From Big Village to Global Power: The Thousand-Year Rise of Moscow, Russia's Fortress Capital
About this episode
The episode explores the historical transformation of Moscow from a provincial fortress to the capital of a vast nation, featuring insights from guest Simon Morrison.
When St. Petersburg nobility mockingly called Moscow a "big village," in the 19th century – a time when they lived in all the excess found in a Tolstoy novel -- they couldn't have imagined the provincial fortress would become the heart of a nation spanning eleven percent of Earth's landmass and eleven time zones. It had a long warm-up time to get there. For nearly a millennium, Moscow has endured Tatar Mongols, Swedish armies, Napoleon, Hitler, devastating fires that never stopped burning even in snow and rain, and the Soviet destruction of its sacred churches—each catastrophe reinforcing the city's identity as both glittering prize and perpetual phoenix rising from ashes. From the 1147 seizure of boyar Stepan Kuchka's land by Prince Yuri to Putin's current authoritarian rule, Moscow's history of autocracy, violence, and resurrection holds the key to understanding why liberal democracy has never thrived in Russia (and why some say it shouldn’t) and why most Russians simultaneously hate the Ukraine war yet believe it's justified. Today's guest is Simon Morrison, author of A Kingdom and a Village: A One-Thousand Year History of Moscow . We discuss how Moscow…
People in this episode
Host: History Unplugged
Guest: Simon Morrison
Topics covered
- history of Moscow
- Russian autocracy
- Mongol influence
- urban resilience
- cultural identity
- war and politics
Keywords
- Moscow
- Russian history
- autocracy
- Simon Morrison
- Ivan the Terrible
- Ukraine war
- Golden Horde
- cultural identity
- urban resilience
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Golden Horde
Books & works: A Kingdom and a Village: A One-Thousand Year History of Moscow
Places: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine
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