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The Russian Way of War
What can a famously controversial Russian field marshal from the era of the Napoleonic wars tell us about Russia’s depraved misadventure in Ukraine today? Quite a bit, once we peel back the layers of how context and political culture can radically shape individual leaders’ priorities and decision-making.
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LONDON – Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Golenischev-Kutuzov looms large in our understanding of Russia’s military, owing both to the paunchy, grizzled depictions of him in cinematic versions of War and Peace and to Tolstoy’s own literary portrayal of the man. For Russians themselves, Kutuzov is a mythical giant, a mammoth projection of the national id, as soulful and vulnerable yet solid and ultimately triumphant.