All states have been shaped by wars and conquest, but for few countries is this as true as for Russia. Mark Galeotti, the pre-eminent political scientist and military historian now turns his razor-sharp focus to how both waging war and the threat of war throughout history has shaped the Russia of today.
The very concept of something called the lands of the Rus’ emerged from Viking conquest in the ninth century but subsequent Mongol conquest in the thirteenth century locked these lands away from Europe for two hundred years. Only then did a true Russian nation and state emerge and then expand to the south, east and west. However, Russia’s opportunity was also its tragedy: with no natural borders, and environmental factors constraining its economy, it has often been pitched against the pre-eminent European or Asian military powers of the age, and often at a technological disadvantage. To respond to these challenges, it has had to sit all the more heavily on the backs of its people, and so war – and the need to be able to fight it – has shaped the evolution of this state, from princes and tsars to commissars and presidents.
This is an accessibly written book combines a grand historical sweep of political, economic and social change that was driven and determined by Russia’s military history. Forged in War details the colourful but little-known conflicts like the invasion of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible and the colonial wars in nineteenth-century Central Asia alongside the better known European wars. Mark Galeotti also details the formative wars of the 20th century which saw Russia dramatically change from Tsarist empire to communist state alongside the two World Wars which stained the lands of Russia red with the blood of millions of Russian citizens. Finally, Forged in War looks at a post-Cold War Russia when a Russia brought to its knees in the 1990s turned to Vladimir Putin. Putin, who picked fights with weaker enemies and struck at opportune moments, created a new mood of martial triumphalism in Russia. It is this seemingly inevitable desire for martial glory coupled with an ageing Putin’s desperate need to make his own mark as a great Russian state-building hero led directly to the Ukrainian catastrophe as expertly detailed by Mark Galeotti.
Forged in War is a brilliant study by a leading expert of how a desire for martial success has defined Russia throughout history. But this serious study is also richly illustrated with contemporary accounts and vignettes, from how medieval princes recruited their retinues to how the Tupolev aircraft design bureau was actually originally established inside a Gulag labour camp ensuring an engrossing and fascinating read throughout.
