This book is a short history of Russia since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. In a matter of months, Russia was apparently demoted from "evil empire" to despondent poor relation of the prosperous West. Yet the country also seemed extraordinarily - and alarmingly - open to all manner of political outcomes: from the return of Communism to the creation and consolidation of liberal democracy. Many of the scripts written for Russia in 1991 have had to be drastically revised in subsequent years. This book is a historian's attempt to stand back from the turbulent post-Soviet era and inquire into the nature of the "Second Russian Revolution."