This book provides a broad overview of Russian history since the ninth century.

Includes maps of: Kievan Rus in the Eleventh Century; Russia in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century; Russia at the Time of Peter the Great; Russia in 1796; Russia in 1913; Soviet Union in the Second World War, 1941-45; Kremlenagrad.

Russia before Russia --Moscow, Novgorod, Lithuania, and the Mongols -- The emergence of Russia -- Consolidation and revolt -- Peter the Great -- Two empresses -- Catherine the Great -- Russia in the age of revolution -- The pinnacle of autocracy -- Culture and autocracy -- The era of the great reforms -- From serfdom to nascent capitalism -- The golden age of Russian culture -- Russia as an empire -- Autocracy in decline -- War and revolution -- Compromise and preparation -- Revolutions in Russian culture -- Building utopia -- War -- Growth, consolidation, and stagnation -- Soviet culture -- The cold war -- Epilogue : the end of the USSR.