The Making of Modern Russia: From Kiev Rus' to the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Penguin Original)

by Lionel Kochan, John L. H. Keep

Release Date: June, 1998

Edition: Paperback

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Adequate Overview, But Unfocused

Kochan and Keep have written an adequate overview of Russian history have made the all too easy mistake of trying to cover too much. The organization is roughly chronological, but as we get closer and closer the present time the narrative thread becomes more and more jumbled, jumping from topic to topic and decade to decade. Tighter chapter contol, like Riasonovsky did in his History of Russia, would have helped; i.e., this is the chapter about Peter the Great's politics, this is one is about culture during Peter's reign, and this is about the economy. Completely missing are tables or charts - there is not even a list of tsars! A great deal of text about industrial and agricultural production could have been replaced with pie charts or other graphics. It is also somewhat astonishing that a general history book would have no pictures.

For those already well-versed in Russian history, The Making of Modern Russia will provide few new insights and is rather dry at times. Russia's history is rich, provocative, and fires the imagination - from Olga in the tenth century, to Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and even doddering old Brezhnev - to say nothing of the drama and tragedy of the Bolsheviks. I fear that one not already familiar with Russia's history will read The Making of Modern Russia and wonder what the big deal is.