These two storytelling Englishmen relish history and tell it well. This amazing story is too little known
1 Like
The Pulitzer Prize-winning book, " Peter the Great: His Life and World," by Robert K. Massie, is a fascinating tome chock-full of hair-raising details of Russian brutality. Tsar Peter was a ruthless genius who dragged Russia into modernity, ignoring the kicking, screaming and suffering of nobles, commoners and serfs.
Couple this book with “Secular Cycles,” by Peter Turchin and Sergey A. Nefedov, which focuses on hundreds of years of macroeconomic cycles.
The Russian people have been subjected to incredible cruelty without a break basically since time began. And don’t forget the Mongol invasion in the 1200s.
It gives a little perspective to why the Russians expect authoritarian government and admire Stalin and Putin.
A little light summer reading. 
Wendy
10 Likes