look at the cultural history of Russia from the early years of the Kievan Rus' to the state of the

Soviet Union at the time of publication (1966). The title refers to Billington's interpretation of
both spiritual/psychological conditions (the icon) and materialist/economic views (the axe).The
first section of the book covers the Kiev period and the psychology of landscape: plains and the
forest. After that is "The Confrontation" and how Russia grapples with European contact and
remnants of the Byzantine-Orthodox legacy. Third is "The Western Schism", which includes the
reforms of Peter the Great. Fourth is "The Century of Aristocratic Culture" from Catherine the
Great to Nicholas I, and the period after that, "On the New Shores", discusses the era of
tottering through reforms, political humiliation, and undercurrents of revolution. The final
segment discusses Soviet culture from the early avant-garde to its rebirth after the death of
Stalin.

Professor of History, Princeton University, a former Rhodes Scholar, guest lecturer on Russian
history at the University of Leningrad and exchange research professor at the University of
Moscow, the author has undertaken an interpretative history of the Russian culture, designed to
open up rather than codify information, designated ""as an episode in the common and
continuing quest for inner understanding of a disturbed but creative nation."" Professor
Billington has based his text in the main on a fresh reading of primary materials and on detailed
Russian monographs. He arrays his information and insights chronologically, following the last six
hundred years during which Russia has emerged as a powerful, distinctive, creative civilization.
Behind his study is the awareness of three elements in the Russian experience-- the natural
surroundings, the Christian heritage, contacts with the West. The icon and the axe, illustrating
the combination of material strength and spiritual exaltation in Old Russia and ultimately at work
in the new, offers a frame for a comprehensive consciousness of dynamic forces within the
culture. Rather than in military movements or the play of politics, Professor Billington appraises
the life of the spirit and of the arts for their influence on and reflection of the culture. He has
sought proniknevenie, penetration of the culture as of a blotter by ink, and it is Just this
permeating, absorptive effect he has achieved in a giant, amorphous landmass of a book. The
seriousness of his intent is attested to by seventy-five galleys of notes at the close of this
impressive volume which stands alone.