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Russia
- The Story of War
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's summary
No nation is a stranger to war, but for Russians war is a central part of who they are. Their "motherland" has been the battlefield where some of the largest armies have clashed, the most savage battles have been fought, the highest death tolls paid. Having prevailed over Mongol hordes and vanquished Napoleon and Hitler, many Russians believe no other nation has sacrificed so much for the world. In Russia: The Story of War, Gregory Carleton explores how this belief has produced a myth of exceptionalism that pervades Russian culture and politics and has helped forge a national identity rooted in war. While outsiders view Russia as an aggressor, Russians themselves see a country surrounded by enemies. Time and again history has called upon Russia to play the savior - of Europe, of Christianity, of civilization itself - and its victories have come at immense cost. In this telling, even defeats lose their sting. Isolation becomes a virtuous destiny and the whole of its bloody history a point of pride. War is the unifying thread of Russia's national epic, one that transcends its wrenching ideological transformations. As Putin's Russia asserts itself in ever bolder ways, knowing how the story of its war-torn past shapes the present is essential to understanding its self-image and worldview.
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Accessible to students, tourists, and general listeners alike, this book provides a broad overview of Russian history since the ninth century. Paul Bushkovitch emphasizes the enormous changes in the understanding of Russian history resulting from the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, new material has come to light on the history of the Soviet era, providing new conceptions of Russia's pre-revolutionary past.
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First rate
- By l on 05-05-24
By: Paul Bushkovitch
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Russia
- Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Rob Heaps
- Length: 21 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. The doomed White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky’s Red Army and the single-minded Communist dictatorship under Lenin.
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Not Enough Context
- By Amazon Customer on 02-14-23
By: Antony Beevor
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The American Civil War
- By: Gary W. Gallagher, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Gary W. Gallagher
- Length: 24 hrs and 37 mins
- Original Recording
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Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.
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Excellent Series
- By Rodney on 07-09-13
By: Gary W. Gallagher, and others
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Deathride
- Hitler vs. Stalin: The Eastern Front, 1941-1945
- By: John Mosier
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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John Mosier presents a revisionist retelling of the war on the Eastern Front. The conventional wisdom is that Hitler was mad to think he could defeat the USSR, because of its vast size and population, and that the Battle of Stalingrad marked the turning point of the war. Neither statement is accurate, says Mosier; Hitler came very close to winning outright.
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Speaking the un-speakable
- By Jonathan Gardner on 09-27-10
By: John Mosier
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Lost Kingdom
- The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine - only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nation's history.
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More like a history of Languages spoke in Russia.
- By kucherv on 10-24-17
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Russian History
- A Captivating Guide to the History of Russia, Including Events Such as the Mongol Invasion, the Napoleonic Invasion, Reforms of Peter the Great, the Fall of the Soviet Union, and More
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This new Captivating History audiobook serves as an overview of Russian history over the span of more than a millennium, from the foundation of the Russian state by the Viking Prince Rurik in AD 862 until the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
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greater depth
- By Paul on 11-19-18
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The Cold War
- A New History
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jay Gregory, Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new and often startling information from newly opened Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives, this thrilling account explores the strategic dynamics that drove the Cold War, provides illuminating portraits of its major personalities, and offers much fresh insight into its most crucial events. Riveting, revelatory, and wise, it tells a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand as America once more faces an implacable ideological enemy.
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WOW
- By Cordell eddings on 10-13-07
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Russka
- The Novel of Russia
- By: Edward Rutherfurd
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 39 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Russka is the story of four families who are divided by ethnicity but united in shaping the destiny of Russia. From a single riverside village situated at one of the country’s geographic crossroads, Russia’s Slav peasant origins are influenced by the Greco-Iranian, Khazar, Jewish, and Mongol invasions. Unified by this one place, the many cultures blend to form a rich and varied tapestry. Rutherfurd’s grand saga is as multifaceted as Russia itself.
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Wonderful Historical Novel
- By Angelyn S. Furst on 10-22-12
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The End of Tsarist Russia
- The March to World War I and Revolution
- By: Dominic Lieven
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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World War I and the Russian Revolution together shaped the 20th century in profound ways. In The End of Tsarist Russia, acclaimed scholar Dominic Lieven connects for the first time the two events, providing both a history of the First World War's origins from a Russian perspective and an international history of why the revolution happened.
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A good book done in by bad narration.
- By James on 05-25-16
By: Dominic Lieven
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Russia
- A Short History
- By: Abraham Ascher
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Distinguished Professor Emeritus Abraham Ascher offers a skillful blend of engaging narrative and fresh analysis in this concise introduction to Russian history. Newly updated on the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, it covers the growing political tensions between Russia and its neighbors and the mounting divergence between Russian and US foreign policies. This stimulating and beautifully written introduction will prove enlightening for students, scholars, and travelers alike.
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Slow the @!$# Down!
- By Animated Puppets on 03-25-18
By: Abraham Ascher
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The Red Mirror
- Putin's Leadership and Russia's Insecure Identity
- By: Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Red Mirror, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova uses social identity theory to explain Putin's leadership. The main source of Putin's political influence, she finds, lies in how he articulates the shared collective perspective that unites many Russian citizens. Under his tenure, the Kremlin's media machine has tapped into powerful group emotions of shame and humiliation - derived from the Soviet transition in the 1990s - and has politicized national identity to transform these emotions into pride and patriotism.
