Russia and the Idea of the West

Download Russia and the Idea of the West PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231110594
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia and the Idea of the West by : Robert D. English

Download or read book Russia and the Idea of the West written by Robert D. English and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In most analyses of the Cold War's end the ideological aspects of Gorbachev's "new thinking" are treated largely as incidental to the broader considerations of power. English demonstrates that Gorbachev's foreign policy was the result of an intellectual revolution. He analyzes the rise of a liberal policy-academic elite and its impact on the Cold War's end.

Russia and the Idea of Europe

Download Russia and the Idea of Europe PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134824076
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia and the Idea of Europe by : Iver B. Neumann

Download or read book Russia and the Idea of Europe written by Iver B. Neumann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The end of the Soviet system and the transition to the market in Russia, coupled with the inexorable rise of nationalism, has brought to the fore the centuries-old debate about Russia's relationship with Europe. In Russia and the Idea of Europe Iver Neumann discusses whether the tensions between self-referencing romantic nationalist views and Europe-orientated liberal views can ever be resolved. Drawing on a wide range of Russian sources, Neumann outlines the argument as it has unfolded over the last two hundred years, showing how Russia is caught between the attraction of an economically, politically and socially more developed Europe, and the attraction of being able to play a European -style inperial role in less-developed Asia. Neumann argues that the process of delineating a European "other" from the Russian self is an active form of Russian identity formation. The Russian debate about Europe is also a debate about what Rusia is and should be.

Black Wind, White Snow

Download Black Wind, White Snow PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300269250
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Black Wind, White Snow by : Charles Clover

Download or read book Black Wind, White Snow written by Charles Clover and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-26 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating study of the root motivations behind the political activities and philosophies of Putin’s government in Russia “Part intellectual history, part portrait gallery . . . Black Wind, White Snow traces the background to Putin’s ideas with verve and clarity.”—Geoffrey Hosking, Financial Times “Required reading. This is a vivid, panoramic history of bad ideas, chasing the metastasis of the doctrine known as Eurasianism. . . . Reading Charles Clover will help you understand the world of lies and delusions that is Eurasia.”—Ben Judah, Standpoint Charles Clover, award-winning journalist and former Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, here analyzes the idea of "Eurasianism," a theory of Russian national identity based on ethnicity and geography. Clover traces Eurasianism’s origins in the writings of white Russian exiles in 1920s Europe, through Siberia’s Gulag archipelago in the 1950s, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and up to its steady infiltration of the governing elite around Vladimir Putin. This eye-opening analysis pieces together the evidence for Eurasianism’s place at the heart of Kremlin thinking today and explores its impact on recent events, the annexation of Crimea, and the rise in Russia of anti-Western paranoia and imperialist rhetoric, as well as Putin’s sometimes perplexing political actions and ambitions. Based on extensive research and dozens of interviews with Putin’s close advisers, this quietly explosive story will be essential reading for anyone concerned with Russia’s past century, and its future.

The Idea of Russia

Download The Idea of Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1786730537
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Idea of Russia by : Vladislav Zubok

Download or read book The Idea of Russia written by Vladislav Zubok and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-01-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dmitry Likhachev (1906-1999) was one of the most prominent Russian intellectuals of the twentieth century. His life spanned virtually the entire century - a tumultuous period which saw Russia move from Tsarist rule under Nicholas II via the Russian Revolution and Civil War into seven decades of communism followed by Gorbachev's Perestroika and the rise of Putin. In 1928, shortly after completing his university education, Likhachev was arrested, charged with counter-revolutionary ideas and imprisoned in the Gulag, where he spent the next five years. Returning to a career in academia, specialising in Old Russian literature, Likhachev played a crucial role in the cultural life of twentieth-century Russia, campaigning for the protection of important cultural sites and historic monuments. He also founded museums dedicated to great Russian writers including Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Pasternak. In this, the first biography of Likhachev to appear in English, Vladislav Zubok provides a thoroughly-researched account of one of Russia's most extraordinary and influential public figures.

