The Conquest of a Continent

This epic of adventure, heroism, discovery, exploitation, and almost unimaginable cruelty is perhaps unrivaled in human history. It is a sweeping account of the conquest of a formidable landmass millions of square miles bigger than the United States, a story of tremendous human adventure, military exploits, economic power, and geographic discovery. A virtual continent, Siberia contains the world's wildest frontier and its richest storehouse of natural resources. From the. Time Attila the Hun stormed out of Asia to terrorize Europe, and the fierce Mongol chieftain Chingis Khan shaped an empire larger than the Soviet Union, here are the rulers, statesmen, explorers, and convicts who took part in the saga of the nations and empires that formed their destinies in the vast forests and steppes of Eurasia. The Conquest of a Continent brings to life entrepreneurs such as the Stroganovs and the Demidovs, founders of two great merchant dynasties. That dominated Siberia at the time of Peter the Great. It tells of the great explorers like Bering, who led the Russians to Alaska in a voyage that ranks as one of the most trying in the annals of the eighteenth century. It tells how Siberia became