Originally the lands we now know as Russia were settled by Scythians followed by nomadic tribes - the Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, Khazars and Slavs. The rise of Muscovy with its Tsars from Ivan Moneybags to Ivan the Terrible was followed by the despotic rule of the Romanovs, among them Peter the Great and Catherine II. The October Revolution ended the Tsarist despotism but replaced it with another kind of terror. Peter Neville takes the story right up to the present day, looking at the end of the communist state and the fragmentation of the USSR.