A Kingdom And A Village – Simon Morrison

It also had a pan-Slavic element. Central Europe sought to deprive Serbia of its conquests in the Balkans—something Russia, with its centuries-old patronage of the Serbs, could not permit to happen. But the tsar, his government, and his armed forces were ill-prepared. The planned reorganization and modernization of Russia’s and Ukraine’s military districts had not been completed. Bureaucratic indecision and infighting during the summer of 1914 (the periods of “pre-mobilization,” “private mobilization,” and “general mobilization” for war) caused bewilderment and chaos.

Russian steelworks didn’t have the equipment for weapons production; the railroad network didn’t reach far enough to carry troops to the Eastern Front, much less over the Carpathian Mountains. The soldiers’ courage and zeal didn’t help them when their cartridges ran out. According to one of their commanders, Anton Denikin, “the armies of the Southwestern Front crossed the Carpathians” in December of 1914, “in severe frosts, snow blizzards, on steep, icy mountain slopes,” a superhuman effort that resulted in devastating defeat. The following spring, in the Subcarpathian town of Przemyśl, Denikin’s “Iron Division” found itself powerless against German mortar attacks.

“We could not respond, there was nothing…. Our exhausted regimes repelled one attack after another with bayonets or shooting at point-blank range…I felt despair and a sense of absurd helplessness.”[27] Defeated people scapegoat others. Russians of German heritage were bullied on the streets while rumors of treasonous aristocrats spread. Even as socialist factions went from backing the war to calling for peace, the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, anticipated a positive outcome: the fall of the Romanovs.

Ending “tsarist-monarchist chauvinism,” he declared, would cease the centuries-long repression of “Poland, Ukraine and a number of peoples of Russia” through the incitement of “national hatred” on behalf of a “barbaric government.”[28] The dynasty ended, but not the war. In fact, Lenin inherited it.

first edition published by alfred a. knopf 2026 Copyright © 2026 by Simon Morrison Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Morrison, Simon Alexander, [date]- author Title: A kingdom and a village : a one-thousand-year history of Moscow / Simon Morrison.

Other titles: One-thousand-year history of Moscow Description: First hardcover edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2026. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2025009191 | ISBN 9780593318454 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593318461 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Moscow (Russia)—History | Moscow (Russia)—Politics and government Classification: LCC DK601 .M5995 2026 | DDC 947/.31—dc23/eng/20250722 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2025009191 Ebook ISBN 9780593318461 Cover images: (top) The Basil Cathedral at the Red Square in Moscow (detail) by Philippe Benoist.

Photo: (c) Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Alamy; (bottom) Photograph by Mario De Biasi/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images. Cover design by Tyler Comrie penguinrandomhouse.com | aaknopf.com The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland, https://eu-contact.penguin.ie. ep_prh_7.3a_155595970_c0_r0 1kitap1.com/en CONTENTS Dedication PART 1: BEFORE RUSSIA Introduction: Tanya 1. The River 2. Ash 3. Plague 4. Third Rome 5. Ivan IV 6. Pretenders PART 2: SECOND CITY 7. Foreigners 8. Empresses and Thieves 9.

1812 and Reconstruction 10. Grand Theater 11. Zaryadye 12. Mystics of the Arbat PART 3: SOVIET CAPITAL 13. Revolutionaries and Counterrevolutionaries 14. Stalinism 15. The Metro 16. Swimming Conclusion: Neverland Acknowledgments Notes Index Illustration Credits Appendix: Image Description A Note About the Author 1kitap1.com/en For Elizabeth 1kitap1.com/en PART 1 BEFORE RUSSIA 1kitap1.com/en R INTRODUCTION TANYA ussia (rossiya) has never been called Russia, not officially. It’s been Holy Rus, the Tsardom of Russia, Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, and the Russian Federation but never just Russia.

That place doesn’t exist, except in the imagination, in a dreamscape of crime and punishment, war and peace, terror and utopia, Uncle Vanya and Doctor Zhivago. — Moscow stands at the center of a nation comprising eleven percent of the globe’s landmass, eleven time zones, and roughly 145 million people— some 13 million of whom live in the capital.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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