‘A Short [Bloody] History of Russia’ – Part I

Review by Bill Doughty––

Contrary to this book's title, Russia’s history has been long, nearly a thousand years longer than that of the United States. Like George R. R. Martin’s "Game of Thrones," Russia's history is soaked in blood and filled with brutal conquerors, pirates, traders (including slave traders), plunderers, and protection rackets. And fratricide.

In a book published prior to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Galeotti gives a condensed but enlightening chronicle of that history in “A Short History of Russia: How the World’s Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin” (Hanover Square Press / Ebury Press, 2020).

Galeotti's book is a helpful primer, condensed in an easy-to-read synopsis of the region’s long history. Understanding the history of Russia and the Soviet Union can help explain Vladimir Putin’s bloodthirsty genocidal war on Russia’s brothers and sisters in Ukraine.

Rurik on monument in Veliky Novgorod

The earliest history begins with birth of the Rus’ Slav nation under a Scandinavian named Ryurik around 862 C.E. His successor Oleg defeated the Vikings who occupied Kiev and established the Rus’ capital there in 882. When Oleg’s successor Igor became Prince of Kiev in 912, it marked the birth of the Ryurikid dynasty. Vladimir the Great rose to power in 980, converted to Christianity in 988, and began to expand his territory and influence.

When Vladimir became a Christian, he herded the population of Kiev “at virtual spearpoint” into the River Dnieper for forced baptism. After he died in 1015, Russia experienced decades of dynastic struggles until Yaruslav the Wise rose to power in 1036. After Yaruslav's death, it would be centuries of civil wars, “uncivil spats,” and “private wars” in Russia, often in what’s now known as Ukraine and Crimea.

“The bloody ins and outs of ancient Rus’ politics may seem distant, of little relevance today. However, any history of Russia must start with this not just for reasons chronological, but also because one can draw a direct and often-bloody line between these times and the present day. The origin story, in which vulnerability is spun as agency, sets the tone, especially as this is not simply a story of weakness, but of embracing conquest and creating something new from it. So many of the fundamental Russian assumptions about the world and their place in it can be traced back to the times of Ryurik and Vladimir, Yaroslav and their successors.”

Devout Dmitry Donskoy at the Battle of Kulikovo

“Through the 12th century, control of Kiev and the position of its Grand Prince were increasingly prized and perennially fought over,” Galeotti writes. Would-be Russian leaders “looked to Kiev not just as a prize but also a center of their culture, faith, and identity.”

We learn about Prince Dmitry, who defeated an army of Tatars and mercenaries at the Battle of Kulikovo, “cultivated the church,” and promoted Moscow as the foremost principality “whose status was endorsed by God.” Galeotti notes, “Now Kulikovo is a shrine to Russian nationalism, and in 1988 Dmitry was made a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Starting in the 1400s, the Vladimirs made way, for a time, for the Ivans. And in the mid-1500s the foundation was built for the modern autocratic Russian state, under Ivan IV the Terrible. He attempted reforms but turned to new conservatism and more orthodoxy, according to Galeotti. Ivan expanded the empire southward and eastward, which “marked the beginning of Russia’s transformation from being an essentially homogeneous nation, drawn from a single compound ethnicity and sharing the same faith.”

“As it expanded, it came to embrace new peoples, new cultures and new religions, such as the Turkic Muslims of the Khanates. It also brought Russia into direct conflict with the Ottoman Empire, which had its own imperial ambitions in the lands between the Black and Caspian Seas. In 1569, in the first of what would be a centuries-long series of Russo-Turkish wars, the Ottomans launched an abortive attack on Astrakhan. Believing themselves to be facing an imminent Russian threat and under the Ottomans’ protection, in 1571 the last remaining Khanate, the Crimean, launched an attack that made it all the way to Moscow’s walls.”

Galeotti writes, “In short, Ivan had looked to end a threat –– and [Putin-like] made an enemy.” 

Ivan the Terrible

Ivan assumed the title of Tsar, emulating the Roman emperors and embracing as his symbol of the double-headed eagle of Eastern Rome. He said Russia now had “autocracy, by God’s will” and he was “the Orthodox, truly Christian autocrat.”

After Ivan died, Russia again faced succession turmoil with “coups, intrigues, rebellions, and risings.” Real power in various dynastic crises lay with the Romanov and Gudonov clans.

The next “great” leaders arose in the 17th and 18th centuries: Peter and Catherine.

