History is full of surprises, but rarely has there been a turnaround as
unexpected, and momentous as what occurred to a formative Russia during
the medieval period. Attacked and invaded from all sides, it hardly
looked as if the small Slavic principalities would survive. But they did
and were eventually absorbed into Kiev Rus' and then Muscovy, which
gradually expanded and laid the foundation for a huge empire. The author
uncovers this extraordinary period, from the founding of the Kievan
state to the accession of Peter the Great in 1682, describing both the
times of danger and defeat and those of expansion and revitalization.