Includes bibliographical references and index.

Early history : from medieval to imperial Russia. The era of Vladimir I / Janet Martin ; The foundations of Russian culture and art / Souren Melikian ; Peter I, Czar of Russia / Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. ; Moscow on the Seine / Jennifer Siegel ; The emancipation of the Russian serfs, 1861 / Michael Lynch -- Revolutionary Russia and the early Soviet era. Witnessing a revolution / Charlotte Alston ; 'Bloody Sunday' in St. Petersburg : January 22nd, 1905 / Richard Cavendish ; The world according to Marx / Rupert J. Taylor ; Russia and World War One / Chris Trueman ; Lenin in power / Russell Tarr ; Reinventing Stalin / Rebecca Reich -- From Soviet Union to Soviet collapse. Russia reflects on sixty-five years since the Soviet Union's World War Two victory / Alexander Mekhanik ; Stalin denounced by Nikita Krushchev / History Today ; When the Cold War almost turned hot / Albin F. Irzyk ; Saving Russia's armpit / Anne Applebaum ; Death of a writer / Anne Applebaum ; When Gorbachev took charge / Archie Brown --

After the fall : post-Soviet Russia. The road from 1989 / John O'Sullivan ; Russia's flawed hero / Lynn Berry ; Forged in fire : witnessing the rise of iron rule in Russia / Fred Weir ; The Kremlin begs to differ / Dimitri K. Simes and Paul J. Saunders ; The next Silicon Valley / Brett Forrest ; Russia and U.S. sign nuclear arms reduction pact / Peter Baker and Dan Bilefsky -- "A riddle wrapped in a mystery" : inside contemporary Russia. Moscow never sleeps / Martin Cruz Smith ; The Moscow bombings don't matter / Julia Ioffe ; Why are Chechens so angry? / Oliver Bullough ; Send me to Siberia : oil transforms a Russian outpost / Paul Starobin ; Russia fears embrace of giant eastern neighbour / Luke Harding ; Restlessness in Russia's western outpost / Michael Schwirtz ; Where the salmon rule / David Quammen.