"This unique, interesting, and stimulating book shoehorns the whole of Russian history into a single long essay, one that is argued very forcefully and written with remarkable clarity and verve."--Reginald Zelnik, University of California, Berkeley, author of Law and Disorder on the Narova River

"This is a stimulating and timely essay, which, as intended, is provocative and potentially controversial at every turn."--Simon Franklin, Clare College, University of Cambridge, coauthor of The Emergence of Rus' 750-1200