Rodric Braithwaite's Russia is a scholarly yet highly readable gallop through the last 1000 years of Russian history. As befits a distinguished former diplomat, Braithwaite is judiciously opinionated. To understand this tormented nation better - and thereby how Putin came to launch his catastrophic invasion of Ukraine - you can do no better than read this illuminating portrait
- Jonathan Dimbleby,
Crucial ... readers seeking a more nuanced view [of Russia] will find Braithwaite's brisk and readable account very valuable
- Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Braithwaite tells us not to give up hope, at least for the post-Putin era
The Times
Braithwaite's narrative, from the origins of Kievan Rus to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, is wise and thorough. It's the work of a man with a deep inside knowledge of and sympathy for Russia's people and their culture
Spectator
As Britain's ambassador to Moscow between 1988-92, Braithwaite witnessed first-hand the Russian fall from greatness that Putin is now trying to resurrect. He is an engaging guide, though, to the entire past Russian millennium - and writes with the same flair demonstrated in his previous bestseller Afgantsy, about the disastrous Soviet Afghan campaign
Sunday Telegraph
Readers seeking a more nuanced view will find Braithwaite's brisk and readable account very valuable. The book covers more than 1,000 years of history, culminating in what Putin termed the "geopolitical catastrophe" of the collapse of the Soviet Union
- Gideon Rachman, FT
A valuable book that would set many pundits straight ... Putin might do well to read [it]
- Seamus Martin, Irish Times
Praise for Moscow 1941: 'A remarkable epic, vividly portrayed
Sunday Telegraph
A heartbreaking and thrilling story of peerless heroism and misery on a barely imaginable scale
- Simon Sebag Montefiore,
Praise for Afgantsy: 'This is the book every politician, every general, every diplomat contemplating getting into, or out of, Afghanistan should be made to read. [A] masterpiece
- Sherard Cowper-Coles, Guardian