History of Russia

by George Vernadsky

Published December 1954
"Scholarly, intellectually stimulating, and readable. It is not only a very good guide through the record of Russian development, but it makes one go deeper by the way it raises interesting questions."-Frederick C. Barghoorn

Generally recognized as the standard one-volume history of Russia, this monumental work describes Russia's growth from the times of the nomadic tribes to the Cold War and examines the social, religious, and cultural as well as the political and economic aspects of Russian civilization. Professor Vernadsky reviews the origins of the Russian state, Kievan Russia, the Mongol period, the tsardom of Moscow in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the Russian empire from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. The last third of the book discusses the revolution of 1917 and the emergence of the Soviet Union as a world power.

Kievan Russia

by George Vernadsky

Published December 1948
Kievan Russia was originally published in a clothbound edition in 1948 as volume two in George Vernadsky's comprehensive series, A History of Russia. It is now available for the first time in a paperbound edition. At the time of its publication Kievan Russia received the following reviews:

"The account of this little-know chapter of Russian history is based on a formidable mass of Slavic Byzantine, Germanic, and Oriental (notably Arabic and Persian_ sources. Much of this material is new, and the thorough utilization of all primary and secondary literature accumulated since Kluchevsky wrote his great history easily makes this volume the definitive study of the Kievan period in the English language. There is hardly an aspect of the life of Russia at that time which remains untouched, and the scope of the author's interests and erudition is indeed impressive....When all is said, Vernadsky's filling a definite gap in American historical literature."-The Annals