Red Fortress

Starred review from September 23, 2013
An established author of several Russian histories, Merridale (Ivan’s War), professor at Queen Mary University of London, turns to what she considers the metaphor for much of that country’s beleaguered history—that is, the Kremlin itself. Using the Kremlin as kind of historical lens, Merridale begins her story with Russia’s obscure medieval origins, when a Viking tribe now known as the Rus invaded Slavic lands and began to lay the foundations of a culture and civilization with its indigenous peoples. We are then led on an extensive and meticulous journey through Russian history, which includes all the familiar giants on display—Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Lenin, Stalin—in addition to some lesser known but influential Russian dignitaries. How did each of these figures perceive Moscow’s red fortress (which dates from the 15th century), and how did each use it achieve their political ends? More importantly, how have Russia’s leaders taken a history that is often either “difficult, contested, or fragmentary” and melded it to fit the pervading ideology of the day? With thorough research, including rare access into the Kremlin’s dusty, permission-only archives, Merridale address these questions and many more to weave an insightful, fascinating tale. Four maps + two 8-page color inserts. Agent: Peter Robinson; Rogers, Coleridge, & White (U.K.).

August 15, 2013
Comprehensive study of Moscow's walled city, for centuries a byword for power, secrecy and cruelty. "The Kremlin's history is a tale of survival, and it is certainly an epic, but there is nothing inevitable about any of it." So writes Merridale (Contemporary History/Queen Mary Univ. of London), author of the excellent Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 (2006), casting subtle doubt on the claims of the Putin government and its assertions of imperial destiny. Glorifying the past, of course, is a way to take eyes off the present, though the stratagem can sometimes backfire. What is of central importance to the history of the Kremlin and, by extension, that of Russia, is the capacity of its builders to return time and again to scenes of utter destruction and start from scratch. Or not quite from scratch, since, as Merridale notes at the close of her book, Russians were recently delighted to learn that the workmen who had been ordered to destroy the Kremlin's Orthodox religious icons in the 1930s had defied Stalin's orders and instead painted them over; and so skillfully that the paint can (comparatively, anyway) easily be removed and the icons restored. Stalin naturally figures heavily in these pages, a ruler whose apparatus was extremely effective in delivering cruelty. What is just as interesting, and perhaps surprising to most readers, is the role of non-Russians in making the Kremlin over the centuries, from a Venetian master builder to German craftsmen fleeing the religious wars of their homeland--to say nothing of the Byzantine hierarchy to whom Russian religious leaders used to answer. Visitors of Russia and social historians alike will benefit from Merridale's thoroughgoing research and lively writing.

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October 15, 2013

This book is more than a biography of a building--one whose beginnings are hard to trace and which almost every major ruler in Russian and Soviet history has rebuilt or repurposed in some way. Merridale (contemporary history, Queen Mary Univ. of London; Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945) looks at the development of the Muscovy region and the Kremlin's growth in context of Russia's evolution. She discusses the architecture, purpose, and design of the Kremlin, which arguably predates the city of Moscow around it. She follows the intertwined paths of the region's history and the Kremlin's, using the Kremlin as metaphor for the spirit of Russia: constantly changing yet always stalwart and identified with glory and consistency. She transitions between historical period and influential characters of each era--from the tsars up to the 2010 return of two icons to the Kremlin, lost since Stalin's era--with facility while keeping her discussions of culture and politics rich without ever becoming tedious. VERDICT Highly recommended for anyone looking for a very readable, comprehensively researched, and open discussion of the influence and role that the Muscovy region, embracing both the Kremlin and Moscow, has had upon the Russian nation.--Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013
Churchill famously referred to Russia as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. If so, it is undeniable that many of the components of that riddle have unfolded within the red-tinged, forbidding walls of the Kremlin, the complex of buildings in Moscow that has been at the center of the Russian state apparatus for eight centuries. Merridale, a specialist in Russian and Soviet history who teaches at Queen Mary University in London, shows how much of Russia's often tortured, bloody history was due to top-down decisions by rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Stalin. She does an excellent job of integrating that history, the actions of the rulers, and the building and rebuilding of the Kremlin. From the inception of the complex, it seemed to reflect the desire of Russian rulers to convey a sense of both centralized power and stability. As Merridale illustrates, this was an illusion, since Russian and Soviet autocrats often exercised surprisingly limited control over a gigantic and often chaotic land mass. This is a well-done portrait of both Russian history and the Kremlin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)