This lucid account of Russian and Soviet history presents major trends and events from ancient Kievan Rus to Vladimir Putins renewed presidency of the twenty-first century. Russia and the Soviet Union does not shy away from controversial topics, including the impact of the Mongol conquest, the paradoxes of Peter the Great, the 'inevitability' of the 1917 Revolution, the Stalinist terror, and the Gorbachev reform effort. Tackling those topics and others, Thompsons seventh edition is updated to discuss the flawed parliamentary elections to the Russian
Duma in December 2011 as well as the election of Vladimir Putin to a second nonconsecutive term as president of Russia in March 2012.
