I hope this hasn't been answered, but as I could see the reading list only applies to modern Russian history.
I grew up in Russia and went to school there. I learned the history of the country in what I now see was a very mythologized fashion with lots of messianic claims and presented as a story of good vs evil.
Can someone recommend a book for each period of Russian history that they would feel best covers it? I'm less interested in books covering events from 1921 on because I feel I have a better grasp of them.
In particular the following times interest me: the early Russian state, the fall to the Mongols and the revolt against them, the Time of Troubles, the Napoleonic Era, the reign of Nicholas I with a particular focus on the reformist movements of the time, the terrorism in the late 19th century, and the early 20th century with a focus on the rule of Nicholas II and how it affected the country's fate.
Anything with a focus on political intrigue or the repressive/spying apparatus would be highly appreciated as well.
I'm not on very sure ground for the pre-Petrine era, so this list will cover the nineteenth century through 1917.
An excellent study of the Romanov dynasty is Richard Wortman's Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy from Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II, it's available in an excellent abridged form or the original two volumes. Wortman shows how the imperial institution evolved over time by examining its pageantry and symbolism.
Although it's a bit of a slog, The Tsarist Secret Police in Russian Society, 1880-1917 by Fredric S. Zuckerman would cover aspects of the tsarist secret police apparatus. On the opposite side of the equation, The Odd Man Karakozov: Imperial Russia, Modernity, and the Birth of Terrorism by Claudia Verhoeven examines the conspiratorial world of the first generation of Russian terrorists.
Alfred Rieber's Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia is a very solid history of Russian social and economic history. The anthology Between Tsar and People: Educated Society and the Quest for Public Identity in Late Imperial Russia is also a highly important text on Russian social history from a number of eminent scholars in the field.
Russian imperial expansion is covered very succinctly by Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800 by by Michael Khodarkovsky. The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History by Andreas Kappeler covers the vast heterogeneity of the empire's subjects. Both books combine accessibility and a novel interpretation of Russian history.
For the Revolution of 1905, I highly recommend Abraham Ascher's The Revolution of 1905: A Short History, which condenses down his two volume history of the events of 1905. Sheila Fitzpatrick's The Russian Revolution does a similiar job for 1917.