The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

The problem of Russia dominated the 20th century. Well before the 1917 revolutions Russia obsessed its imperial rivals and Russians themselves argued violently both about how Russia should be run and about its role in the world. Other, terrible regimes came and went, but from the 19th century to the final collapse of the USSR in 1991, it was Russia’s that drew everything into its orbit. In his book Orlando Figes describes and takes apart this story, in the shortest space possible.