Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

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The only bone I'd pick is that Figes stops around 1962: I'd have been very interested in his account continuing into the great age of satire and rise of pop music in the late Soviet years. For those of us who admire the Russian composers and authors, Figes' book gives us invaluable information about the context in which they lived and work. Contrary to the conventional historical image, not every intellectual objected to the imperial monarchy or to the social system. The story of Russian art is tied closely to the story of Russia as a country, one caught between its status as a "second-class" European power regarded warily by the "more cultured" centers of Western Europe and its Asian footprint, where it had a colonial empire right next door as opposed to overseas like the British or French.

I do like his style of writing, his narrative trots along at a fair pace considering the weight of information offered. Petersburg; the Russian Russia of Moscow; the peasant culture and the inheritance from Genghiz Khan.How did Mongol occupation affect local culture, and did that local culture affect Mongol traditions and art?

I knew what the cultural significance of the Decemberists was, and how the victory against Napoleon colored everything that followed.I reference encouragement to immerse oneself into Russian culture because, for me, that is the second key lesson I took from this book, and have since discovered books that have shaped my current view on life and the world as a whole.