About the Book
This lucid account of Russian and Soviet history presents major trends and events from ancient Kievan Rus' to Vladimir Putin's renewed presidency of the twenty-first century. Russia and the Soviet Union does not shy away from controversial topics, including the impact of the Mongol conquest, the paradoxes of Peter the Great, the "inevitability" of the 1917 Revolution, the Stalinist terror, and the Gorbachev reform effort. Tackling those topics and others, Thompson's seventh edition is updated to discuss the flawed parliamentary elections to the Russian Duma in December 2011 as well as the election of Vladimir Putin to a second non-consecutive term as president of Russia in March 2012. Recent sociopolitical changes are reflected in a thoroughly rewritten Chapter 15 on the "New" Russia and a new Chapter 16 discussing Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev. Distinguished by its brevity and amply supplemented with useful images and suggested readings, this essential text provides balanced coverage of all periods of Russian history and incorporates economic, social, and cultural developments as well as politics and foreign policy.
Table of Contents:
CONTENTS Preface Preface to the First Edition CHAPTER 1 ANCIENT RUSSIA AND THE KIEVAN STATE The Russian Land The Peoples of Russia The Slavs Come to Russia The Formation of the Kievan State How Did Kievan Russians Make a Living? Kievan Society Religion and Culture in Kievan Russia Power and Politics in Kievan Russia The Fall and Significance of Kievan Russia Further Reading CHAPTER 2 RUSSIA DIVIDED AND CONQUERED, 1054--1462 Russia Divided The Mongol Scourge The Impact of the Mongols The Decline of Mongol Power Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 3 MOSCOW AND THE "GATHERING OF THE RUSSIAN LANDS," 1328--1533 The Odds Against Moscow Moscow's Advantages The Unification of Russia, 1328--1533 Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 4 IVAN THE TERRIBLE AND THE TIME OF TROUBLES, 1533--1618 The Personality and Character of Ivan the Terrible The Reforms of Ivan IV Ivan Versus the Aristocracy The Time of Troubles, 1598--1613 Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 5 THE MOLDING OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY, 1613--1689 Serfdom The Autocracy The Orthodox Church The Expansion of Russia Relations with the West Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 6 PETER THE GREAT AND WESTERNIZATION, 1689--1725 Peter's Coming of Age Peter's Personality and Character Peter in War and Diplomacy Peter's Reforms Resistance to Peter Significance of Peter the Great Further Reading CHAPTER 7 CHANGE AND CONTINUITY, 1725--1801 Peter's Successors, 1725--1762 Catherine the Great, 1762--1796 Russian Expansion and Colonization Economic and Social Development The Changing Role of the Nobility Education and Culture The Reign of Paul I, 1796--1801 Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 8 POWER, BACKWARDNESS, AND CREATIVITY, 1801--1855 The Serf Economy Russia Unchanged Creativity and Dissent Russia: Arbiter of Europe, Colonizer of Asia and America Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 9 REFORM, REACTION, AND MODERNIZATION, 1855--1904 The Era of the Great Reforms, 1855--1881 Terror and Reaction Economic and Social Modernization, 1861--1905 Competing Ideologies Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 10 REVOLUTION, REFORM, AND WAR, 1904--1917 The Revolution of 1905 The Duma Period, 1906--1914 The Silver Age: Russian Culture, 1890--1917 Russian Involvement in World War I, 1914--1917 Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 11 REVOLUTION, CIVIL WAR, AND THE FOUNDING OF SOVIET SOCIETY, 1917--1928 The February Revolution: The Collapse of the Tsarist System The Bolsheviks Come to Power Civil War and Foreign Intervention, 1918--1921 The New Economic Policy and Coexistence, 1921--1928 The Struggle for Power Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 12 THE SECOND REVOLUTION, THE STALINIST SYSTEM, AND WORLD WAR II, 1928--1946 The Revolution from Above: Industrialization and Collectivization The Stalinist System Soviet Culture, 1917--1953 Stalin and the World, 1928--1946 Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 13 THE SOVIET UNION AS A SUPERPOWER: CHANGE, STAGNATION, AND "COLD WAR," 1946--1984 Reconstruction and Renewed Stalinism The Cold War Ideological Rigidity and Repression The Succession to Stalin and the Rise of Khrushchev Peaceful Coexistence and Troubles in Eastern