The Russian Idea

Download The Russian Idea PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SteinerBooks
ISBN 13 : 1584204923
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (842 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Russian Idea by : Nikolai Berdyaev

Download or read book The Russian Idea written by Nikolai Berdyaev and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 1992-06-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is between the ages of nine and ten that children begin to experience themselves as "I" for the first time--as separate individuals, different from their parents and peers and essentially alone. This inner experience is sometimes precipitated by the child's first encounter with death and the first notion that earthly life is fragile and temporary. In this insightful book, Koepke offers the reader a lucid, accessible description of the outer signs and symptoms of this significant turning point in every child's life.

Lonely Ideas

Download Lonely Ideas PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262317397
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lonely Ideas by : Loren Graham

Download or read book Lonely Ideas written by Loren Graham and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert investigates Russia's long history of technological invention followed by commercial failure and points to new opportunities to break the pattern. When have you gone into an electronics store, picked up a desirable gadget, and found that it was labeled “Made in Russia”? Probably never. Russia, despite its epic intellectual achievements in music, literature, art, and pure science, is a negligible presence in world technology. Despite its current leaders' ambitions to create a knowledge economy, Russia is economically dependent on gas and oil. In Lonely Ideas, Loren Graham investigates Russia's long history of technological invention followed by failure to commercialize and implement. For three centuries, Graham shows, Russia has been adept at developing technical ideas but abysmal at benefiting from them. From the seventeenth-century arms industry through twentieth-century Nobel-awarded work in lasers, Russia has failed to sustain its technological inventiveness. Graham identifies a range of conditions that nurture technological innovation: a society that values inventiveness and practicality; an economic system that provides investment opportunities; a legal system that protects intellectual property; a political system that encourages innovation and success. Graham finds Russia lacking on all counts. He explains that Russia's failure to sustain technology, and its recurrent attempts to force modernization, reflect its political and social evolution and even its resistance to democratic principles. But Graham points to new connections between Western companies and Russian researchers, new research institutions, a national focus on nanotechnology, and the establishment of Skolkovo, “a new technology city.” Today, he argues, Russia has the best chance in its history to break its pattern of technological failure.

Russian Eurasianism

Download Russian Eurasianism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781421405766
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (57 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russian Eurasianism by : Marlène Laruelle

Download or read book Russian Eurasianism written by Marlène Laruelle and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has been marginalized at the edge of a Western-dominated political and economic system. In recent years, however, leading Russian figures, including former president Vladimir Putin, have begun to stress a geopolitics that puts Russia at the center of a number of axes: European-Asian, Christian-Muslim-Buddhist, Mediterranean-Indian, Slavic-Turkic, and so on. This volume examines the political presuppositions and expanding intellectual impact of Eurasianism, a movement promoting an ideology of Russian-Asian greatness, which has begun to take hold throughout Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Eurasianism purports to tell Russians what is unalterably important about them and why it can only be expressed in an empire. Using a wide range of sources, Marlène Laruelle discusses the impact of the ideology of Eurasianism on geopolitics, interior policy, foreign policy, and culturalist philosophy.

Russia in Search of Itself

Download Russia in Search of Itself PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Woodrow Wilson Center Press
ISBN 13 : 0801879760
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia in Search of Itself by : James H. Billington

Download or read book Russia in Search of Itself written by James H. Billington and published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press. This book was released on 2004-03-19 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Billington describes the contentious discussion occurring all over Russia and across the political spectrum. He finds conflicts raging among individuals as much as between organized groups and finds a deep underlying tension between the Russians' attempts to legitimize their new, nominally democratic identity, and their efforts to craft a new version of their old authoritarian tradition. After showing how the problem of Russian identity was framed in the past, Billington asks whether Russians will now look more to the West for a place in the common European home, or to the East for a new, Eurasian identity.

Russia under Western Eyes

Download Russia under Western Eyes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674040481
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia under Western Eyes by : Martin E Malia

Download or read book Russia under Western Eyes written by Martin E Malia and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dazzling work of intellectual history by a world-renowned scholar, spanning the years from Peter the Great to the fall of the Soviet Union, this book gives us a clear and sweeping view of Russia not as an eternal barbarian menace but as an outermost, if laggard, member in the continuum of European nations.

