This is a select bibliography of post World War II English language books (including translations) and journal articles about the history of Russia and its borderlands from the Mongol invasions until 1613. Book entries may have references to reviews published in academic journals or major newspapers when these could be considered helpful.
A brief selection of English translations of primary sources is included. The sections "General Surveys" and "Biographies" contain books; other sections contain both books and journal articles. Book entries have references to journal articles and reviews about them when helpful. Additional bibliographies can be found in many of the book-length works listed below; see Further reading for several book and chapter-length bibliographies. The External links section contains entries for publicly available select bibliographies from universities.
Inclusion criteria
Works included are referenced in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly secondary sources or journals. Included works should either be published by an academic or widely distributed publisher, be authored by a notable subject matter expert as shown by scholarly reviews and have significant scholarly journal reviews about the work. To keep the bibliography length manageable, only items that clearly meet the criteria should be included.
Citation style
This bibliography uses APA style citations. Entries do not use templates. References to reviews and notes for entries do use citation templates. Where books which are only partially related to Russian history are listed, the titles for chapters or sections should be indicated if possible, meaningful, and not excessive.
If a work has been translated into English, the translator should be included and a footnote with appropriate bibliographic information for the original language version should be included.
When listing works with titles or names published with alternative English spellings, the form used in the latest published version should be used and the version and relevant bibliographic information noted if it previously was published or reviewed under a different title.
Bogatyrev, S. (Ed.). (2004). Russia Takes Shape. Patterns of Integration from the Middle Ages to the Present. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.[7][8]
Borrero, M. (2004) Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Facts on File.[9]
Boterbloem, K. (2018) A History of Russia and Its Empire: From Mikhail Romanov to Vladimir Putin. (2nd Ed.) Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.[10]
Boterbloem, K. (2020) Russia as Empire: Past and Present. London: Reaktion Books.[11]
Breyfogle, N., Schrader, A., Sunderland W. (2007) Peopling the Russian Periphery: Borderland Colonization in Eurasian History. London: Routledge.[12]
Bushkovitch, P. (2011). A Concise History of Russia (Illustrated edition). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.[13][14][15][16]
Chatterjee, Choi. (2022) Russia in World History: A Transnational Approach. London: Bloomsbury Academic.[17]
Cherniavsky, M. (Ed.). (1970). The Structure of Russian History: Interpretive Essays. New York, NY: Random House.
Christian, D. (1998). A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia (2 vols.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.[18][19][20][21]
Clarkson, J. D. (1961). A History of Russia. New York: Random House.[22][23]
Connolly, R. (2020). The Russian Economy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dmytryshyn, B. (1967, 1973, 1997). Medieval Russia: A Source Book 2: 850-1700. San Diego: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.[24][25]
Dmytryshyn, B. (1977). A History of Russia. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.[26][27]
Dukes, P. (1998) A History of Russia: Medieval, Modern, Contemporary. New York: McGraw-Hill.[28][29][30][31]
Figes, O. (2022). The Story of Russia. New York: Metropolitan Books.[32]
Forsyth, J. (1992). A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.[33][34][35][36][37]
Freeze, G. L. (2009). Russia: A History (Revised edition). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.[38]
Gleason A. (Ed.). (2009). A Companion to Russian History. — Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to World History).[39][40][41]
Grousset, R. (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (N. Walford, Trans.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.[42]
Lieven, D., Perrie, M., & Suny, R. (Eds.). (2006). The Cambridge History of Russia (3 vols.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.[a]
Moss W. G. (1955, 2d ed. 2003-2005) A History of Russia (2 Vols). London: Anthem Press.
Pipes, R. (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons.[43][44][45][46]
Poe, M. T. (2003) The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press.[47][48][49][50]
Riasanovsky, N. V. (2018). A History of Russia (9th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.[51]
Shubin, D. H. (2005). A History of Russian Christianity (4 vols.). New York: Agathon Press.
Ward, C. J., & Thompson J. M. (2021). Russia: A Historical Introduction from Kievan Rus' to the Present. (9th Ed.). New York: Routledge.
Alef, G. (1983). Rulers and Nobles in 15th-Century Muscovy. London, UK: Variorum.
Birnbaum, H., Flier, M. S., & Rowland, D. B. (1984). Medieval Russian Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Black, J. (Ed.). (1999). The Development of Russian Military Power, 1453–1815. In European Warfare, 1453–1815. New York: Macmillan.
Lohr, E. & Poe, M. (Eds.). (2002). The Military and Society in Russia 1450-1917: 1450-1917. Leiden: Brill.[52][53][54][55]
Martin, J. (2007). Medieval Russia, 980–1584. Cambridge University Press.[56][57]
Meyendorff, J. (1997). Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relations in the Fourteenth Century. St Vladimirs Seminary Press.[58][59]
Ostrowski, D., & Poe, M. T. (Eds.). (2011). Portraits of Old Russia: Imagined Lives of Ordinary People, 1300-1745. London, UK: Routledge.[60][61]
Pelenski, J. (1998). The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus’. New York, NY: East European Monographs, Columbia University.[62][63]
Presniakov, A. E. (1970). The Formation of the Great Russian State. A Study of Russian History in the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries. (A. E. Moorhouse, Trans.) Chicago: Quadrangle Books.[64]
Backus, O. P. (1957). Motives of West Russian nobles in deserting Lithuania for Moscow, 1377-1514. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.[80][81][82]
Croskey, R. M. (1987). Muscovite Diplomatic Practice in the Reign of Ivan III. New York: Garland.[83][84]
Crummey, R. O. (1987). The Formation of Muscovy 1304—1613. London, UK: Routledge.[85][86]
Kollmann, N. S. (1987). Kinship and Politics: The Making of the Muscovite Political System, 1345-1547. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.[90][91][92][93]
Ostrowski, D. (1998). Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304–1589. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.[96][97][98][99][100][101]
———. (2001). Russia’s First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty. Philadelphia: Penn State University Press.[109][110][111][112][113]
———. (1995). Pretenders and Popular Monarchism in Early Modern Russia: The False Tsars of the Time of Troubles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.[114][115][116][117]
Platonov, S. F. (1970). The Time of Troubles: A Historical Study of the Internal Crisis and Social Struggle in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Muscovy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.[118][119]
Topical works
Indigenous peoples and ethnic groups
Kappeler, A., Kohut, Z. E., Sysyn, F. E., & von Hagen, M. (Eds.). (2003). Culture, nation, and identity: the Ukrainian-Russian encounter, 1600–1945. Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press.
Bremer, T. (2013). Cross and Kremlin: A Brief History of the Orthodox Church in Russia (E. W. Gritsch, Trans.; Translation edition). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.[120]
Bushkovitch, P. (1992). Religion and Society in Russia: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.[121][122][123][124]
Gudziak, B. A. (2001). Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest (Harvard Series In Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.[132][133]
Ivanov, A. A. (2020). A Spiritual Revolution: The Impact of Reformation and Enlightenment in Orthodox Russia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.[134]
Khodarkovsky M. & Geraci R. (Eds.), (2001). Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.[135][136][137][138]
Meyendorff, P. (1991). Russia, Ritual, and Reform: The Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the 17th Century: Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the Seventeenth Century. St Vladimirs Seminary Press.[139]
Pliguzov, A. I. (2023). Documentary Sources on the History of Rus´ Metropolitanate: The Fourteenth to the Early Sixteenth Centuries (Harvard Series In Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
Rosenthal, B. G. (Ed.). (1997). The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture. New York: Cornell University Press.[140][141][142][143]
Shepard, J. (2017). The Expansion of Orthodox Europe: Byzantium, the Balkans and Russia. London, UK: Routledge.[144][145]
Shubin, D. H. (2005). A History of Russian Christianity (4 vols.). New York: Agathon Press
Thyret, I. (2001). Between God and Tsar: Religious Symbolism and the Royal Women of Muscovite Russia. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.[146][147][148][149]
Koloda, V., & Gorbanenko, S. (2020). Agriculture in the Forest-Steppe Region of Khazaria (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, Vol. 60). Leiden: Brill.[151]
Rowland, D. B. (2020). God, Tsar, and People: The Political Culture of Early Modern Russia (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.[151]
Vernadsky, G., & Pushkarev, S. G. (1978). Russian Historiography: A History. Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing.
Primary sources
A limited number of English language translated primary sources referred to in the above works.[b]
Cross, S. H. (2012). The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text (O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Ed.). Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America.
Kaiser, D. H., & Marker, G. (1994). Reinterpreting Russian History: Readings, 860-1860s (First Edition). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Pliguzov, A. I. (2023). Documentary Sources on the History of Rus´ Metropolitanate: The Fourteenth to the Early Sixteenth Centuries (Harvard Series In Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
Zenkovsky, S. A. (Ed.). (1963). Medieval Russia’s epics, chronicles, and tales (First edition). New York, NY: E. P. Dutton.
Auty, R., Obelensky, D., et al. (2010). Companion to Russian Studies (Vol. 1, An Introduction to Russian History; Vol.2, Russian Language and Literature; Vol. 3, An Introduction to Russian Art and Architecture). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barnes, I., & Lieven, D. (2015). Restless Empire: A Historical Atlas of Russia (Illustrated edition). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Brown, A. et al. (1982). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Channon, J., & Hudson, R. (1995). The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia. New York: Penguin.
Gilbert, M. (2007). The Routledge Atlas of Russian History (4th edition). London: Routledge.
Ivan Katchanovski, Kohut, Z. E., Nebesio, B. Y., & Yurkevich, M. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ukraine. (Second edition). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Langer, L. N. (2001). Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.
Lerski, H. (1996). Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.
Magocsi, P. R. (2017). Carpathian Rus': A Historical Atlas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.[165]
Millar, J. R. (Ed.). (2004). Encyclopedia of Russian History (4 vols.). New York: Macmillan Library Reference.
Wieczynski, Joseph L. et all. (Ed.). The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (1976–...). Academic International Press.
^CRISP, OLGA; Billington, James H. (1970). "Review of The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretative History of Russian Culture". History. 55 (185): 431. JSTOR24407647.
^Bogatyrev, Sergei; Swift, John (2007). "Review of Russia Takes Shape: Patterns of Integration from the Middle Ages to the Present". The Slavonic and East European Review. 85 (1): 157–158. JSTOR4214409.
^Weeks, Theodore R.; Bogatyrev, Sergei (2005). "Review of Russia Takes Shape: Patterns of Integration from the Middle Ages to the Present". The Russian Review. 64 (4): 696–697. JSTOR3664239.
^Martin, Janet; Bushkovitch, Paul (2012). "Review of A Concise History of Russia. Cambridge Concise Histories". Russian Review. 71 (4): 682–683. JSTOR23263942.
^Häfner, Lutz; Bushkovitch, Paul (2015). "Review of A Concise History of Russia. Cambridge Concise Histories". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. 63 (4): 649–650. JSTOR43820133.
^Allsen, Thomas T.; Christian, David (2000). "Review of A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. Vol. 1, Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire". The Journal of Asian Studies. 59 (3): 723–725. doi:10.2307/2658966. JSTOR2658966. S2CID127995906.
^Halperin, Charles J.; David, Christian (1999). "Review of A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Volume 1, Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire". The Russian Review. 58 (4): 694–695. JSTOR2679249.
^Jackson, Peter; Christian, David (2001). "Review of Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire, Vol. 1 of a History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia". Journal of World History. 12 (1): 198–201. doi:10.1353/jwh.2001.0015. JSTOR20078885. S2CID161736001.
^Christian, David; Haining, Thomas Nivison (1999). "Review of A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. Volume 1: Inner Eurasia, from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire". The Slavonic and East European Review. 77 (3): 548–550. JSTOR4212924.
^Anderson, David G.; Forsyth, James (1995). "Review of A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony". Cambridge Anthropology. 18 (3): 78–80. JSTOR23818763.
^Forsyth, James; Pierce, Richard A. (1993). "Review of A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990". The American Historical Review. 98 (4): 1290–1291. doi:10.2307/2166736. JSTOR2166736.
^Poelzer, Greg; Forsyth, James (1992). "Review of A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990". Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes. 34 (4): 500–501. JSTOR40869442.
^Smele, J. D.; Forsyth, James (1993). "Review of A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990". The Slavonic and East European Review. 71 (4): 751–753. JSTOR4211402.
