Overview

An expert historian and former ambassador to Moscow unlocks fact from fiction to reveal what lies at the root of the Russian story. Churchill remarked that Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. That has become an excuse for intellectual laziness. Russia is not all that different from anywhere else. But you have to disentangle the facts from the myths created both by the Russians themselves and by those who dislike them. In this dynamic new history, Rodric Braithwaite--Russia expert and former ambassador to Moscow--does exactly that, unpicking fact from fiction to discover what lies at the root of the Russian story. Russia is the largest country in the world, with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. Over a thousand years this multifaceted nation of shifting borders has been known as Rus, Muscovy, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago it was reinvented as the Russian Federation. Like the rest of us, the Russians constantly rewrite their history. They, too, omit episodes of national disgrace in favor of patriotic anecdotes, sometimes more rooted in myth than reality. Russia is not an enigma, but its past is violent, tragic, sometimes glorious, and always complicated.

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9781639362882

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Reviews

A masterful account. -- The Times (London) A remarkable epic, vividly portrayed. --Max Hastings A symphonic evocation of a great city at war. -- The New Yorker A vivid picture of the stark and bloody struggle for national struggle with which Russia's war began. As military epics go, Hitler's lightning assault on Moscow in June 1941 and the desperate but successful defense of the Russian capital that winter can hardly be matched. It has an able chronicler in Sir Rodric Braithwaite. -- The Economist A wide-ranging and excellent account. Braithwaite never shirks the terrible truths. -- Antony Beevor, The Sunday Times (London) A wonderful book about a battle that was in fact the biggest in world history. The book is also an excellent addition to a series of recent English language histories that evoke for the Western reader how the Soviet experience must--on a daily basis and by people from different social strata--have been lived. -- The Washington Post Although the siege was a miserable experience for Muscovites, readers will enjoy reading about it. This is an absorbing contribution to what he considers WWII's turning point. -- Publishers Weekly Braithwaite delivers a tragically human Moscow of 1941, victorious but traumatized. -- Booklist He has succeeded triumphantly in restoring the Battle for Moscow to its proper place in history. -- The Daily Telegraph The reader staggers from laughter to tears, while never forgetting that blood is flowing. --Simon Sebag Montefiore Rodric Braithwaite's Russia is a scholarly yet highly readable gallop through the last 1,000 years of Russian history. As befits a distinguished former diplomat, Braithwaite is judiciously opinionated. To understand this tormented nation better--and thereby how Putin came to launch his catastrophic invasion of Ukraine--you can do no better than read this illuminating portrait. --Jonathan Dimbleby, historian and author of Barbarossa Praise for Roderick Braithwaite's Moscow 1941: If asked to recommend a single book on Soviet history, I think I might propose Moscow 1941. The twelve months it covers saw the pivotal event of the Soviet era, the point at which the regime survived the full blast of one of history's mightiest war machines and bought another half century of existence. Understand what happened here, and you understand Soviet history. -- Moscow Times

A masterful account. -- The Times (London) A remarkable epic, vividly portrayed. --Max Hastings A symphonic evocation of a great city at war. -- The New Yorker A vivid picture of the stark and bloody struggle for national struggle with which Russia's war began. As military epics go, Hitler's lightning assault on Moscow in June 1941 and the desperate but successful defense of the Russian capital that winter can hardly be matched. It has an able chronicler in Sir Rodric Braithwaite. -- The Economist A wide-ranging and excellent account. Braithwaite never shirks the terrible truths. -- Antony Beevor, The Sunday Times (London) A wonderful book about a battle that was in fact the biggest in world history. The book is also an excellent addition to a series of recent English language histories that evoke for the Western reader how the Soviet experience must--on a daily basis and by people from different social strata--have been lived. -- The Washington Post Although the siege was a miserable experience for Muscovites, readers will enjoy reading about it. This is an absorbing contribution to what he considers WWII's turning point. -- Publishers Weekly Braithwaite delivers a tragically human Moscow of 1941, victorious but traumatized. -- Booklist He has succeeded triumphantly in restoring the Battle for Moscow to its proper place in history. -- The Daily Telegraph The reader staggers from laughter to tears, while never forgetting that blood is flowing. --Simon Sebag Montefiore Praise for Roderick Braithwaite's Moscow 1941: If asked to recommend a single book on Soviet history, I think I might propose Moscow 1941. The twelve months it covers saw the pivotal event of the Soviet era, the point at which the regime survived the full blast of one of history's mightiest war machines and bought another half century of existence. Understand what happened here, and you understand Soviet history. -- Moscow Times

Author Information

Sir Rodric Braithwaite was British Ambassador to Moscow during the crucial end of the Cold War (1988-92). Subsequently he was foreign policy advisor to British Prime Minister John Major. His previous books include the highly praised Moscow 1941 (Knopf) and Afgantsy (Oxford University Press). He lives in England.

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