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Available
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Collection
Publication
Metropolitan Books (2013), Edition: First Edition, 528 pages
Description
"A magisterial, richly detailed history of the Kremlin, and of the centuries of Russian elites who have shaped it--and been shaped by it in turnThe Kremlin is the heart of the Russian state, a fortress whose blood-red walls have witnessed more than eight hundred years of political drama and extraordinary violence. It has been the seat of a priestly monarchy and a worldly church; it has served as a crossroads for diplomacy, trade, and espionage; it has survived earthquakes, devastating fires, and at least three revolutions. Its very name is a byword for enduring power. From Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin, generations of Russian leaders have sought to use the Kremlin to legitimize their vision of statehood.Drawing on a dazzling array of sources from hitherto unseen archives and rare collections, renowned historian Catherine Merridale traces the full history of this enigmatic fortress. The Kremlin has inspired innumerable myths, but no invented tales could be more dramatic than the operatic successions and savage betrayals that took place within its vast compound of palaces and cathedrals. Today, its sumptuous golden crosses and huge electric red stars blaze side by side as the Kremlin fulfills its centuries-old role, linking the country's recent history to its distant past and proclaiming the eternal continuity of the Russian state.More than an absorbing history of Russia's most famous landmark, Red Fortress uses the Kremlin as a unique lens, bringing into focus the evolution of Russia's culture and the meaning of its politics"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Clara53
The efforts involved in the writing of this book are truly admirable. Indisputable amount of research (judging by 65 pages of Notes at the end - showing where the information in the text came from) is certainly praiseworthy. The text is preceded by illustrations and maps. Sadly, in the advanced
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copy they were not yet in place, so I missed that. Kremlin is shown to be at the center of nearly the whole history of Russia, from its beginning as a state to modern day. I would say, it takes great skill to compress such a history into one volume, to soberly extract the focal points and make sense of it all, so by all means the author has to be complimented for that, in spite of the fact (and probably even because of it) that she comes through as no huge fan of anything Russian (and I say that with full intention to read her other two books on Russia - hopefully to prove myself wrong). At times, the book reads more like a scientific paper rather than a book. That way, it differs from books on Russian history by Robert K. Massie, who is a historian as well. Show Less
LibraryThing member fredbacon
For those of us who grew up in America during the Cold War, the Kremlin-specifically the Moscow Kremlin-was an enigmatic symbol of power. A fortress of red brick on Red Square in a red country. It housed a despotic power as secretive and opaque as its massive walls. The Kremlin was not just a
In Red Fortress, Catherine Merridale takes us on a tour through the history of the Moscow Kremlin and Russia, and what a tale it makes. At times it borders on Shakespearean tragedy. At other times, it's filled with the political scheming and blood thirsty savagery of Game of Thrones. Inside the walls have existed a succession of Orthodox churches, walls sheathed in golden icons celebrating the piety of the Russian saints and tsars testifying to their right to rule Russia. Outside of the walls was a city teaming with commerce and trade looking towards those walls for safety and command, but sometimes what they saw were the spiked heads and gibbeted bodies of traitors, or those suspected of treason, or those who just annoyed the tsar.
Built originally as protection against marauders, the Moscow Kremlin's basic size and shape was established in medieval times (although settlement there goes back thousands of years). It existed as a refuge for the noble (i.e. rich) families that ruled the city. The seat of national power lay elsewhere. Russia was a vassal state of the Mongol empire when the Russian nobility moved first from Kiev to Vladimir and finally to Moscow. The Kremlin came to house the ruling families and the Orthodox church in Russia.
Religion plays an important role in the shaping of Russia. The church could reach farther into the lives of the ordinary citizens than the secular authorities could ever hope to do. A close association between the church and the tsars was beneficial to both. For the church, it provided wealth and power. For the tsar, it brought legitimacy and a bond with his subjects.
The ambitious church leaders sought to make Russia the new seat of the Orthodox religion when Byzantium fell to the Turks in the fifteenth century. Moscow was to become the third Rome, the home of the true Christian religion set in counterbalance to the apostasy of the Catholic church in Rome. This lead to the marriage of Ivan III (Ivan the Great) to Sophia Paleologia, the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium. Their marriage cemented the role of the Russian church and nation as the continuation of the Byzantine empire and the true faith.
