This is CBS by On the World. I'm John Bachelors. A life in war and peace Alexander Mika

Bavrize is the author of a new biography of Kutuzov, the general who's in the movies

given credit for defeating Napoleon from Moscow. In fact, that is accurate. Thanks to Stephen

Kodkin, however, there's much more irony in Kutuzov's biography, irony that goes part

way to explain the present Ukraine conflict and the battle of claims about who's being

attacked, who's attacking, what is the end result, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Belarusia,

and Russia itself. Professor, a very good evening to you. Thank you for this. We need

to begin with the very famous Kutuzov born in 1747 of what you describe as middling

nobility. What do we need to know about his childhood that he grew up to be such a hero

in the Russian memory? Good evening to you. Yes, great to be here. Thank you, John, for

having me on your show. The nobility was not usually distinguished in Russia by their

talent and education. They were nobles predominantly by birth. Some earned the status because of

a lifetime of service, but many of them were born into it. Kutuzov was different. He

was born into nobility, but he was educated. His father was an engineer and a soldier and

insisted that the son be properly educated. And in fact, Kutuzov knew not only a wealth

of the languages thanks to his father's guidance, but also mathematics and engineering and the

liberal arts. And so he was an extraordinary individual even before the military service

for which he's renowned. Yes, the military service is the time of Catherine

the Great and her war with the Ottomans. What is striking about Kutuzov is before he became

the famous general. He was a man who defied what you'd have to say is belief, not once,

but twice he was hidden the skull with a musket ball and he survived. Although he did have

wounds. I'm trying to a picture of what he looked like. Was he heavily scarred? Did the

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