Russia: A History Book

Here, thirteen American and European historians exploit the "archival revolution" of 1991 as well as the best contemporary scholarship to provide a major reinterpretation of Russian history.

This essay collection, the first history of its kind to appear since the fall of the Soviet Union, covers Russian history from the eighth century up to the Commonwealth of Independent States. Readers encounter a nation of extremes--imperial opulence and abject poverty, tyrannical power and subversive resistance, artistic achievement and economic crisis, glittering cities and frozen steppes--as the contributors explore Russia's repeated themes and unchanging conditions. Time and again, all-powerful autocrats like Ivan the Terrible and Stalin brutally eliminated any challenge to their authority. Yet their power was always under attack, threatened by bureaucratic incompetence, pervasive corruption, and revolts from below. Russian rulers likewise faced recurrent--and immense--physical challenges: a huge, widely dispersed population; a perennial dearth of means and men to govern; and a primitive infrastructure that periodically dissolved into times of trouble, as in 1598, 1917, and 1991. Featuring over 180 illustrations, including 16 color plates, Russia: A History untangles the myths of the past to tell the full, absorbing story of a former superpower.