' This book is an exemplary summary treatment of Eastern European pre- and proto-history which will be of immense assistance to a wide range of readers, but especially to university readers. It ranges from the earliest human activities in western Russia to the Rus kingdom. The author has set out to use the longer time-span to reveal as fully as possible the wider setting of the early historic peoples, including the early Slavs. No other book in English covers this ground so recently and so well.' - The Slavonic Review.