- Russia: A 1,000 – Year Chronicle of the Wild East ~ Book by Martin Sixsmith
In one respect, these two volumes represent opposite poles of historiography. Martin Sixsmith romps through 1,000 years of Russian history.
Sixsmith rehearses the big, but well-worn, ideas: Russia’s dual – “Scythian” – nature between Europe and Asia and the “strong arm” rule that so often seems to define power there.
Sixsmith, for all his varied career, writes as a journalist and – where he can – as an eye-witness, with a penchant for sweeping generalisation and a touch of glibness.
With Sixsmith’s Russia, the paper quality, print, and page design are particularly pleasing, although the maps disappoint. The photographs in both are excellent – in the selection as in the reproductive quality – and in both the text is blissfully, almost amazingly by today’s standards, free of misprints.
Reviewed by Mary Dejevsky Friday, 27 May 2011
This documentary looks at the rise of Vladimir Putin using video material never shown before. The film begins its examination with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the year 2000. On December 31, 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation.
Watch the documentary to see the film’s central characters, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin, and other influential politicians and businessmen as they witness their country in transition.
[This documentary was produced in 2018 and originally released in 2019.]
DW Documentary
At the time, filmmaker Vitali Manski was working for a state broadcaster and had unlimited access to the outgoing president, his successor, and the inner circles of the Russian leadership.
Manski recorded video as a cameraman but also used his own portable camera to film events. He was with Yeltsin and his family as they followed the results of the election on March 26, 2000, when 53 percent of the voters confirmed Putin as President of the Russian Federation.
Manski recorded other milestones as well, including confidential chats in the Kremlin that reveal Putin’s attitudes towards power and leadership. Manski now lives in exile in Riga, Latvia.
