The Best Books on Russian History
One book for the whole thousand years, one for the Revolution, and the standard works on the tsars, Stalin, the Gulag and the making of the Russian nation
The best single-volume history of Russia for most readers is Geoffrey Hosking's Russia and the Russians (2001; second edition 2011). It runs from the Kievan Rus to the present, it is written by the leading British historian of Russia, and its organising argument, that the demands of empire repeatedly crushed the growth of a Russian nation and society, is one you will meet in every later book on this list. If your interest is the Revolution, read Orlando Figes's A People's Tragedy (1996), still the standard narrative of 1891 to 1924.
The rest of the list covers the ground those two cannot. Richard Pipes's Russia Under the Old Regime is the classic, and contested, account of why Russian autocracy took the shape it did; Simon Sebag Montefiore's The Romanovs is the narrative of the dynasty; Stephen Kotkin's Stalin: Paradoxes of Power is the first volume of the definitive biography; Anne Applebaum's Gulag is the Pulitzer-winning history of the camps; and Serhii Plokhy's Lost Kingdom is the history of the idea of the Russian nation, which is the book to read to understand the present.
Every title below is checked against Open Library and publisher records, with editions, years and ISBNs verified rather than scraped. Where historians genuinely disagree, above all on whether Russia's autocracy was inevitable, the guide says so rather than picking a side.
The books
1. Russia and the Russians: A History — Geoffrey Hosking (2011)
The demands of empire repeatedly stunted the growth of a Russian nation and civil society, and that tension runs through the whole of Russian history.
The best single-volume history of Russia in English, from Kievan Rus to the present, with an argument that makes the whole span cohere; second edition.
Pick this if: Anyone who wants one book on all of Russian history. (Level: General)
2. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 — Orlando Figes (1998)
The Russian Revolution was a popular upheaval that consumed the people who made it, and it is best told through their lives.
The standard narrative of the Revolution, told through individuals from every class and read like a novel; first published in 1996.
Pick this if: Anyone who wants the Revolution in one book. (Level: General)
3. Russia Under the Old Regime — Richard Pipes (1995)
Russian autocracy grew from a patrimonial state that owned the land and its people, and that inheritance explains the shape of everything after.
The classic and contested account of why Russia became an autocracy; read it against Hosking. First published in 1974.
Pick this if: Readers who want the argument about Russia's political character. (Level: Intermediate)
4. The Romanovs: 1613-1918 — Simon Sebag Montefiore (2017)
The Romanov dynasty was a three-century family drama of power, and the family explains the state.
The best narrative of the tsars for a general reader, from the first Romanov to the last; first published in 2016.
Pick this if: Readers who want the imperial centuries told as story. (Level: General)
5. Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 — Stephen Kotkin (2015)
Stalin's rise is explained by the Bolshevik system and the world it faced, not by his psychology, and his choices were political ones.
The first volume of the definitive biography, and the most thorough account of the Revolution's aftermath from the top; first published in 2014.
Pick this if: Readers ready for a thousand pages on the making of Stalin. (Level: Advanced)
6. Gulag: A History — Anne Applebaum (2004)
The Gulag was a system at the heart of the Soviet state, and its history can be told from its archives and its survivors.
The Pulitzer-winning standard history of the camps from their origins to their dissolution; first published in 2003.
Pick this if: Readers who want the Soviet system's darkest institution in full. (Level: General)
7. Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation — Serhii Plokhy (2017)
The Russian nation was made, and repeatedly remade, by a state trying to reconcile empire with nationhood, and Ukraine has always been the test.
The history of the idea of Russia from Ivan the Terrible to Putin, and the book to read to understand the present war.
Pick this if: Readers who want to know why Russia and Ukraine are where they are. (Level: Intermediate)
Which Russian history book to start with
Start with Hosking if you want the whole story and with Figes if you want the Revolution. Russia and the Russians is long but it is the only book on this list that gives you Kiev, Muscovy, Peter, the nineteenth century, the Soviet Union and the 1990s in a single argument, and the argument is a genuinely useful one. A People's Tragedy is longer still and reads like a novel: it begins with the famine of 1891 and ends with Lenin's death, and its method, following individuals from every class through the collapse, is what makes it the book most people finish.
Pipes is the book to read next if the question that stays with you is why Russia became an autocracy. Russia Under the Old Regime argues that the state's ownership of the land and the absence of independent property made a patrimonial regime almost inevitable; it was written during the Cold War, it is openly hostile to its subject, and many historians think it overstates the case, which is exactly why it is worth reading against Hosking.
Then choose by period. Montefiore's The Romanovs is the dynasty from 1613 to 1918 told as family drama, and the best entry to the tsars for a general reader. Kotkin's Stalin is the first of three volumes and covers the years to 1928; it is the most thorough biography in existence and it rejects the psychological explanations of earlier lives in favour of the politics. Applebaum's Gulag is the standard history of the camp system from its origins to its dissolution. Plokhy's Lost Kingdom follows the idea of a Russian nation from Ivan the Terrible to Putin and explains why Ukraine sits at the centre of it.
What the historians argue about
The oldest argument is inevitability. Pipes holds that Russia's autocracy grew from its patrimonial roots and that the Revolution was the work of a small conspiratorial party rather than of the people; Figes holds that the Revolution was a genuine popular upheaval that the Bolsheviks captured. Hosking sits between them and is more interested in the state's relationship to society than in assigning blame.
The second argument is Stalin. Older biographies explained him through his psychology and his Georgian youth; Kotkin's insists that his rise and his choices are explicable through the Bolshevik system and the international situation, and that the terror was a matter of policy rather than paranoia alone. The argument is not settled and Kotkin's later volumes carry it forward.
The third is the nation. Plokhy's book is part of a recent shift in which historians of Russia, many of them from Ukraine, have made the question of what 'Russia' is, and whether it includes Ukraine and Belarus, central rather than marginal. That shift is the reason older single-volume histories can read as dated on the present.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best single-volume history of Russia?
Geoffrey Hosking's Russia and the Russians (2001; second edition 2011), which covers the whole span from Kievan Rus to the present with a clear argument about the tension between empire and nation. Simon Sebag Montefiore's The Romanovs is the more narrative alternative for the imperial centuries.
What is the best book on the Russian Revolution?
Orlando Figes's A People's Tragedy (1996), which covers 1891 to 1924 through the lives of individuals from every class and remains the standard narrative. Richard Pipes's work presents the older, more hostile view that the Revolution was a Bolshevik coup rather than a popular upheaval.
What is the best biography of Stalin?
Stephen Kotkin's Stalin, of which Paradoxes of Power (2014) is the first volume, covering 1878 to 1928. It is the most thorough biography in existence and explains Stalin through the Bolshevik system rather than his psychology.
Which book explains the Russia-Ukraine conflict historically?
Serhii Plokhy's Lost Kingdom (2017), a history of the idea of the Russian nation from Ivan the Terrible to Putin, with Ukraine as the constant test case. Hosking's Russia and the Russians gives the longer background.
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Related guides
- Best Books on the Cold War
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- Best Books on the Holocaust
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Sources consulted
- Russia and the Russians (2nd ed.) — Open Library record
- A People's Tragedy — Open Library record
- Russia Under the Old Regime — Open Library record
- The Romanovs — Open Library record
- Stalin: Paradoxes of Power — Open Library record
- Gulag: A History — Open Library record
- Lost Kingdom — Open Library record
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