The Kremlin

This authoritative, often shocking history explores how the famed Moscow fortress, with its imperial grandeur and terrifying past, has kept alive the spirit of the Russian empire.

Since the founding of Moscow almost 900 years ago, the Kremlin has been burned down by Mongol horsemen, occupied by a Polish army, looted by Napoleon’s Grande Army, 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, violent events have long taken place. It was here that Ivan the Terrible murdered his son and heir, where Peter the Great massacred his rebellious praetorian guard, where Joseph Stalin worked late into the night signing execution orders, and where his wife Nadezhda shot herself.

Since Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine the world has been treated to unforgettable images from inside the Kremlin. We’ve seen Putin sitting at the head of an unfeasibly long table with his guests banished to the far end, then we saw Putin’s security and intelligence chiefs seated before him like petrified schoolboys as they are called to stand up in turn to pledge support for his war, and finally, a joyful scene: an academic brings Putin a gift from the archives, a medieval map with no mention of Ukraine.

The Kremlin: Behind the Walls of Moscow’s Citadel 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 its imperial ambitions.