A Short History of Russia: Tracing Russia's Path Through History, from Its Wars and Conquests, Royal Dynasties, Revolutions into the Modern Era Under Putin―a Concise Exploration of a Complex Nation

History becomes a guidebook for geopolitics.

Language is intrinsically political, as how we talk about something conditions how we think about it,

During his reign, Russia invaded neighboring Georgia (2008), annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine (2014), stirred up a civil war in Ukraine’s southeastern Donbas region (2014–) and intervened in the Syrian Civil War (2015–

The Bolsheviks first sought to make good on their promise of peace, signing the disastrous Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that surrendered swathes of territory to the west and south—including the rich farmlands of Ukraine.

Stalin forcefully put it in 1941, justifying his murderous industrialization and collectivization programs that killed and immiserated millions, in the name of this savage vision of history: She was beaten by the Mongol khans. She was beaten by the Turkish beys. She was beaten by the Swedish feudal lords. She was beaten by the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. She was beaten by the British and French capitalists. She was beaten by the Japanese barons. All beat her because of her backwardness, military backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness, agricultural backwardness.

Between 1918 and 1922, the country was wracked by a vicious civil war, from which the Bolsheviks would emerge victorious, and regions such as Ukraine and the Caucasus had been reconquered, but only at a terrible cost. As many as 12 million people had died, many from famine and disease.

Unwilling to accept the changes reshaping Europe, unwilling to accept exclusion from Europe, Russia was being torn apart by the contradictions in the stories it told itself about itself.

I have no way to defend my borders but to expand them,

As ever, though, facts take second place when it comes to building narratives of power and authority

Vladimir allegedly noting that “drinking is the joy of all Rus’. We cannot exist without that pleasure.” (Some stereotypes have a long pedigree, it seems.)