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carbs4life's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.5
This book is a great start to understanding Russia’s history. The first part briefly talks about the “beginning” of the East Slavic people and then gets into the formation of Kievan Rus.
Each part of the book focuses on different phases of the Russian empire while meditating on Russian identity at the time. A large section of the book (about 40%) takes place during the 20th century. There is a lot of information in here.
I started reading before the expansion of the Russian-Ukrainian war, but I got sucked in after Putin started his invasion towards Kyiv. It has been a huge help to understanding the background of current global events. Plokhy’s writing is a wonderful jumping off point for Russian and Ukrainian history.
Each part of the book focuses on different phases of the Russian empire while meditating on Russian identity at the time. A large section of the book (about 40%) takes place during the 20th century. There is a lot of information in here.
I started reading before the expansion of the Russian-Ukrainian war, but I got sucked in after Putin started his invasion towards Kyiv. It has been a huge help to understanding the background of current global events. Plokhy’s writing is a wonderful jumping off point for Russian and Ukrainian history.
dansumption's review against another edition
3.0
this book traces the history of the ethnic Rus' and Russian people, the Russian nation from Kyiv and Muscovy onwards, the Russian Empire, the USSR, and all that followed in the break-up of the Soviet Union. But primarily it is about the Rus' people: whether Greater Russian, Ukrainian (Little Russian) or Belarusian (White Russian).
Despite being over long and and often repetitive, the book misses out a lot of detail that I would have hoped to learn more about. The vast part of Russia that exists to the east of the river Volga is only mentioned once before we reached the 1920s, and that in reference to Tsar selling Alaska to the Americans. How the Tsar obtained Alaska–or indeed Siberia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan…–is never explained. Even in the Ukraine (the Little Russian nation whose relationship to Greater Russia is the undercurrent running through the entire book), the Crimean War merits less than one of the book's 350 pages.
Despite being over long and and often repetitive, the book misses out a lot of detail that I would have hoped to learn more about. The vast part of Russia that exists to the east of the river Volga is only mentioned once before we reached the 1920s, and that in reference to Tsar selling Alaska to the Americans. How the Tsar obtained Alaska–or indeed Siberia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan…–is never explained. Even in the Ukraine (the Little Russian nation whose relationship to Greater Russia is the undercurrent running through the entire book), the Crimean War merits less than one of the book's 350 pages.
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