Russia

Through the centuries, Russia has swung sharply between successful expansionism, catastrophic collapse, and spectacular recovery. This illuminating history traces these dramatic cycles of boom and bust from the late Neolithic age to Ivan the Terrible, and from the height of Communism to the truncated Russia of today.

Philip Longworth explores the dynamics of Russia’s past through time and space, from the nameless adventurers who first penetrated this vast, inhospitable terrain to a cast of dynamic characters that includes Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Stalin. His narrative takes in the magnificent, historic cities of Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg; it stretches to Alaska in the east, to the Black Sea and the Ottoman Empire to the south, to the Baltic in the west and to Archangel and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

Who are the Russians and what is the source of their imperialistic culture? Why was Russia so driven to colonize and conquer? From Kievan Rus’ —the first-ever Russian state, which collapsed with the invasion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century—to ruthless Muscovy, the Russian Empire of the eighteenth century and finally the Soviet period, this groundbreaking study analyzes the growth and dissolution of each vast empire as it gives way to the next.

Refreshing in its insight and drawing on a vast range of scholarship, this book also explicitly addresses the question of what the future holds for Russia and her neighbors, and asks whether her sphere of influence is growing.

PHILIP LONGWORTH is the author of seven books including The Cossacks and The Making of Eastern Europe. He was educated by the army and at the University of Oxford and was professor of history at McGill University in Canada for nearly twenty years. He lives in north London.

ALSO BY PHILIP LONGWORTH

The Art of Victory

The Unending Vigil

The Cossacks

The Three Empresses

The Rise and Fall of Venice

Alexis, Tsar of All the Russias

The Making of Eastern Europe

R U S S I A

The once and future empire from

pre-history to Putin

PHILIP LONGWORTH

St. Martin’s Press New York

RUSSIA. Copyright © 2005 by Philip Longworth. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Longworth, Philip, 1933-

Russia : the once and future empire from pre-history to Putin / Philip Longworth.

p. cm.

Inlcudes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36041-2

ISBN-10: 0-312-36041-X

1. Russia—History. 2. Soviet Union—History. Russia (Federation)—History.

I. Title.

DK40.L66 2006

947—dc22

2006048494

First published in Great Britain by John Murray (Publishers), a division of Hodder Headline, under the title Russia’s Empires: Their Rise and Fall: From Prehistory to Putin

First U.S. Edition: December 2006

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Maps

Introduction

1. The Russians: Who are They?

2. The First Russian State

3. Reincarnation

4. The Foundation of an Empire

5. Ivan IV and the First Imperial Expansion

6. The Crash

7. Recovery

8. Peter the Great and the Breakthrough to the West

9. Glorious Expansion

10. The Romantic Age of Empire

11. Descent to Destruction

12. The Construction of a Juggernaut

13. The High Tide of Soviet Imperialism

14. Autopsy on a Deceased Empire

15. Reinventing Russia

Conclusion

Chronology

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Illustrations

1. Saints Boris and Gleb: their martyrdom in 1015 was used to legitimate the Grand Princes of Kiev

2. Fresco of Emperor Constantine VII receiving Princess Olga at his palace in Constantinople, c. 955-7

3. Model of the St Sophia Cathedral, Kiev

4. Miniature of the construction of Moscow’s Kremlin, 1491

5. Ivan III

6. Sixteenth-century Russian cavalryman

7. Punishments for recalcitrant natives

8. Reindeer-power in Okhotsk

9. Ceremonial show of force to greet the submission of an important chief

10. Nineteenth-century lithograph of Tiflis

11. The Darial Pass

12. A Tatar encampment

13. A Yakut shaman treating a patient

14. Kalmyks

15. A Russian embassy approaches the Great Wall of China, 1693

16. A Lapp shaman’s view of the world

17. SS Peter and Paul, Kamchatka

18. Bashkirs

19. An Estonian girl

20. An Ostiak ermine-hunter

21. A Chukchi in armour with his family

22. A Mordvinian woman

23. Circassian princes arriving for a conference, 1836