The City Research Guide

By invading Russia in 1812, Napoleon was upping the ante as never before. Once he sent his vast army eastward, there was no turning back: he was sucked farther and farther into the one territory he could not conquer. Trudging through a brutal climate in hostile lands, his men marched on toward distant Moscow. But this only galvanized the Russians, who finally made a stand at the gates of the city.

Gilyarovsky’s book documents pre-Soviet life in the Russian capital like no work before or since.

As capital of the largest country in the world, Moscow, has experienced both glorious and turbulent times. Home to the Tsars and the site of the Bolshevik Revolution, it has also persisted as a thriving centre for culture and the arts. This volume succinctly recounts this city's political, economic, and cultural history, spanning the rise and fall of Imperial Russian and the Soviet Union up to today's era of democracy.