Getting Ready

In the 7th Century, the territory currently known as Russia was occupied predominantly by Slavic tribes who had moved in from the West. In the mid-9th Century, Scandinavia’s Varangians (aka Vikings) discovered they could travel the various rivers and estuaries of the land to set trade routes from the Baltic Sea to the Caspian and the Black Seas. In 862, Rurik, a Viking, was chosen as the ruler of Novgorod. In 880, Kievan Rus (today’s Kiev, Ukraine) became the seat of power as Prince Oleg, Rurik’s successor, moved to the south to expand the Rurik Dynasty’s influence.

Early Russian government was centralized in Kievan Rus until the 12th Century. This period, known as the Golden Age of Kiev, saw Vladimir the Great establish Christianity as the national religion and preside over the creation of the country’s first written legal code. When his son Yaroslav I the Wise took over, he was able to bring Kievan Rus to a position of cultural and economic superiority.

In 1223, the Mongol Golden Horde invaded and triumphed over the Kievan Rus tribes, wreaking utter destruction upon Kiev and other advanced city centers. With Kiev in shambles, Moscow eventually attained ruling status. More than 200 years would pass before Moscow’s Duke Ivan III finally drove back the Mongols and set the stage for Moscow’s dominance over what would become the Russian Empire.

In the mid-1500’s, the first in Russia’s long series of czars, Ivan the Terrible, took control of the region by crushing competing princes and landowners. But it wasn’t until Peter the Great consolidated power and enacted a series of reforms that Russia truly became a cohesive state. His successor, Catherine the Great, followed in his footsteps, going down in history as one of the world’s most formidable and enlightened despots.

The czars ruled Russia until the Lenin—and Trotsky-led Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 quashed their power and established the Soviet Union as a Communist state. When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin’s ruthless 28-year reign tainted and discredited the ideals of the revolution. Still, the U.S.S.R. hobbled on until 1989 when Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms known as Perestroika, which attempted to modernize the outdated communist system, and Glasnost, which gave people access to decades of undisclosed information. This set into motion the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union, which, along with Russia, included a total of 15 other countries—the modern-day Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the five Stans.

For Russia, the path to capitalism, though rapid, has by no means been easy. The 1990’s saw large degrees of economic upheaval, corruption and organized crime. While there is still a long way to go before the financial disparities resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union can be ironed out, the country is emerging as one of the world’s great success stories.

War and Peace

A sweeping study of early 19th-century Russian society, War and Peace details the histories of five aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War. This epic novel is regarded as one of the world’s greatest. Buy now

Anna Karenina

Set in 19th-century Russia, Anna Karenina tells the story of a rebellious woman who rejects her unhappy marriage and begins a doomed love affair with a dashing Count. In this classic novel, Tolstoy explores the relationships between love and honesty, the hypocrisies of society, and the contrasts between city and country life. Buy now

The Brothers Karamazov

Considered Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, this novel is a tale of patricide and of the three sons who each had a motive for murder. Part courtroom drama, part philosophical debate, the book examines man’s search for faith and the nature of guilt. Buy now

Fathers and Sons

A thoughtful and engaging character study, this novel describes the growing cultural divide between two generations of Russians—the liberals and the nihilists. Buy now

The Master and Margarita

This political and social satire was written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930’s. The main character, Satan, appears in various guises, wreaking havoc on Moscow’s literary community.
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A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Published in 1962, this stark but powerful story of a typical day in a Siberian labor camp is a scathing indictment of Stalin-era Russia. Buy now

Anastasia, The Last Grand Duchess

A fictionalized account of the life of Anastasia Romanov, youngest daughter of the last Tsar of Russia. Anastasia’s diary entries detail her growing awareness of her increasingly troubled world as the Bolshevik revolution looms. Buy now

Catherine: The Great Journey, Russia, 1743

This novel is written from the viewpoint of fourteen-year-old Prussian princess Sophia, who later became Catherine the Great. The princess finds herself entangled in her mother’s efforts to arrange a marriage between Sophia and Peter, Grand-Duke of Russia. Buy now

The Hunt for Red October

A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on! Buy now

Doctor Zhivago

“’Zhivago’ follows its characters across a half-century span-from the decadence and hardships of fin de siecle Russia, through the devastation and disarray of the First World War, into the exhilaration and chaos of the Bolshevik Revolution, past the cruelties of the Russian Civil War, into the purges and crackdowns of the later ’20s and ’30s.”—San Francisco Chronicle  Buy now

Burnt By the Sun

Kotov, an aging hero of the Bolshevik revolution, has his idyllic summer day disrupted by the sudden appearance of his wife’s former lover. Tensions build between the two men until the intruder reveals his sinister agenda. Buy now

Reds

“A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.”—IMDb.com  Buy now

White Nights

This cold-war thriller pairs dance legends Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. Baryshnikov plays Nikolai, a Russian defector who ends up back his motherland when his plane crash-lands in Siberia. The KGB brings to live with Hines, an American expatriate. Buy now

Anastasia

This animated film tells the story Anastasia, daughter of the last Russian tsar, and her quest to find her identity. The film takes some liberties with history but still captivates, as Anastasia escapes the revolution and the clutches of Rasputin to reclaim her rightful destiny. Buy now

The Tale of Tsar Saltan

“This beloved fairy tale chronicles the adventures of the brave Tsarevich Guidon, the thirty three knights led by Chernomor, the beautiful and bewitched Tsarevna Swan, and Tsar Saltan, who seeks to repair his destroyed family life. Based on a poem by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.”—Amazon.com  Buy now