Description
Book SynopsisA full-life portrait of the man Tolstoy immortalized, Stalin lionized, and Russian history has manipulated and mythologized beyond recognition.Every Russian knows him purely by his patronym. He was the general who triumphed over Napoleons Grande Armée during the Patriotic War of 1812, not merely restoring national pride but securing national identity. Many Russians consider Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Golenischev-Kutuzov the greatest figure of the 19th century, ahead of Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, even Tolstoy himself. Immediately after his death in 1813, Kutuzovs remains were hurried into the pantheon of heroes. Statues of him rose up across the Russian empire and later the Soviet Union. Over the course of decades and centuries he hardened into legend.As award-winning author Alexander Mikaberidze shows in this fascinating, often startling, and wholly humanizing new biography, Kutuzovs story is far more compelling and complex than the myths that have encased him. An unabashed imperia
Trade ReviewAlexander Mikaberidze's new biography Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace does justice to a complex man * Andrew Roberts, The Telegraph *
Mikaberidze makes his subject come wonderfully alive. * Willard Sunderland, Times Literary Supplement *
Accessible and impressively researched, this sweeping biography unearths the real man behind a national symbol. Readers of European military history will be enthralled. * PublishersWeekly.com *
Mikhail Kutuzov has had more than his share of hagiographers and debunkers. Alexander Mikaberidze has produced a detailed, fascinating, and well-written biography of one of Russia's most famous generals that draws on an immense range of sources, conveys a sense both of the general and the man, and provides fair and considered judgments on the most controversial moments in his career. * Dominic Lieven *
Drawing on a vast array of sources and written in a lively, engaging style, Alexander Mikaberidze's biography of Kutuzov conveys the drama of the great field marshal's life and career, offering a sweeping panorama of society, politics, culture, foreign relations, and war in tsarist Russia in the age of the French Revolution and Napoleon. An impressive accomplishment. * Alexander Martin, author of The Holy Roman Empire to the Land of the Tsars: One Family's Odyssey *
Iconic military leader, trusted diplomat, skilled administrator, and loving family man Mikhail Kutuzov at last has received his historical due. Mikaberidze's sparkling prose, rigorous research, deep knowledge, and panoramic narrative free the field marshal from the mythmaking of earlier scholarship. At once erudite and riveting, this highly original account of Kutuzov's monumental life movingly conveys the drama, suffering, and endless striving that defined one of the foundational periods in modern world history. * Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter, author of From Victory to Peace: Russian Diplomacy after Napoleon *
Lazy, gluttonous, cunning, brave, pious, courtly, and coarse, Kutuzov enraged his detractors, enthralled his admirers, and strangled his enemies in silky webs of bureaucratic intrigue. He destroyed Napoleon's Grand Army in Russia, was intimately portrayed by Tolstoy, and later lionized by Stalin and Putin. He has needed a discerning biography since his death in 1813. Alexander Mikaberidze has given us one, at last. Kutuzov conveys the sweep, color, and controversy of the field marshal's epic life. * Geoffrey Wawro, author of A Mad Catastrophe and The Franco-Prussian War *
An authoritative biography of General Kutuzov strips away the layers of propaganda that have encrusted its subject since 1812. * New York Review of Books *
A biography necessarily focuses on individuals, but Mikaberidze's book raises questions an individual perspective cannot answer. * Gregory Afinogenov, New York Review *
Table of ContentsList of Maps Acknowledgments Author's Note Prologue PART I Chapter 1 A Boy from Pskov Province, 1747- 1762 Chapter 2 The Masters and the Apprentice, 1763- 1771 Chapter 3 At Death's Door, 1772- 1785 Chapter 4 "An Eagle from the Lofty Flock," 1786- 1789 Chapter 5 "The Gutters Dyed with Blood, 1790 Chapter 6 The Glorious Hero of Macin, 1791- 1792 PART II Chapter 7 The Envoy of Her Imperial Majesty, 1793 Chapter 8 At the Court of the Sultan, 1794 Chapter 9 Military Philosophe and Courtier, 1794- 1797 Chapter 10 The Wrathful Czar, 1796- 1801 Chapter 11 Walking the Tightrope, 1801- 1804 1 PART III Chapter 12 Confronting Napoleon, 1805 Chapter 13 The Glorious Retreat" Chapter 14 The Tale of Two Ruses Chapter 15 The Eclipse of Austerlitz PART IV Chapter 16 The Wilderness Years, 1806- 1808 Chapter 17 The Carnage on the Danube, 1809 Chapter 18 Call to Arms, 1810- 1811 Chapter 19 The Master of War, 1811 Chapter 20 Between War and Peace, January- June 1812 PART V Chapter 21 The Fateful Year Chapter 22 The Road to Borodino Chapter 23 The Hollow Victory Chapter 24 The Torrent and the Sponge Chapter 25 The Old Fox of the North" Chapter 26 The Turning Point Chapter 27 The Golden Bridge" Chapter 28 The Chase Chapter 29 The Great Escape Chapter 30 The Last Campaign Epilogue Notes Select Bibliography Index