Sophia had grown up in Rome after her father fled the conquering Turks. But more importantly, she had grown up in Renaissance Italy. She brought with her to Moscow a love of Italian architecture, and, more importantly, actual Italian architects.
Moscow was a city of wood in a land of long, cold winters that dried the wood and made it a tinder box frequently ravaged by fire. The Italians brought stone and brick and slowly began to reshape the Kremlin. Beginning with Ivan III, the Kremlin became a show place of architecture and art, an ever changing carnival of palaces and churches which grew and aged with each successive tsar. It pulsed with life, continually renewing itself. Absorbing or destroying the old and establishing the new. It was a palimpsest-painted, erased and reused over and over-each time remade to glorify the power of the Tsar, the Church and Russia.
By the twentieth century, the Kremlin bore little resemblance to its medieval forebear, and yet it represented the changeless antiquity of church and state. Like the old joke about the hatchet that belonged to George Washington-it's head was replaced twice and its handle three times, but it had always occupied the same space-the Kremlin was the eternal embodiment of Russia-a symbol of the land and its people. Even before revolution swept away the tsars, historians and art collectors were campaigning to convert it into a museum.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over the Kremlin after the revolution. In a land torn by civil war, it offered some semblance of safety and security. Its walls and gates (damaged in the revolution) offered protection (and more than a little comfort) from the Whites and their sympathizers. When the Orthodox church asked to remove the body of the founder of the Chudov Monastery from his resting place in the Kremlin, Lenin denied the request and required that the coffin be opened and the remains examined to prove that the bodies of the saints were not incorruptible, that they were mere mortals. The irony is that with Lenin's death, his body was embalmed and put on permanent exhibit as if to show that he was incorruptible. What the churched claimed for its saints, but could not display was child's play to scientific socialism. Who was the true saint now?
By the end of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin was no longer the true seat of power. Krushchev, Brezhnev and later Gorbachev all used the Communist Party Headquarters (which lay outside the Kremlin walls) as their main office. Yet the Kremlin remained an iconic image of state power. When Gorbachev needed an office from which to address the Russians and the world, he had a fake one constructed in a television studio within the Kremlin. The richly panelled office contained banks of telephones as if to show that this was the nexus of the state, that Gorbachev was plugged into everything. Ironically the phones were plugged into nothing. They were mere stage props. Such was the power of the Kremlin. Its history gives weight to anything connected with it.
Ms. Merridale has written a sprawling epic history of Russia using the Kremlin as her central focus. Vivid and fast paced, the book zooms through nearly a thousand years of history, stopping to admire the art and architecture along the way. Red Fortress is an engaging book well worth your time whether you are well versed in Russian history, or a novice seeing the land for the first time.
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place, it was a symbol. A symbol of power, of ideology, of everything Russian. But this symbolic image of the fortress in the middle of Moscow was not unique to the Soviet era. Its origin lies in its long, storied and often bloody history. It's a tale of art and madness, religious and secular power, and continuity and ceaseless change. In Red Fortress, Catherine Merridale takes us on a tour through the history of the Moscow Kremlin and Russia, and what a tale it makes. At times it borders on Shakespearean tragedy. At other times, it's filled with the political scheming and blood thirsty savagery of Game of Thrones. Inside the walls have existed a succession of Orthodox churches, walls sheathed in golden icons celebrating the piety of the Russian saints and tsars testifying to their right to rule Russia. Outside of the walls was a city teaming with commerce and trade looking towards those walls for safety and command, but sometimes what they saw were the spiked heads and gibbeted bodies of traitors, or those suspected of treason, or those who just annoyed the tsar.
Built originally as protection against marauders, the Moscow Kremlin's basic size and shape was established in medieval times (although settlement there goes back thousands of years). It existed as a refuge for the noble (i.e. rich) families that ruled the city. The seat of national power lay elsewhere. Russia was a vassal state of the Mongol empire when the Russian nobility moved first from Kiev to Vladimir and finally to Moscow. The Kremlin came to house the ruling families and the Orthodox church in Russia.
