The March of Muscovy: Ivan the Terrible and the Growth of the Russian Empire, 1400-1648

by Harold Lamb, Maps on End Papers (Illustrator)

History.A very nice vintage collector's item. Number #H3158. Originally 60 cents.

Genres: History, Russia, World History

309 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Harold Albert Lamb was an American historian, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist.

Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harold Lamb's survey of the founding of Russia is full of insights and irony. I learned how Muscovy and the Rus heritage turned Russia into the largest land mass country based on river military conquest, incremental migration, and resettlement strategies. The Ukrainian melting pot of the 1600's and settlement of Crimea in the early 1700's provides important perspectives into the Russian revanchist interests of today.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first exposure to Harold Lamb and I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed with his writing style. He ability to capture the details without overwhelming the reader with a monotony of facts is superb. Anyone who wants to gain a quick background on the context which has given is modern day Russia, should consider reading this.

[Joshua Hartshorne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative historical documentation of the rise of Muscovy although a bit long winded and dry nonetheless provides well researched information into an extremely interesting and underrated period of Eastern European history.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up till now, my only experience with Harold Lamb was through the exciting and colorful (some might even say lurid) covers of his Ballantine paperbacks published in the fifties and sixties. These historical biographies of the great men of antiquity through the middle ages often took for their subject men who at first glance may not have been as familiar to Western readers--Babur the Tiger, Cyrus the Great, and Tamerlane: Conqueror of the earth, to name a few, though there were also other, household names (Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men, Alexander of Macedon, and Hannibal: One Man Against Rome) as well. As a young fellow, I was fascinated by these titles (and their covers), but for whatever reason, I never got around to reading any of them, nor any of his other historical subject, such as the Crusades, or the City of Constantinople.

MARCH OF MUSCOVY probably wouldn't have been my first choice of his catalog, but I found it at an estate sale, and the memory of all those splashy covers done in what passed for the epic style in the mid-fifties flashed through my mind, and I finally decided that it was time I gave Lamb a try.

Lamb's style (and I'd bet dollars to doughnuts he stays fairly consistent throughout all his books) is straightforward--he isn't a scintillating wordsmith, but he's got a compelling story to tell, and his competent and workman-like prose is effective enough. Workman-like may sound like an insult but it's not--I wish there were a lot of other non-fiction writers that could write at least that well. Besides, this was written in a time when it wasn't the historian we bought the book for, but the subject. MARCH OF MUSCOVY sets out to tell exactly the story that the subtitle refers to: IVAN THE TERRIBLE AND THE GROWTH OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, 1400-1648. First, though, some background information is needed, and Lamb explores the makeup of the people and the terrain of what later became Russia, starting around 1200 CE, and then how the Muscovites were finally able to free themselves from Tartar control. The chapter concerning Ivan is about a third of the book; Ivan is important because he solidified the idea of a Tsar of all Russia, situated at Moscow, and initiated the drive East toward Siberia. The last chapters deal with the colonization of Eastern Russia and Siberia, up until the reign of Peter the Great. (Interesting how Russia's expansion East mirrored America's expansion West, to a certain degree.)

This is an excellent general survey of the time and place, and of some of the more notable figures involved in the beginning of this empire. It is refreshing to me to read a history book with no axes to grind, no desire to 'correct' previous interpretations, no blatant revisionism to serve an agenda. I would say that this is the specific sort of historical account that so many modern historiographers have rebelled against; but the problem with these newer accounts, to my mind at least, is that smaller events and more marginal populations can sometimes be given a greater role than they warrant by historians who want to provide fresh perspectives; or else in their desire to prove a point about our contemporary life, they highlight aspects of the past out of all proportion to their importance, in order to make a specific connection to our world today. I get lost, sometimes, in the minutiae--it's important to me to have a grounding in the general arc of events before I dive into specifics, and books like MARCH OF MUSCOVY give me just that.

This is an all ages account--it would have been perfect for me as that younger fellow, as I enjoyed history as much then as now. There is enough excitement and novelty in the account to keep interest from flagging, but I think it is important to note that this was written for people with reasonable attention spans. If Bill O'Reilly is your idea of an effective and entertaining historian, then Lamb is probably not for you. On the other hand, while he isn't quite as talented as she is, if you've enjoyed Barbara Tuchman's work before, then Lamb will surely satisfy. I look forward to reading more of his work, whether it be those with the splashy covers or no.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far the book is really a history of the town of Moscow. I am hoping it changes a bit more towards a biography of Ivan the Terrible. :)

This book talks about one of the most interesting economic warefares I have read about. Moscow started out as a city and ended up becoming Russia. Much of the control was established bit by bit through economic means. Russians moved out of Moscow and into towns along the river Volga and ended up outnumbering the original inhabitants. The tax gatherers and administrators out of Moscow followed hard on their heels. Whole towns and stretches of the river were conquored in this fashion.

Ivan the Terrible is dealt with more towards the middle of the book and even after his death his legacy overshadows the rest of the book. He is terrible not as in bad, but as in awesome and dread toward the enemies of Moscow. The common people loved him. Well versed in the Bible but living not by its best precepts and ideals. He was responsible for murder and torture and frankly though very clever was an evil and unhappy man.

The spread of Moscow to the east is interesting in that it was not planned by Moscow but was a result of people moving out to the East searching for economic gain and freedom from high taxes. However, the tax collectors from Moscow followed and they never quite were able to escape the rule of Moscow in the end.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible story indeed-the story of the expansion of Russia from the small town of Moscow in 1200 eastwards across northern Asia, from 1400-1700.
At the center of the story is Ivan IV, better known as "The Terrible." He was brutal as well as religious, but he did little to push the Russians to the east. He won a great victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Kazan, but then lost Moscow to a Tatar attack which destroyed the city.
By the end of the story, the Russians had pushed east only to run up against the Manchus in China, but they also crossed the Bering Strait to begin the colonization of Alaska. As I said, an incredible story...