Russka Quotes

“as I said,I believe in fate.Things happen as they are meant to be.We just have to recognize our destiny.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: the Novel of Russia

“The answer to Russia's problems lies here, in Russia. . . . The church is the key. If Russia's guiding force is not religion, then her people will be listless. We can have Western laws, independent judges, perhaps even parliaments -- but only if they grow gradually out of a spiritual renewal. That has to come first.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka

“But, she smiled, it seems to me he has a warm heart.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka

“was curious, Andrei thought, how these Russians seemed to take pride in the cruelty of their rulers, even when it was directed against themselves. He had several times heard Muscovites speak admiringly of the terrors of Ivan: they seemed almost to long for his return. How different from the Cossack way. The Cossack warrior gave his hetman power of life and death over everyone during a campaign; but woe betide him if he tried to exercise any authority in time of peace!”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“Archimandrite and monks of the monastic community of Optina Pustyn for affording me an unforgettable glimpse of Russia.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“This book is respectfully dedicated
to those now rebuilding the monastic
community of Optina Pustyn.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“But even Peter the Great never dreamed of legislation like Stalin’s. To turn ordinary children into enemies of their own parents—everything in him revolted against that. The new Children’s Law was very clear, though. Any child who discovered counterrevolutionary tendencies in either parent should report him or her. He had grinned at the”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“Bloody Sunday”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“This attempt at famine relief. We should do nothing to help. Let the peasants starve. The worse things are, the more the tsarist government is weakened.” It was said quite calmly, without any anger or malice, in a detached, matter-of-fact voice.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“path to the old springs, which utterly delighted Karpenko. “How Slavic!” he cried. And then: “How pagan.” The evenings Dimitri especially enjoyed. For sometimes, while the others laughed and talked in the library, he would quietly sit at the piano and try out his own tentative compositions. It was on these occasions that he discovered a new and extraordinary feature”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia

“By this time, the Julian was already eleven days behind the Gregorian calender. But it was better to be a little late than to agree with the Pope!”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka

“Sviatopolk tenía la impresión de que ya no podía seguir odiando, pues el odio que se había nutrido con él año tras año, impulsándolo hacia delante como un cruel jinete que hinca las espuelas en los flancos de su caballo, había acabado por agotarlo.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka

“—Dicen —explicó el boyardo de Vladímir— que Alejandro ha dejado instrucciones a su familia para que le den Moscú cuando sea mayor. —¡Moscú! ¡Esa ciudad miserable! —No es gran cosa —convino el otro—, aunque no está mal situada.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Rusia

“From dawn each day the boats traveled, until their shadows grew so long that they joined each vessel with the one behind so that, instead of resembling a procession of dark swans in the distance, they seemed to turn into snakes, inching forward on waters turned to fire by the western sunset ahead. While on the bank, the last red light from the huge sky eerily caught the stands of bare larch and birch so that it appeared as if whole armies with massed lances were waiting by the riverbank to greet them.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka

“Gospodi Pomily: Lord have mercy.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Russka: The Novel of Russia