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Academically Sound and Entertaining
- By Caroline Reilly on 03-18-24
What listeners say about Russia
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mother of 2
- 03-23-24
A deep insight into Russia’s self narrative
The chapter on civil war is my favorite as we in the West can learn the most from Russia’s fear of instability
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- Ted
- 07-17-19
Very well written
A great read for understanding Russia. A Near Western Country with Western influence. Great history lessons.
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- James E. Carr
- 03-03-23
Must Reading
Written after the Crimea/Dombas takeover, but before the current invasion of the rest of Ukraine, this scholarly work by an authority on the subject matter, gives us a coherent picture of how the majority of the Russian people have been conditioned to regard the rest of the world, the historical basis for that national outlook, and the stratagems employed by Putin and his predecessors, the Russian military, oligarchical elites, and the Russian Orthodox Church, to perpetuate this outlook. What the author portrays is a national sense of elitism and destiny to rule the world, martyrdom, and constant paranoia about imminent invasion from the "barbarian" western powers of Europe and America.
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- Banyan
- 06-02-24
The modern Russian myth
The narrative seems a little haphazard but there are lots of useful insights into how many Russian patriots view the world. Spoiler: It is not a friendly place.
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- C. Plucker
- 11-13-23
Stuffy Tangents: A Story of Russian Invasions
This book could have been cut in half, if not more. The summary is Russia has been invaded a bunch, that's why they are exceptionalist. End of story. The bulk of the book is quotes from books and poems, and other notations from pop culture of the era being described. If extravagant tangents are your jam, this book will be up your alley.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Broyles fam
- 11-29-18
Fantastic
Excellent book to understand how Russia sees themselves. I very much recommend this book if nothing else but to listen to the authors use of vocabulary.
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- Mike From Mesa
- 07-16-17
A bit dry and academic
All nations have their historic tales, and their national culture, and hence the attitudes of the citizens, are built upon those tales. Thus a nation’s attitudes and world views are formed based upon the shared national view of their history and Professor Carleton’s premise is that the Russian world view is based upon the almost continual series of wars that have raged across the Russian land and the fact that many of those wars, and the resulting Russian victories, have protected Europe and what we think of as Western Civilization from the ravages of cultural destruction. That is, Russia, and its people, have served as a shield protecting Europe and, at the same time, Russia has often been the victim of attacks by the very people that Russia has been protecting.
While Russia’s history has been full of wars, Professor Carleton points to three in particular - Russia’s fight against Genghis Kahn, and its eventual ability to throw off the Mongol yoke, Russia’s war against the French under Napoleon and, of course, Russia’s successful defense against Hitler in World War II. He points out that in all three cases Russia’s fight against the foe either protected Europe from those same invaders (the Mongols) or freed Europe from the yoke of the invaders (Napoleon and Hitler), but that Europe, instead of being grateful, has taken advantage of a Russia weakened by those very wars. Thus Russian distrust of The West stems from both the unwillingness of the European nations to acknowledge that their safety has often been at the cost of Russia’s war dead and from those same Europeans taking advantage of a Russia weakened by those very invasions to invade Russia themselves.
Professor Carleton’s main point, I think, is that Western nations, including the European nations, the US, Canada, and others, do not have to actually agree with the Russian view, but should understand that this view is what drives the Russian government and people to view others as they do and that without understanding that view it is impossible to understand the underlying currents of Russian foreign policy. One very enlightening comment was a quote from Czar Alexander that Russia has only two allies - its army and its navy.
The book is interesting, but the presentation is often dry and academic and it is easy to think of this as a textbook for some college course rather than a book aimed at the popular market. The material is not only interesting and informative, but goes a long way to explain why Russia acts and reacts as it does to outside events, and the topics of the Crimea and the breakaway Ukrainian provinces are treated as special topics as is the Russian view that much of The West is doing the work that the German Nazi government attempted to do during the 1930s and mid 1940s. This book is not an apology for Russian behavior and Professor Carleton makes clear that he does not agree with the Russian views, but that it is important to understand the basis for those views to be able to understand the actions the Russian government takes. In that this is a valuable and informative book.
The narration by James Cameron Stewart is very well done. The material is often dry, but Mr Stewart’s narration of it often rescues it and keeps the book alive. While I enjoyed it, I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more had it not been so academic in its presentation.
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- Sparks Fan
- 10-21-22
Interesting perspective
I had read/heard books about Russia in the context of its national mythos, but not from an exclusively military perspective. It was a fascinating listen with captivating stories and insights.
The book touched on this very briefly towards the end, and the author already did so much, but I'd be interested in hearing more about two things in the future: 1) how and why the Russian people allow this mythos to be used as a catch-all when they are generally the ones to suffer the most (read: be offered up as cannon fodder), and 2) how the "West" can engage Russia and vice-versa without the dynamic laid out in the book becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, not really touched on in this book (aside from tangential mention in the context of the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war) is the relationship between Russia and modern China. How do the dynamics plays out there? Same for Turkey (yes, a member of the "West" via NATO, but not really) and Iran.
I'm seeing this mythos being employed in Russian state TV as regards the war in Ukraine in 2022. More militaristic, ultra-nationalist voices in pro-Russian/Z camp Telegram channels are less forgiving of this assumed fate that Russian soldiers must die because such is their fate. They want better armor, weaponry, and strategy for Russian forces in Ukraine. I should add that Russian forces and Russia, in general, should leave Ukraine and restore pre-2014 borders per the 1994 Budapest Memorandum!
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