Smutnoe vremia [Time of Troubles]

by Vasilii Ul'ianovskii

This book, though scientifically fundamental, is engaging reading that infatuated by flashbacks to "Old Russian times" and the idea that the past comes alive today. Having lived through his own hard times the modern reader has a particularly keen interest in those troubled times when Russia trembled and rocked in a quest for freedom and in search of order. The phenomenon of imposture and its amazing success, the pace and readiness to swear allegiance manifested by the boyars, the clergy, the nobility and the peasantry to Godunov, the Impostor Shuiski, then yet another Impostor, the Polish prince Vladislav - all that presents a lesser puzzle to a reader who is familiar with the times of perestroika and the referendum on the preservation of the USSR, the accords of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the confrontation between the Parliament and the first Russian president and other dramatic events of our time. 22 color illustrations

Paperback

Published January 1, 2006