Land
Graham Smith, The Post-Soviet States: Mapping the Politics of Transition (1999), explores Russia’s transition into democracy, particularly with respect to the states that now border the country. Blair A. Ruble, Jodi Koehn, and Nancy E. Popson (eds.), Fragmented Space in the Russian Federation (2001), combines the efforts of Western and Russian geographers in a collective monograph. Of similar origin and character is George J. Demko, Gregory Ioffe, and Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya (eds.), Population Under Duress: The Geodemography of Post-Soviet Russia (1999).
Information about Russia’s forests and deforestation is presented in Friends of the Siberian Forests, Bureau for Regional Outreach Campaigns, and Anatoly Lebedev, The Wild East: Trees in Transit: The Timber Trade Between Siberia, the Russian Far East, and China (2001); Alexey Yu. Yaroshenko, Peter V. Potapov, and Svetlana A. Turubanova, The Last Intact Forest Landscapes of Northern European Russia: Mapping of Intact Forest Landscapes in Northern European Russia Using High-Resolution Satellite Images: Methods and Results (2001); and Alexey Morozov, Survey of Illegal Forest Felling Activities in Russia (2000).
Ecological damage suffered during the Soviet period is discussed in Ze’ev Wolfson (Boris Komarov), The Geography of Survival: Ecology in the Post-Soviet Era (1994); and Murray Feshbach, Ecological Disaster: Cleaning Up the Hidden Legacy of the Soviet Regime (1995).
People
Ethnicity is the focus of Robert J. Kaiser, The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR (1994); Jeff Chinn and Robert J. Kaiser, Russians as the New Minority: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Soviet Successor States (1996); and Michael Rywkin, Moscow’s Lost Empire (1994).
The ethnic and religious composition of the population and its implications are discussed in David C. Lewis, After Atheism: Religion and Ethnicity in Russia and Central Asia (2000); Christopher Williams and Thanasis D. Sfikas, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Russia, the CIS, and the Baltic States (1999); Gail Fondahl, Gaining Ground?: Evenkis, Land, and Reform in Southeastern Siberia (1998); Viktor Kozlov, The Peoples of the Soviet Union, trans. by Pauline M. Tiffen (1988; originally published in Russian, 1975); Ludmilla Alexeyeva, Soviet Dissent: Contemporary Movements for National, Religious, and Human Rights, trans. by Carol Pearce and John Glad (1987); Ronald Wixman, The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook (1984, reissued 1988); Hedrick Smith, The Russians (1976, reissued 1985); Farley Mowat, The Siberians (1970, reissued 1982; also published as Sibir: My Discovery of Siberia, 1970); and M.G. Levin and L.P. Potapov (eds.), The Peoples of Siberia (1964; originally published in Russian, 1956). Valuable additional material on many aspects of the Russian republic and its peoples is found in Archie Brown, Michael Kaser, and Gerald S. Smith (eds.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Former Soviet Union, 2nd ed. (1994); and Stephen White (ed.), Political and Economic Encyclopaedia of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1990).
Studies of urbanization in Russia include F.E. Ian Hamilton, The Moscow City Region (1976); James H. Bater, The Soviet City: Ideal and Reality (1980); Olga Medvedkov, The Soviet Urbanization (1990); Blair A. Ruble, Leningrad: Shaping a Soviet City (1990), and Money Sings: The Changing Politics of Urban Space in Post-Soviet Yaroslavl (1995); and Grigory Ioffe and Tatyana Nefedova, The Environs of Russian Cities (2000).
Cultural life
An excellent general history of Russian literature is Victor Terras, A History of Russian Literature (1991). Outstanding books on the interaction of literature and society include, for the 19th century, Isaiah Berlin, Russian Thinkers, ed. by Henry Hardy and Aileen Kelly (1978, reissued 1994); and, for the Soviet period, Ronald Hingley, Russian Writers and Soviet Society, 1917–1978 (1979, reissued 1981). An excellent survey of Soviet culture as a whole is Andrei Sinyavsky (Andrei Siniavskii), Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History, trans. from Russian by Joanne Turnbull (1990). Important books on Russian art include Camilla Gray, The Great Experiment: Russian Art, 1863–1922 (1962, reissued as The Russian Experiment in Art, 1863–1922, 1971); and Angelica Zander Rudenstine (ed.), Russian Avant-Garde Art: The George Costakis Collection (1981). Konstantin Rudnitsky (Konstantin Rudnitskii), Russian and Soviet Theater, 1905–1932, trans. from Russian by Roxane Permar, ed. by Lesley Milne (1988), a copiously illustrated work, provides a good introduction to the golden age of Russian theatre. Jay Leyda, Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film, 3rd ed. (1983), is an authoritative study of developments since tsarist times.
