Customer Reviews

Russka: The Novel of Russia

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first picked up Russka, not out of any interest in Russia, but because I'd enjoyed Rutherford's book Sarum and wanted to read more of his books. Russka ended up influencing my life more than any other book I've ever read. Before reading the book I knew nothing about Russia beyond the usual Cold War stereotypes. After reading the book I was so interested that I learned to speak Russian and hope to travel there someday.

In Russka, Rutherford brings history to life in a way his other books (Sarum and London) can't rival. Besides telling a good story with engaging characters, Russka shows how major historical events affected the lives of individuals and how human desires and frailties shaped history. Rutherford doesn't write about "the Bolshevik Revolution" or "Consumer good shortages during the Soviet era", he writes about the ups and downs of individual families living through these events. Russka is first and foremost a story that pulls the reader in. Gaining insight into the Russian mind-set is an unexpected perk.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, regardless of whether they're interested in Russia. However, if after you've finished the book you'd like to learn about post-Communist Russia, I recommend Mark Taplin's nonfictional account Open Lands: Travels Through Russia's Once Forbidden Places.

Reading Rutherfurd brings instantly one other author to mind, the late James Michener. Like Michener (most of his books, at least), Rutherfurd chooses one specific place (London, for example) and, through a series of characters inhabiting that place, he tells the story of a nation, or of a city. In this case, the "place" is the biggest country in the world: Russia, and her neighbours.

Like "Sarum", which tells the hisstory of England, "Russka" is the hisstory of Russia told from the point of view of three families, each occupying a different position in russian society. From the II century, through the tsarist empire and finally the October Revolution, Rutherfurd, in more than 900 pages, was able to provide his readers with the right blend between a well-created fiction with the most important parts of russian history. And yet, I thought this book was shorter than it could be.

Rutherfurd's style sometimes leave the reader tired. Some of his sentences are a little too prosaic for the kind of fiction he's intended to write. He abuses the right to use the word "For" (as in "For Nicolai was the greatest poet in Ukraine") to begin a phrase. One other problem I found was concerning the division of the book. The part I expected the most was the Revolution. I was satisfied when I read it. It's well written, interesting and holds the attention of the reader. In fact, the Revolution is the climax of russian history (at least in my opinion, I'm not russian and I really don't know that much about russian history), and the author does a good job in building the tension and creating a very "russian" atmosphere in the previous chapters before the revolution. But the problem is that, after 1917, the book ends. Nothing about the second World War, nothing about Breschnev, the Perestroika and the fall of the Berlin wall. So, I was left with the sense that there was somethig missing. Rutherfurd could have written at least 300 more pages and I wouldn't think this would a book too big, given its subject.

But I think that I was rewarded after closing the final page on "Russka". I wanted a book of fiction that would show me the history of Russia. Rutherfurd's research and his choice of characters, although conservative, were very good. "Russka" is entertaining and gripping, and I was hooked all through its 900 pages.

Grade 8.3/10

Though this is a long read (not to be undertaken in one sitting---at least by those without some background in the region/culture) it is well worth it should you wish to cultivate an understanding of Russia & Eastern Europe. The novel is very true to historical detail, and although many of its characters are of course fictionalized, Rutherford has clearly gone to painstaking lengths to remain historically correct---far moreso than most "historical" novels. Reading "Russka" will leave you with a true sense of a people and how they have evolved historically & culturally over the span of centuries. I am a professor & I used this book with one of my classes as assigned reading, with sections of "Russka" paired with corresponding sections of a Russian history book with truly wonderful results---rather than griping about the reading load as usual, most students loved the book and via the novel & the pairing with the text, they seemed to learn a great deal.

Addendum (Feb 16). Those folks who have criticised the book should perhaps view the book in the right light. It is not intended to be nor should it be used as a text book or scholarly treatise---though it would be a wonderful and creative suppliment for the latter. It is a very well crafted and meticulously well researched historical NOVEL and in accuracy of detail it is far superior to most (e.g. some of Michener's "historical" novels contain egregious innacuracies)

This was my first book by Rutherford, read even before SARUM. I've been mildly interested in Russia for a while, and I was intrigued to see the book...but to be honest, didn't expect much. I was very wrong. The book follows the families that spring from two characters in the first chapter...the curious peasant child Kiy, and a wild tribesman called only The Alan, moved by mercy to part with his most prized possession. Throughout the novel, each chapter is set in a different time period, showing how the descendants of these two characters rise and fall throughout the periods of the Princes of Kiev, the rise of Moscow, Czar Ivan the Terrrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, the Bolshevic Revolution, and, finally, into Post-Communist Russia. The book tempers its awesome span with characters that seem to leap living and breathing from the pages, and to my delight,I noticed that some seem loosly based on characters from Russian folklore. The book is rife with all kinds of people: nobles, serfs, industrialists, Cosacks, poets, freedom fighters, and villains, but essentially human beings. Excellent book.

