Philip Longworth - Russia: The Once and Future Empire From Pre-History to Putin

RUSSIA. Copyright 2005 by Philip Longworth. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Longworth, Philip, 1933

Russia : the once and future empire from pre-history to Putin / Philip Longworth.

p. cm.

Inlcudes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36041-2

ISBN-10: 0-312-36041-X

1. RussiaHistory. 2. Soviet UnionHistory. Russia (Federation)History.

I. Title.

DK40.L66 2006

947dc22

2006048494

First published in Great Britain by John Murray (Publishers), a division of Hodder Headline, under the title Russias Empires: Their Rise and Fall: From Prehistory to Putin

First U.S. Edition: December 2006

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

T hrough the centuries, Russia has swung sharply between successful expansionism, catastrophic collapse, and spectacular recovery. This illuminating history traces these dramatic cycles of boom and bust from the late Neolithic age to Ivan the Terrible, and from the height of Communism to the truncated Russia of today.

Philip Longworth explores the dynamics of Russias past through time and space, from the nameless adventurers who first penetrated this vast, inhospitable terrain to a cast of dynamic characters that includes Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Stalin. His narrative takes in the magnificent, historic cities of Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg; it stretches to Alaska in the east, to the Black Sea and the Ottoman Empire to the south, to the Baltic in the west and to Archangel and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

Who are the Russians and what is the source of their imperialistic culture? Why was Russia so driven to colonize and conquer? From Kievan Rus the first-ever Russian state, which collapsed with the invasion of the Mongols in the thirteenth centuryto ruthless Muscovy, the Russian Empire of the eighteenth century and finally the Soviet period, this groundbreaking study analyzes the growth and dissolution of each vast empire as it gives way to the next.

Refreshing in its insight and drawing on a vast range of scholarship, this book also explicitly addresses the question of what the future holds for Russia and her neighbors, and asks whether her sphere of influence is growing.

PHILIP LONGWORTH is the author of seven books including The Cossacks and The Making of Eastern Europe. He was educated by the army and at the University of Oxford and was professor of history at McGill University in Canada for nearly twenty years. He lives in north London.