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Russka #1
Russka Part 1 of 2
[This is Part 1 of a 2-part Audiobook CASSETTE Library Edition in vinyl case.]
[Read by Wanda McCaddon]
Russka is the story of four families who are divided by ethnicity but united in shaping the destiny of Russia. From a single riverside village situated at one of the country's geographic crossroads, Russia's Slav peasant origins are influenced by the Greco-Iranian, Khazar, Jewish, and Mongol invasions. Unified by this one place, the many cultures blend to form a rich and varied tapestry.
Rutherfurd's grand saga is as multifaceted as Russia harsh yet exotic, proud yet fearful of enemies, steeped in ancient superstitions but always seeking to shape the emerging world. Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Lenin all play their roles in creating and destroying the land and its people.
In Russka , Edward Rutherfurd has transformed the epic history of a great civilization into a human story of flesh and blood.
[Read by Wanda McCaddon]
Russka is the story of four families who are divided by ethnicity but united in shaping the destiny of Russia. From a single riverside village situated at one of the country's geographic crossroads, Russia's Slav peasant origins are influenced by the Greco-Iranian, Khazar, Jewish, and Mongol invasions. Unified by this one place, the many cultures blend to form a rich and varied tapestry.
Rutherfurd's grand saga is as multifaceted as Russia harsh yet exotic, proud yet fearful of enemies, steeped in ancient superstitions but always seeking to shape the emerging world. Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Lenin all play their roles in creating and destroying the land and its people.
In Russka , Edward Rutherfurd has transformed the epic history of a great civilization into a human story of flesh and blood.
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First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 1, 2018
Jedna knjiga- jedan potpuno novi svet !
Od autora svetskog bestselera "Sarum", dolazi nam epska saga o najvecoj slovenskoj zemlji.
Ruska je knjiga u dva toma, svaka glava je jedan roman. Ova knjiga prati 1800 godina ruske istorije, kulture i politike, od prvobitnih slovenskih plemena do danasnjih dana. Ovo je topla prica o jednoj velikoj civilizaciji, ispricana kroz tri ( danasnje) porodice: Romanov, Suvorin i Bobrov. Oni i ne slute da su jos od zlatnog Kijeva, kao rodjaci i prijatelji, gospodari i kmetovi, isprepletani u stvaranju sudbine svoje zemlje.
U nedostatku vremeplova, ova knjiga je
najbolja zamena. Tragala sam za plodnom
zemljom sa starim Slovenima, lovila ribu i pravila kosnice, pokrstila se u slavnom Kijevu, bezala od terora Ivana Groznog, jahala kroz beskonacne stepe sa Kozacima, gledala izgradnju Venecije severa i tugovala za poslednjim carem.
Preporuka svim ljubiteljima istorije !
Od autora svetskog bestselera "Sarum", dolazi nam epska saga o najvecoj slovenskoj zemlji.
Ruska je knjiga u dva toma, svaka glava je jedan roman. Ova knjiga prati 1800 godina ruske istorije, kulture i politike, od prvobitnih slovenskih plemena do danasnjih dana. Ovo je topla prica o jednoj velikoj civilizaciji, ispricana kroz tri ( danasnje) porodice: Romanov, Suvorin i Bobrov. Oni i ne slute da su jos od zlatnog Kijeva, kao rodjaci i prijatelji, gospodari i kmetovi, isprepletani u stvaranju sudbine svoje zemlje.
U nedostatku vremeplova, ova knjiga je
najbolja zamena. Tragala sam za plodnom
zemljom sa starim Slovenima, lovila ribu i pravila kosnice, pokrstila se u slavnom Kijevu, bezala od terora Ivana Groznog, jahala kroz beskonacne stepe sa Kozacima, gledala izgradnju Venecije severa i tugovala za poslednjim carem.
Preporuka svim ljubiteljima istorije !
November 25, 2015
Prelepo.
November 10, 2020
Excellent, broad sight, plotting, encouraging, lively, amazing scope...
May 6, 2022
Predivno, očaravajuće, uzbudljivo, magično. Jedva čekam II tom.
April 30, 2015
Loved it. But didn't realize there were two parts! Has the book been split or was there an additions? I think this is a must read for anyone trying to figure out the history of Western Civilization. Russia developed independently from the rest of Europe. Realizing this, I think, gives great insight to the past and present.
