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Kutuzov

A Life in War and Peace

Alexander Mikaberidze

$68.95

Hardback

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English
Oxford University Press
24 November 2022
A 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 Napoleon's 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, Kutuzov's 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, Kutuzov's story is far more compelling and complex than the myths that have encased him. An unabashed imperialist who rose in the ranks through his victories over the Turks and the Poles, Kutuzov was also a realist and a skeptic about military power. When the Russians and their allies were routed by the French at Austerlitz he was openly appalled by the incompetence of leadership and the sheer waste of life. Over his long careerDLmarked equally by victory and defeat, embrace and ostracismDLhe grew to despise those whose concept of war had devolved to mindless attack.

Here, at last, is Kutuzov as he really wasDLa master and survivor of intrigue, moving in and out of royal favor, committed to the welfare of those under his command, and an innovative strategist. When, reluctantly and at the 11th hour, Czar Alexander I called upon him to lead the fight against Napoleon's invading army, Kutuzov accomplished what needed to be done not by a heroic charge but by a strategic retreat. Across the generations, portraits of Kutuzov have ranged from hagiography to dismissal, with Tolstoy's portrait of him in War and Peace perhaps the most indelible of all. This immersive biography returns a touchstone figure in Russian history to human scale.
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 163mm,  Width: 237mm,  Spine: 55mm
Weight:   1.270kg
ISBN:   9780197546734
ISBN 10:   0197546730
Pages:   384
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Alexander Mikaberidze is Professor of History and Ruth Herrin Noel Endowed Chair at Louisiana State University-Shreveport. He holds a degree in international law from Tbilisi State University and a Ph.D. in history from Florida State University. An expert on the Napoleonic Wars, Dr. Mikaberidze has written and edited over two dozen books, including multi-volume series on the Russian eyewitness accounts of the Napoleonic Wars and a trilogy on the decisive moments of the Russian Campaign of 1812: Napoleon versus Kutuzov: The Battle of Borodino (2007), Napoleon's Trial by Fire: The Burning of Moscow (2014) and Napoleon's Great Escape: The Battle on the Berezina (2010). His latest book, on the global impact of the Napoleonic Wars, is The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History (2020). He is currently one of the editors of the multi-volume Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars.

Reviews for Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace

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 *


  • Winner of Winner, 2023 Distinguished Book Award in the Biography and Memoirs category, Society for Military History.
  • Winner of Winner, 2023 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Awards, Biography and Memoirs category.

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