); St Antony’s College, Oxford
- Worked
- The Economist in Warsaw from 1988; The Spectator; columnist at The Washington Post; staff writer at The Atlantic since 2020
- Married
- The Polish politician Radosław Sikorski, in 1992
- Citizenship
- American, and Polish since 2013
- Honours
- Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2004); Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (2024)
The red mark is 2003: Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.
How Anne Applebaum Writes: Archives and Witnesses
Her histories rest on two kinds of evidence at once. Gulag used Soviet archives opened after 1991 together with prisoners’ memoirs; Iron Curtain combined archives in several languages with interviews with people who had lived under the new regimes; Red Famine set official reports beside letters that villagers sent to Moscow.
She explains systems by following how they work in practice: how a prisoner was arrested and transported, how a newspaper or a cultural group was taken over, how dictatorships cooperate to stay in power. The numbers are there, such as the estimate of 18 million people through the camps, but the chapters are organised around institutions and individual lives.
Her recent books bring her own life into the argument. Twilight of Democracy is built around people she knew personally, and draws on more than thirty years of living and reporting in Poland, where her husband has served as defence minister and foreign minister.
Frequently asked questions about Anne Applebaum’s books
How many books has Anne Applebaum written?
Nine, counting an anthology she edited and two co-written books. Seven are the key books on this page, from Between East and West (1994) to Autocracy, Inc. (2024); the other two are the cookbook From a Polish Country House Kitchen (2012) and the Polish-language Wybór (2021).
What are Anne Applebaum’s books in order?
Between East and West (1994), Gulag: A History (2003), Gulag Voices (2011), Iron Curtain (2012), Red Famine (2017), Twilight of Democracy (2020) and Autocracy, Inc. (2024).
Where should I start with Anne Applebaum?
Twilight of Democracy (2020), her shortest book, which starts from a New Year’s Eve party in Poland in 1999 and asks why some of the guests later turned to authoritarian politics. If you want her major history first, read Gulag: A History.
What is Anne Applebaum’s most famous book?
Gulag: A History (2003), which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2004. Of her recent books, Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc. are the most widely read.
What prizes has Anne Applebaum won?
The 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Gulag; the Duff Cooper Prize twice, for Gulag and for Red Famine (2017); the 2013 Cundill Prize for Iron Curtain; the 2018 Lionel Gelber Prize for Red Famine; and the 2024 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, presented in Frankfurt on 20 October 2024.
What is Red Famine about?
The Ukrainian famine of 1932–1933, the Holodomor. Applebaum traces it to Stalin’s collectivisation of farming and argues that Soviet policy made it far deadlier, while the regime also moved against Ukrainian language and culture.
Is Anne Applebaum married to Radosław Sikorski?
Yes. She married the Polish politician Radosław Sikorski in 1992; they have two sons. He has served as Poland’s defence minister and foreign minister. She became a Polish citizen in 2013.
Is Anne Applebaum controversial?
Her commentary on Russia has drawn criticism: writers such as Glenn Greenwald have called her a warmonger and a neoconservative, and in November 2022 Russia placed her on a list of 200 American citizens it sanctioned. A 2002 column, “Kill the Messenger”, in which she called Palestinian state media a legitimate target for bombing, has also been criticised; in a 2024 interview she said radio and television stations are not legitimate military targets. Some reviewers of Gulag argued that her politics shaped its comparison of the Soviet and Nazi camps.
Where does Anne Applebaum write now?
She has been a staff writer at The Atlantic since January 2020, after many years as a columnist at The Washington Post. She is also a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Footnotes
- Anne Applebaum — Wikipedia
- Gulag: A History — Wikipedia
- Anne Applebaum — The Pulitzer Prizes
- Anne Applebaum — Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
- ‘Red Famine’ review — The Christian Science Monitor, 2017
- ‘Iron Curtain’ review — The Christian Science Monitor, 2012
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“This book was written because it almost certainly will happen again.”
— Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History (2003)
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