4Real Forums: Russian History

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Across Time and Place
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Topic: Russian History

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Natalia
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Posted: Nov 01 2007 at 5:03pm \| IP Logged

My 10 yob has asked to study Russian history. Do you have any good ideas to share? Russia has a lot of history! What would be a good place to start? We have touched on Russia a couple of times during our World History studies: Peter the Great, World War I, Russian Revolution of 1917, but have never done anything in depth.

Thanks in advance for the help,

Natalia

Kathryn UK
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Posted: Nov 01 2007 at 5:20pm \| IP Logged

For 20th century Russian history you could read Gloria Whelan's quartet of books set in Russia:

Angel in the Square (Russian Revolution)
The Impossible Journey (Stalinist Russia)
Burying the Sun (Siege of Leningrad in WW2)
The Turning (fall of Communism)

I haven't read the last one, but the other three were all good.

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Lori B
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Posted: Nov 01 2007 at 7:24pm \| IP Logged

The Story of Russia (online at Mainlesson) is a wonderful read (my 12yod loved it!). You would have to take a look and see if it would work for your son.

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Natalia
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Posted: Nov 06 2007 at 6:10pm \| IP Logged

Oops! I forgot I had asked this question.

Kathryn, I had seen your post on Whelan's books and I am planning to use them. I just read Angel in the Square and really liked it.

Lori, thanks for the book link. When you use online books do you print them out or read online. I have never used one because: a) I am too cheap to use all that ink and b) don't want a single kid to monopolize the computer. This book looks great and I haven't found any other covering the topic.

Natalia

Lori B
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Posted: Nov 06 2007 at 6:56pm \| IP Logged

We use online books all the time! I'm cheap when it comes to ink and paper, too

so what I do is:

1. copy and paste the text into a Word document so that I have control over how it prints

2. change the text size to the smallest the reader can handle (for my 12yo, I print in Verdana Ref 9pt.) in two columns

3. change the text colour to dark grey

4. if your printer has a draft mode, use it to save even more ink

5. print double-sided

6. print only the first chapter or two just in case the child detests the book

; the rest can be printed later

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jdostalik
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Posted: Nov 07 2007 at 1:26pm \| IP Logged

For fun reading and a bit of history as well, you can try the books by Sholom Aleichem from which Fiddler on the Roof was based...

I love Russian history...also Catherine Doherty writes beautifully of much of her Catholic faith in her Russian childhood in her books as well...My Russian Yesterdays.

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Jennifer in TX
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Let the Little Ones Come

Natalia
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Posted: Nov 07 2007 at 5:40pm \| IP Logged

Thanks Lori for the tips!

Jennifer, Is Catherine Doherty the one that wrote a book of advent meditations? I remember liking the meditations. I have to check her other books out.
Thanks,

Natalia

jdostalik
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Posted: Nov 07 2007 at 7:02pm \| IP Logged

Yes, Natalia...I think I recommended her Donkey Bells last year when we were discussing good spiritual books to prepare for Advent. I read that book every year in December...it is my favorite....

My Russian Yesterdays, Not Without Parables, and her autobiography, Fragments of My Life, and her beautiful book on Eastern Catholic spirituality, Poustinia, are my favorites...I just have a huge devotion to her...

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Jennifer in TX
wife to Bill, mom to six here on earth and eight in heaven.
Let the Little Ones Come

Kathryn UK
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Posted: Nov 08 2007 at 8:20am \| IP Logged

I remembered I have a list of European history books I've been compiling for years (duh! what's the point of making a list I can't even remember

). There are a few titles for Russia ...

Chief of the Cossacks, by Harold Lamb (Landmark history series) - biography of Stenka Razin, 17th century Cossack leader who rebelled against the tsar.

Catherine the Great, by Katherine Scherman (Landmark history series)

Peter the Great, by Diane Stanley

The Iron Tsar, by Geoffrey Trease - three young people try to rescue a Russian poet imprisoned by the Tsar, set in the 1830s

One Day in Russia 1917, by Philip Bolsover - story of the Russian Revolution told from the perspective of a cross-section of St.Petersbury society

Anastasia, the Last Grand Duchess: Russia 1914, by Carolyn Meyer (Royal Diaries series)

The White Nights of St.Petersburg, by Geoffrey Trease - historical fiction about Russian Revolution (for older children)

The Endless Steppe, by Esther Hautzig - a family are sent to Siberia during WW2.

Shadow Under the Sea, by Geoffrey Trease - set in Russia during Perestroika period

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Kathryn
Dh Michael,

Rachel(3/95)

Hannah(8/98)

Naomi(6/06)

(11/07)
The Bookworm

Kristie 4
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Posted: Nov 08 2007 at 10:22am \| IP Logged

I will second the Endless Steppe! We loved that book.

Also, Days of Terror- this is a great read of Mennonites in Russia, what they endured, and their emmagration to Canada!! (Grips you from the first page...)

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Kristie in Canada
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