Books by Geoffrey Hosking

Tracing Russia's story from the settlement of Kiev onwards, this title includes a chapter on the role of Putin and Medvedev, and their impact on Russia's economy, politics and its citizens.

'It is unlikely that a clearer, more stimulating account of the Russians' extraordinary period of imperial history will be written.' Philip Marsden, SpectatorGeoffrey Hosking's landmark book provides us with a new prism through which to view Russian history by posing the apparently simple question: what is Russia's national identity?Hosking answers this with brilliant originality: his thesis is that the needs of Russia's empire prevented the creation of a Russian nation. The Tsars, and before them the Grand Dukes of Moscow, were empire builders rather than nation builders and, as consequence, profoundly alienated ordinary Russians.

Geoffrey Hosking explores what the Soviet experience meant for Russians, beginning with the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war. At the heart of this penetrating work is the fundamental question of what happens to a people who place their nationhood at the service of empire.