This book is the textbook for my Modern Russia class, and I always count these books on my reading challenge, because I read them. It covers the period of Russian history from its inception to the more modern post-communist era. I really enjoyed learning about the history of Russia before Communism. I hate this class, however, and am expressly tired of reading about Stalin. If you are looking for a broad and informative Russian history book, this one wasn't so bad...especially for a textbook. Those can often be boring, but this one was pretty interesting.