Russia and the Russians

Download Russia and the Russians PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674004733
Total Pages : 776 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (47 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia and the Russians by : Geoffrey A. Hosking

Download or read book Russia and the Russians written by Geoffrey A. Hosking and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 776 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the history of the Russian Empire from the Mongol Invasion, through the Bolshevik Revolution, to the aftereffects of the Cold War.

Russia and the Idea of Europe

Download Russia and the Idea of Europe PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 131729470X
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia and the Idea of Europe by : Iver B. Neumann

Download or read book Russia and the Idea of Europe written by Iver B. Neumann and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-10-14 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The end of the Soviet system and the transition to the market in Russia, coupled with the inexorable rise of nationalism, brought to the fore the centuries-old debate about Russia's relationship with Europe. In this revised and updated second edition of Russia and the Idea of Europe, Iver Neumann discusses whether the tensions between self-referencing nationalist views and Europe-orientated liberal views can ever be resolved. Drawing on a wide range of Russian sources, this book retains the broad historical focus of the previous edition and picks up from where the it off in the early 1990s, bringing the discussion fully up to date. Discussing theoretical and political developments, it relates the existing story of Russian identity formation to new foreign policy analysis and the developments in the study of nationalism. The book also offers an additional focus on post-Cold War developments. In particular it examines the year 2000, when Putin succeeded Yeltsin as president, and 2014, when Russian foreign policy turned from cooperation to confrontation. Bringing to life the various debates surrounding this complicated relationship in an accessible and clear manner, this book continues to be a unique and vital resource for both students and scholars of international relations.

The Invention of Russia

Download The Invention of Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0399564187
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Invention of Russia by : Arkady Ostrovsky

Download or read book The Invention of Russia written by Arkady Ostrovsky and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE WINNER OF THE CORNELIUS RYAN AWARD FINALIST FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR “Fast-paced and excellently written…much needed, dispassionate and eminently readable.” —New York Times “Filled with sparkling prose and deep analysis.” –The Wall Street Journal The breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of optimism around the world, but Russia today is actively involved in subversive information warfare, manipulating the media to destabilize its enemies. How did a country that embraced freedom and market reform 25 years ago end up as an autocratic police state bent once again on confrontation with America? A winner of the Orwell Prize, The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the cold war to tell the story of Russia's stealthy and largely unchronicled counter revolution. A highly regarded Moscow correspondent for the Economist, Arkady Ostrovsky comes to this story both as a participant and a foreign correspondent. His knowledge of many of the key players allows him to explain the phenomenon of Valdimir Putin - his rise and astonishing longevity, his use of hybrid warfare and the alarming crescendo of his military interventions. One of Putin's first acts was to reverse Gorbachev's decision to end media censorship and Ostrovsky argues that the Russian media has done more to shape the fate of the country than its politicians. Putin pioneered a new form of demagogic populism --oblivious to facts and aggressively nationalistic - that has now been embraced by Donald Trump.

Liberal Ideas in Tsarist Russia

Download Liberal Ideas in Tsarist Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108483739
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Liberal Ideas in Tsarist Russia by : Vanessa Rampton

Download or read book Liberal Ideas in Tsarist Russia written by Vanessa Rampton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberalism is a crucially important topic today; this book adds the important yet neglected Russian aspect to its history.

Reinventing Russia

Download Reinventing Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674028961
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Reinventing Russia by : Yitzhak M. BRUDNY

