| Book Review | Journal of World History, 16.2

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| Book Review | Journal of World History, 16.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

How Russia Shaped the Modern World: From Art to Anti-Semitism, Ballet to Bolshevism. By STEVEN G. MARKS. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003. xii + 393 pp. $45.00 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).

The Russian intelligentsia has long been split over where Russia fits in the world. To some it's a European country. To others it's Asian, Eurasian, or so sui generis that it's simply a civilization unto itself. The debate has produced interesting observations and a few family scandals over the years, but ironically, its greatest effect has been to obscure a more fundamental point about the Russian condition. Regardless of where Russia might or might not belong, the country has never been isolated from other places. Ever since the supposed "coming of the Varangians," Russia has been linked to the outside world by webs of war, trade, diplomacy, migration, and cultural exchange. That the Russians managed to adopt a great deal from foreigners in the process is well known. (This is why Peter the Great shows up in every world history course.) The fact that foreigners ended up borrowing a good bit from the Russians as well is somewhat less appreciated.

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