![]() ![]() All that might be the subject of another book. ![]() He is not interested in how the Tatars in Kazan see the sacking of their city by Ivan the Terrible, or what the Chechens or Georgians make of the Russian tales of war in the Caucasus. Figes makes no apology for referring to Kiev not Kyiv, or Prince Vladimir nor Volodymyr, as the Ukrainians would have it. For those unfamiliar with the past, this is an indispensable manual for making sense of Russia’s present.Īnd this is very much Russia’s story. It is to examine the recurring themes and myths that drive Vladimir Putin’s conviction that war with Ukraine and with western Europe is part of Russia’s historical destiny. But this book’s purpose is not to fill in all the blanks. Inevitably in a survey of more than 1,000 years of history, much has had to be skirted over or omitted. “Histories continuously reconfigured and repurposed to suit its present needs and reimagine its future.” They are etched into the nation’s psyche, each capturing a moment in Russia’s story about itself.Īnd this is the starting point of Orlando Figes’s The Story of Russia: “Russia is a country held together by ideas rooted in its distant past,” he tells us in the introduction. ![]() Whether intended to elevate the subjects to hero status or castigate them as cruel tyrants, these pictures form part of Russia’s collective memory. Peter the Great (1672-1725), by Johann Kupetzky. ![]()
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