Maurice Baring writes with a personal, candid purpose: to be read sympathetically by anyone curious about Russia, especially by English readers and first-time visitors who want plain answers about Russian people, government, and national character. He acknowledges the book's necessary brevity, omits commerce, industry, the army, the navy, and the Jewish question, and offers instead a clear historical guide to the forces that shaped Russia and the misunderstandings that so often distort it. From geography and ethnic origins to the rise of Kiev and Moscow, Baring presents Russia as fundamentally European in destiny, even after the Mongol interruption. He traces the growth of centralized power, serfdom, Peter the Great's reforms, and the bureaucratic state, then follows the long struggle that led to emancipation in 1861 and the enduring peasant demand for land. Against the image of a permanently gloomy nation, he argues for the warmth, humor, generosity, and sociability of ordinary Russians, using literature and vivid examples to show a people more cheerful and humane than outsiders often imagine. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.