A Concise History of Russia
Accessible to students, tourists, and general readers alike, this book provides a broad overview of Russian history since the ninth century. Paul Bushkovitch emphasizes the enormous changes in the understanding of Russian history resulting from the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, new material has come to light on the history of the Soviet era, providing new conceptions of Russia’s pre-revolutionary past. The book traces not only the political history of Russia, but also developments in its literature, art, and science. Bushkovitch describes well-known cultural figures, such as Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Mendeleev in their institutional and historical contexts. Though the 1917 revolution, the resulting Soviet system, and the Cold War were a crucial part of Russian and world history, Bushkovitch presents earlier developments as more than just a prelude to Bolshevik power.
Paul Bushkovitch is a professor of history at Yale University, where he has taught for the past 36 years. He is the author of Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671–1725 (Cambridge 2001); Religion and Society in Russia: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1991); and The Merchants of Moscow, 1580–1650 (Cambridge 1980). His articles have appeared in Slavic Review, Russian Review, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteruopas, and Kritika. He is a member of the editorial board for the Cahiers du Monde Russe.
“For any student trying to get a grasp of the essentials of Russian history this book is the place to start. To cover everything from the origins of the Russian people to the collapse of the Soviet Union in one short book requires great skill, but Paul Bushkovitch is one of the leading experts on Russian history in the world and he manages this task with great insight and panache.”
– Dominic Lieven, Trinity College, Cambridge University
“This is a lively and readable account, covering more than a thousand years of Russian history in an authoritative narrative. The author deals perceptively not only with political developments, but also with those aspects of modern Russian culture and science that have had an international impact.”
– Maureen Perrie, University of Birmingham
“If you want to understand Russia, and the story of the Russians, you can do no better than Paul Bushkovitch’s A Concise History of Russia. Bushkovitch has performed a minor miracle: he’s told the remarkably complicated, convoluted, and controversial tale of Russian history simply, directly, and even-handedly. He doesn’t get mired in the details, lost in the twists and turns, or sidetracked by axe grinding. He tells you what happened and why, full stop. So if you want to know what happened and why in Russian history, you’d be advised to begin with Bushkovitch’s masterful introduction.”
– Marshall Poe, University of Iowa
“Both learned and accessible, this short history of Russia’s troubled passage to the present tells a story of a state and a people who created an empire that much of the world saw as a threat. Whether as the ‘Gendarme of Europe’ or the ‘Red Menace,’ Russia and its Soviet successor (even Putin’s Russia today!) have been as much misunderstood as they have been feared. Paul Bushkovitch brings us a sober reading of Russia’s difficult rises and falls, expansions and contractions, reforms and revolutions. Rather than seeing the preceding millennium as a prelude to the seventy years of the Soviet Union, he gives us a rounded portrait of a country hobbled and humbled by its own geography, institutions like autocracy and serfdom, and grandiose plans to create utopia. Judicious in its judgments, this gracefully written work ranges from high politics to music and literature to open a window through which a reader might begin or renew an acquaintance with the enigmas that were Russia.”
– Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Michigan
Cambridge Concise Histories
This is a new series of illustrated “concise histories” of selected individual countries, intended both as university and college textbooks and as general historical introductions for general readers, travelers, and members of the business community.
Other titles in the series:
A Concise History of Australia, 3rd Edition Stuart Macintyre
A Concise History of Austria Steven Beller
A Concise History of Bolivia, 2nd Edition Herbert S. Klein
A Concise History of Brazil Boris Fausto, translated by Arthur Brakel
A Concise History of Britain, 1707–1975 W. A. Speck
A Concise History of Bulgaria, 2nd Edition R. J. Crampton
A Concise History of the Caribbean B. W. Higman
A Concise History of Finland David Kirby
A Concise History of France, 2nd Edition Roger Price
A Concise History of Germany, 2nd Edition Mary Fulbrook
A Concise History of Greece, 2nd Edition Richard Clogg
A Concise History of Hungary Miklós Molnár, translated by anna magyar
A Concise History of Modern India, 2nd Edition Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf
A Concise History of Italy Christopher Duggan
A Concise History of Mexico, 2nd Edition Brian R. Hamnett
A Concise History of New Zealand Philippa Mein Smith
A Concise History of Poland, 2nd Edition Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki
A Concise History of Portugal, 2nd Edition David Birmingham
A Concise History of South Africa, 2nd Edition Robert Ross
A Concise History of Spain William D. Phillips Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips
A Concise History of Sweden Neil Kent
A Concise History of Wales Geraint H. Jenkins
A Concise History of Russia
Paul Bushkovitch
Yale University
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521543231
© Paul Bushkovitch 2012
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2012
Printed in the United States of America