Owen Matthews Owen Matthews

The Russian enigma

Nothing is certain in a country where the past is constantly rewritten, says Owen Matthews

Credit: Getty images

  • Russia – Myths and Realities: The History of a Country With an Unpredictable Past

    Rodric Braithwaite

    Profile, pp. 224, £16

  • The Shortest History of the Soviet Union

    Sheila Fitzpatrick

    Old Street, pp. 256, £12

Enforced brevity focuses the mind wonderfully. And when the minds in question are two of the West’s most interesting historians of Russia, the result is a distillation of insight that’s vitally timely. Sir Rodric Braithwaite was Britain’s ambassador to Moscow from 1988-92 during the collapse of the USSR (where he was the boss of Christopher Steele, of Trump dossier fame), then chaired the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee.

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