July 19, 2011
Extremely long book, but the way the author kept the reader engaged. I absolutely loved the ending how everything was tied up in the end.
November 8, 2018
I love historical fiction but there are too many characters to keep them s
July 20, 2023
No country on Earth can boast a more tumultuous history than Russia. Born in the clash of marauding nomadic tribes nearly 2,000 years ago, this sprawling Euro-Asiatic nation has witnessed repeated bouts of foreign incursions, ethnic conflict, revolution, and a millennium of autocratic, and often heartless, rule. To portray the grand sweep of Russian history in fiction seems an impossible task. But the British novelist Edward Rutherfurd has managed to do so to a remarkable degree in just under 1,000 pages in Russka.
FOUR FAMILIES EMBODY THE UPS AND DOWNS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
Rutherfurd traces the intertwined lives of four families over the 1,800 years during which the Russian state has come to formed. The action frequently shifts from Kiev, to Moscow, to St. Petersburg, but the story’s center of gravity lies in a small village called Russka. All four families—the Bobrovs, Suvorins, Karpenkos, and Romanovs—trace their roots there.
Their faces, and their lives, reflect their different ethnic origins, which remain visible after centuries of intermarriage. Turkic. Mongol. Finnish. Ukrainian. And we witness the evolution of the peasantry, their descent into serfdom, and their slow emergence from virtual slavery to a semblance of freedom. Meanwhile, the Bobrovs rise to the aristocracy and fall in the Revolution. The Suvorins struggle up from serfdom to great wealth as merchants, then lose it all. A Karpenko gains fame as a poet. The Romanovs—unrelated to the ruling dynasty—gain a foothold as wealthy peasants, only to fall victim to Revolutionary terror.
AN EASY-TO-READ GUIDE TO RUSSIAN HISTORY IN FICTION.
The boldfaced names of Russian history appear throughout.
** The first Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, who centralized the Russian state and built an empire in the 16th century.
** Peter the Great, the 17th-century modernizer who expanded the empire and built the new capital of St. Petersburg.
** Catherine the Great, the 18th-century German princess who overthrew her husband and gained the throne, then further expanded the empire and dragged the country into embracing European ways.
** Nicholas II, the last Tsar, whose stubbornness and ineptitude left Russia in the hands of the Bolsheviks. And the revolutionaries themselves, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.
They’re all there as the centuries slip by, with chapters spaced years or decades apart from the 11th century to the 20th. Russka is a triumph of historical fiction grounded in what is obviously the most diligent research.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
On his author website, Edward Rutherfurd writes that he “was born in England, in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated locally, and at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. After numerous attempts to write books and plays, he finally abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983, and returned to his childhood home to write Sarum, a historical novel with a ten-thousand year story, set in the area around the ancient monument of Stonehenge, and Salisbury.
“Four years later, when the book was published, it became an instant international bestseller, remaining 23 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Since then he has written five more bestsellers: Russka, a novel of Russia; London; The Forest, set in England’s New Forest which lies close by Sarum, and two novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century. In 2009 New York was published . . . His books have been translated into twenty languages.” Since Rutherfurd posted this bio, he has published two further books, Paris and China.
“Over the last thirty years, Edward has divided his time between Europe and New York. He has lived on the city’s East Side, the west side, in Westchester and Connecticut. His children attended New York schools, and he served for a time on a coop board.”
Rutherfurd was born in 1948 with the name Francis Edward Wintle. The name on the cover is a pen name.
FOUR FAMILIES EMBODY THE UPS AND DOWNS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
Rutherfurd traces the intertwined lives of four families over the 1,800 years during which the Russian state has come to formed. The action frequently shifts from Kiev, to Moscow, to St. Petersburg, but the story’s center of gravity lies in a small village called Russka. All four families—the Bobrovs, Suvorins, Karpenkos, and Romanovs—trace their roots there.
Their faces, and their lives, reflect their different ethnic origins, which remain visible after centuries of intermarriage. Turkic. Mongol. Finnish. Ukrainian. And we witness the evolution of the peasantry, their descent into serfdom, and their slow emergence from virtual slavery to a semblance of freedom. Meanwhile, the Bobrovs rise to the aristocracy and fall in the Revolution. The Suvorins struggle up from serfdom to great wealth as merchants, then lose it all. A Karpenko gains fame as a poet. The Romanovs—unrelated to the ruling dynasty—gain a foothold as wealthy peasants, only to fall victim to Revolutionary terror.