Religion plays an important role in the shaping of Russia. The church could reach farther into the lives of the ordinary citizens than the secular authorities could ever hope to do. A close association between the church and the tsars was beneficial to both. For the church, it provided wealth and power. For the tsar, it brought legitimacy and a bond with his subjects.
The ambitious church leaders sought to make Russia the new seat of the Orthodox religion when Byzantium fell to the Turks in the fifteenth century. Moscow was to become the third Rome, the home of the true Christian religion set in counterbalance to the apostasy of the Catholic church in Rome. This lead to the marriage of Ivan III (Ivan the Great) to Sophia Paleologia, the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium. Their marriage cemented the role of the Russian church and nation as the continuation of the Byzantine empire and the true faith.
Sophia had grown up in Rome after her father fled the conquering Turks. But more importantly, she had grown up in Renaissance Italy. She brought with her to Moscow a love of Italian architecture, and, more importantly, actual Italian architects.
Moscow was a city of wood in a land of long, cold winters that dried the wood and made it a tinder box frequently ravaged by fire. The Italians brought stone and brick and slowly began to reshape the Kremlin. Beginning with Ivan III, the Kremlin became a show place of architecture and art, an ever changing carnival of palaces and churches which grew and aged with each successive tsar. It pulsed with life, continually renewing itself. Absorbing or destroying the old and establishing the new. It was a palimpsest-painted, erased and reused over and over-each time remade to glorify the power of the Tsar, the Church and Russia.
By the twentieth century, the Kremlin bore little resemblance to its medieval forebear, and yet it represented the changeless antiquity of church and state. Like the old joke about the hatchet that belonged to George Washington-it's head was replaced twice and its handle three times, but it had always occupied the same space-the Kremlin was the eternal embodiment of Russia-a symbol of the land and its people. Even before revolution swept away the tsars, historians and art collectors were campaigning to convert it into a museum.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over the Kremlin after the revolution. In a land torn by civil war, it offered some semblance of safety and security. Its walls and gates (damaged in the revolution) offered protection (and more than a little comfort) from the Whites and their sympathizers. When the Orthodox church asked to remove the body of the founder of the Chudov Monastery from his resting place in the Kremlin, Lenin denied the request and required that the coffin be opened and the remains examined to prove that the bodies of the saints were not incorruptible, that they were mere mortals. The irony is that with Lenin's death, his body was embalmed and put on permanent exhibit as if to show that he was incorruptible. What the churched claimed for its saints, but could not display was child's play to scientific socialism. Who was the true saint now?
By the end of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin was no longer the true seat of power. Krushchev, Brezhnev and later Gorbachev all used the Communist Party Headquarters (which lay outside the Kremlin walls) as their main office. Yet the Kremlin remained an iconic image of state power. When Gorbachev needed an office from which to address the Russians and the world, he had a fake one constructed in a television studio within the Kremlin. The richly panelled office contained banks of telephones as if to show that this was the nexus of the state, that Gorbachev was plugged into everything. Ironically the phones were plugged into nothing. They were mere stage props. Such was the power of the Kremlin. Its history gives weight to anything connected with it.
Ms. Merridale has written a sprawling epic history of Russia using the Kremlin as her central focus. Vivid and fast paced, the book zooms through nearly a thousand years of history, stopping to admire the art and architecture along the way. Red Fortress is an engaging book well worth your time whether you are well versed in Russian history, or a novice seeing the land for the first time.
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LibraryThing member Matthew1982
For a topic as formidable as "the entire history of the Kremlin and its role as a building and symbol for about 800 years", Catherine Merridale's book is surprisingly readable. Unsurprisingly, it features numerous famous and infamous figures from Russian history - Peter and Catherine the Great,
Given the scope of the timeline, some knowledge of Russian history is recommended - there are several references to events, concepts or people that are made once and not heavily elaborated upon. A reader who already has at least some grasp of these ideas should not have any problems with the references, while a reader who does not will be confused. Considering the building, its history, and the character of numerous Russian governments, gaps and shortfalls due to fires, government coverups, theft and long periods of neglect are inevitable.
