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Russia: A History Revised Edition

by Gregory L. Freeze (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 91 ratings
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Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a brisk, exciting tour of Russia's long journey from its Kievan origins," Russia: A History cuts through the myths and mystery that have surrounded this nation from its earliest days, with startling revelations from classified archives that until recently were not even known to exist. A distinguished team of historians has stripped away the propaganda of the past to tell the definitive story of Russia, from tenth-century Kiev and Muscovy through empire and revolution to the fall of Communism and the "new order" of the early 21st century. What emerges is a nation of extremes--of imperial opulence and abject poverty, tyrannical power and subversive resistance, artistic achievement and economic crisis, glittering cities and frozen steppes. A compelling story in its own right, it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Russia and its place in the world. This new edition has been thoroughly updated to take into account developments under Vladimir Putin.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199560412
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199560417
  3. Edition
    Revised
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    November 23, 2009
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.8 x 5.08 x 1.35 inches
  8. Print length
    632 pages
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Book Description

A distinguished team of historians here tells the definitive story of Russia, from tenth-century Kiev and Muscovy through empire and revolution to the fall of Communism and the rise of Vladimer Putin

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Revised edition (November 23, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 632 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199560412
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199560417
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.8 x 5.08 x 1.35 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

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Gregory L. Freeze

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4.4 out of 5 stars
91 global ratings

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An amazing independent history of Russia
5 out of 5 stars
An amazing independent history of Russia
I just read “Russia: A HistoryOn”, organizes by Gregory L. Freeze, Portuguese edition Edições 70, 2017. It is an amazing book about an amazing country and people. From the beginning on the IX century in Ukraine to Ivan, Peter and Catherine, from the Romanoff to the Soviet era, the detente, the Perestroika and the return to Mother Russia. Especially interesting explanation on how to go from loosing a war and massive invasion to an unprecedented victory at World War II. All written at several independent and non sided hands. Very fair to the Russian people. Very good Portuguese translation. Good reading.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Judith B. Harnsberger
    5.0 out of 5 stars I have just started reading and, as expected, ...
    Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I have just started reading and, as expected, a country that large has a convoluted history. Sometimes, a reader has to plow through all the tribes and factions for a complete "history" and that is where I am. I did think about the research and accumulated knowledge of the author. I am reading this book for my own education and and would not want to be tested on names, but from the very beginning there is a picture developing of my thinking about Russia today.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Jezebel Impala
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great comprehensive reader on a complex subject
    Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A great comprehensive reader on a complex subject. Russian history can be overwhelming: so many cultures, countries, and people to keep track of, but this book lays it out in an intelligent, accessible way.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Greg Polansky
    4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Russia's Past To Understand Russia Today
    Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Given the prominence of Russia in today's news media, a prominence not seen since the waning days of the Cold War, it makes sense to try to understand Russian history to place today's events into an informed context. Having read books on select periods of Russian history (Orlando Figes' sublime Natasha's Dance and the Massie books on Peter, Catherine, and Nicholas & Alexandra), I wanted to learn more about periods of Russian history I knew little about. This book succeeded. Mostly.

    It mostly succeeds because of the limitations of any book that tries to discuss an entire country's history in a limited amount of space. Choices need to be made. In this case, the book focuses on political and military history at the expense of cultural and social history. For the latter I highly recommend Natasha's Dance. Russian culture is among the world's most monumental in achievement and should be explored by anyone interested in the subject matter.

    The limitations of the book also cause there to be more focus on periods later in Russian/Soviet history. So the pre-Petrine period gets only a 100 pages (despite being one of the more interesting periods for me). And the period from Peter the Great onwards gets 500 pages. Regarding the writing style - it depends who is writing. This is a collection of essays and some authors are better able to convey ideas and facts in a more user friendly format. Freeze's own chapters tend to be among the best - especially the chapter on the second 'Time of Troubles' 1985 - 1999. To understand this period is to understand how Russia works today. After a nadir that saw the people impoverished, the economic inheritance of the country stolen by corrupt oligarchs, the leader - Yeltsin - a drunk buffoon, and a demographic disaster, it is no wonder that today's Russia sees the people trade civil rights for economic and civil prosperity. Knowing what the people experienced in the turbulent 90's will help Westerners understand why it is that despite the slide from democracy to autocracy the majority of the people of Russia are okay with how things are.

