Russia's history, from her beginnings as a pagan Slav community centered on Kiev to superpower status, has its own unique rhythm. Appalling calamities have shaped Russia: the Time of Troubles; the Napoleonic invasion; two world wars separated by a great civil war; a multitude of famines and epidemics. Not least among these scourges have been leaders such as Ivan the Terrible and Joseph Stalin.<br /><br />In this revised and updated edition, Ronald Hingley considers the recent astonishing developments: the first steps towards liberalization, the collapse of communist rule throughout Russia's former satellite states, and above all the demise of Soviet communism and the disintegration of the USSR.<br /><br />Russia's present can be better comprehended as the latest chapter in a long and enthralling history; a history-evoked here with the aid of over 200 illustrations-which is now being energetically reassessed by the Russians themselves.