Laurence Kelly

The Trials of the Bear

Russia's Empires: Their Rise and Fall – From Prehistory to Putin

By

John Murray 398pp £25 order from our bookshop

After his twenty-year absence teaching Russian history at McGill University in Canada, it is good to welcome Professor Philip Longworth back into the ranks of Anglo-Russian scholars in this country. His seven previous books combine original work with a vivid, highly readable style, above all his biography of Peter the Great’s father, Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, and his trail-blazing life (the only one in English) of Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov, the extraordinary military genius moulded by Catherine the Great’s imperial wars.

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