Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East

The tragedy of Russia's relations with the West is that Russia, a Great Power, has never been fully accepted as part of Europe. Never, not even today. There has been always an assumption that Russia was on the fringe of Europe. She is often referred to as an Asiatic and almost an inferior power. In 1856 after the Crimean war when somebody objected that the terms imposed on Russia were very harsh, much harsher incidentally than those imposed by Bismarck on France in 1871, Palmerston replied: "Well what can an Asiatic power expect?"

Martin Sixsmith is a British journalist who used to be with Her Majesty's Civil Service during Tony Blair's years. In 2002 he resigned his post because of infamous Jo Moore's "spin scandal". Later he produced a novel about near-future politics called "Spin". Now he is an expert on Russia. It's a field where one can apparently earn a living by using circular reasoning: Russia isn't the West because the Russians are not like us and they are not like us because they didn't join the West and therefore they will never be like us. I would call these guys mass-market intellectuals with a special emphasis on Russia. Their task and purpose is to justify the policy of "soft containment" of Russia, as oppose to the policy of "creeping integration" advocated by the Germans and the French.

Writing books in English where Russia portrayed negatively or stigmatized has become a growing cottage industry. Here is how it is done: Russia is portrayed as simply a huge barbarian mass, ruled by cartoonish despots, where few pro-western individuals risking their lives are bravely struggling against the tyrannical regimes. These books deny that Russia is civilization on its own right. The writers like him usurp the honor of having civilized Russia today and in the past, in pre-revolutionary times.

His book is just one example of the avalanche of books appeared recently where Russia is a "bent twig" growing off an ostensibly healthy tree of the splendid Western civilization. His interpretation of history of Russia seems to me incredibly biased and self-serving. It is a kind of canvass to which they paint their own Weltanschauung, which is vaguely liberal and progressive, as opposite to Russia's, which reactionary and wild. Russia is "The Wild East".

The book is a collection of journalistic cliches. I paid particular attention to his rendering of Russia's military history. Sadly, it's not impressive. On page 325 he sarcastically writes: "The Winter War showed the Red Army to be far from invincible force". On the contrary, it showed that The Red Army was a formidable force but only lacking leadership. Where the Red Army was led well, for example by Zhukov during border war with Japan in 1939, the Red Army showed itself a very formidable opponent and an excellent fighting machine indeed. On page 520 he writes about the war in Chechnya: "Despite the brutality, there was little public opposition to the war". Surely, the war remains a brutal business even for the Royal British army.

With regards to the intervention in Russia in 1919 he writes as if the Allies were the friendly guys who were just helping out with the battle against the Bolsheviks (page 222). The truth is rather more complicated. In the 19th century Russia had great conflicts with Great Britain particularly in the Middle East. With the Russian revolution there followed a very great increase in the cleavage between Russia and Great Britain. An often forgotten thing in the West today is that Great Britain and France with some cooperation from America, conducted wars of intervention on a very considerable scale against the Bolshevik government. It created hostility on both sides. It certainly greatly increased antagonism and suspicion throughout the inter-war period. During the Cold war, it seems to me both Russia and the US have been motivated in retrospect more by mutual suspicion, rather than by any conscious design to destroy each-other. To conclude, I disagree with author's approach which seems to me peering into the past to justify the current policies of "soft containment" of Russia, I disagree his rendering of Russian past, and I disagree with his cartoon version of history.

Over the past decade, I had begun reading three other histories of Russia, but none was good enough for me to sustain interest for more than about one hundred pages (each was too dry and academic). Martin Sixsmith's RUSSIA, however, was eminently readable, such that I breezed through it in about a week.

Martin Sixsmith is principally known as a journalist for the BBC, reporting chiefly on Russia. In addition, he lived in Russia for periods of time as a youth. Thus, he has more personal background and "feel" for the country than many Westerners. Some might balk at the term "Westerners" as something distinct from Russians but, as suggested by the subtitle to this book, for Sixsmith Russia is -- and long has been - more "Eastern" than "Western". Its history, as chronicled by Sixsmith, has been a vacillation between East and West, between Asia and Europe, and between autocracy and democracy:

"Those who regard Russia as a proto-European nation miss the point. Russia looks both ways: to the democratic, law-governed traditions of the West, but at the same time * * * to the Asiatic forms of governance she imbibed in the early years of her history, what Russians refer to as the `silnaya ruka', the iron fist of centralized power."

