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Kutuzov - A Life in War and Peace (Hardcover)
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Kutuzov - A Life in War and Peace (Hardcover)
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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 Napoleons Grande Armee 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 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 careermarked equally by victory and defeat,
embrace and ostracism-he grew to despise those whose concept of war
had devolved to mindless attack. Here, at last, is Kutuzov as he
really was-a 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
Napoleons 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 Tolstoys 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.
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