Before encroaching on his writings on civilizations after his retirement Koneczny was basically a professor of history in Kraków and in Vilnius. This book dates from that period. He was a specialist on the history of Russia. He wrote a shortened version of this history (here in English translation) and several volumes of more detailed history, starting from prehistory to the year 1505 (death of Ivan III). His views on the later development of Russian history can be glanced only from this early volume which was first published in 1917, dealing with pre-World War I times. It was entitled “The History of Russia” but it was decided to alter the title to stress the pre-Soviet perspective and to underline that it describes well how Ruthenia changed in Russia.