The Short History of Russia : Returning to Another Country

The invasion of Ukraine in 2022 began a new episode in history and was surrounded by a miscellany of historical claims.This book is a succinct, up-to-date guide to the histories on offer about and from Russia, one that seeks to make sense of present issues and future prospects as well as of the past.There is a heavy emphasis on war and international relations, but that is appropriate not only for the past but also from a present in which both are to the fore. Peter the Great (r. 1689-1725), an eager modernizer, was viewed as an un-Russian evil phenomenon in light of his denial of the divine identity of traditional Russian monarchy, his blasphemy, his theft of time from God when he changed the calendar, and his sacrilegious violation of the image of God in man when he forced men to cut off their beards.Vladimir Putin cuts off no beards, he is no moderniser; the fall of the Berlin Wall left him with an abiding mistrust of democracy and 'People's Power'.At Davos in 2000, American journali