This first volume of the Cambridge History of Russia covers the period from early ('Kievan') Rus' to the start of Peter the Great’s reign in 1689. It surveys the development of Russia through the Mongol invasions to the expansion of the Muscovite state in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and deals with political, social, economic and cultural issues under the Riurikid and early Romanov rulers. The volume is organised on a primarily chronological basis, but a number of general themes are also addressed, including the bases of political legitimacy; law and society; the interactions of Russians and non-Russians; and the relationship of the state with the Orthodox Church. The international team of authors incorporates the latest Russian and Western scholarship and offers an authoritative new account of the formative 'pre-Petrine' period of Russian history, before the process of Europeanisation had made a significant impact on society and culture. "An authoritative and reliable account of early Russian history, a work that no academic library can do without." --American Reference Books Annual "Specialists will recognized in the authors scholars of considerable accomplishment...The result is a set of authoritative essays that succinctly outline the major issues and point to the appropriate literatures, all of which is summarized in a massive attached bibliography." Canadian Journal of Political Science, Daniel H. Kaiser, Grinnell College An authoritative history of Russia from early Rus' to the reign of Peter the Great. Maureen Perrie is Emeritus Professor of Russian History at the University of Birmingham. She has published extensively on Russian history from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Her publications include Pretenders and Popular Monarchism in Early Modern Russia: the False Tsars of the Time of Troubles (1995) and The Cult of Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia (2001).