That is the central theme of Sixsmith's RUSSIA. He begins his tale in the ninth century with the Rus -- a pagan tribe that in myth (and to some extent in history as well) was the progenitor of the Russians. He then continues with the protracted forging of a Rus-sian nation, primarily as security against the Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians from Europe and the Mongols (or Tartars) from Asia. The book then charts the expansion of Russia into an empire, with appropriate attention to such major figures as Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great. The saga continues with the continuing cycle of reform then repression during the nineteenth century, culminating in the two revolutions of 1917. By that point, the reader is halfway through the book. The next two hundred pages cover the Soviet Union under the megalomaniac butchers Lenin and Stalin (one of the virtues of Sixsmith's account, in my opinion, is his un-romanticized assessment of Lenin as the Pol Pot that he foreshadowed).

The final hundred pages of the book cover the rise of Gorbachev, the introduction of perestroika and glasnost, the fall of Gorbachev and the Soviet Union (attributable in significant part to the policy of glasnost), and then the ups and downs of Yeltsin and Putin, with the political pendulum continuing to swing between democracy and autocracy.

Sixsmith's RUSSIA is an ambitious book and, by and large, Sixsmith pulls it off admirably. Many matters, perforce, are covered somewhat superficially (entire books have been written on what Sixsmith sometimes discusses in one paragraph). I noticed a few statements that were inconsistent with things that I have read elsewhere and believe to be more accurate, but in the grand scheme of "1,000 Years of Russian History" they were minor. There is not a lot of detailed analysis, but that's not what the book's mission is. Sixsmith's RUSSIA is a readable overview of Russian history up to almost yesterday, and as such it is a five-star success.

Incidentally, what helps to make the narrative so readable is that it is liberally sprinkled with interviews that Sixsmith conducted and with anecdotes from his personal experiences in Russia (or, the former Soviet Union). There also are numerous apt and instructive references to Russian culture, including many translations of excerpts from Russian poetry of note. Finally, the book includes seven useful maps as well as three sections of photographs, some in color.

The book is a mixture of facts, anecdotes, and opinions, mostly from Russian sources carefully selected to reflect Western reporter's point of view. There are plenty of anachronisms and imprecision (most glaring, since it is in first chapter, is a reference to the Ottoman Empire in ... 10th century!).
Regarding modern Russian history (perestroika and after) it is the same old BBC stuff - all Soviet Republics (and their peoples) wanted independence, Khodorkovsky is a hero, Litvinenko is a victim of the regime, all Chechens are freedom fighters. It is reporting - simplifying a very complex situation for the consumption by the average newspaper reader.
The reader would be advised to read the works of professional historians on the topic. And also it'd be useful to compare events in Russia in different times with events in the rest of Europe. There were plenty of examples of cruelty, autocracy and tyranny, ethnic cleansing, and other "niceties" in Western European (and British, in particular) history.
On other hand, I often agree with Mr. Sixsmith opinions on events described in this book. I think he was trying to be objective and his view from the outside is often illuminating.
It seems that most important question for Mr. Sixsmith is whether Russia is a European country or Asiatic (as though, being Asiatic is an insult). IMHO, it is neither. It is what it is - Russia.

A very engaging book if you are interested in the history of the communist party in Russia. The title says "1000 year chronicle of the wild east".......The book is 538 pages long but the first 900 years of the chronicle is covered in only 183 pages!!That is where the revolution of 1917 picks up. So 355 pages are used to cover less than the last 100 years.... A very misleading title....very disappointing. Do not buy this if you are looking for a history of Russia......

When I picked up this book in January, I wanted to understand Russia and what place they hold within the world, seeing as they have the large span of Earth, yet they elude everyone and lurk in the shadows.

I went from knowing that Catherine The Great and Ivan The Terrible existed, to what they’re rules were like, as well as the 900 and some years following it. It’s true that this book mostly covers the period of time from when Lenin came into power, through Stalin and the new order, into presidency and pseudo prime minister / presidency. Ending with non other than Putin.

The point I want to make about this book, is that I firmly believe everyone should read it.

It should be a requirement in high school history classes across America.

I don’t know about you all, but I personally never received a proper education of Russia through my school system in California. If it was covered, I don’t remember it. And after reading the things I read in this book, I know that I would have remembered them.

This culture has experienced horror and death beyond anything comprehendible by Americans. Possibly Vietnam compares.

The gulag is the stuff that nightmares are made of, and I believe the world needs to understand this culture and how it wishes to infringe itself upon the world. Stalinism is alive in communism, and communism isn’t even communism for them, it’s fake communism, what is actually extreme socialism through decades of psychological trauma.

Not to mention the level of corruption of their “government”. It doesn’t matter if the government is Tsarist, Democratic or a Dictatorship, corruption runs in the blood of the foundations of this society from page 1 to 530.

