A dim view of Russian political history from Lenin to Putin. After overly simplistically definingcommunism as a brand of socialism thatrequires “violent revolution” and referring to its “inherentweaknesses,” Blohm goes on to chronicle a history of, as he putsit, “failed expectations, starving peasants, brutal terror againstpolitical rivals, and nuclear posturing.” More or less ignoringRussian arts and culture, science, nonmilitary technology, dailylife, and regional or ethnic differences, he lays out major eventsfrom uprisings in Czar Nicholas II’s reign to the November2022 stalemate in Ukraine, pausing only to note widespreadfamines or slaughters or to make critical asides (“Funds thatcould have been used to improve Soviet agriculture and otherindustries were diverted to the bomb program”) on the way to abland but, in context, skeptical speculation about whether the country might one day be willing to “integrate into the twenty-first century as a strong and peaceful member of the global community.” The accompanying set of stock photos and images isscanty but does put faces on leaders and, once, a pair of Afghanmujahedeen; the backmatter offers a rich array of sources andresources. Distinctly slanted but possibly useful in conjunction withmore judicious older sources for background reading andresearch. (photo credits, timeline, source notes, index) ( Nonfiction. 12-18)