Russka is a historical novel

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

 by Edward Rutherfurd

Edward Rutherfurd

Edward Rutherfurd is a pen name for Francis Edward Wintle known primarily as a writer of epic historical novels...

, published in 1991 by Crown Publishers. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller.

Plot summary

The narrative spans 1,800 years of Russian history. The families that provide the focus for the story are the Bobrovs, Romanovs, Karpenkos, Suvorins and Popovs. Between them these five families span the main ethnic groups and social levels of the society in this northern empire.

Historical characters encountered through the narrative include Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....

, Ivan the Terrible and his secret police, the westernizing Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and the Bolsheviks of the twentieth century.

The stories of different characters in those families use real known stories of different Russian families. For example, the peasant family turned nobility thanks to their business is based on the Stroganovs

Stroganovs

The Stroganovs or Strogonovs , also spelled in French manner as Stroganoffs, were a family of highly successful Russian merchants, industrialists, landowners, and statesmen of the 16th – 20th centuries who eventually earned nobility.-Origins:...

. The noble who was a friend of Ivan IV of Russia

Ivan IV of Russia

Ivan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible , was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres,...

 and asked his territory to be part of the Oprichnina

Oprichnina

The oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation and his 1572 disbanding of a domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats...

was also based on a member of the Stroganovs, but at a different period.

Publication details

• 1991, UK, Century (ISBN 978-0712624664), pub date ? July 1991, hardback (First edition)
• 1991, USA, Crown Pub (ISBN 978-0517580486), pub date ? September 1991, hardback
• 1992, UK, Arrow Books (ISBN 978-0099635208), pub date 4 Jun 1992, paperback
• 2005, USA, Ballantine Books (ISBN 978-0345479358), pub date ? Mar 2005, paperback