I have never seen such instability and improper handling of lives, assets and land. This society flirts with democracy, it wants it, but doesn’t understand how to properly attain it. Suppression of western views developed an animosity for the communist enemy’s without understanding why those enemy’s are bad, they just are, because the Kremlin says it is so.

Fascinating, and necessary to have any place to say one single thing about the affairs between the Russian government and the world.

This is serious stuff, and I cannot believe no one explained this to me earlier in life.

You. You need to read this book.

You will never be the same, and you will never see the world the same way again.

Inspired, next I will read the history of Japan, and eventually books covering the Gulag and the explosion of Chernobyl are on my list.

That, and a documentary on KGB agent, turned 2nd President turned Prime Minister turned tsarist agenda in office for life, Vladimir Putin.

Yeah.

That guy has an agenda if I ever saw one.

Read this book.

I read several reviews, some unhappy that most of the book is from the 19th century onward, however 1000 years would take up several books to accomplish. I needed a sense, a understanding of the country and this book gave me that. Russia is a country I knew little about and this helped immensely.

I've re-read this book 3 times, and will do so again. One of the very best insights into the history, belief, and minds of our counterparts in the East. Sixsmith went to University in Moscow as a young man, and then returned as Moscow correspondent with the BBC News. He was there when The Wall came down. This is an excellent book for anyone who wishes to know more about a fascinating country and peoples.

You would think there was not much need for yet another history of Russia. Think again.

Sixsmith turns his journalist's eye on the full span of Russian history and delivers an immensely entertaining and readable tome. The work is enriched by his deep and long-term involvement in the country as a BBC reporter (we find out he was, among other things, with General Gromov and the last Soviet convey to leave Afghanistan, and with Sinyavsky after Daniel's funeral) and even the earlier sections of the book are made lively by his intermixing of historical narrative with personal visits to the sites where important events took place.The chapters are short and dense, yet thorough enough for the general reader. Throughout, Sixsmith continually returns to the theme of Russia's millennial struggle between autocracy and democracy, a struggle which recent events shows continues unabated.

As reviewed in [[ASIN:B00008CQIB Russian Life]]

Growing up in a post-Cold War America, I was not unlike many of my peers when it came to literacy of Russian culture, values, or history - almost everything I knew of the “Wild East” I learned from 80’s film villains.

Those stereotypes were readily abandoned however after being exposed to some beautiful and enchanting soviet-era films, and with my interest in the culture so peaked I sought out books that would provide a concise over-view of the country I had previously been content to simple write off (like so many Westerners) as a “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others who have a similar, non-academic interest in Russian history and culture - it is a painless and engaging starting point to the country’s exciting history and does a fair job at encapsulating the significance of certain points and players in Russia’s history without the reader feeling as if they’re being patronized with child-like simplifications or, conversely, on the receiving end of a heady lecture.

I found the book very well-written for its purpose and as a whole an enthralling read; whatever his faults, Sixsmith does a fantastic job of keeping the reader engaged with his relaxed tone and frequent interjection of poetry and accounts of personal experiences. In fact, the only point in which I felt my eyes starting to glaze over with disinterest was when reading the specifics of Russian military action during WWII (a thrilling read for some, though I have never been much of a military history buff myself).

Concerning criticism of the book, some have found the book guilty of presenting a “cartoon version” of Russian history and the critique is not wholly unfounded; it truly would be a mistake to take Sixsmith's sweeping account of Russia's entire history as the final word. I can only counter that due to the nature and scope of the material, simplifications -will- be made; the point to be contended is whether or not those simplifications are responsibly handled.

……

Rather than feeling I now “get” Russia and am at last privy to her vast mysteries, I walk away from Sixsmith’s “Russia” with a sense of awe and respect - instead of being satisfied with the history presented at the author's hand, I am rather inspired to continue to research the enigmatic nation, resolving to delve deeper into the personal narratives of those persons who have shaped Russia’s impressive history both for good or ill (individuals such as Maxim Gorky, Sergei Khrushchev, Joseph Brodsky, Mikhail Gorbachev, Leon Trotsky, Ivan IV Vasilyevich {aka, Ivan the Terrible}, & Andrei Sakharov).

Put briefly, “Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East” will likely not appeal to those who have lived Russia’s History or now study it. However, it is a smart and accessible introduction to Russian history for those who, like myself, suddenly find themselves desiring such an introduction.

This could be called "history lite." It's easy reading but very little depth. The quotes from the authors writing at the various periods were often better than the author's text.