"For this was the land that would one day be known as Russia."
Chap. 1, p. 2

"Kiev, the golden. But there was one problem in the land of Rus. Its rulers had devised a political system that did not, and could not, possible work. The problem lay in the system of succession."
Chap. 2, p. 68

"'Perhaps. But your rulers of Rus are incapable of order. You can't deny it. The royal house is in chaos.'"
Chap. 2, p. 137

"He had been right about the Tatars: right in every respect. Everything had come to pass exactly as he had told those Novgorod merchants it would, a dozen years ago."
Chap. 3, p. 204

"Elena knew very well that the bad feeling between her husband and her father represented a deep divide between those who were behind the reforming tsar, and the old ruling classes, great and small, who disliked the whole tone of...