The Russian Century : A History of the Last Hundred Years

by Brian Moynahan

Release Date: 04 December, 1995

Edition: Paperback

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Journalism at its best

Moynahan's journalistic instincts are to the fore in this fast moving account of one of history's great upheavals. The author has plenty of experience covering Russia as a journalist at The Times. The coverage doesn't just take in the politics or revolution. There's social history, art and lifestyle - as well as all the gruesome stuff involving purges, genocide and the death camps in eastern siberia.

It also has some wonderful pictures - especially one showing an old woman experiencing voting for the first time. Something that is so familiar to most of us was so alien to her. She was ninety and old enough to remember Tsar Nicholas.

The coverage is heavily bent towards the first half of the century since most of the action took place then. Moynahan's big picture style means that you really get a feel for how traumatic and vengeful these times were for ordinary people. The revolutions and the spread of communist power throughout the empire was quite simply government by a gang of murderous thugs. Fiends of the worst possible kind with a liking for violence.

The end of the party and the Russian Empire is dealt with only lightly since the book was first written in the early 1990s. (I read the 1994 version and haven't got around to reading an updated version). That, I don't, think is a big issue since most readers will have been around long enough to have a pretty good handle on the Gorbachev and Yeltsin years anyway.

All too often, these types of histories are academic (often mind numbing) and/or far too long. This one is short, sucinct and highly entertaining. In fact, anyone wishing to get into the excellent accounts of the revolution by Figes or Pipes should read this one first.

A Quick Dip Into Russian History

The Russian Century is a whirlwind tour through the last 100 years of Russia's history, with the core of the book dedicated to Stalin and the WWII years. This is a short, fast book that touches lightly on the key events of the century but discusses none in great detail.

Moynahan is a journalist and not a historian -- he gives the reader the feel and flavor of the Russian experience instead of a hardcore analysis. It is the sizzle of Russian history without the meat. This is a book where one learns that Lenin disguised himself with a gray wig during the Bolshevik Revolution, and that Stalin once fired a famous jazz singer because her songs were too complex for his taste. On the other hand, the Yalta conference is alluded to in just one sentence and never discussed again. Raisa Gorbachev's shopping habits receive several mentions, while the complex internal politics behind glasnost are glossed over.

These are not faults -- just differences. The Russian Century is the perfect "survey course" for someone new to Russian history. They can get the quick overview here and then learn more about specific events in other books.