A History of Russia to 1855 - Volume 1

Now completely revised in this eighth edition, A History of Russia covers the entire span of the country's history, from ancient times to the post-communist present. Keeping with the hallmark of the text, Riasanovsky and Steinberg examine all aspects of Russia's history--political, international, military, economic, social, and cultural--with a commitment to objectivity, fairness, and balance, and to reflecting recent research and new trends in scholarly interpretation. New chapters on politics, society, and culture since 1991 explore Russia's complex experience after communism and discuss its chances of becoming a more stable and prosperous country in the future. Widely acclaimed as the best one-volume history available, A History of Russia is also available in two split volumes--the first covers early Russia through the nineteenth century and the second ranges from 1855 to the present. Volume II features an additional introductory chapter that links Russia's modern history to the events that preceded it. New to this Edition: * Greater attention to social and cultural history * Updated to cover the Putin administration * Includes more information on women and everyday life throughout Russia * Reduces coverage of the pre-imperial era and greatly expands coverage of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century * Offers new 4-color reference maps

Nicholas Riasanovsky is Professor Emeritus of History the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several books, including A Parting of Ways: Government and the Educated Public in Russia: 1801-1855 (1976) and The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought (OUP, 1985).

Mark Steinberg is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Specializing in the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his many books include Voices of Revolution, 1917 (2001) and Proletarian Imagination: Self, Modernity, and the Sacred in Russia, 1910-1925 (2002). Since 2006, he has been editor of the journal Slavic Review.