Originally published on October 3, 2022 at 4:00 AM (Episode 284)
Introduction
Most of us know Mikhail Ilarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov as Tolstoy’s Kutuzov: the drowsy strategist who triumphs by not pretending he can control history. Generations of Russians have known Kutuzov simply by his patrynomic, and by his ubiquitous statuary presence in the middle of their city or town. Russian leaders, regardless of their ideology, have held him up as the savior of the nation since his death in 1813, after his great achievement of seeing off Napoleon.
But who was the real Kutuzov, apart from literature and continual memorialization? In Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace (Oxford University Press, 2022), Alexander Mikaberidze reconstructs the man behind the myth—his formation in late-18th-century Russia, his campaigns, and the long afterlife of his reputation, right up to the present.
About the Guest
Alexander Mikaberidze is Professor of European History at Louisiana State University Shreveport and Ruth Herring Noel Endowed Chair for the Curatorship of the James Smith Noel Collection. He is also the author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History (Oxford University Press, 2020), winner of the 2020 Gilder-Lehrman Military History Prize, and a frequent guest on this podcast.
For Further Investigation
Alexander Mikaberidze, Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, translated by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude (Everyman’s Library Classic Series, 1992)–for the literary Kutuzov, and the myth Tolstoy helped create
Suggested Links to Earlier Conversations
Episode 14 – Alex Mikaberidze on the world history of the Napoleonic Wars
The Third World War—Alex discusses his award-winning book on the Napoleonic Wars
Doing the Research (Alex on sources, methods, and craft)
💬 Listen & Discuss
Is Tolstoy’s Kutuzov a fair portrait—or a literary invention that reshaped history’s memory? Share your take in the comments and send this episode to your resident Napoleonic-wars buff.
