Russia

The uprising by officers in 1825 in St Petersburg was premature, writes Ian Grey, but even contemporaries recognised that seeds had been sown which one day would produce important consequences.

Shafirov accompanied Peter the Great on his grand embassy to western Europe and, writes W.E. Butler, was one of the Tsar’s closest advisers on foreign affairs.

The circumstances in which the Emperor Nicholas decided to send troops into Hungary in 1849, writes Ian Young, were remarkably similar to those which brought Soviet tanks swarming over the Carpathians in November 1956.

W. Bruce Lincoln describes how Nicholas exercised a more personal control in state affairs than any other ruler since Peter the Great.

Catherine’s cordial relations with the greatest thinkers of her day were no mistake, writes A. Lentin, but an integral part of her statecraft.

It was Russia’s tragedy, writes Leonard Schapiro, that a greater man than Stalin supplied Stalin with the means to put his nightmare Utopia into practice.

The crossing of the Beresina alone cost Napoleon more than 20,000 men. But, writes Alan Collis, some fortunate survivors of the terrible retreat from Moscow struggled home to tell the tale.

Between 1798 and 1800, writes Geoffrey Bennett, a Russian fleet co-operated with the British in the Mediterranean.

Vladimir Putin is by no means the first Russian leader to threaten his neighbours with force and annexations. Two centuries ago European statesmen faced a similar predicament. Only then it was Poland at stake, not Ukraine.

During the fierce struggle that followed the Russian Revolution, writes David Footman, an intrepid Ukrainian guerilla leader waged war against Whites and Reds alike.