Rutherford follows the tradition of Michener, in writing a collection of short stories, each set in a different time period, and each portraying the everyday life of the common man at that time. Russka is, indeed, a 'gorgeous tapestry' that begins in around the 2nd century CE, when Russia was inhabited only by small villages of 'slavs', and moves forward until around the end of Communism. My personal favourite is the story set in ancient Kievan 'Rus', a feudal state where Viking invaders have established themselves as the nobility, and where a young slav named Ivanushka must deal with every conceivable problem and somehow get on with his life. Russka moves on to portray the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, in which the political system was destroyed and Kiev ceased to be the economic heart of the region. It describes Ivan the Terrible in vivid detail, with a heartbreaking story about a mother whose infant child is chucked off the top of a building by the mad Tsar, one of the worst that Russia ever saw. It describes the importance of the Orthodox Church and of icons to regular peasants, which continues in the time of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. It describes the unrest that built up prior to the Communist uprising of 1917 very well, however it fails to cover either the revolution itself, or the history of Soviet Russia, in any great detail. Because of this shortcoming in terms of 20th century Russia, Russka has been harshly criticised, but since everyone knows about Lenin and Stalin anyway, I don't consider this a great loss. It more than makes up for a lack of Communist history, with its vast and detailed account of Medieval and Imperial Russia. And excellent read for anyone who wishes to know the long and interesting history of Russia, and almost compulsory for anyone who wants a background to 20th century Russian history.
Author: Edward Rutherford
Year published: 1991
Filed in: Historical Epic