Russia: A 1000 Year Chronicle of the Wild East

This is one of the bigger undertakings I have made recently - I have several large books called ‘Russia' (or some close approximation) and thought it about time I tackled one.

The chapters are short and readable, they don't dive too deep, and they are not so academic that they wash over. Detail is outlined, often with quotes from source material, but not repeated, and the narrative is fairly brief, which it needs to be in such a sweeping arc. All though the telling of this history Sixsmith visits the key places and takes us through ruins and relics still in existence.

Commencing in 862, with the perhaps-real, perhaps-not Rurik of Rus, the Viking who was called upon to put the fiefdoms into order, and rule the area which became Rus, with its centre in Kiev and ending with the beginning of Putin's power, including the Chechnya wars and the sanctioned murder of Litvinenko in London.

I started making notes as I read - a few sentences per chapter, but it quickly got out of hand with so much going on. So many names fire around and the only saving grace is so many are killed off that they can't come back later! I guess if I am honest it all makes sense and sits in place while I read the chapter but very soon after it is gone again - just an overwhelming amount of information.

Part of what I liked in the book is Sixsmith visiting many of the places of importance and adding a short anecdote about his visit in comparison to its time in history. The way it was presented also helped me with aligning the Russian leader at each period with his American counterpart - something I benefited from at the time, but will have probably forgotten again in a few weeks!

What does this history tell us? Primarily for me it tells us not to be at all surprised about the aggressive and violent behaviour of the current autocrat Putin, as he is acting in exactly the same manner as so many of his predecessors. Blatant lying and manoeuvring for power, the masses being only a means to achieve this, and basking in the glory of absolute power are all hallmarks of he Russian ruling system. No doubt Putin's outcome will be the same as his predecessors too - stabbed in the back, or dying suddenly.

A solid 4 stars.