Olga L. Medvedkov Yuri V. Medvedkov History
General works
Historical studies of geopolitical aspects include Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 (2001); and James H. Bater and R.A. French (eds.), Studies in Russian Historical Geography (1983). Also helpful is Martin Gilbert, The Routledge Atlas of Russian History, 3rd ed. (2002).
From the beginnings to c. 1700
Judicious broad surveys of early Russian history include Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, 6th ed. (2000); and Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard, The Emergence of Rus, 750–1200 (1996). The history of Muscovy is chronicled in Robert O. Crummey, The Formation of Muscovy, 1304–1613 (1987).
The 18th century
An interpretative survey with significant treatment of the 18th century is Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime, 2nd ed. (1995). The Petrine period is examined in Paul Bushkovitch, Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671–1725 (2001, reissued 2003); and Lindsay Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great (1998, reissued 2000).
A critical analysis of the relationship between administration and society in the 18th century is given in John P. LeDonne, Absolutism and Ruling Class: The Formation of the Russian Political Order, 1700–1825 (1991).
The reign and person of Catherine II (Catherine the Great) are analyzed in Isabel De Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great (1981, reissued 2002), and Catherine the Great: A Short History, 2nd ed. (2002). Philosophical and political thought is presented in Andrzeji Walicki, A History of Russian Thought: From the Enlightenment to Marxism, trans. by Hilda Andrews-Rusiecka (1979, reissued 1988; originally published in Polish, 1973).
Marc Raeff Dominic Lieven Russia from 1801 to 1904
General surveys of Russian history in the 19th century include David Saunders, Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform, 1801–1881 (1992); and Hugh Seton-Watson, The Russian Empire, 1801–1917 (1967, reprinted 1990). An excellent English-language work on the reign of Alexander I is Janet M. Hartley, Alexander I (1994). Politics during the reign of Alexander I is discussed in Alexander M. Martin, Romantics, Reformers, and Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I (1997). The reign of Nicholas I is explored in W. Bruce Lincoln, Nicholas I, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias (1978, reprinted 1989). The general economic development of Russia in the 19th century is analyzed in W. Bruce Lincoln, The Great Reforms: Autocracy, Bureaucracy, and the Politics of Change in Imperial Russia (1990); Ben Eklof, John Bushnell, and Larissa Zakharova (eds.), Russia’s Great Reforms, 1855–1881 (1994); and Arcadius Kahan, Russian Economic History: The Nineteenth Century, ed. by Roger Weiss (1989). An analysis of reform and counterreform dynamics is given in Thomas S. Pearson, Russian Officialdom in Crisis: Autocracy and Local Self-Government, 1861–1900 (1989, reissued 2002). Dominic Lieven, Nicholas II (1993, reissued 1996), examines the personality of Nicholas II and his reign.
Studies of important issues in Russian foreign policy and the emergence of the Russian Empire include William C. Fuller, Jr., Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600–1914 (1992); Dietrich Geyer, Russian Imperialism: The Interaction of Domestic and Foreign Policy, 1860–1914, trans. by Bruce Little (1987; originally published in German, 1977); Andreas Kappeler, The Russian Empire: A Multiethnic History, trans. by Alfred Clayton (2001; originally published in German, 1992); Dominic Lieven, Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals (2000, reissued 2003); and Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire, 1552–1917 (1997).
Nicholas V. Riasanovsky Dominic Lieven Russia from 1905 to 1917
An excellent general introduction to the period is Hans Rogger, Russia in the Age of Modernisation and Revolution, 1881–1917 (1983). Foreign policy is the subject of Barbara Jelavich, Russia’s Balkan Entanglements, 1806–1914 (1991, reissued 2002); David MacLaren McDonald, United Government and Foreign Policy in Russia, 1900–1914 (1992); and Dominic Lieven, Russia and the Origins of the First World War (1983). Dominic Lieven, Russia’s Rulers Under the Old Regime (1989), offers a collective portrait of the policy makers. The economy of the period is examined in Peter Gatrell, The Tsarist Economy, 1850–1917 (1986).