AN EASY-TO-READ GUIDE TO RUSSIAN HISTORY IN FICTION.
The boldfaced names of Russian history appear throughout.
** The first Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, who centralized the Russian state and built an empire in the 16th century.
** Peter the Great, the 17th-century modernizer who expanded the empire and built the new capital of St. Petersburg.
** Catherine the Great, the 18th-century German princess who overthrew her husband and gained the throne, then further expanded the empire and dragged the country into embracing European ways.
** Nicholas II, the last Tsar, whose stubbornness and ineptitude left Russia in the hands of the Bolsheviks. And the revolutionaries themselves, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.
They’re all there as the centuries slip by, with chapters spaced years or decades apart from the 11th century to the 20th. Russka is a triumph of historical fiction grounded in what is obviously the most diligent research.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
On his author website, Edward Rutherfurd writes that he “was born in England, in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated locally, and at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. After numerous attempts to write books and plays, he finally abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983, and returned to his childhood home to write Sarum, a historical novel with a ten-thousand year story, set in the area around the ancient monument of Stonehenge, and Salisbury.
“Four years later, when the book was published, it became an instant international bestseller, remaining 23 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Since then he has written five more bestsellers: Russka, a novel of Russia; London; The Forest, set in England’s New Forest which lies close by Sarum, and two novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century. In 2009 New York was published . . . His books have been translated into twenty languages.” Since Rutherfurd posted this bio, he has published two further books, Paris and China.
“Over the last thirty years, Edward has divided his time between Europe and New York. He has lived on the city’s East Side, the west side, in Westchester and Connecticut. His children attended New York schools, and he served for a time on a coop board.”
Rutherfurd was born in 1948 with the name Francis Edward Wintle. The name on the cover is a pen name.
January 5, 2022
En español: Rusos, volúmenes 1 y 2. Libro que me recomendó y prestó mi compañero Sebastián, una larga novela que con el pretexto de una saga familiar, comienza a contarnos en el año 180 la historia de Rusia.
Un guerrero alano y Ki, un niño eslavo, tienen un breve encuentro, ya que el primero está a punto de raptar al segundo. A partir de ahí, los descendientes de ambos irán entretejiendo historias que son a la vez la historia de Rusia, siempre con el protagonismo de Russka, en dos poblados con el mismo nombre, el primero cerca de Kiev, y el segundo cerca de Moscú, pues claro, primero el protagonismo lo tiene la primera ciudad, y luego será la actual capital rusa. A partir de ahí iremos conociendo los paisajes de las estepas y los bosques, las relaciones sociales, la vida de los campesinos, las intrigas de la corte...
El alano dará lugar a una saga de boyardos (terratenientes) cercanos al poder, y el niño dará lugar a una saga de campesinos que a veces huyen en busca de la libertad, convirtiéndose en algunos casos en cosacos.
Veremos las luchas contra los tártaros, contra los polacos, los suecos, la brutalidad de Iván el Terrible, o de Pedro el Grande, que viaja a Europa y se dedica a construir barcos y a engrandecer y modernizar Rusia, al margen de la Iglesia.... o Catalina la Grande, que en el XVIII es la monarca ilustrada que hacía millonarios a sus amantes desde que el primero de ellos decidió asesinar a su esposo justo cuando accedió al trono (lo que fue muy positivo al parecer a juicio de los historiadores pues dejó el trono en manos de la reformista Catalina, que al parecer era alemana –y su marido muerto casi- ).
En el capítulo I, año 180 d.C., una mordvana, de origen ugrofinés, pueblos de los bosques, casa con un eslavo estepario. El hijo es Ki, quien está a punto de ser raptado por un guerrero alano. Esto ocurre en Ruska, al norte del Mar Negro, cerca de la actual Kiev.
Un guerrero alano y Ki, un niño eslavo, tienen un breve encuentro, ya que el primero está a punto de raptar al segundo. A partir de ahí, los descendientes de ambos irán entretejiendo historias que son a la vez la historia de Rusia, siempre con el protagonismo de Russka, en dos poblados con el mismo nombre, el primero cerca de Kiev, y el segundo cerca de Moscú, pues claro, primero el protagonismo lo tiene la primera ciudad, y luego será la actual capital rusa. A partir de ahí iremos conociendo los paisajes de las estepas y los bosques, las relaciones sociales, la vida de los campesinos, las intrigas de la corte...