The later emphasis on certain schools of art and architecture was somewhat distracting and raised the question of whether the book was intended as a history of the Kremlin building proper, or a history with an art and architecture study tacked on at the end. I do not know why this was done, but it seemed to drag the story out a bit towards the end.
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Ivan the Terrible, and so forth. It is also replete with interesting anecdotes and stories from various time periods, whether under the Riurikids, Romanovs, Communists, or the Yeltsin and post-Yeltsin era.Given the scope of the timeline, some knowledge of Russian history is recommended - there are several references to events, concepts or people that are made once and not heavily elaborated upon. A reader who already has at least some grasp of these ideas should not have any problems with the references, while a reader who does not will be confused. Considering the building, its history, and the character of numerous Russian governments, gaps and shortfalls due to fires, government coverups, theft and long periods of neglect are inevitable.
The later emphasis on certain schools of art and architecture was somewhat distracting and raised the question of whether the book was intended as a history of the Kremlin building proper, or a history with an art and architecture study tacked on at the end. I do not know why this was done, but it seemed to drag the story out a bit towards the end.
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LibraryThing member Artymedon
These are more reading notes than a review. The Rus are Vikings who go down river to settle around Moscovy. They are brought by the love of trade. They convert to Christianity. In the twelth century, the strong leader of Moscovy keeps seeing his kremlin destroyed; by fire, by invaders from the East
Seeing the way the Kremlin is built and how it will eventually destroy itself by the Law of Gravity, a leader named Ivan seeks alliance through wedlock in the mid-1450s, with the niece of the deposed Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
The bride is brough in a caravan of one hundred wagons. Coming along is a famous Italian Architect who teaches how to build with a ruler and a compas. Russians believe he is a sorcerer. He can never leave Russia.
The Orthodox church splits from Rome.
Moscovy has long become independent from the Khans of the Golden Horde.
All these event are brought to you by Merridale with a wide knowledge of all the cultures, religious feelings and the participants. She brings this Kremlin to life with great authority and it reads like a novel. You can feel and even smell the Kremlin through the ages. It is therefore a tumultuous meditation that reminds the reader that the Tarpeian rock is never far from this seat of power though the Russian State and its people show continuity and resilience.
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like the Golden Horde, or from the West like the Teutonic knights. Moscovy gradually extends its reach by capturing other towns by force and getting rich, especially after his capture of Novgorod. Seeing the way the Kremlin is built and how it will eventually destroy itself by the Law of Gravity, a leader named Ivan seeks alliance through wedlock in the mid-1450s, with the niece of the deposed Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
The bride is brough in a caravan of one hundred wagons. Coming along is a famous Italian Architect who teaches how to build with a ruler and a compas. Russians believe he is a sorcerer. He can never leave Russia.
The Orthodox church splits from Rome.
Moscovy has long become independent from the Khans of the Golden Horde.
All these event are brought to you by Merridale with a wide knowledge of all the cultures, religious feelings and the participants. She brings this Kremlin to life with great authority and it reads like a novel. You can feel and even smell the Kremlin through the ages. It is therefore a tumultuous meditation that reminds the reader that the Tarpeian rock is never far from this seat of power though the Russian State and its people show continuity and resilience.
Show Less
LibraryThing member chaz166
In Red Fortress, Catherine Merridale chronicles the cycles of growth, destruction, and rebuilding of the buildings within the boundaries of what is collectively known as "The Kremlin" over its 800+ years of history.
Providing truly incredible amounts of detail about the rulers, architects,
Merridale's bias towards archival preservation - the author's frustration at the destruction of historical buildings, the loss of priceless artifacts and records - while agreeably a lamentable loss of knowledge and insight into historical culture - nearly forgets that the Kremlin's constant witness to Russian history while holding close to its mysteries is what makes the site such a fascinating subject in the first place. The book reveals - despite the author's castigation of a recurring lack of respect for existing structures - how each era's rulers have pursued their own needs, designs, and purposes for this symbol of Russian power.
