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nderiley's review against another edition
2.0
Phew! I'm proud of myself for sticking with this sometimes dry but very informative history of Russia. Since I've been reading it over the course of the better part of a year, I don't know how fair of a review I can give it, other than I clearly needed breaks from it and read other books in between.
typewriter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
5.0
Disclaimer: I read the second edition, which was updated in 2002, and is not the most recent one.
As someone relatively new to reading dense history books like this one, I found it engaging and comprehensible. Service does a good job outlining the motives and reasons behind what were often incomprehensible decisions in hindsight, and even employs humor at times. My only real fault with this book was that I felt it didn't emphasize the Holodomor as much as it could have, but I can understand that because it was a Ukrainian event, even if the cause was the Soviet government. Overall I was left satisfied with my level of knowledge and excited to learn more about the specific events that interested me.
As someone relatively new to reading dense history books like this one, I found it engaging and comprehensible. Service does a good job outlining the motives and reasons behind what were often incomprehensible decisions in hindsight, and even employs humor at times. My only real fault with this book was that I felt it didn't emphasize the Holodomor as much as it could have, but I can understand that because it was a Ukrainian event, even if the cause was the Soviet government. Overall I was left satisfied with my level of knowledge and excited to learn more about the specific events that interested me.
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