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A review by alanyoung
A Short History of Russia by Mark Galeotti
informative
fast-paced
5.0
Russia has been a major player throughout my life with decades of the Cold War, collapse of the Iron Curtain, promises of change and return recently to ‘old ways’ with the invasions of first Crimea and then Ukraine.
This book traces with pace and wry humour the contorsions that Russia has endured and the tensions that are inescapable in a geographically vast but ethnically varied country.
The particular pattern (not unique to Russia but almost raised to an art form in Russian hands) of re-writing history to suit a present desired narrative is so telling.
As I pray for the peoples of Ukraine and Russia suffering as a consequence of the current Putin-initiated war, the closing thoughts are reassuring. Putin’s ill-considered and historically-manipulated war contains the seeds of his own destruction. For those suffering peoples may it come soon.
This book traces with pace and wry humour the contorsions that Russia has endured and the tensions that are inescapable in a geographically vast but ethnically varied country.
The particular pattern (not unique to Russia but almost raised to an art form in Russian hands) of re-writing history to suit a present desired narrative is so telling.
As I pray for the peoples of Ukraine and Russia suffering as a consequence of the current Putin-initiated war, the closing thoughts are reassuring. Putin’s ill-considered and historically-manipulated war contains the seeds of his own destruction. For those suffering peoples may it come soon.