Weds 4/29 @ 6:00PM
Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street

Simon Morrison discusses his new book with Renata Kapilevich. A Kingdom and a Village is an erudite and entertaining history of Moscow, a city defined by its survival and reinvention, and whose rich history offers crucial insight into contemporary global politics

The city of Moscow stands at the center of a nation comprising eleven percent of the globe’s landmass, 11 time zones, and nearly 150 million people, some 13 million of whom live in the capital. In A Kingdom and a Village, acclaimed historian Simon Morrison offers a vividly rendered history of Russia’s heart and soul, tracing its transformation from a “big village”—the demeaning nickname the St. Peterburg nobility gave to its provincial neighbor—into a spectacular metropolis of vast geopolitical import.

That arc is the stuff of dramatic, violent, stranger-than-fiction historical narrative: the last century alone has featured invasions and costly battles, the destruction (and reconstruction) of sacred cultural and religious landmarks, and the collapse of the Soviet republic—not to mention the rise of an authoritarian leader who is a keen student of Russian history.  Drawing on a rich array of archival materials, from the birchbark scrawls that record the oldest layer of Russian civilization to the articles in European newspapers heralding the opening of the magnificent Bolshoi Theater, Morrison brings to life the bloody power struggles; cultural marvels; excruciating famines, droughts, storms, and fires that have shaped and reshaped the city and reinforced its essential character.

With A Kingdom and a Village, Morrison makes a persuasive, even impassioned case that to understand Moscow is not only to unlock the mysteries of Russia’s past but also, critically, to grasp the grim logic of its present. It is a magisterial biography of a place and an essential guide to a people and a nation.

Simon Morrison is a professor of music and Slavic languages and literatures at Princeton University. He is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and London Review of Books and has written for Time, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and holds a PhD from Princeton University.

Renata Kapilevich is a classically trained vocalist, arts educator, and communications strategist who brings a performer’s perspective to arts leadership and storytelling. She holds a degree in Vocal Performance from Westminster Choir College and a Master’s degree in Vocal Pedagogy from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. As a singer, she has performed on stages including Carnegie Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, David Geffen Hall, and Madison Square Garden.

Renata’s career spans performance, arts education, and communications at leading cultural institutions. At the Metropolitan Opera, she served as Press Officer, managing media relations and developing press coverage for productions, artists, and major initiatives including the Met’s Live in HD broadcasts and education programs. She currently serves as Engagement Manager for the Princeton University Department of Music, where she leads the department’s marketing and communications strategy. In this role, she oversees digital and print initiatives, promotes the department’s academic and performance programs, and develops new projects that strengthen connections between students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community.