    On a greater historical scale, understanding Russia's history helps put it in the context of European and global history. While the rest of non-Ottoman Europe was undergoing a Renaissance, Russia was occupied for two centuries by the Mongols. This separated Russia from developments affecting their coreligionists and other Europeans. And by the time that Russia reoriented to the West again, change came from above. The middle class never had a chance to grow organically as it did elsewhere due to a serfdom that was only abolished in the mid 19th century. As in ancient Greece and Rome, a large slave population meant that industrialization was never needed. Imagine if in the US slave states made up every state. What does this mean? It meant that urbanization and industrialization that were transforming W. Europe, United States and Japan was not transforming Russia in the 19th century. And the Soviet way forward, despite being responsible for helping win WWII/The Great Patriot War, caused untold amounts of damage. This stunted Russia's development along the Western line. What does this all mean? It means that to understand Russia today, and to assume some sort of straight Hegelian view of history, we need to understand that Russian civil development is behind that of other areas. And then certain facts about today's Russia begin to make more sense. What does Russia then need today? Time. The same time that other areas of the world had in the 19th century. The middle class will continue to grow. The power of the orthodox church will wane. Revolutions, like those of 1848 may happen. Repression will happen. Or perhaps Russia will continue to go the way of today's China - politically unfree and economically free. Time will tell.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • Kerry B
    3.0 out of 5 stars Selective History
    Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2024
    I was hoping for a good survey of Russian history but I don’t think I can trust this book. Nicholas “abdicated” his position in 1917 with no mention of his and his entire family’s assassination. No mention of the Holodomor save for a quick note on a “famine” that took the lives of 4 million in Ukraine. What else are they not revealing?
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  • Ramirez
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good for travel.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this book for a study-abroad class in St. Petersburg. The digital copy served me well while I was over there and worked well with the app for the Microsoft Surface 3.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Steve Kempf
    5.0 out of 5 stars Russia: A History
    Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I had a great experience.
    One person found this helpful
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  • John Hose
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2017
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    A well written and well organized history of Russia in the modern era by a first-class historian.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • The Shepherd
    4.0 out of 5 stars excellent overview
    Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is an excellent overview of Russian and Soviet history, more in depth than Thompson’s Russia and the Soviet Union and probably the best survey available as an e-book.

    As is inevitable with a work of this length it is necessarily superficial, but the excellent bibliography serves as a resource for more in-depth reading.

    The hagiography of Putin’s initial presidential terms which concludes the volume is not destined to age well, though it does provide an instructive look at how a dictator is perceived when viewed through the prism of 7 pct annual GDP growth (!!!).

    The maps at the back are a significant flaw in the e-book. As is customary, nothing was done to improve them, or perhaps make them interactive. It isn’t even possible to enlarge them so that they fill up the entire screen.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good book but a bit dry.
    Reviewed in Japan on January 19, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    So this is definitely a good book for Russian history. I purchased this book prior to a trip to Russia and I learned a lot. It does go in quite a bit depth at certain parts so if you're looking for a more cursory read into Russian history, this may not be the best book because it does seem to get bogged down in a lot of details. So really, it depends what kind of history book you're looking for. I would also add that this book is dry but is written very factually. Overall, I'm glad I picked it up.
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  • bar_99
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Fantastic, wide-scoping history of Russia, sometimes going into great detail about economic situations or political turns but at other times showing broad and sweeping perspectives of centuries in just a few pages. Great read, would recommend The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan to anyone who enjoyed this, as popular writing on history is achieved very well by both books.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    A very good history, wrote by very learned people. from the start of Russia to the Putin era
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  • F Henwood
    4.0 out of 5 stars Dispassionate Essays on Russian History
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    This is a good collection by mostly US academics, offering a broad historical survey of Russian history, from the country's origins in the 10th Century to the Putin era. The book comes with an annotated bibliography, which is most useful for readers who want to follow up specific subjects in greater depth.

    The 20th Century occupies half the space of the book. That is hardly a surprise. Documentation is far more abundant and 20th Century Russian history generates enormous controversy and scholarship. The causes and consequences of Stalin's terror for instance excite greater interest than the lineages of a 10th Century Kievan Rus dynasty.

    The one drawback for me is the collection's focus on state-building. Culture is not so well treated. Additional chapters on 19th Century literary culture and also on culture under the Bolsheviks and Stalin would have merited inclusion in this collection, and would have added greatly to it.

    The book is mildly sceptical that a peaceful non-revolutionary evolution of Tsarist Russia might have occurred in the absence of the catastrophic impact of the First World War. The collection outlines significant discontinuities between the first decade of Bolshevik rule and Stalinism, with the latter markedly more hierarchical and centralised in contrast to the experimental forms of social and political rule in the 1920s. Fine chapters follow on the impact of collectivisation (the author does not consider the Ukrainian famine to be an instance of genocide), break neck industrialisation, the Great Terror, and why the Soviet Union (or rather the Soviet/Russian people) won the war.

    Post-Stalin, the Soviet ruling class attempted to derive consent not just from terror and violence but by constructing a welfare state. But this could not be sustained, because of the irrationalities built into the system by Stalinist collectivisation (especially the stress on heavy industry and the neglect of agriculture and consumer goods), the stupendous drain on resources by military spending, and the resistance of vested interests in the bloated party-bureaucracy, created strains that the system could no longer bear. The Soviet system was in deep trouble well before Gorbachev. After the dead-end of communism came a catastrophic experiment in free-market capitalism, culminating in the economic crash of 1998.

    From 2000, there has been something of a revival under Putin: ruthless, violent (especially in Chechenya) and calculating for sure, but doubtless enjoying significant popular support. Under Putin the state has taken control of key extractive industries, allowing substantial revenues to be invested in the country and engineering a consumer boom, but otherwise has Putin and his entourage have confirmed the restoration of private property and the market. The Soviet Union is not going to be revived. Hysterical media coverage of the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 as the Russian `bear' revived simply missed the point. Russia as a revived state is determined to secure itself at its peripheries, not conquer its neighbours. However, the country is still over-dependent on the export of natural resources, the price of which are dependant the vagaries of the world economy. How all this will shape up is anyone's guess. One thing is clear: Russia is once again making its own history.
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  • Christopher Waugh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Gregory L. Freeze offers a very comprehensive overview of a significant period of Russia's history in what is a very good read yet also extremely informative.
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