Peter the Great

Rating:
Summary: IT DESERVED ITS PULITZER PRIZE
Review: Peter the Great is by far one of the most interesting figures of Russian history. To truly understand his life, one needs to understand the mentality, superstitions, and cultural norms of the Russian people during Peter's reign. Robert K. Massie accomplishes this task quite skillfully.

Peter was a strong, determined, and decisive leader with a clear vision of where he wanted Russia to be. Nothing stopped him from his path, not even his own son whom suffered the severest punishment imaginable for betraying Peter and vision of the future. Robert K. Massie has done an excellent job of making the reader understand the difficulties Peter encountered, the issues he had to deal with, and the obstacles he had to overcome.

I recommend this book very highly to anyone interested in history or historical biographies. Massie trully deserved the Pulitzer prize he won for this work. The book is quite comprehensive, and highly considerate of the reader. This book is THE Peter The Great book to read. It is well researched and documented, and gives you a thorough picture of Peter the Great in 855 pages.

Rating:
Summary: An incredibly riveting journey back in time
Review: This book is the best of all worlds in historical writing. It is powerfully written and so incredibly interesting that I found it difficult to put down. Never would I have believed that the story of one man's struggle to bring a country out of the dark ages and carry it almost single-handidly to the world stage as a power to be reckoned with could be so engrossing. Palace intrigue,war,empire building, it's all there and more,written in a style that has you wanting to read faster so you can get to the next page. If you haven't read this book one of life's true reading pleasures awaits you.

Rating:
Summary: A biography that reads like an outstanding novel
Review: I was ridiculed by my friends when I exited a bookstore with a copy of Peter the Great in my hands. Ridicule all they want but after reading this gargantuan book I was certain this was the best book I had ever read. Massie's description of Peter's life and of Russian society in the early 1700 bring to life ghosts long since gone. Massie brings history to life, the friendships, the deceits, love affairs, diplomacy etc. Massie's Peter the Great is much more than the biography of one man, it tells the story of a country's transformation from one of the most backward states of Europe to one of it's forerunners. It also explains in great length the going ons all over Europe in the time of Peter. Peter the Great, always interesting, always fun to read, reads more like a novel than a biography. That's one reason why I always recommend it to people regardless of wether the person likes or loathes history.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely outstanding.
Review: Being an avid reader, Soviet by upbringing and education and half-Russian/ half-Ukrainian by roots, I am absolutely astonished by the quality and sheer scope of this book written by an Western author. Very well written. Historical materials and documents used by the author make it very realistic and show that a human being and politics have little changed in a few centuries. It was interesting to find out that Russia had more contacts with foreign countries at that time that I could have imagined. Many details of the court life (both in Russia and abroad) give very human touch to the book. Huge thanks to Mr. K. Massie.

Rating:
Summary: Massie's insight into Russian history is remarkable
Review: "A foreigner cannot begin to understand and comprehend the mysterious soul of Russian people"--was the official dogma of the Soviet history and of Soviet Intellectuals. "Read Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoevkiy to get a glimpse..."--my teachers said. Well I say, read Massie's "Peter the Great". He dispells that myth. His insight into the customs and history of Russia is remarkable. (For example, nowhere in "War and Peace" will you find an explanation of inherent Russian alcoholism problem that dates back centuries). The author manages to give detailed account of the life of one of the most influential figures in Russian history in a way that reads like a novel, and yet when you are finished you know you have read a scholarly work.

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Summary: Brian Wayne Wells, Esquire Reviews Peter the Great
Review: This is a thoroughly readable book by the same authore who, with his wife-Suzanne Massie, first brought us "Nicolas and Alexandra" (1967). "Peter the Great" first appeared in 1980 and later served as the basis for the television mini-series of the same name.

Peter I, Czar of the Russian Empire from 1682 until his death in 1725, was a major influence on making Russia what it is today. Massie's book emphasizes this idea without falling into the trap of the "great man theory of history." With such a strong dynamic charater as Peter Romanov, it surely is tempting to overemphasize his impact on history by saying that the entire course of history would have been different had Peter not become Czar. This is the great man theory of history. This theory overlooks the fact that great men do not act in a vacuum. They act in concert with other people and in the light of certain events occurring independently during their lifetimes. It is enough to say about great political leaders, that they were successful in ralleying people and toward a particular goal which would might not have been accomplished as efficiently had a particular political leader not come along at a particular time in history.

Massie's book reads just like a novel just as "Nicolas and Alexandra" did. Yet the scholarship of the book is very much intact. Learning history and reading for pleasure become one in this book.

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Summary: Peter probably had ADHD and Tourette's syndrome
Review: The author concluded that Peter had a type of seizure disorder, however, his endless energy and inability to sit still are very suggestive of attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Many individuals with ADHD also suffer from Tourette's syndrome which is characterized by ticks and involuntary movements that they can control only to a certain degree. As opposed to true seizures, these involuntary movements can be suppressed by placing the individual in a less stressful environment or by going to sleep. True seizure disorders cannot be controlled at all and the individual usually loses conciousness at the initiation of the seizure.

The book reads like an action novel. Being born of Russian parents many of the situations descirbed in the book are very familiar.

