A Short History of Russia (to about 1970)

A clear, well sourced history of Russia from the Eastern Slavs and Kievan Rus to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Written by specialists for the Library of Congress, it covers the tsars, the revolutions, Stalin, the Cold War and Gorbachev's reforms.

Library of Congress

How Russia has told its own history, from the dynastic myths of the tsars through Lenin and Stalin to Putin's use of the past. A sharp guide to why history has always been a political tool in Russia.

Wojciech Materski

A historian's reading of modern Russia, from the revolutions of 1917 through Stalin's terror, the Second World War and the early Cold War. It explains how the Soviet state and its social structure were built and what that legacy means for Russia today.

Michal Reiman

Essays on how Russia tried to modernise across a century, from late tsarism and Soviet industrialisation to the reforms of the 1990s and 2000s. Includes data tables on population, work and education in the USSR.

Markku Kangaspuro and Jeremy Smith