Download or read book Reinventing Russia written by Yitzhak M. BRUDNY and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What caused the emergence of nationalist movements in many post-communist states? What role did communist regimes play in fostering these movements? Why have some been more successful than others? To address these questions, Yitzhak Brudny traces the Russian nationalist movement from its origins within the Russian intellectual elite of the 1950s to its institutionalization in electoral alliances, parliamentary factions, and political movements of the early 1990s. Brudny argues that the rise of the Russian nationalist movement was a combined result of the reinvention of Russian national identity by a group of intellectuals, and the Communist Party's active support of this reinvention in order to gain greater political legitimacy. The author meticulously reconstructs the development of the Russian nationalist thought from Khrushchev to Yeltsin, as well as the nature of the Communist Party response to Russian nationalist ideas. Through analysis of major Russian literary, political, and historical writings, the recently-published memoirs of the Russian nationalist intellectuals and Communist Party officials, and documents discovered in the Communist Party archives, Brudny sheds new light on social, intellectual, and political origins of Russian nationalism, and emphasizes the importance of ideas in explaining the fate of the Russian nationalist movement during late communist and early post-communist periods. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments 1. Russian Nationalists in Soviet Politics 2. The Emergence of Politics by Culture, 1953-1964 3. The First Phase of Inclusionary Politics, 1965-1970 4. The Rise and Fall of Inclusionary Politics, 1971-1985 5. What Went Wrong with the Politics of Inclusion? 6. What Is Russia, and Where Should It Go? Political Debates, 1971-1985 7. The Zenith of Politics by Culture, 1985-1989 8. The Demise of Politics by Culture, 1989-1991 Epilogue: Russian Nationalism in Postcommunist Russia Notes Index Reviews of this book: Mr. Brudny provides a salient background to understanding one of the great phenomena of post-1945 history: how Russians arrive at their view of the West. --Ron Laurenzo, Washington Times Reviews of this book: Brudny is a good guide to the origins of what probably lies ahead. --Geoffrey A. Hosking, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of this book: If readers think that today's anti-Western, antimarket, antisemitic variety of Russian nationalism is simply the fallout from the country's current misery, they should think again. With care and intelligence, Brudny traces its lineage back to the Khrushchev years. What began among the so-called village prose writers as a lament for a rural past ravaged by Stalin's experimentation gradually accumulated further grievances: the devastation of Russian culture and monuments, the infiltration of 'corrupting' Western values, and ultimately under Gorbechev the 'criminal' destruction of Russian power. Much of the book concentrates on how Khrushchev and Brezhnev tried--but ultimately failed--to harness this discontent for their own purposes. --Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs Reviews of this book: Brudny's survey of relations between Russian nationalism and the Soviet state provides an in-depth insight into one of the most complicated aspects of the Soviet multi-national state. --Taras Kuzio, International Affairs Reviews of this book: A thought-provoking book. --Virginia Quarterly Reviews of this book: Brudny shows that Russian cultural nationalism was a powerful force in the post-Stalin years, with ultimate political consequences. In meticulous detail Brudny sets out the various strains of Russian nationalism and points to the regime's encouragement of a certain kind of nationalism as a means of bolstering legitimacy through the 'politics of inclusion'...This volume is a significant contribution to the literature. --R. J. Mitchell, Choice Reviews of this book: In Reinventing Russia, situated at the intersection of culture (specifically the literature of the village prose movement) and politics, Brudny has managed admirably to draw out the wider implications of his inquiry and provided an extremely useful set of orientation points in the current, seemingly so chaotic, political debate in Russia. --Hans J. Rindisbacher, European Legacy Reviews of this book: Brudny's book paints a fascinating picture. It delineates a rich Soviet culture and society, one that is much more varied than has been previously depicted by most Western researchers. The overriding importance of the book derives from its argument that the post-Stalinist cultural debate in the Soviet Union is what created the infrastructure for the seemingly odd alliance between communist ideology and the nationalist intelligentsia--today's 'red-brown' alliance. It's a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of the nationalist idea...[Reinventing Russia provides] an enthralling overview of a historic development that has been neglected by most Western researchers...His book proves once more that anyone who seeks to understand developments in Eastern Europe cannot do so by merely analyzing the economic policy of the political maneuvers of the governing elite. --Shlomo Avineri, Ha'aretz Book Review Yitzhak Brudny offers us a most persuasive attempt to explain the intricate, often puzzling relation between Soviet political and cultural bureaucracy and the rise of Russian nationalism in the post-Stalin era. His analysis of Russian nationalist ideology and its role in the corrosion of the official Soviet dogmas is uniquely insightful and provocative. Students of Soviet and post-Soviet affairs will find in Brudny's splendidly researched book an indispensable instrument to grasp the meaning of the still perplexing developments that led to the breakdown of the Leninist state. In the growing body of literature dealing with nationalism and national identity, this one stands out as boldly innovative, theoretically challenging, and culturally sophisticated. --Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland, College Park, author of Fantasies of Salvation Yitzhak Brudny has produced an impressive and scholarly account of the divisions within the Russian political and cultural elite during the last four decades of the Soviet Union's existence. His book is important both for the fresh light it throws on that period and as essential context for interpreting the debates on nationhood and statehood which rage in Russia today. --Archie Brown, University of Oxford Reinventing Russia provides us with a vivid portrayal of the politics behind the rise of Russian nationalism in post-Stalinist Russia. It is a finely detailed study of not only the relationship of political authority to the spread of nationalist ideas, but also reciprocally of the role played by these ideas in shaping the political. --Mark Beissinger, University of Wisconsin-Madison Rival nationalists literally shook the Soviet Union apart. The very structure of the Soviet state encouraged all major ethnic groups--including the Russians--to view battles over resources in terms of ethnic and national conflict. Brudny, in this important study, explores precisely how rival nationalist claims emerged during the years following Stalin's death, and why they proved to be simultaneously so robust and pernicious. --Blair Ruble, Director, Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center

