There are four books I would suggest for intelligent and accessible introductory surveys of Imperial Russian history. Firstly, Geoffrey Hosking's Russia: People and Empire 1552-1917 is a lucid and very intelligent examination of imperial expansion and the relationship of the empire to its subjects. Hosking argues that the Russian empire (rossiiskaia imperiia) was quite a different entity than the Russian people and this divergence grew into a yawning gap over time. Dominic Lieven's Empire: The Russian Empire and its Rivals does a yeoman's job of contextualizing the Russian Empire with its contemporaries as well as getting at the core of what exactly constitutes an empire. One of the most salient facts about the Russian imperial experience is the incredible ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the Empire. The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History by Andreas Kappeler summarizes the Romanov's attempts to resolve "national question," and how and why many of these solutions did not work. Finally, an empire is nothing without an emperor and Richard Wortman's Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy from Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II is one of the best summations of the evolution of the imperial institution and how it changed to suit the times.

A history teacher once told me about a nice book about a french reporter that toured Russia during the late XIXs. I will ask her about it as soon as I can.