Book Review: Kir Bulichev, Secrets of Rus

Tainy Rusi by Mozheiko Igor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm reading this book to improve my Russian reading. I've imported it, chapter by chapter, into LingQ (lingq.com) and studying all the new words. In total about 20% of all the words in it are new to me, which is about right.

As well as learning the Russian language, I'm learning about Russian history. This book is good for me because it's directed at Russian school children, middle-schoolers I should imagine. That keeps the language fairly simple, with often-repeated words and phrases and the use of extended metaphors kept to a minimum.

For a Russian learner this book is a little trickier than his other books on history aimed at teenagers. That's because he does assume that the reader has a middle-school knowledge of Russian history, as well as a fair grasp of Russian geography (and I couldn't point to Novgorod on a map) There's also quite a lot of social comment (comparisons of Stalin with Ivan the Terrible, for instance).

All in all a splendid book, highly recommended for Russian learners at middle B2 or Russian natives of about 12 - 16 years of age.

Эта книга о русском истории, то есть, о истории Руси и истории Российской империи, написанная для русских отрокоб. Это очень интересно для иностранниих читателей, но надо иметь хорошую карту России! Её мне очень нравился. Поразительно видеть, как протяжении всей истории Россия короли, цары и императоры действовали как шестилетними детьми под влиянием слишком много сахара.



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