Art

Russia!: Nine Hundred Years Of Masterpieces And Master Collections. Guggenheim Foundation. (Guggenheim Press: NY) 2005 

The Artist as Producer: Russian Constructivism in Revolution.  M. Gough. (University of California Press: LA) 2005

Imagine No Possessions : The Socialist Objects of Russian Constructivism. C. Kaier. (The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA) 2005

Russian Modernism between East and West : Natal'ia Goncharova and the Moscow Avant-Garde. J. Sharp. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge) 2006. 

Also recommended:  Books by Christina Lodder and John Bowlt

History

A History of Russia. N.V. Riasanovsky. (Oxford University Press: NY), 2004 

A History of Russia. P. Dukes. (Duke University Press: Durham, NC), 1998 

Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the USSR : A Survey of Former Soviet Citizens. J. Millar, ed. (Cambridge University Press: NY), 1987

The Russian Peasantry: The World the Peasants Made.  D. Moon. (Longman Publishing Group: London), 1999

The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. G.A. Hosking. (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA), 1992 

Armageddon Averted. S. Kotkin. (Oxford University Press: NY), 2001 - (Recommended as a good overview of the last 30 years in the USSR and Russia. Needs supplemental readings and discussion on key points if used as a class textbook. Rec. by M. Denner of Stetson University.)

Olga's Story. S. Williams. (Doubleday: NY), 2005. (Excellent personal history of one woman who lived through the Russian and Chinese Communist Revolutions. SRAS Director, Renee Stillings, helped the author set up her first research trip for the book to Irkutsk and environs!)

A People's Tragedy. O. Figes. (Penguin: NY), 1998.  Regarded by most as the definitive social history of the communist takeover, by one of the most respected historians of Russia of our age.

The Great Game. P. Hopkirk. (Kodansha Globe: NY), 1994.  An essential companion for anyone interested in Central Asian history and modern politics. All Books by P. Hopkirk 

Culture

Russia and the Russians.  G. Hosking. (Belknap Press: Cambridge, MA), 2003 

Natasha's Dance : A Cultural History of Russia. O. Figes. (Picador: New York), 2003

Between Heaven and Hell : The Myth of Siberia in Russian Culture. G. Diment, Y. Slezkine, eds. (Palgrave Macmillan: NY), 1993

Politics - Recommended by Political Science Professors at GRINT

Russia After the Cold War. M. Bowker.  (Addison Wesley Longman: London), 2000

Putin's Russia. D. Herspring, ed. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers: Lanham, MD), 2003

Contemporary Russian Politics : A Reader. A. Brown, (Oxford University Press: NY), 2001

Russia in Search of Itself. J. Billington. (Woodrow Wilson Center Press: NY), 2004 (How Russia is redefining itself in the post-communist world - insights into culture, politics, history, etc. - Rec by M. Denner of Stetson University) 

Religion - Recommended by V. Tsurikov, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary

Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today. J. Meyendorff.  (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: NY), 1996

The Russians and Their Church. N. Zernov. (Halcyon House: NY), 1997
   The above two are introductions to history and culture of Orthodoxy

The Way of a Pilgrim.  W. Ciszek. (Image: NY), 1973
   Still considered a classic introduction to Russian spirituality

The Byzantine Rite: A Short History. R. Taft. (Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN), 1992 
   Above recommended as fastest introduction to liturgy

Introduction to Liturgical Theology. A. Schmemann. (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: NY), 1997
   (A more complete account)