Figes’ aim in this readable and informative history of Russia’s thousand-year history is to illuminate the terrible precedents of horror, persecution and terror that might help decipher the motives for Putin’s war in the Ukraine. Myths too have shaped Russia’s past. These reflect the structural continuities of Russian history, its geographic position, systems of belief, modes of rule, political ideas and social customs. Figes channels unsurpassed scholarship into a compulsive contribution to today’s geopolitical thinking.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 107 Winter 2023 ) |
