The Kremlin - by Alan Philps (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Since the founding of Moscow almost 900 years ago, the Kremlin has been burned down by Mongol horsemen, occupied by a Polish army, looted by Napoleon's Grande Army, and shelled by Bolshevik revolutionaries. From all these disasters, the citadel has been rebuilt to remain the beating heart of the Russian state.

But inside this grand citadel, violent events have long taken place. It was here that Ivan the Terrible murdered his son and heir, where Peter the Great massacred his rebellious praetorian guard, where Joseph Stalin worked late into the night signing execution orders, and where his wife Nadezhda shot herself.

Since Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine the world has been treated to unforgettable images from inside the Kremlin. We've seen Putin sitting at the head of an unfeasibly long table with his guests banished to the far end, then we saw Putin's security and intelligence chiefs seated before him like petrified schoolboys as they are called to stand up in turn to pledge support for his war, and finally, a joyful scene: an academic brings Putin a gift from the archives, a medieval map with no mention of Ukraine.

The Kremlin: Behind the Walls of Moscow's Citadel explores how the Moscow fortress, with its imperial grandeur and terrifying history, has kept alive the spirit of the Russian empire, and sheds new light on the rise of the Russian state and its imperial ambitions.

Review Quotes

"In this tale of intrigue and suppression, Philps, a journalist, investigates what happened when Stalin decided to allow the Anglo-American Press Corps into the U.S.S.R. between 1941 and 1945. Correspondents were installed at the once-luxurious Metropol Hotel, where they were feted, monitored and fed a steady diet of Kremlin propaganda."-- "The New York Times Book Review"

"The Red Hotel is a compelling and often horrifying tale of moral degradation and occasional heroism superbly told by a seasoned reporter, Alan Philps, who knew Moscow first-hand in the last years of communism. The shiniest stars in Mr Philps's book are the female fixers who were controlled by the secret police but managed against the odds to retain a modicum of their integrity."-- "The Economist"

"A riveting trip down the corridors of Soviet deception. Philps's book is almost faultlessly balanced between racy narrative and historical analysis."-- "The Sunday Telegraph"

"A vivid, intimate, and engaging account of foreign journalists confined to Moscow's Metropol Hotel by Stalin during World War II--and their relations with young women translators sent by the Soviets to spy on and assist them. Philps's fascinating narrative details the brutal suffering of innocent Russians and evokes dark parallels between Stalin and Putin in their obsession with controlling the flow of information at home."--Susan Wels, author of Assassin in Utopia

"An unsettling account of how a cadre of foreign correspondents in Moscow during World War II were pressed to acquiesce to the Kremlin's censorship. An authoritative history of the terrible ramifications of the silence about Stalin's lies."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"In a fascinating and surprising narrative, Alan Philps reveals the untold story of the foreign press and its struggle to circumvent the brutal censorship in Stalin's Russia to bring the true story of the brutality of life and war in the Soviet Union to the world. The Red Hotel unveils an untold tale of life on the Eastern front during one of the most titanic conflicts in human history."
--Laurence Jurdem, author of The Rough Rider and the Professor

"In The Red Hotel, Mr. Philps conveys Nadya Ulanovskaya's story in stirring detail, both her improbable adventures before World War II and the ordeals she experienced in the Gulag. Stalin's tight control of what could be reported--whether from the Metropol or elsewhere--didn't fool everyone."-- "The Wall Street Journal"

"Ostensibly the story of the Allied reporters based during World War II in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, the real heroes of the book are the female translators who at great personal risk sought to tell the truth about Stalin. A timely reminder of Russia's ambitions and desire to shape the historical narrative."--Andrew Lownie, author of Stalin's Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess

"Philps's book vindicates the value of truth, most of all by depicting the lengths that a rare few will go to share it. Yet Philps is also clear-eyed enough to show that truth will not always come out--at least, not easily, and not without cost."-- "The Washington Post"

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