The Russian century

About this book

This photographic record covers the last century of Russian history, a century wracked by changes and cataclysmic events: wars, revolutions, purges, totalitarianism, and the sudden joys of freedom. In these pictures you will see the contrast between the opulent world of the nobility and the hunger, disease, and poverty of peasant life. Portraits of anonymous soldiers, workers, children, and grandmothers are set alongside those of well-known Russian figures, from Nicholas II, Rasputin, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn to Nikita Khrushchev, Yuri Gagarin, and Boris Yeltsin. Here are vivid images of the 1917 revolution, life under Stalin, the Cold War, glasnost, and the chaos of modern Russia - a tapestry woven from the dramatic moments of history and the ordinary details of everyday life. This volume brings to life a hundred years of Russian history with a clarity never before seen in the West.