Have you ever experienced a feeling of deja vu while reading historical novels, monographs, articles? The events so described are reminiscent of what happened tens, hundreds of years before or after that. And that is happening right before your eyes. This book is about historical parallels. There are parallels in Russian history itself, parallels between long-standing events in different countries, and recent ones in Russia. For example, you will see how the epic with the annexation of Schleswig in Prussia resembles the Crimean events of 2014. The very history of Russia seems to be asking for such a parallel, often repeating itself both in small things and on a global scale: there were two Patriotic Wars in it - 1812 and 1941-45, and two very similar modernization breakthroughs - Peter's and Stalin's, and two catastrophes associated with the fall of empires - Romanov and Soviet. Of course, there are no absolute analogies, one hundred percent coincidence in history. Nevertheless, such historical parallels make it possible to better understand the internal logic of Russian ups and downs, to reveal missed opportunities, to rejoice at obvious achievements, to better understand the possible alternative to certain turning points in history.
