Introduction 1

1 Before the Russians, Kievan Rus, and Muscovite Russia (Tenth Century b.c.e.1462
c.e.) 1
2 Independence and Unification: The Last Rurikids to the First Romanovs (14621694
) 24
3 Imperial Russia: The Eras of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great (16941801)
46
4 The Nineteenth-Century Crisis: The Mystic and the Knout (18011855) 72
5 Reform, Reaction, and Revolution (18551917) 95
6 The Golden and Silver Ages: Russian Cultural Achievement from Pushkin to World
War I (18201917) 125
7 Soviet Russia: Utopian Dreams and Dystopian Realities (19171953) 152
8 Soviet Russia: Reform, Decline, and Collapse (19531991) 194
9 PostSoviet Russia: Yeltsin and Putin (19912008) 230
10 Conclusion: The Russian Riddle 247
Appendixes
1 Basic Facts about Russia 255
2 Chronology 260
3 Bibliography 274
4 Suggested Reading 279
Index 289