The Story of Russia

How do the myths that shaped modern Russia, and their reinvention by those in power, still rule the country today? Here, Orlando Figes breathes life into the narratives that make sense of the uncertain world we now find ourselves in. The Story of Russia begins in the first millennium, when Russia's lands were initially settled by the Slavs, and ends with Putin in the present day. From Boris and Gleb, the first saints of the Russian Church, to the crowning of sixteen-year- old Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral; and from Catherine the Great, riding out in a green uniform to arrest her husband at his palace, to the bitter last days of the Romanovs; Orlando Figes takes us on an enthralling journey through the collective mind of Mother Russia. How the Russians came to tell their story - and to remake it as they went along - is not only a vital aspect of their history, but is also the best means we have of understanding the country in our complex new age. PRAISE FOR ORLANDO FIGES 'An outstanding historian and writer, he brings distant history so close that you could feel its heartbeat' KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD 'The great storyteller of modern Russian historians' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, FINANCIAL TIMES 'Figes knows more about Russia than any other historian' MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES