Galeotti, Mark Forged in War. A military history of Russia from its beginnings to today

Putin retains his stranglehold on his position in Russia despite an almost ruinous invasion of Ukraine. The answer as to how and why can be found in Russian history as detailed by Mark Galeotti in this new book. With no naturally defensible borders, and environmental factors constraining its economy, Russia has been pitched against the pre-eminent military powers of the age across the centuries, and often at a technological disadvantage. To respond to these challenges, it has had to sit heavily on the backs of its people, and so war and the need to be able to fight it has shaped its evolution, from tsars to commissars and presidents.

The national identity has been forged in the furnace of war. From the medieval kingdom of Rus battling against a Scandinavian princes and Mongol emperors, to its own empire-building conflicts in 19th-century Asia, to the formative wars of the 20th century which saw Russia pitch from Tsarist empire to communist state and defender against Nazism, all these conflicts stained the lands of Russia red with blood. A weak post-Cold War Russia then turned to Putin, who created a new mood for martial triumphalism which led directly to the Ukrainian war.

Packed with contemporary accounts, Forged in War strips away the myth to give an insider's view on Russia's past and present.

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Author's Note
Introduction

Part 1: The Forging of Russia
1. The Making of the Rus'
2. The Wars of the Princes
3. The Northern Crusades
4. The Steppe Threat
5. The Storm from the East
6. Throwing off the Yoke

Part 2: Forging an Empire
7. Ivan's Musketeers
8. Times of Terror and Troubles
9. The Cossacks
10. The Conquest of Siberia

Part 3: A European Power
11. Peter and his Navy
12. The Great Northern War
13. A European Power at Last
14. Tsarina versus Tsargrad

Part 4: Triumph and Decline
15. Russia versus the Antichrist
16. Gendarme of Europe, Conqueror of the Margins
17. The Two Crimean Wars
18. Years of Decay
19. Apocalypse for an Empire

Part 5: Red Star Rise and Fall
20. Red Victory
21. The Great Patriotic War
22. Cold War

Part 6: Back to the Future
23. Bringing Russia 'Off its Knees'
24. Putin's Hubris
25. Conclusions

Index