Timeline of historical events -- Russia and its people -- Kievan Russia and the Mongol experience -- Muscovite Russia, 1240-1613 -- Russia under the Romanovs : empire and expansion, 1613-1855 -- Reform, reaction, and revolution, 1855-1921 -- Building communism, 1921-1953 -- De-Stalinization and developed socialism, 1953-1985 -- Gorbachev, perestroika, and the collapse of communism -- Russia's search for democracy : the Yeltsin era -- Return to authoritarianism : Putin and beyond -- Notable people in the history of Russia -- Glossary of selected terms