A short and pithy introduction to the history of Russia as we know it today
Russia is the largest country in the world, with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. Over a thousand years this multifaceted nation of shifting borders has been known as Rus, Muscovy, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago it was reinvented as the Russian Federation.
Russia is not an enigma, but its past is violent, tragic, sometimes glorious, and certainly complicated. Like the rest of us, the Russians constantly rewrite their history. They too omit episodes of national disgrace in favour of patriotic anecdotes, sometimes more rooted in myth than reality.
Expert and former ambassador Rodric Braithwaite unpicks fact from fiction to discover what lies at the root of the Russian story.
Praise for - Moscow 1941:
'A remarkable epic, vividly portrayed' - Sunday Telegraph
'A heartbreaking and thrilling story of peerless heroism and misery on a barely imaginable scale'
'Praise for - Afgantsy
'This is the book every politician, every general, every diplomat contemplating getting into, or out of, Afghanistan should be made to read. [A] masterpiece' - Guardian