Having a medical background and a relative who has a similar disorder it is quite easy to interpret Peter's problem. Tourette's generally begins in adolescence or a little earlier and can progress to a quite uncomfortable disorder, such as Massie descibed in Peter.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely outstanding book.
Review: I can't recommend this book highly enough. Robert Massie has the gift of being not only a first-rate historian, but a terrific writer. Peter the Great is more gripping than most novels I've read.

Massie gives you the feeling that you intimately know this fascinating historical character. He doesn't shy away from Peter's faults, but in spite of them we see why Peter the Great was such a heroic, world-changing man.

In addition, we learn that Russian history before and mostly after Peter is more closely intertwined with European history than we might have thought.

Rating:
Summary: The most insightful and riveting book on Russia I've read.
Review: Robert Massie is a great historian who is an even better storyteller. This book sets Peter's life in the context of Russian and European history in a way that makes all three come to life. Massie's account of how Peter confronted the dread of "Swedish steel" is especially fascinating. A must read for anyone who is interested in Russia, or who wants to understand the way the world works. Steve Godfrey ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing & Intimate
Review: To popularize the history surrounding Peter I of Russia is no mean feat. In fact, to popularize history at all leaves most historians at a loss. What is meant by "popularizing" in this instance is the accomplishment of mutating true history (with the attention to accuracy and research that is necessary) into a dramatic format that appeals to those outside the sphere of the scholarly historian. The author succeeds in this endeavor beyond all expectations.

Massie, who studied modern European history at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and has published three best-selling books on Russian history, has captured the "triple crown" with this work: (1) he provides accurate, even-handed, and exhaustive detail (2) about a compelling historical figure (3) in a suspenseful and enjoyable writing-style.

The book opens with a stunning description of Moscow at the time that Peter's father, Alexis, ascends the throne. Adequately placed in this rich setting, the author takes us through Peter's childhood. Massie argues that the future Peter was brought into existence by the fortuitous fact that he was not the first in line for the throne, and therefore was not leashed by the upbringing expected of a future Tsar during his minority. Peter was free to eschew the religious and scholarly training that was given to his older half-brother Ivan V in favor of the practical trades and skills that became his (and therefore, his country's) life-long interests.

There are many examples within the work that illustrate Massie's balanced handling of historical contradictions. One example that is indicative of this is the description of Peter's half-sister and regent Sophia. Conventional wisdom labels Sophia as ambitious, ruthless, and more like a man than a woman in both temperament and appearance. In his memoirs, a French ambassador calls Sophia ugly and fat, with hairs on her face and tumors on her legs. Massie reasons how this was probably not an accurate portrait of the woman. First, the French ambassador visited Moscow during the end of Sophia's reign, when Russia had aligned itself with Austria, France's enemy during that time. Secondly, the author is skeptical that the French ambassador would have ever seen Sophia's legs to make such an observation. And lastly, Massie argues, if Sophia had been so hideous, other visitors to her court would have certainly said so, and there is no other account in existence that describes Sophia in such a way. This is an illustrative example of the even-handed manner in which Massie handles all people inhabiting Peter's world, with an exhaustive examination of the evidence, but also with a firm grasp on how primary sources can be skewed for other purposes besides historical accuracy.

The "meat" of this 900-page epic centers around The Great Northern War, as it should, since the majority of Peter's reign was spent overseeing this monumental conflict. The middle-third of the book is by far the most entertaining, as Massie expertly builds a slow crescendo of suspense that explodes at the Battle of Poltava, perhaps the single-most important event in Peter's reign, both for Russia as well as for Sweden. Massie gives a sizeable helping of information concerning Peter's counterpart Charles XII, as equally compelling a figure as Peter himself. In fact, the work bounces back and forth between the Russian and Swedish camps during this conflict as effectively as any Tom Clancy novel.

But it is not just the generous treatment of Peter and Russia that makes this such an excellent work. We meet all of Peter's contemporaries, including Leopold I of Austria, Louis XIV of France, William of Orange, Augustus I of Poland, Frederick William I of Prussia, and the many sultans (and their viziers) that ruled the Ottoman Empire. These personages are introduced within their historical contexts, with a concise exposition of their countries and recent histories. (Massie spends eight pages describing Louis XIV and Versailles for the reader, even though Peter never actually meets the Sun King and does not travel to Paris until the reign of the boy-king Louis XV.) These peripheral details make the work entertaining to the casual reader and, at the same time, invaluable to the novice historian.

The most moving episode comes toward the end of the book with the description of Peter's relationship with his son and heir Alexis. Massie leans just a bit in the direction of Alexis as the sympathetic figure in this drama, but refuses to speculate about the mysterious circumstances surrounding Alexis' death in prison after he had been sentenced to die for treason. (Some believe that Alexis was killed in private to spare Peter the infamy of publicly executing his own son.) This is another example of Massie's even-handedness; the evidence either way is not there, and Massie does not invent it nor does he extrapolate false conclusions.

In the last paragraph of the book, Massie furnishes his conclusion concerning his subject: "[Peter] has been idealized, condemned, analyzed again and again, and still ... he remains essentially mysterious. One quality which no one disputes [however] is his phenomenal energy. He was a force of nature, and perhaps for this reason no final judgment will ever be delivered." The judgment made here, however, is that those wishing to learn more about Peter and his world could hardly begin in a better place than with this enjoyable epic.