Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Russka:
1. Do you feel more knowledgeable about Russian history as a result of reading Rutherfurd's book? Did you come away with a deeper understanding of what makes Russia unique, particularly its violent and brutal history?
2. Rutherfurd uses stories of three families—the Bobrovs, the Suvorins and the Romanovs—to bring history to life. Did you find his characters compelling or fully developed as complex individuals? Were you able to follow the tangled family lineage through 1800 years? Did you find yourself referring frequently to the family tree diagram at the front of the book?
3. Were there particular characters with whom you identified more than others? Any who fascinated you more than others?
4. Which era(s) in Russia's history did you find most interesting or engaging? The era of the nomadic tribes? The rise of Moscow? The reign of Ivan the Terrible or Catherine the Great?
5. Some readers have complained about the number of pages devoted to historical events. Others felt that the historical writing is what makes the book so rich. What do you think? And are 945 pages too long...or just long enough?
6. Many have commented on the fact that Rutherfurd stops his novel after the revolution in 1917. Do you wish he had continued, covering Russia's horrific losses in World War II...or the cold war years and eventual fall of the Berlin Wall? Or was that not Rutherfurd's purpose? Why do you think he ended the book when he did? Did he just...peter out?
7. In this book, how does Rutherfurd develop the three major strains of Russian culture—orthodoxy, authoritarianism, and mysticism. What role does each of those influences play in the unfolding of Russian history?
8. Talk about the Old Believer peasants and their martyrdom during the reign of Peter the Great. What gave them strength?
9. The Russian people and their history have been described as backward and slow developing. The book shows Russian women, for instance, swinging their sickles from the 2nd century into the 20th. In what other ways has Russia been slow to develop?. And what factors kept the country from developing as rapidly as the cultures and nation states of Europe?
10. Talk about Russia's particularly violent history—the warring Alans, Tatars, and Cossacks; as well as self-immolation, torture and pograms. How have those events shaped Russia's identity?
11. What role does fate play in history, according to Rutherfurd's novel? Do individuals act upon events...or do events act upon individuals? Who or what shapes history?
12. What thematic and symbolic meaning might the opening chapter have with little Kiy's wandering through the forest searching for the bear cub his uncle promised him?
13. Did you enjoy this book? Does it deliver as a novel in terms of engaging its readers and a creating a level of suspense? Did it keep you turning pages? Was the ending satisfying?
14. Rutherfurd is frequently compared to James Michener. If you've read any of Michener's books, do you find a similarity, or not.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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