Peter the Great

Russia’s complex relationship with the ruble

29 July 2023 9:00 am

The first banknotes were greeted with deep suspicion in 1769 – but it was nothing to the distrust that Soviet and post-Soviet issues aroused

Nothing is certain in Russia, where the past is constantly rewritten

20 August 2022 9:00 am

Nothing is certain in a country where the past is constantly rewritten, says Owen Matthews

Putin is no Peter the Great

11 June 2022 4:38 pm

Putin has a penchant for history, but only insofar it flatters him and his views. Last year, he gifted the…

Why autocracy in Russia always fails in the end

6 March 2021 9:00 am

Churchill was wrong: Russia is neither a riddle nor an enigma. Russians themselves concoct endless stories to glorify their country’s…

War horse: horse headdress made of felt, leather and wood, late 4th–early 3rd century BC

The icemen cometh

23 September 2017 9:00 am

You wouldn’t want to stumble upon the Scythians. Armed with battle-axes, bows and daggers, and covered in fearsome tattoos, the…

The ruthless Romanovs’ horrible history

30 January 2016 9:00 am

It’s hard to tell at times who came off worst in Romanov Russia — the tsar or his subjects, says Adam Zamoyski

Britain is absent from the V&A’s new Europe galleries. Are they trying to tell us something?

9 January 2016 9:00 am

Before cheap flights, trains were the economical way to discover Europe and its foibles. Personally, I enjoyed the old fuss…

Secrets of the Kremlin

14 December 2013 9:00 am

A building bearing testimony to the power of eternal Russia; a timeless symbol of the Russian state; a monument to…