Orlando Figes has written many books on Russian history, and in this book he presents the distillation of his years of research and knowledge into a 300-pages introductory history of that troubled country. It's authoritative, comprehensive, readable and convincing, tragic and non-judgemental. It opens in the 9th Century and ends with a rumination on its future, Putin and the Ukraine war. He says that no other country has been so divided over its own past, non has changed its story so often. If you want to understand Russia, and we all should, this book will certainly help. Absolutely essential reading.