Providing truly incredible amounts of detail about the rulers, architects,
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sponsors, and builders of the myriad palaces, churches, defenses, and more functional government buildings, this book, while geared towards fans of architectural history (with obvious emphasis towards Muscophiles), can be read less as a volume of the evolution of a particular style but instead as to how architecture changes while its symbolism, its purpose, its use as a political tool, remains constant throughout major historical exchanges of control.Merridale's bias towards archival preservation - the author's frustration at the destruction of historical buildings, the loss of priceless artifacts and records - while agreeably a lamentable loss of knowledge and insight into historical culture - nearly forgets that the Kremlin's constant witness to Russian history while holding close to its mysteries is what makes the site such a fascinating subject in the first place. The book reveals - despite the author's castigation of a recurring lack of respect for existing structures - how each era's rulers have pursued their own needs, designs, and purposes for this symbol of Russian power.
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LibraryThing member RoseCityReader
Red Fortress is an accessible "beginners" history of Russia, using the Kremlin to frame 800 years worth of information. Catherine Merridale has an easy, almost casual style with her subject, sometimes engaging her readers directly, with sentences such as, "When I try to grasp what it was like to
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live inside the Kremlin during Peter's reign . . ." Her storytelling method makes for an enjoyable, quick read with plenty of anecdote and interesting bits. Show Less
LibraryThing member shortwaveboy86
Catherine Merridale's "Red Fortress: History and Illusion in the Kremlin" is a good entry point into Russian history, particularly if you are interested in the Kremlin as a place and a part of culture. Inasmuch as the history of the Kremlin is so intertwined with Russian history, Merridale is
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forced to address events and political structures outside of the Kremlin walls. If you are looking for a pure history of the Kremlin or an overview of Russian history, this is not your book. However, if you have a particular interest in the Kremlin and its place in Russian history, Merridale's work is a very good place to start. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookwormgeek
Catherine Merridale's "Red Fortress" is an extremely fascinating read. It offers a detailed account of the Kremlin site from it's earliest tribal beginnings through the fall of Communism. Merridale does a good job of providing an overview if Russian history, with a view towards how it affected the
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Kremlin compound. The history of the site seems to be that it is neglected and allowed to fall into ruin until the current regime needs it to score some political point. I found it interesting that most of the damage and destruction to the Kremlin over it's long history came mostly from the Russians themselves. I was disappointed the Early Reviewer's copies were without map, but otherwise I would definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in the history of Moscow and Russian. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kunikov
Catherine Merridale's 'Red Fortress' reads like a mediocre attempt at pop history. Unlike some historians who score a win with their rehashing of well known ideas, facts, and histories that's made accessible to a public eager for scraps of information historians find mundane and banal, 'Red
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Fortress' seems to be a failure on both counts. Merridale provides just enough information to make this text a chore for the average reader while avoiding any type of original conclusions or arguments. The usual suspects have their fair share of space devoted to them (Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, etc.) and while the Kremlin continually features as either the main 'player' or in the background of the narrative, it does so to the detriment of the story being told. Like those top-down histories that concentrate on kings and queens, politicians and diplomats, military commanders and revolutionaries, 'Red Fortress' ignores the periphery to concentrate on the center and adds little to nothing to the history of Russia while managing to omit much that made Russia what it was and is. As an introduction to Russian history this is a mediocre effort and unfortunately I can't imagine it being a useful fit for any other role. Show Less
LibraryThing member aadyer
Hard work, and difficult to engage with in the earlier chapters for me. I've read a bit of Russian history and yet I found this at times uninvolving and a little disappointing. However, the mysticism of the Kremlin does come through and one can't help be intrigued by the place, although I suspect
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the realist is more disappointing than the image. I found the latter half more accessible and certainly the chapters from Stalin onward and recent times were very good. This does feel very academic and dry and only really covers seeing the arc of history through the Kremlin glass and sometimes I wonder if the author loses some external perspective to provide Te limited view. Good, but not enough for 5 stars. Show Less
Awards
The Economist Best Books (2013.15)
Orwell Prize (Longlist — 2014)
Pushkin House Russian Book Prize (Winner — 2014)
Wolfson History Prize (Shortlist — 2014)
The Observer Book of the Year (History — 2013)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2013-11
Physical description
528 p.; 6.44 inches
ISBN
0805086803 / 9780805086805
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DDC/MDS
| 947.31 |