Russia: The Once and Future Empire From Pre-History to Putin

462 Pages·2006·5.67 MB·English

by  Philip Longworth

Through the centuries, Russia has swung sharply between successful
expansionism, catastrophic collapse, and spectacular recovery. This
illuminating history traces these dramatic cycles of boom and bust from the
late Neolithic age to Ivan the Terrible, and from the height of Communism to the
truncated Russia of today.
Philip Longworth explores the dynamics of Russia’s past through time and
space, from the nameless adventurers who first penetrated this vast, inhospitable
terrain to a cast of dynamic characters that includes Ivan the Terrible, Catherine
the Great, and Stalin. His narrative takes in the magnificent, historic cities of
Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg; it stretches to Alaska in the east, to the Black
Sea and the Ottoman Empire to the south, to the Baltic in the west and to
Archangel and the Arctic Ocean to the north.
Who are the Russians and what is the source of their imperialistic culture?
Why was Russia so driven to colonize and conquer? From Kievan Rus’ —the
first-ever Russian state, which collapsed with the invasion of the Mongols in the
thirteenth century—to ruthless Muscovy, the Russian Empire of the eighteenth
century and finally the Soviet period, this groundbreaking study analyzes the
growth and dissolution of each vast empire as it gives way to the next.
Refreshing in its insight and drawing on a vast range of scholarship, this book
also explicitly addresses the question of what the future holds for Russia and her
neighbors, and asks whether her sphere of influence is growing.
PHILIP LONGWORTH is the author of seven books including The Cossacks
and The Making of Eastern Europe. He was educated by the army and at the
University of Oxford and was professor of history at McGill University in
Canada for nearly twenty years. He lives in north London.
ALSO BY PHILIP LONGWORTH
The Art of Victory
The Unending Vigil
The Cossacks
The Three Empresses
The Rise and Fall of Venice
Alexis, Tsar of All the Russias
The Making of Eastern Europe
R U S S I A
The once and future empire from
pre-history to Putin
PHILIP LONGWORTH
St. Martin’s Press New York
RUSSIA. Copyright © 2005 by Philip Longworth. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information,
address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Longworth, Philip, 1933-Russia : the once and future
empire from pre-history to Putin / Philip Longworth.
p. cm.
Inlcudes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36041-2
ISBN-10: 0-312-36041-X
1. Russia—History. 2. Soviet Union—History. Russia (Federation)—History.
I. Title.
DK40.L66 2006
947—dc22
2006048494
First published in Great Britain by John Murray (Publishers), a division of Hodder Headline, under the title
Russia’s Empires: Their Rise and Fall: From Prehistory to Putin
First U.S. Edition: December 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Maps
Introduction
1. The Russians: Who are They?
2. The First Russian State
3. Reincarnation
4. The Foundation of an Empire
5. Ivan IV and the First Imperial Expansion
6. The Crash
7. Recovery
8. Peter the Great and the Breakthrough to the West
9. Glorious Expansion
10. The Romantic Age of Empire
11. Descent to Destruction
12. The Construction of a Juggernaut
13. The High Tide of Soviet Imperialism
14. Autopsy on a Deceased Empire
15. Reinventing Russia
Conclusion
Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
1. Saints Boris and Gleb: their martyrdom in 1015 was used to legitimate the
Grand Princes of Kiev 2. Fresco of Emperor Constantine VII receiving
Princess Olga at his palace in Constantinople, c. 955-7
3. Model of the St Sophia Cathedral, Kiev 4. Miniature of the construction of
Moscow’s Kremlin, 1491
5. Ivan III
6. Sixteenth-century Russian cavalryman 7. Punishments for recalcitrant natives
8. Reindeer-power in Okhotsk 9. Ceremonial show of force to greet the
submission of an important chief 10. Nineteenth-century lithograph of Tiflis
11. The Darial Pass
12. A Tatar encampment
13. A Yakut shaman treating a patient 14. Kalmyks
15. A Russian embassy approaches the Great Wall of China, 1693
16. A Lapp shaman’s view of the world 17. SS Peter and Paul, Kamchatka 18.
Bashkirs
19. An Estonian girl
20. An Ostiak ermine-hunter
21. A Chukchi in armour with his family 22. A Mordvinian woman
23. Circassian princes arriving for a conference, 1836
24. Persians paying Russian representatives an indemnity in bullion 25. Barracks
for Gulag prisoners cutting the White Sea-Baltic Canal, 1933
26. In celebration of the completion of the Dnieper Dam 27. Completing the
furnaces for the Soviet Union’s largest steel plant 28. President Putin
brandishing a model of the Molnia spacecraft
The author and publishers would like to thank the following for permission to
reproduce illustrations: Plate 7, From the Hakluyt Society’s Yerrnark’s
Campaign in Siberia, ed. Terence Armstrong, London, 1975, reproduced by
permission of David Higham Associates; 16, Add. 5523 fol.7, the British
Library; 24, Laurence Kelly; 28, Getty Images, AFP/Maxim Marmur. Plates are
also taken from the following publications: 2, S. Vysotskii, Svetskie freski
Sofuskogo Sobore v Kieve [Secular Frescos in the St Sophia Cathedral in Kiev],
Kiev, 1989; 3, I. Toskaia et al., The State Architectural and Historical Museum
of St Sophia Cathedral, 2nd edn, Kiev 1996.
Acknowledgements
This book owes much to many helpers, but I alone am responsible for any errors
it contains. I am grateful to former colleagues in three faculties of McGill
University for advice in areas in which I lack expertise, and to the Department of
History for granting me writing leave in the winter term of 2003. My debts to
scholars in both Russia and the West go back many years, and are to some extent
acknowledged in the references. I have also benefited from discussions with
colleagues in the British Universities’ Association of Slavists’ Study groups on
medieval and eighteenth-century Russia, the University of Budapest’s biennial
seminar on Russian history, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in
London. McGill’s McLennan Library has a rich collection in the Russian area,
and when it lacked an item I needed it readily obtained it for me. I am also
grateful to the British Library and to the library of the School of Slavonic
Studies in University College, London.
I am indebted to Bill Hamilton for the idea, to my conscientious and
perceptive editor Gordon Wise, to Catherine Benwell and other members of the
helpful John Murray team who saw the book through to its finished form, and, as
always, to Ruth for her patience, encouragement and the critical eye which she
applied to the entire text.
Philip Longworth