Top-­table clash

Intro:

End Times is crammed with striking facts and characters, such as the original useful idiot Savva Morozov, one of the richest men in pre-revolutionary Russia, who funded Bolsheviks, or the fact that Ukraine had per capita GPD in 2014 of just $7,400—around a third of Russia’s and half of Belarus’s. Turchin has a typically original take on the war in Ukraine, focused as you might expect on elite maneuvering. Few professional historians will have time for Peter Turchin’s grand theory, but his books is no less enjoyable for that.