The Real Story of Russia's Most Beloved General

Historian Mikaberidze (The Napoleonic Wars) offers an intimate portrait of Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, whose defeat of Napoleon’s invading army of 600,000 soldiers in 1812 “dramatically” altered the balance of power in Europe. Noting that Kutuzov appears in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Stalin’s anti-Nazi propaganda, and most recently, Vladimir Putin’s campaign to forge a new Russian identity, Mikaberidze claims that this “mythmaking” has obscured the real man. Drawing on Kutuzov’s letters and other primary sources, he masterfully sorts fact from fiction, detailing how Kutuzov, who was born into an aristocrat family in 1747, entered military school at age 11, served in multiple campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, and became one of Russia’s most brilliant and controversial generals.