# My Russia: War or Peace?

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- Book: [My Russia: War or Peace?](https://www.bookquiver.com/mikhail-pavlovich-shishkin/my-russia-war-or-peace) ([My Russia: War or Peace?.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/mikhail-pavlovich-shishkin/my-russia-war-or-peace.md))
- Authors: [Mikhail Shishkin](https://www.bookquiver.com/mikhail-pavlovich-shishkin)
- Publisher: riverrun
- ISBN: 978-15-2942-778-3
- Published: 2023-03-30
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Hardcover

## Description

In his timely new book, Mikhail Shishkin, argues that Russia is not a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma': we just don't know enough about it. So what is the real story behind Putin's autocratic regime and its invasion of Ukraine? In My Russia: War or Peace? Shishkin traces the roots of Russia's problems, from the 'Kievan Rus' via the Grand Duchy of Moscow, empire, revolution and Cold War, to the now thirty-year-old Russian Federation. He explores the uneasy relationship between state and citizens, explains Russian attitudes to people's rights and democracy, and proposes that there are really two Russian peoples: the disillusioned and disaffected, who suffer from 'slave mentality', and those who embrace 'European' values and try to stand up to oppression. Both deeply personal and taking a broader historical view, My Russia is a passionate, eye-opening account of a state entangled in a complex and bloody past, as well as a love letter to a conflicted country. Will Russia continue its vicious circle of upheaval and autocracy, or will its people find a way out of history - and how can we help?