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A Kingdom and a Village

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

An erudite and entertaining history of Moscow, a city whose rich past offers crucial insight into contemporary global politics

Moscow stands at the centre of a nation comprising eleven percent of the globe’s landmass, eleven time zones and nearly one hundred and fifty million people, some thirteen million of whom live in the capital. A Kingdom and a Village vividly brings to life Russia’s heart and soul, tracing its transformation from a ‘big village’ into a metropolis of vast geopolitical import.

It is a stranger-than-fiction arc. The last century alone has featured invasions and battles, the destruction and reconstruction of sacred landmarks, and the collapse of the Soviet republic – not to mention the rise of an authoritarian leader who is a keen student of Russian history. Morrison reaches back to the city’s founding as a fortress on a river nearly a millennium ago. In the following centuries, any number of external forces – from Tatar Mongols and Swedes to Napoleon and Hitler – set their sights on Moscow, bolstering its self-conception as a glittering prize and site of perpetual defence and resurrection.

Understanding Moscow not only unlocks the spellbinding mysteries of Russia’s past, but also the grim logic of its present. A Kingdom and a Village is an essential guide to a people and a nation.

'A marvellous book' HELEN RAPPAPORT, author of The Rebel Romanov

‘Every page pulses with individual stories and historical insights' MARK GALEOTTI, author of A Short History of Russia

‘Morrison is the perfect biographer of Moscow’ SHAUN WALKER, author of The Illegals

© Simon Morrison 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

A marvellous book ... It takes huge imaginative vision and a deep on-the-ground knowledge of Moscow, acquired over many years, to grasp the full dynamism of the city’s history. But Simon A Morrison has pulled it off. His ambitious, erudite account is vivid and compelling, a wonderful conjuring up of Russia’s great capital in all its beauty, fire and fury
Helen Rappaport, author of The Rebel Romanov
[A] sweeping, judicious and elegant history of Moscow from the origins of the city to the present day … Morrison is brilliant in chronicling, rhapsodizing and dissolving Moscow all at once
Times Literary Supplement
[A] monumental, sweeping book … as much a history of Russia over the past millennium as a portrait of a city
Sunday Times
[A] technicolour chronicle of Moscow
Economist, Best books of 2026 so far
[A Kingdom and a Village] abounds in details that will surprise even the cultural insider… a brave undertaking amid the ongoing war and the shifting boundaries of Russian studies
Literary Review
An engaging book … [Morrison] works hard and successfully lifts scenes off the page … The prose is a model of clarity
Spectator
The erudition of A Kingdom and a Village .... is matched only by its readability
Financial Times
Vivid and engaging … Morrison … brings [Moscow’s] streets to life
BBC History Magazine
As Morrison shows in his technicolour chronicle of the city, beneath the petro-funded sheen, Moscow is a domain of purges, paranoia and ravenous power. History has shaped its character; equally, as much as that of any metropolis, Moscow’s character has shaped history, both Russia’s and the world’s
Economist
A sweeping, near-encyclopaedic history ... [Morrison] immerses readers into the past so deeply, they can see, feel, hear and even smell it ... [An] engrossing biography of Russia's capital ... Morrison's narrative is filled with arresting historical nuggets which throw an unexpected lift on the present
New European
Author Simon Morrison
Narrator Curt Ford
Duration 15 hours and 49 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529947229
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre European history, Geopolitics, Social and cultural history
Availability AU, GB, IE

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