Amazon.com description: Product Description: Exploring the vast reaches of the Russian landscape, probing deeply into the paradoxical character of its peoples, weighing the creative and destructive impact of its rulers and their ideologies, A History of Russia unfolds the signal events that woke Russia from a sleep of centuries and roused her to world leadership in the mid-twentieth century. This history covers the sweeping changes instituted by the country's former president Mikhall Gorbachev, chronicles the failure of perestroika, and highlights the rise of Boris Yeltsin as the elected president of a government whose leadership has moved toward democratic reform. John Lawrence paints a masterly portrait of the Russian character, forged by 2,000 years of fierce winters, feudalism, and revolution. Against this stirring backdrop, the dramatic changes of the Gorbachev era are deftly and comprehensively recounted. This modern classic remains a brilliant account of the saga of Russia-its -its land, its peoples, and its evolution from a wild and primitive giant into a technologically advanced but economically troubled nation facing daunting challenges.