A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces: Since 1800 1st Edition

A really good book. I read a lot about Russia and study the Russian language. This book is excellent.

I was very interested in History when I was at school and used to read a lot about ancient Greece, Rome and Middle Ages. This was greatly accessible in USSR. A few years ago I started reading history books again and was looking for a general Russia history book. I bought this one and recently started reading a few months ago, reading 10-25 pages every week now. A bit dry sometimes but really good in explaining various forces and pressures, cultural aspects and with plenty of maps and pictures. You may wonder why I, a native Russian, read in English? The reason is that I write books in English myself and voracious reading in English helps me to attain native fluency in written English.Thanks,Dmitry VostokovFounder of Literate Scientist Blog

Had to read for school. A BIG book with a lot of information that will satisfy all your Russian history needs.

Absolute garbage. This book has nothing to do with history or Russia, let alone Russian history. It is full of garbage, beginning with the title itself. If you are interested to learn about Russian history, this is book NOT TO BUY, EVER!

This is a very interesting and (overall) well written textbook which I used in Russian history. It should be noted that the book is written by four separate individuals, each of whom has a very different writing style. The early chapters (from Riyurik to the beginning of Muscovy) can be difficult to understand (upon meeting their author, I understand completely), but the book hits its stride with "Part II" and the advent of Lindsey Hughes's much clearer writing. Stites and Evtuhov are also easy to understand, but Goldfrank requires a rereading (or two) before you realize what he's saying.

Having read through Evtuhov, Goldfrank, Hughes and Stites' "A History of Russia", and having used it for a Russian history survey course at my community college, I can not really recommend it for similar introductory-survey courses,or for any use by beginner audiences in general. The narrative throughout the text is both meticulous and leadenly verbose, treating the issues, trends, forces and dynamics of Russian history in great. wearying detail, thus destroying the interest in the subject by beginning students. The book is further weakened by being written by four authors, each of them sometimes taking time to treat the same material, and altering their spelling, and of course their interpretation, of the people and events of this quite complex historical narrative. Perhaps the book would be useful for more advanced readers, but again, few beyond the tyro level would need the methodical laying out of their argument which the four authors seem to feel themselves obligated to make. The book's chapters are also too long in general, an abiding sin for even survey History texts nowadays.Many problems in the text might have been resolved by compressing everything in Kievan Rus and Russian history proper prior to Peter I in a long first chapter. Though I find the details of Kievan Rus and the rise to prominence of the principlaity of Moscow to imperial strength fascinating, few non-specialists would likewise share my interest. More generally, the above-noted stylistic weaknesses might be addressed with better writing by the authors. I can never quite fathom why accomplished published scholarly authors find it so difficult to write well, to make their textbooks memorable.Mark SeifterLehigh Carbon Community College