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Russia is a country full of contradictions. It is a huge expanse of land, yet its very physical accessibility has laid it open to many more invasions than many lesser nations. Its administrative power structures lean towards the east, its culture to the west and its religion to the Byzantine. Its economic underdevelopment has not been so much caused by the inefficiencies of size and the extremes of temperature but by the need to devote so much manpower to its physical protection. Its size and vulnerability required an authoritarian state but conversely its very size and economic backwardness meant that most people's lives were not directly controlled by the state. It is a country of mirrors where nothing is quite as it seems, where anything is up for grabs. Hosking has a relaxed style that eases us gently through the early settlers through the Mongol hordes, the autocracies of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, to the Crimean War, the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalinism, Glasnost and the current war in Chechnya. What emerges is an, as yet, unfulfilled search for identity. Twenty-five years ago, you'd have been laughed out of academia for even suggesting that the Communist system might one day collapse; 10 years ago, it was widely assumed that Russia would helter-skelter into a Western democracy. Today, it has metamorphosed into a new disparate entity, recognisable primarily for its unrecognisability. What it will look like in 10 years time is anyone's guess. But you can bet that Hosking's perspective will be more accurate than most. --John Crace
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780718193607
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The result of a lifetime's knowledge of Russia, this monumental work has been acclaimed as the definitive single-volume history of RussiaGeoffrey Hosking has been one of the foremost historians of Russia and her Empire for more than twenty years. He traces Russia's history from the settlement of Kiev through to the present day. He argues that two nation-building movements, one based on a messianic vision of Russia's destiny as God's people, the other a modernising and expansive imperial project of administration and assimilation, have clashed since the rise of Tsarism. These two nascent national identities offer a chance to compare & trace continuities in Tsarist and Soviet Russia & allow us to appreciate more fully the recurrent themes that have at times, and not least this century, appeared wholly without precedent in the history of the world. Tracing Russia's story from the settlement of Kiev onwards, this title includes a chapter on the role of Putin and Medvedev, and their impact on Russia's economy, politics and its citizens. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780718193607
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Tracing Russia's story from the settlement of Kiev onwards, this title includes a chapter on the role of Putin and Medvedev, and their impact on Russia's economy, politics and its citizens. Seller Inventory # B9780718193607
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