Detailing the social, economic, and political changes and crises that the people of Russia have had to endure, A Brief History of Russia provides a comprehensive and accessible account of this vast country's history.

Table of Contents

• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Before the Russians, Kievan Rus, and Muscovite Russia (Tenth Century b.c.e.-1462 C.E.)
• Independence and Unification: The Last Rurikids to the First Romanovs (1462-1694)
• Imperial Russia: The Eras of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great (1694-1801)
• The Nineteenth-Century Crisis: The Mystic and the Knout (1801-1855)
• Reform, Reaction, and Revolution (1855-1917)
• The Golden and Silver Ages: Russian Cultural Achievement from Pushkin to World War I (1820-1917)
• Soviet Russia: Utopian Dreams and Dystopian Realities (1917-1953)
• Soviet Russia: Reform, Decline, and Collapse (1953-1991)
• Post-Soviet Russia: Yeltsin and Putin (1991-2008)
• Conclusion: The Russian Riddle
• Appendixes
• Basic Facts about Russia
• Chronology
• Bibliography
• Suggested Reading