Leading writer Boris Kagarlitsky offers an ambitious account of 1000 years of Russian history. Encompassing all key periods in Russia's dramatic development, the book covers everything from early settlers, through medieval decline, Ivan the Terrible - the 'English Tsar', Peter the Great, the Crimean War and the rise of capitalism, the revolution, the Soviet period, finally ending with the return of capitalism after 1991.

Setting Russia within the context of the 'World System', as outlined by Wallerstein, this is a major work of historical Marxist theory that is set to become a future classic.

Introduction: Topic and Method
1. A Land of Cities
2. The Thirteenth-Century Decline
3. Moscow and Novgorod
4. The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century
5. The "English Tsar"
6. Empire of the Periphery
7. Peter the Great
8. The Eighteenth-Century Expansion
9. The Granary of Europe
10. The Crimean War and the World System
11. The Age of Reforms
12. The Flourishing of Russian Capitalism
13. The Revolutionary Explosion
14. The Soviet World
15. After 1991: The Peripheral Capitalism of the Restoration Epoch
Notes
Index