A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin, Revised Edition

I'm normally a very quick reader (if I have nothing else to do I can finish a whole book in less than two days) but this book took me over a week to read!
This isn't a criticism, in fact it bears testimony to how comprehensive the book is, at least with regards to the post-Tsarist regime.

It was a good introduction to Russian history, but I kind of wish I had known about the conditions under tsarism before I started it. The title is a little misleading in this sense because tsarism is only mentioned very briefly, at a point where it is already on the verge of collapsing, and the actual misfortunes suffered by the Russian people under Tsar Nicholas aren't described - we are simply told that people weren't happy.

I think this is a VERY thorough history of modern Russia, though I think it was a bit biased toward the militaristic aspect of the country (although I was also reading the Gulag, so this could be mistaken). Service gives a good overview of Modern Russia and it's political, militaristic, and cultural plots throughout the 20th century. It covers in depth the leaders of Russia (Lenin, Gorbachev, Stalin, etc.) and the turmoil the country has been through both as a nation and its identity as a world player and economically as the famous Russian cover-ups make it almost impossible to account for how poor they actually were or how little they actually got done. Overall, a pretty good book.

Miso

Service does a fantastic job of creating a readable overview of modern Russian history. One of his biggest strengths is his ability to write a remarkably non-biased account of a period of history that is so controversial, admitting both the strengths and weaknesses of Soviet leaders.

For my full review, see: http://bookswithoutanypictures.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/a-history-of-modern-russ...

Finally a historian who keeps things factual and doesn't pass moral judgement.