^Hundley, Helen S.; Forsyth, James (1993). "Review of A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990". The Historian. 55 (3): 537–538. JSTOR24448623.
^Heller, Wolfgang; Freeze, Gregory L. (2001). "Review of Russia: A History". Historische Zeitschrift. 272 (1): 140–141. JSTOR27633750.
^Legvold, Robert (2010). "Review of A Companion to Russian History Gleason, Abbott". Foreign Affairs. 89 (2): 168. JSTOR20699892.
^Hecker, Hans (2012). "Review of A Companion to Russian History Gleason, Abbott". Osteuropa. 62 (4, Im Profil: Stalin, der Stalinismus und die Gewalt): 152–154. JSTOR44934003.
^Huddle, Frank Jr. (1971). "René Grousset. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Translated from the French by Naomi Walford. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 1970". The American Historical Review. 76 (4): 1204–1205. doi:10.1086/ahr/76.4.1204.
^Pipes, Richard; Treadgold, Donald W. (1975). "Review of Russia under the Old Regime". Slavic Review. 34 (4): 812–814. JSTOR2495731.
^Riasanovsky, Nicholas V.; Pipes, Richard (1976). "Review of Russia under the Old Regime". The Russian Review. 35 (1): 103–104. doi:10.2307/127659. JSTOR127659.
^Pipes, Richard; KAPLAN, HERBERT H. (1977). "Review of Russia Under the Old Regime". The Polish Review. 22 (4): 94. JSTOR25777529.
^Pipes, Richard; Atkinson, Dorothy (1976). "Review of Russia under the Old Regime". The American Historical Review. 81 (2): 423–424. doi:10.2307/1851283. JSTOR1851283.
^Baev, Pavel (2004). "Review of The Russian Moment in World History by Marshall T. Poe". Journal of Peace Research. 41 (5): 644–645. JSTOR4149637.
^Brower, Daniel R. (2004). "Review of The Russian Moment in World History by Marshall T. Poe". Journal of World History. 15 (3): 389–391. doi:10.1353/jwh.2004.0030. JSTOR20079279.
^Christian, David (2004). "Review of The Russian Moment in World History by Marshall T. Poe". Slavic Review. 63 (4): 880–881. doi:10.2307/1520452. JSTOR1520452.
^Perrie, Maureen (2004). "Review of The Russian Moment in World History by Marshall T. Poe". European History Quarterly. 34 (4): 553–555. doi:10.1177/0265691404046547.
^Melville, Charles; Morgan, David (2008). "Review of The Mongols". The International History Review. 30 (3): 597–599. JSTOR40110993. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
^Longworth, Philip (2000). "Reviewed work: Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest, Borys A. Gudziak". The Slavonic and East European Review. 78 (1): 166–168. JSTOR4213031.
^Baran, Alexander (2000). "Reviewed work: Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest, Borys A. Gudziak". Slavic Review. 59 (2): 449–450. doi:10.2307/2697078. JSTOR2697078.
^Kivelson, Valerie A. (1998). "Reviewed work: The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal". The Russian Review. 57 (4): 621–622. JSTOR131388.
^Monas, Sidney (1999). "Book Reviews The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture.Edited by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997". The Journal of Modern History. 71 (2): 517–518. doi:10.1086/235287. S2CID151549209.
^Merridale, Catherine (1998). "Reviewed work: The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal". Europe-Asia Studies. 50 (5): 930–931. JSTOR153913.
^Wanner, Adrian (1997). "Reviewed work: The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture., Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal". Slavic Review. 56 (4): 815–816. doi:10.2307/2502164. JSTOR2502164. S2CID164465958.
^Kotenko, Anton (2020). "Reviewed work: Carpathian Rus': A Historical Atlas, Paul Robert Magocsi, Paul Robert Magocsi; Historical Atlas of Central Europe: Third Revised and Expanded Edition, Magocsi Paul Robert". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 37 (1/2): 225–228. JSTOR48627244.
Further reading
Many of the above works contain bibliographies. Included below are a selection of works with large bibliographies related to Russian history.
Langer, L. N. (2001). Bibliography. In Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.
Perrie, M. (2006). Bibliography. (2006). In M. Perrie (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia (The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol. 1, pp. 663–721). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.