A review by dnibhriain
Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East by Martin Sixsmith

4.0

Well written and informative. The first 900 years up to 1917 only take about 200 of the 550ish pages so if you're more interested in that section of history this may not be the book for you. He also skims over the Brezhnev years quite fast. I think the author is probably somewhat biased against communism in Russia, but I suppose it is hard to get an author who is completely neutral on the issue. It would have been interesting to hear more about propaganda and why lots of people did like Stalin and Lenin. The chapters on the persecution of poets and musicians under Stalin were interesting as it was something I hadn't heard much about. I also like that he adds in lots of quotes from songs and poems, it adds an interesting level to the book which I haven't seen before, but equally you could easily just not read them if you don't care as they don't disturb the flow of the book much.