'In this concise atlas, Gilbert uses the geography of the past to elucidate the present. The xenophobia of conservative Russian politicians becomes more comprehensible when the reader learns that between 1240 and 1942, virtually every part of the country endured at least one invasion, culminating in the German offensive of 1941-45, in which 7.5 million Soviet soldiers and three million civilians perished. The maps showing Russian expansion into Poland and western Ukraine in the late 18th Century and into the Caucasus during the 19th Century help to explain the fragmentation of the former Soviet Union.' Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times

'The seventh is an excellent series of historical atlases, this volume by the indefatigable Martin Gilbert, the author of five previous atlases in the series and the official biographer of Winston Churchill, takes us from the ancient Slavs to the Soviet-Chinese borderlands in 1970 and covers social unrest, the Jews in Russia, changing place-names, etc. Far more detailed than its nearest competitor... '...a valuable adjunct to every course in Russian history.' Robert A Johnston, Library Journal