
Founded in 1147, Moscow was for much of its early history in thrall to other nations
- to the Khans, the Tartars & the Poles. The city was devastated by fire time & again, but with each rebuilding, it grew ever more magnificent. For every church that was destroyed, it seemed that two more were built. In this evocative & fascinating anthology, Moscow`s turbulent growth is recorded through the voices of visitors & residents: Peter the Great`s bloody reprisals after the revolt of the streltsy in 1698; a visit to the city`s brothels by medical students in the 1890s; Kutuzov abandoning Moscow to Napoleon in 1812, & Napoleon`s ignominious retreat from the burning city; Pushkin railing against the mindlessness of 1830 society; the flowering of literary greatness in the ninenteenth century & of the Moscow Art Theatre in the twentieth; & the dazzling profusion of jewels in the Treasury of the Kremlin. These & many other milestones in over seven hundred years of history are brought vividly to life.