Forged in War

A masterful history of how war and insecurity, both real and perceived, have driven Russia's destiny for centuries, including the disastrous invasion of Ukraine. 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. 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.

Mark Galeotti is a scholar of Russian security with a career spanning academia, government and business, a prolific author and frequent media commentator. He heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy and is an Honorary Professor at University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies as well as holding fellowships with RUSI and the Institute of International Relations Prague. He has been Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a Visiting Professor at Rutgers-Newark and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

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