Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great. He brought Russia from the darkness of its own Middle Ages into the Enlightenment and transformed it into the power that has its legacy in the Russia of our own century.
Peter the Great is an elegantly-written work which not only provides abundant and overflowing information about the "great" man, but also transports the reader into the world of late 17th century and early 18th century Russia. The author presents his subject, Peter the Great, as a "real person", one with both inspiring qualities and with less than inspiring qualities. For example, the details about the military illustrate Peter's great attention to the creation of a navy from scratch and of the development of an army that went on to rival the greatest in the world.
Russia