Europe Origins of the Sino-Soviet Split Ups and Downs in Soviet-Western Relations Khrushchev: Reformer or Repairman? Bureaucratic Stability Under Brezhnev and His Successors Detente and Its Erosion The Changing Soviet Society Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 14 THE GORBACHEV "REVOLUTION" AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION, 1983--1991 The Origins of the Gorbachev Reforms Efforts to Rejuvenate the Economy "New Thinking" in Foreign Policy Glasnost' Democratization Gorbachev's Downfall The Attempted Coup of August 1991 Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 15 THE "NEW" RUSSIA IN THE POST-SOVIET ERA, 1991--2000 The Quadruple Revolution On the High Road to Capitalism Setbacks and Problems Everyday Life in Post-Soviet Russia Difficult Times in the New Russia Cultural Attitudes Shift The Rocky Road to Democracy A New Constitution A Shaky Democracy and Yeltsin's Decline The Chechen Rebellion and the First Chechen War Russia, Its Neighbors, and the World Conclusion Further Reading CHAPTER 16 THE PUTIN ERA: PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS, 2000--2012 The Meteoric Rise of Vladimir Putin Good Times and Bad Times "Sovereign Democracy" Elections Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Medvedev's Rule The Challenge of the Caucasus Putin's Assertive Foreign Policy Russia and the United States Russia and Its Neighbors Russia and the European Union Conclusion Further Reading Notes Index
About the Author :
John M. Thompson, a graduate of Columbia's Russian Institute, taught history at Indiana University for seventeen years and was a distinguished visiting professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Air War College. He is currently teaching Russian and world history at Midcoast Senior College in Maine.
Review :
Praise from Previous Editions: "Comprehensive, balanced, up to date, engaging, and deftly written, Russia and the Soviet Union is the best brief history of Russia available today. The book is perfectly suited for use in introductory courses on Russian history and for general readers seeking to make sense of Russia over the centuries. Thompson has packed a lifetime of thoughtful reflection, teaching, and distinguished research into this volume." --Donald J. Raleigh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Through a fresh format and effective revisions, John Thompson has rendered still more succinct what was already a very neat, comprehensive and highly readable text. With updated biographies ('Further Reading') in several chapters and some new illustrations, as well as an additional chapter on Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia and the Soviet Union in its sixth edition remains a superlative text for both students of Russian history and the casual reader." --Vicki Hendrickson Grove, University of Colorado, Boulder "Russia and the Soviet Union is a superb one-semester text for a course in Russian history from origins to the near-present. Thompson does a judicious job of introducing key debates and does not hesitate to express his own considered opinion where warranted. The balanced coverage of medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods is extremely important for introductory courses, as is the newly revised section of Russia under Putin. Overall, this is a readable, exciting, stimulating book which always has students asking for more." --David W. McFadden, Fairfield University
Praise from Previous Editions:
"Comprehensive, balanced, up to date, engaging, and deftly written, Russia and the Soviet Union is the best brief history of Russia available today. The book is perfectly suited for use in introductory courses on Russian history and for general readers seeking to make sense of Russia over the centuries. Thompson has packed a lifetime of thoughtful reflection, teaching, and distinguished research into this volume."
Donald J. Raleigh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Through a fresh format and effective revisions, John Thompson has rendered still more succinct what was already a very neat, comprehensive and highly readable text. With updated biographies ('Further Reading') in several chapters and some new illustrations, as well as an additional chapter on Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia and the Soviet Union in its sixth edition remains a superlative text for both students of Russian history and the casual reader."
Vicki Hendrickson Grove, University of Colorado, Boulder
