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Title: Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East
Author: Martin Sixsmith
Genre: History (Russian)
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: A relatively concise, yet thorough, history of Russia from the 10th century up through the first decade of the 21st.
Thingummies: There's nothing like a good chronological history to make you realize how much you know out of order.
I was pleased to realize that I actually knew a fair amount of Russian history through reading about tangentially connected topics, from lives of the saints (including St Cyril) to a biography of Voltaire (including his correspondence with Catherine the Great) to a history of the Franco-Prussian War. Fiction, too--Horatio Hornblower, War and Peace, and Tom Clancy have all given me strange little windows. To have the whole thing laid out end-to-end, in order, makes everything suddenly make so much more sense. Among other things, I've perpetually confused events from the lives of Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III, and Nicholas II (the last four tsars). When you can actually see, oh, this one was assassinated, which made that one halt the reforms, things start to make more sense.
It becomes particularly compelling (and a bit embarrassing) as the narrative approaches the present day. When I got to events that happened during my childhood that I remember but did not understand, I was fascinated. When I got to events in the last ten or so years, I think I was more embarrassed than anything else. In many cases, I remember reading articles about them, but I realize now that I had no idea why the events were happening or what they meant. I knew more about Alexander II's blundering emancipation of the serfs than I did about the fundamental causes of the Chechen War.
Overall, Sixsmith's theme is that the Russian people have repeatedly approached the idea of an open, democratic society, and every single time have turned around and re-chosen autocracy. It's increasingly tragic, as again and again Russia is plunged back into repression and then marvels at how they remain a backwater despite being absolutely enormous and possessing abundant resources. Somehow, the common people always end up in some form of slavery, without enough to eat.
Sixsmith does a good job of staying focused on Russian history, but occasionally providing touchstones of what was going on elsewhere in the world at the time so you can keep oriented. He was a BBC correspondent in Russia for years, so he often interjects bits of descriptions of current day Russia or small anecdotes from his own career to illustrate points. It's dangerous--it could easily become overly self-absorbed or annoying--but overall, he manages this deftly, giving just enough humanize the history without becoming distracting.
My one objection is that far more of the book is focused on the last century, with more coverage given to each successive decade, it seems. So there's almost nothing at all about the Crimean War, but we get nearly a full chapter of a blow-by-blow account of the attempted coup against Gorbachev. It's somewhat understandable, given the author's focus, and if a reader's goal is to understand modern Russia, it's a sensible approach. I'll admit, though, that I was just as if not more interested in Catherine's rule as I was in Brezhnev's. I would have preferred a more even pacing.
I now have such a compulsion to go back and re-read Tom Clancy's books, now understanding what the heck was going on.
Author: Martin Sixsmith
Genre: History (Russian)
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: A relatively concise, yet thorough, history of Russia from the 10th century up through the first decade of the 21st.
Thingummies: There's nothing like a good chronological history to make you realize how much you know out of order.
I was pleased to realize that I actually knew a fair amount of Russian history through reading about tangentially connected topics, from lives of the saints (including St Cyril) to a biography of Voltaire (including his correspondence with Catherine the Great) to a history of the Franco-Prussian War. Fiction, too--Horatio Hornblower, War and Peace, and Tom Clancy have all given me strange little windows. To have the whole thing laid out end-to-end, in order, makes everything suddenly make so much more sense. Among other things, I've perpetually confused events from the lives of Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III, and Nicholas II (the last four tsars). When you can actually see, oh, this one was assassinated, which made that one halt the reforms, things start to make more sense.
It becomes particularly compelling (and a bit embarrassing) as the narrative approaches the present day. When I got to events that happened during my childhood that I remember but did not understand, I was fascinated. When I got to events in the last ten or so years, I think I was more embarrassed than anything else. In many cases, I remember reading articles about them, but I realize now that I had no idea why the events were happening or what they meant. I knew more about Alexander II's blundering emancipation of the serfs than I did about the fundamental causes of the Chechen War.
Overall, Sixsmith's theme is that the Russian people have repeatedly approached the idea of an open, democratic society, and every single time have turned around and re-chosen autocracy. It's increasingly tragic, as again and again Russia is plunged back into repression and then marvels at how they remain a backwater despite being absolutely enormous and possessing abundant resources. Somehow, the common people always end up in some form of slavery, without enough to eat.
Sixsmith does a good job of staying focused on Russian history, but occasionally providing touchstones of what was going on elsewhere in the world at the time so you can keep oriented. He was a BBC correspondent in Russia for years, so he often interjects bits of descriptions of current day Russia or small anecdotes from his own career to illustrate points. It's dangerous--it could easily become overly self-absorbed or annoying--but overall, he manages this deftly, giving just enough humanize the history without becoming distracting.
My one objection is that far more of the book is focused on the last century, with more coverage given to each successive decade, it seems. So there's almost nothing at all about the Crimean War, but we get nearly a full chapter of a blow-by-blow account of the attempted coup against Gorbachev. It's somewhat understandable, given the author's focus, and if a reader's goal is to understand modern Russia, it's a sensible approach. I'll admit, though, that I was just as if not more interested in Catherine's rule as I was in Brezhnev's. I would have preferred a more even pacing.
I now have such a compulsion to go back and re-read Tom Clancy's books, now understanding what the heck was going on.
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Date: 2012-04-24 03:25 am (UTC)From:I also, I have a copy of Lenin's Tomb that's been on my to-read list since...high school if you want to borrow. It's more twentieth century history, but award winning!