I first picked up this book at the library when I was doing research on russian history. After looking at the number of pages, I quickly put it down. It was only after I finished my project that I decided that I would buy the book because I found russian history so fascinating. I was not dissapointed. Mr. Rutherfurd goes into such detail that you grow to love the characters, you grow to understand russian culture so much more. So many people are still clinging to the steriotypes of Communist Russia: if they could read this book, I am sure that they would understand our friends in the east. What I enjoyed the most about the book was the fact that it was also educational. I even learned things that I did not discover in my studies. But that doesn't mean that if you know nothing about Russia that you won't understand the book, far from that. Rutherfurd takes the time to explain what is happening, so the reader is never lost. I'd recommend this book to anyone. If a 17 year old can read it and enjoy it, anyone can.

I read this shortly after I read Michner's Poland and recommend that. There is a lot of cross over which helped the understanding of both books.

Rutherfurd is very good at the story telling in historical fiction while maintaining historical side as well. (Sarum is, for me, the absolute best of the genre, with my apologizes to Mr. Michner). He makes the story of Russia come alive.

As an Anglophile, I fell in love with Rutherfurd's 3 novels of England. I really wasn't sure about reading Russka, but I took a small risk based on the other books. Again, Rutherfurd engages the reader and holds one's attention for nearly 1000 pages. In the process, one is educated about a mysterious and complex land and its people. The only thing I want is more Rutherfurd!

Edward Rutherfurd uses his well known method to describe the history of Russia: take two families from a certain hamlet, start in prehistoric times and follow their adventures, ups and downs in a number of chapters set over the centuries. And by doing this he can give a very good description of historically important events in the area. It worked very well for London, Sarum and The Forest, but I have to say it works less for Russka: at times the stories are long, making them slightly boring and the rivalries between the families are more important than the historical events. There are some interesting chapters, notably Forest and Steppe, Ivan (the Terrible), Peter (the Great) and Revolution, but I had to struggle through some of the other chapters. And then 945 pages is quite a lot...

I absolutely loved this novel. As a historical fiction "junkie," its a rare treat to come across a book like this. Spanning almost 1800 years, Rutherfurd gripping creates and traces 3 familial lineages through a history few in the west have encountered to any depth. Characterizations are completely human, and exhibit real complexities in terms of strength, religious devotion, struggle, cruelty, sin, and redemption. This is Russian and Ukrainian history as seen through the lives of ordinary people.
You will marvel at the rich cultures, experience the triumpths and tragedies of both peasants and nobles in their daily struggles, and experience the human and cultural tragedy of the evils of Bolshvism/Communism wracking a society struggling with unimaginable socio-economic obstacles. Perhaps the most poignant period in the novel for me was the story of the "Old Believer" peasants and their martyrdom during the time of Peter the Great - all in the context of a rural monastery founded shortly after the decline of Kievan Rus. Rutherfurd connects the monastery through to the present day (including Bolshevik pillaging), and the return of a familial descendant from the town from the US in 1992 - to see Russian Orthodox priests restoring the church the young man's ancestors helped found 700 years prior.

I will say in deference to some the "criticisms" of other reviewers - there are sections of the book that seem somewhat superfluous, and towards the end I did get the feeling that the author was "sprinting to the finish line." However, its not often a book can grip my attention for 3 weeks straight.

I absolutely loved this novel. As a historical fiction "junkie," its a rare treat to come across a book like this. Spanning almost 1800 years, Rutherfurd gripping creates and traces 3 familial lineages through a history few in the west have encountered to any depth. Characterizations are completely human, and exhibit real complexities in terms of strength, religious devotion, struggle, cruelty, sin, and redemption. This is Russian and Ukrainian history as seen through the lives of ordinary people.
You will marvel at the rich cultures, experience the triumpths and tragedies of both peasants and nobles in their daily struggles, and experience the human and cultural tragedy of the evils of Bolshvism/Communism wracking a society struggling with unimaginable socio-economic obstacles. Perhaps the most poignant period in the novel for me was the story of the "Old Believer" peasants and their martyrdom during the time of Peter the Great - all in the context of a rural monastery founded shortly after the decline of Kievan Rus. Rutherfurd connects the monastery through to the present day (including Bolshevik pillaging), and the return of a familial descendant from the town from the US in 1992 - to see Russian Orthodox priests restoring the church the young man's ancestors helped found 700 years prior.

I will say in deference to some the "criticisms" of other reviewers - there are sections of the book that seem somewhat superfluous, and towards the end I did get the feeling that the author was "sprinting to the finish line." However, its not often a book can grip my attention for 3 weeks straight.