Robin Milner-Gulland is Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Sussex. His previous works include Cultural Atlas of Russia (1985), An Introduction to Russian Art and Architecture with J. E. Bowlt, (1980), Russian Writing Today edited with M. Durhirst, (1974), as well as many translations and articles on literary and artistic topics.

"Milner-Gulland's strength lies in his ability to write with equal facility and conviction about literature and the visual arts, about the fourteenth or the twentieth century, a strength underpinned by a reluctance to compartmentalize the arts with conventional historical periodization ... I can think of few better books for opening doors into a fascinating but often misunderstood world." Seer

• List of Plates. List of Figures.Acknow;edgements.Introduction: Aims and Methods of the Book.1. Rus as Land and People.2. Rus as People and as State.3. Belief Systems.4. Let us Join Word to Word.5. Iconic Russia.Conclusion.Selective Bibliography.Chronological Table to 1917.Index.