Sergei Feodorovich Platonov's Time of Troubles is a classic study of the years 1598-1613, a turbulent and decisive period in Russian history. Available for the first time in English, this work will be a valuable tool for students of the medieval as well as modern periods. Platonov, himself a tragic victim of the regimentation imposed on Soviet cultural life in the 1920s, was born in 1860 and attained immense public and professional recognition in Russia as a leading historian. In his work he synthesized, to a high degree, two major traditions of Russian historiography: the St. Petersburg "school," which emphasized the collection and rigorous use of primary sources, and the Moscow "school" with its socioeconomic and geopolitical approaches. Time of Troubles represents the finished product of a lifetime spent in research, writing, and teaching. In broad terms it treats nearly a century and a half of Russian history (1500-1648); in detail it scrutinizes developments in the Muscovite State from 1598 to 1613. Some of the major issues covered in this volume are: the growing consolidation of Muscovite absolutism and the formation of a national state; the expansion of Muscovy to the west and southeast; the demise of the boyar class and the rise of the service-gentry; the emergence of serfdom as the social basis of Muscovite society; the cataclysmic end of one dynasty, the House of Rurik, and the beginnings of another, the House of Romanov. For Platonov—who devoted most of his career as a scholar to the study of these dramatic years—the epoch marked nothing less than the great divide between medieval Muscovy and modern Russia, witnessing the downfall of an essentially patrimonial regime and its replacement, after fierce struggles, by a more modern state founded on a new constellation of social groups.

He shows that serfs did not actively participate in the civil war and that the abolition of serfdom was never a rebel goal. Instead, most rebels were petty gentry, professional soldiers, townsmen, and cossacks who were united in fierce opposition to tsars they believed to be illegitimate usurpers.".

A ten-year-old Lebanese boy goes to school, helps his mother with chores, plays with his friends, and lives with his family in a basement shelter when bombings occur and fighting begins on his street.

THE BORDER WARS An uneasy peace had prevailed these last few years between the Empire of Videssos and rival Makuran. But now Makuran's King of Kings alerted his border holdings--even the small fortress where Abivard's father was lord--to prepare for barbarian raids. But Abivard himself received a warning of a different sort: an eerie prophecy of a field, a hill, and a shield shining across the sea. Before a season had turned, his father and his King lay dead upon the field of battle--the very place foreseen in the vision. Abivard hastened home to defend his family and his land. To his dismay, the most urgent danger came not from marauding tribes, or from Videssos, but from the capital. An obscure and greedy bureaucrat had captured the crown; the rightful heir had disappeared, and no mortal man would say where he might be found. Abivard's strange fate would lead him to his King, though, and on through peril to the very brink of greatness--and of doom! FIRST TIME IN PRINT

"The acclaimed author of Young Stalin and Jerusalem gives readers an accessible, lively account--based in part on new archival material--of the extraordinary men and women who ruled Russia for three centuries."--NoveList.

This study of the Russian army and how it has fared in the uncertain transitional period since independence in December 1991 provides the basis for understanding its present and potential future role in the new political developments within Russia. Following an historical overview of Russia's security agenda and an examination of the Russian//Soviet army's tradition of involvement in politics, the book then examines Russia's current security interests and the role of the army in protecting them. Geopolitical perspectives are linked to the security issues of the `Near Abroad', and to the nuclear dimension of security. Pavel K Baev then considers the question of the feasibility of political control over the Russian army. The

As the sun gleamed off the gilded domes of Videssos the city, Abivard, marshal of Makuran and son of Godarz, pondered the impossible. How could he carry out the command of Sharbaraz, King of Kings, to destroy the invincible Empire of Videssos? Then, against all expectations, the Emperor of Videssos invaded Makuran itself. Abivard was thrust on the defensive, forced homeward to drive the invaders from the fabled land of the Thousand Cities. Abivard needed not only his greatest battle skills but his most powerful magicians, for no one doubted that Videssian military strategy would be accompanied by the finest sorcery. Yet even as reality reversed itself and renegades plotted Abivard's ruin, the undaunted warrior vowed never to surrender...