Russia

Download Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067497848X
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russia by : Gregory Carleton

Download or read book Russia written by Gregory Carleton and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outsiders view Russia as an aggressor, but Russians see themselves as surrounded by enemies, defensively fighting off invader after invader, or called upon by history to be the savior of Europe, or Christianity, or civilization itself, often at immense cost. As Gregory Carleton shows, war is the unifying thread of Russia’s national epic.

The Road to Unfreedom

Download The Road to Unfreedom PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0525574476
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Road to Unfreedom by : Timothy Snyder

Download or read book The Road to Unfreedom written by Timothy Snyder and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of On Tyranny comes a stunning new chronicle of the rise of authoritarianism from Russia to Europe and America. “A brilliant analysis of our time.”—Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New Yorker With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed final. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. This faith was misplaced. Authoritarianism returned to Russia, as Vladimir Putin found fascist ideas that could be used to justify rule by the wealthy. In the 2010s, it has spread from east to west, aided by Russian warfare in Ukraine and cyberwar in Europe and the United States. Russia found allies among nationalists, oligarchs, and radicals everywhere, and its drive to dissolve Western institutions, states, and values found resonance within the West itself. The rise of populism, the British vote against the EU, and the election of Donald Trump were all Russian goals, but their achievement reveals the vulnerability of Western societies. In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, based on vast research as well as personal reporting, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy and law. To understand the challenge is to see, and perhaps renew, the fundamental political virtues offered by tradition and demanded by the future. By revealing the stark choices before us--between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood--Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty.

The Story of Russia

Download The Story of Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
ISBN 13 : 1250796903
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (57 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Story of Russia by : Orlando Figes

Download or read book The Story of Russia written by Orlando Figes and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2022-09-20 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This is the essential backstory, the history book that you need if you want to understand modern Russia and its wars with Ukraine, with its neighbors, with America, and with the West.” —Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy and Red Famine Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews From “the great storyteller of Russian history” (Financial Times), a brilliant account of the national mythologies and imperial ideologies that have shaped Russia’s past and politics—essential reading for understanding the country today The Story of Russia is a fresh approach to the thousand years of Russia’s history, concerned as much with the ideas that have shaped how Russians think about their past as it is with the events and personalities comprising it. No other country has reimagined its own story so often, in a perpetual effort to stay in step with the shifts of ruling ideologies. From the founding of Kievan Rus in the first millennium to Putin’s war against Ukraine, Orlando Figes explores the ideas that have guided Russia’s actions throughout its long and troubled existence. Whether he's describing the crowning of Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral or the dramatic upheaval of the peasant revolution, he reveals the impulses, often unappreciated or misunderstood by foreigners, that have driven Russian history: the medieval myth of Mother Russia’s holy mission to the world; the imperial tendency toward autocratic rule; the popular belief in a paternal tsar dispensing truth and justice; the cult of sacrifice rooted in the idea of the “Russian soul”; and always, the nationalist myth of Russia’s unjust treatment by the West. How the Russians came to tell their story and to revise it so often as they went along is not only a vital aspect of their history; it is also our best means of understanding how the country thinks and acts today. Based on a lifetime of scholarship and enthrallingly written, The Story of Russia is quintessential Figes: sweeping, revelatory, and masterful.