The Revolution of 1905 is addressed in Abraham Ascher, The Revolution of 1905, 2 vol. (1988–92); and Andrew M. Verner, The Crisis of Russian Autocracy: Nicholas II and the 1905 Revolution (1990). A more comparative socioeconomic approach to the revolution is demonstrated in Teodor Shanin, The Roots of Otherness: Russia’s Turn of Century, 2 vol. (1986), which concentrates especially on the peasantry. The reaction of the elites to the revolution is analyzed in Roberta Thompson Manning, The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia: Gentry and Government (1982). The politics of the new parliament, the Duma, is outlined in Geoffrey A. Hosking, The Russian Constitutional Experiment: Government and Duma, 1907–1914 (1973); and the social dimension of the new politics is examined in Leopold H. Haimson (ed.), The Politics of Rural Russia, 1905–1914 (1979); and Victoria E. Bonnell, Roots of Rebellion: Workers’ Politics and Organizations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1900–1914 (1983). Russia’s problems during World War I are described in Michael T. Florinsky, The End of the Russian Empire (1931, reprinted 1973). The revolutionary period is the subject of Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy (1996, reissued 1998).
Geoffrey Alan Hosking Dominic Lieven Soviet Russia
For the Soviet period there are hardly any specific histories of Russia, which is always treated in the wider context of the Soviet Union. An overview of the Revolution of 1917 and its consequences is offered in Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, 2nd ed. (1994, reissued 2001). Robert Service, A History of Twentieth-Century Russia (1998), is an excellent one-volume history of the Soviet state. Christopher Read, The Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (2001), provides a stimulating analysis of the causes of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. Relevant historical biographies include Robert Service, Lenin: A Biography (2000); Robert C. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929 (1973), and Stalin in Power, 1928–1941 (1990); and William J. Tompson, Khrushchev: A Political Life (1995, reissued 1997). Chris Ward (ed.), The Stalinist Dictatorship (1998), is a readable examination of the Stalinist period. The Gorbachev era is analyzed in Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor (1996); Stephen White, After Gorbachev, 4th ed. (1994), a solid narrative of the years of perestroika; Richard Sakwa, Gorbachev and His Reforms, 1985–1990 (1990); Jeffrey F. Hough, Democratization and Revolution in the USSR, 1985–1991 (1997); and Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, new, updated ed. (1988), and Memoirs (1996), which reveals insights into Gorbachev’s thinking. Good introductions to the Soviet political structure and situation are Richard Sakwa, Soviet Politics in Perspective, 2nd ed. rev. (1998); Gordon B. Smith, Soviet Politics: Struggling with Change, 2nd ed. (1992); Geoffrey Ponton, The Soviet Era: Soviet Politics from Lenin to Yeltsin (1994); and Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and Its Members, 1917–1991 (2000), a wide-ranging survey. Alec Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, 1917–1991, 3rd ed. (1992), is an informed, accessible account. The breakup of the Soviet Union is the subject of Ronald Grigor Suny, The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1993); and Roman Szporluk, Russia, Ukraine, and the Break-up of the Soviet Union (2000). Foreign policy is discussed in Gabriel Gorodetsky (ed.), Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1991: A Retrospective (1994). Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev (1996), uses archival material released in the 1990s to examine the Cold War and its origins from the Soviet point of view. The secret police’s role during the Soviet period is the subject of Amy W. Knight, The KGB: Police and Politics in the Soviet Union, rev. ed. (1990).
Martin McCauley Dominic Lieven Post-Soviet Russia
Interpretative surveys include Lilia Shevtsova, Yeltsin’s Russia: Myth and Reality (2000); Stephen White, Alex Pravda, and Zvi Gitelman (eds.), Developments in Russian Politics 5, 5th ed. (2001); and Archie Brown (ed.), Contemporary Russian Politics: A Reader (2001). Studies of the economic transition include Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia (2000); Alena V. Ledeneva, Russia’s Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking, and Informal Exchange (1998); Jefferey F. Hough, The Logic of Economic Reform in Russia (2001); Thane Gustafson, Capitalism Russian-Style (1999); Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski, The Tragedy of Russia’s Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy (2001); and Tim McDaniel, The Agony of the Russian Idea (1996). Geoffrey Hosking and Robert Service (eds.), Russian Nationalism, Past and Present (1997), examines the reemergence of Russian identity since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. The conflict in Chechnya is explored in John B. Dunlop, Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict (1998); and Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (1998). A solid account of Russian foreign policy in the Yeltsin years is Ted Hopf (ed.), Understandings of Russian Foreign Policy (1999).
Leon Aron, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (2000), is an excellent biography. The institutional and political context in which Russian democracy emerged in the 1990s is the subject of Graeme Gill and Roger D. Markwick, Russia’s Stillborn Democracy?: From Gorbachev to Yeltsin (2000); Gordon B. Smith (ed.), State-Building in Russia: The Yeltsin Legacy and the Challenge of the Future (1999); and Valerie Sperling (ed.), Building the Russian State: Institutional Crisis and the Quest for Democratic Governance (2000).
Dominic Lieven 
