The Kremlin

A portrait of the Kremlin from Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin, that reveals the palace to be an embodiment of Russia's imperial identity for tsars and commissars alike.



Since the founding of Moscow almost 900 years ago, the Kremlin has been burnt down by Mongol horsemen, occupied by a Polish army, looted by Napoleon's Grande Armée, and shelled by Bolshevik revolutionaries. From all these disasters, the citadel has been rebuilt to remain the beating heart of the Russian state; but inside this grand citadel, ugly events have long taken place.



Alan Philps brings readers inside the Kremlin at key points in history: to meet Napoleon brooding over his march on Moscow, to witness Stalin charming Churchill, and Putin rising the political ranks. Each chapter focuses on an event or location in the Kremlin, or a person who lived there - and highlights how some rulers sought to embed themselves in the Kremlin, whilst others strove to distance themselves from the ghosts that stalked its corridors.



Taking the narrative up to the present day, The Kremlin explores how the Moscow fortress, with its imperial grandeur and terrifying history, has kept alive the spirit of the Russian empire, and sheds new light on the rise of the Russian state and the roots of the centuries-old rivalry between Moscow and Kyiv that led Putin to go to war against Ukraine in 2022.