From Big Village to Global Power: The Thousand-Year Rise of Moscow, Russia's Fortress Capital

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When St. Petersburg nobility mockingly called Moscow a "big village," in the 19th century – a time when they lived in all the excess found in a Tolstoy novel -- they couldn't have imagined the provincial fortress would become the heart of a nation spanning eleven percent of Earth's landmass and eleven time zones. It had a long warm-up time to get there. For nearly a millennium, Moscow has endured Tatar Mongols, Swedish armies, Napoleon, Hitler, devastating fires that never stopped burning even in snow and rain, and the Soviet destruction of its sacred churches—each catastrophe reinforcing the city's identity as both glittering prize and perpetual phoenix rising from ashes. From the 1147 seizure of boyar Stepan Kuchka's land by Prince Yuri to Putin's current authoritarian rule, Moscow's history of autocracy, violence, and resurrection holds the key to understanding why liberal democracy has never thrived in Russia (and why some say it shouldn’t) and why most Russians simultaneously hate the Ukraine war yet believe it's justified.

Today's guest is Simon Morrison, author of A Kingdom and a Village: A One-Thousand Year History of Moscow. We discuss how Moscow transformed from tax collector for the Golden Horde – basically a vassal of a daughter state of the Mongol empire -- into Russia's capital through Ivan the Terrible's brutal consolidation of power. We also see why Moscow was the world's most flammable city with a thriving network of Home Depot-like rebuilding businesses, and how the city's French-speaking nineteenth-century nobility created the cultural duality Tolstoy critiqued in War and Peace. Russia's geographic determinism—vast open borders requiring an autocratic "iron hand"—means the nation has lurched from one tyranny to another, never achieving the civil society and free press Americans take for granted.

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0:34.7	It's going to hear with another episode of the History on Plug Podcast.
0:40.0	When St. Petersburg nobility,
0:45.2	mockingly called Moscow a big village, which they did in the 1800s at a time when they lived in all the excess found in a Tolstoy novel, they could imagine that this provincial city would
0:51.1	become the heart of a nation spanning 11% of Earth's landmass and 11 time zones.
0:55.8	It had a long warm-up time to get there.
0:58.1	For nearly a millennium, Moscow had endured Mongol raids, Swedish armies, Napoleon, Hitler,
1:03.1	and devastating fires that never stopped burning even in snow or rain and the Soviet destruction of its sacred churches.
1:09.6	Each catastrophe reinforced the city's identity as a prize to be won and like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
1:16.3	It started in 1147, where Prince Yuri seized the land of Boyar, Stephen Kuchka, and has continued on to Putin's war with Ukraine.
1:24.6	Moscow's history of autocracy, violence, and resurrection helps explain why a liberal
1:29.0	democracy has never thrived in Russia, and why some say it shouldn't, and why most Russians
1:34.1	simultaneously hate the Ukraine war, yet believe it's justified. Today's guest is Simon Morrison,
1:39.0	author of A Kingdom and a Village, a 1,000-year history of Moscow. We discuss how Moscow transformed from tax collector for the Golden Horde, basically a vassal, and a village, a 1,000-year history of Moscow. We discussed how Moscow transformed from
1:44.9	tax collector for the Golden Horde, basically a vassal of a daughter's state of the Mongol Empire,
1:50.4	into Russia's capital through Ivan the Terrible's brutal consolidation of power. We also see why
1:55.3	Moscow was a world's most flammable city, with a thriving network of Home Depot-like rebuilding
	...

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