Amazon.com description: Product Description: The nation of Russia - its history, culture, economy, domestic politics, and foreign relations - is the focus of this title. Russia paints a full portrait of the complex nation, from the founding of Kievan Rus'-the medieval kingdom that would become Russia- through czarist rule, revolution, civil war, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet era. Also discussed is how the country and its people have adapted to the post-Soviet era and the divisions that have emerged since the fall of the Iron Curtain.