“Much is known about Peter; much less is truly understood.” Peter incorporated the church as part of the state, “which eagerly squeezed the church for cash.” Peter gravitated to foreign influences to help his country and himself, from English and Dutch navies, to western clothes, to a German mistress.

“In Holland, he studied shipbuilding and hired the naval architects, who would help build his new navy (tellingly, many Russian words relating to shipping and the sea have their roots in Dutch). In England, he likewise sought to learn the tradecraft of naval power and modern monarchy, affirming that it was ‘happier to be an admiral in England than a tsar in Russia.’ Nonetheless, having seen parliament sitting, he concluded that ‘English freedom is not appropriate’ for Russia.”

Peter, who had loved playing with toy boats and toy warfighters as a boy, continued his obsession into adulthood, and built Russia’s first navy. “By his death, he had built a fleet of 32 ships of the line, and more than 100 other vessels.”

Russia fought and defeated Sweden as part of a series of wars, then fought the Persians in Crimea. His modernization efforts paid dividends in national defense. But “It would take another ‘Great’ –– Catherine –– to tackle modernization of the mind and the soul.”

Autocrats Catherine and Putin

Galeotti calls Catherine the Great an “unabashed autocrat” who said  [again, Putin-like] “I have no way to defend my borders but to expand them.” She aggressively warred against neighboring Poland and Lithuania.

Catherine defeated the Turks in a series of wars and took southern Ukraine; as a result she annexed Crimea in 1783 “in a move that would have historical repercussions for the twenty-first century.”

Galeotti writes, “At heart, the ‘enlightened despot’ Catherine was more despot than enlightened.”

Succession was again clouded by a cloud of suspicion and apparent acquiescence to patricide. But the bottom line is that “the ever-inconstant” Alexander rose to power, in time to take on war with Napoleon.

Russia’s paradox was desiring to be more European than Europe, more orthodox than orthodoxy, and more Roman than Rome –– and yet wanting a unique identity.

Meantime, the world reveled in its colonialism and continued modernization.

Napoleon and 'Great Fire of Moscow'

As the United States Navy fought Great Britain in the War of 1812, France’s Napoleon made a tragic mistake and conducted an unprovoked invasion with insufficient logistical support [Yep, Putin-like]. Napoleon’s 685,000 soldiers marched into Russia and occupied Moscow, but only 23,000 returned to France, and Napoleon was deposed and exiled.

Victory over Russians under Napoleon gave the Russians under Alexander a false feeling of divine strength, fueled by Napoleon himself, who said the French army was strong but the Russians were “worthy of being invincible.”

Galeotti writes, “Arguably this was a poisonous bequest to his conquerors: dangerous is the day any regime tries to convince itself of its own invincibility.”

In a fascinating riff, Galeotti describes a work of architecture that symbolizes Russia’s bipolar views on identity –– the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, first conceived by Alexander I to thank Jesus Christ for victory over Napoleon. The cathedral was supposed to have been built in a Western. But Alexander’s son Nicholas I had a different idea and decreed it would be built in styles “evoking Russian traditions and the glories of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.” Largely ignored by Tsar Alexander II, the cathedral wasn’t consecrated until 1883, as Alexander III was about to be coronated. But that’s not all…

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow, 1920s

The cathedral was dynamited under Stalin, and it wasn’t rebuilt until the 1990s –– in the design Nicholas envisioned.

“In granite, marble and 20 tons of gold, the church is a metaphor for changes in politics and priorities over the years. Alexander I wanted to show that Russia was rich enough and European enough to be able to build a towering edifice that matched the tastes of the times. Nicholas I wanted to demonstrate that Russia didn’t need to keep up with the neighbors, and could cleave to traditional styles and imperial aesthetics. Alexander II was busy and not especially concerned with churches, but rather factories, courthouses and schools”

[I wanted to know more about this metaphor of a building and learned it was first built on the site of the first premiere of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. The cathedral is where the body of President Boris Yeltsin lay in state, April 24-25, 2007, fifteen years ago. And, it’s where the activist rock group Pussy Riot was arrested ten years ago for protesting the Russian Orthodox Church’s support for Vladimir Putin.]

Putin at Easter Service, 2018, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Though this is a short book, Russia’s long history screams out for more discussion. (Of course, neither this book nor especially this review pretends to be a comprehensive presentation of the history of Russia, but “A Short History of Russia” is an excellent overview.) Part II of our review will pick up with events after Napoleon’s defeat in 1812 and take us through the bloody 1900s and into the 2000s and the rise of Vladimir Putin.