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[A] scholarly and well-informed survey of the first post-Soviet decade. -- Orlando Figes New York Review of Books 20031023 [Service's] latest work, Russia: Experiment With a People, is a balanced, thorough, thoughtful examination of Russia since the fall of Communism...Mr. Service's book isn't a quick read or an easy introduction to Russia. But it has the virtue of perspective, and he mixes a historian's scope with sharp observations about the last decade. -- Liena Zagare New York Sun 20040107 Service provides the most wide-ranging description yet of what has happened to Russia since it emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union. Hardly an angle has been neglected, from the historical lineage of national identity and the residue of Soviet times to the excesses of popular culture and life in the village. The core of the book deals with politics: the character and failings of Russia's leaders, turning points in the struggle over reform, the manipulation of symbols and media, and relations between the center and outlying regions...It is a rich and variegated portrait of a wondrously complex society. Foreign Affairs 20040101 This is the story of a wasted historic opportunity and Professor Service tells it well...However the project of 1992 has been largely abandoned, and this book, more than any other I know on the period, will explain why. -- Beryl Williams Russian Review

Robert Service is a Fellow of the British Academy and Professor of Russian History at Oxford University.

List of Illustrations Preface Introduction One: The Project of Reform 1. For a New Russia 2. What Is Russia? 3. Who Are the Russians? 4. Public Images, 1800-1991 5. Soviet Legacies Two: Power and the Kremlin 6. The New Russian State 7. Popular Opinion 8. Masters of Red Square 9. Economising on Reform 10. Bloodbath in Chechnya 11. Russia in the World Three: Persuading Russia 12. Official Transmission 13. Symbols for Russia 14. Understating the Case 15. The Politics of Ideas 16. Culture for the Nation Four: In the Russian Depths 17. Federation and the Regions 18. Russian Town, Russian Village 19. Class and the 'New Russians' 20. A Society Disclosed 21. Russiain Private 22. Future Uncertain Notes Bibliography Index