Thousand Years of Russian History

The mighty Russian Empire was not built in a day – from a small beginning and by a number of different processes it has grown to its present dimensions. For centuries it grew by immigration and colonisation, and it is only since the sixteenth century that expansion came by means of conquest. In the course of the ten and a half centuries of her existence, Russia’s political centre has shifted three times: from Kiev to Vladimir, from Vladimir to Moscow, and from Moscow to St Petersburg. Each of these four names represents distinct phases of development and periods with very definite characteristics. This development has not been one of continuous growth: it was interrupted by a great calamity, the Mongol invasion, which darkened the thirteenth century, and from which it has taken centuries to recover. Again, the Russian nation is not a homogeneous whole, a nation of one blood; nor are her peoples all on the same level of culture. Unless these facts are grasped, and the causes underlying the complexity of Russian history come to be understood, there can be no exact comprehension or balanced judgement of her problems and difficulties, and the part she has to play among the nations. The aim in A Thousand Years of Russian History is to convey general impressions of the various stages passed through by Russia in the course of her evolution, and to give sketches of the lives of those of her rulers who have stamped their era with the mark of their personality. This book is a completely retyped and indexed version of the 1918 publication with the same name.