El alano dará lugar a una saga de boyardos (terratenientes) cercanos al poder, y el niño dará lugar a una saga de campesinos que a veces huyen en busca de la libertad, convirtiéndose en algunos casos en cosacos.
Veremos las luchas contra los tártaros, contra los polacos, los suecos, la brutalidad de Iván el Terrible, o de Pedro el Grande, que viaja a Europa y se dedica a construir barcos y a engrandecer y modernizar Rusia, al margen de la Iglesia.... o Catalina la Grande, que en el XVIII es la monarca ilustrada que hacía millonarios a sus amantes desde que el primero de ellos decidió asesinar a su esposo justo cuando accedió al trono (lo que fue muy positivo al parecer a juicio de los historiadores pues dejó el trono en manos de la reformista Catalina, que al parecer era alemana –y su marido muerto casi- ).
En el capítulo I, año 180 d.C., una mordvana, de origen ugrofinés, pueblos de los bosques, casa con un eslavo estepario. El hijo es Ki, quien está a punto de ser raptado por un guerrero alano. Esto ocurre en Ruska, al norte del Mar Negro, cerca de la actual Kiev.
July 15, 2025
Very lengthy
The novel delves into significant periods of Russian history, from its dawn to the Russian Revolution, including the Tatar invasion, the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, and the era of War and Peace.
This is still a great, juicy, dramatic historical novel if you like those, and while I am not sure I'd recommend it for learning Russian history, it will tell you something of the grand sweep of Russian events and the peoples who have moved through, into and away from it. There are Tartars, Cossacks, Jews, Ukrainians, White and Red Russians, monks, revolutionaries, serfs, Czars, nobles, officers, all moving in and out of focus. And always bleak, white Russia looms over them and absorbs them.
The novel delves into significant periods of Russian history, from its dawn to the Russian Revolution, including the Tatar invasion, the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, and the era of War and Peace.
This is still a great, juicy, dramatic historical novel if you like those, and while I am not sure I'd recommend it for learning Russian history, it will tell you something of the grand sweep of Russian events and the peoples who have moved through, into and away from it. There are Tartars, Cossacks, Jews, Ukrainians, White and Red Russians, monks, revolutionaries, serfs, Czars, nobles, officers, all moving in and out of focus. And always bleak, white Russia looms over them and absorbs them.
October 5, 2022
Entertaining with a little history and good character development given time constraints.
September 29, 2024
Ver reseña Tomo II
May 22, 2012
what a great book about Russia...the travesties done to the poor people in Russia and the surrounding areas is often forgotten. But in this book, Rutherfurd brings the history alive. I read this book before I went to Russia and did appreciate the art, history, music and people.
October 10, 2014
It was a good book but very long. There was such a long time span that he was covering, sometimes you would get attached to the characters and then he moved ahead in time and had to move on. But overall very interesting.
December 26, 2016
Really enjoy this Author's works. He really takes one back in time and blends the characters into the ways of life and happenings to match. Russka has been my favourite. A great geography and history to boot..
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March 8, 2012I really enjoyed his other book, New York, but couldn't get into this one-I think because of the russian names. It was hard for me to follow. I didn't finish it.
December 20, 2013
Interesting read, but not an easy one. Put it down several times and skimmed parts, but does give a very in depth look into the forming of a interesting and complicated country.
August 3, 2014
Hard going
September 15, 2014
Great way to get a history of that vast country, and to see how current conflicts (Ukraine) are a part of their history, powers in play want more power, etc.
November 3, 2014
loved. brought to life my non-fiction Russian history reading.
January 9, 2016
A veces se sentía un poco pesado pero ya haciendo cuentas, lo que era es la sensación de tantos puntos relevantes en la historia de Rusia, desde hechos históricos hasta historias populares.
September 30, 2020
Excelente!, que grandioso libro.
Conocer tan profundo las raíces de como se ha forjado la identidad de los Rusos, que gran historia.
Conocer tan profundo las raíces de como se ha forjado la identidad de los Rusos, que gran historia.
June 13, 2023
Review to follow soon...
October 30, 2023
Fantastic historical fiction!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews