Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Peter the Great
Book Review: A Rollicking good read!
Summary: 5 Stars
This, quite simply, is a book to really sink your teeth into...
I can't say I've ever had any special interest in Russian history but this book kept me riveted from start to finish when I read a friend's copy some twenty years ago. I purchased my own copy a number of years back and I have re-read it three or four times since. I expect I have a few good reads left to go.
I think the beauty of the book is the way that Massie makes Tsar Peter (and many other characters, most notably Charles XII of Sweden) come alive for the reader. They present themselves as real, frail and complex humans and not just the two dimensional, remote historical 'figures' one typically encounters in histories. The style of writing is also very fluid and descriptive and the many battles described in the course of the text are easily visualized. I enjoy a variety of military histories but I frequently find the details of troop movements and casualty statistics tedious beyond words. Not in this book. Reading about the battles is more like watching a movie in a very real sense...
I am not qualified to comment on the accuracy of the history itself, having read little else about Peter the Great or Russia in general during the period in question, but I was left with the definite impression that this book is a well-researched, scholarly endeavor. Ultimately, however, no matter the joy of learning about new things, a truly good book must entertain ... this book fits the bill!
C. John Thompson
Book Review: A Thorough Biography and World Picture
Summary: 5 Stars
With a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in the offing, it was natural that I was attracted to Robert K. Massie's thorough biography of the city's founder, "Peter the Great: His Life and World." The book's subtitle says a lot, for as a bonus to the story of the great tsar's life, Massie paints a picture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe that is invaluable in understanding Peter's moves and motives.
In "Part One: Old Muscovy," Massie provides background for Peter's rise to power. Peter was the fourteenth child born to Tsar Alexis. His first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, produced thirteen children "before the attempt to produce a fourteenth killed her." The two living boys were frail and sickly, and thus when Alexis married Natalya Naryshkin, it was her job to produce an heir, which she promptly did with the birth of Peter on May 30, 1672. In subsequent years, Alexis died and was succeeded by his sickly son Fedor, who died after a brief reign. Peter then became co-tsar with his half brother Ivan at age ten, but the true power of government fell to his older half-sister Sophia acting as Regent. When he was seventeen, Peter and a group of partisans seized power from the Regent, and Peter was named tsar, but for the first five years of his reign, he left matters of state to his cohorts while he enjoyed his freedom. It was in 1694, when Peter was twenty-two that his true reign began. By this time too, Peter had reached his full height, six feet seven inches, a head taller than most of his subjects.
"Part Two: The Great Embassy" develops Peter's interest in Western Europe, where he sent his emissaries and where he traveled himself, visiting Holland and England. During this period, Peter continued his interest in ships and ship-building and was not above taking up the shipwright's tools himself as his calloused hands proved. He was interested in all things western, including clothing and military matters. The regiments he raised and trained proved to be better soldiers than the Streltsy, Russia's first professional soldiers.
The long, drawn-out war between Russia under Peter and Sweden under the youthful King Charles XII, who was ten years younger than Peter, and who had himself become king at the age of five, is the subject of "Part Three: The Great Northern War." The war, which Russia eventually won, started in 1700 and lasted for twenty years.
In "Part Four: On the European Stage," Massie completes the coverage of the war with Sweden and a near war with England and charts another trip west taken by Peter, with visits to Prussia, France, and a return visit to Holland. This section of the book ends with the triumph in 1720 of the forces of Russia and its allies over the Swedish forces.
The final section of the book, "Part Five: The New Russia," celebrates Peter's many accomplishments, with administrative changes in the government, improvements in education, and the training of the sons of noblemen for service to the state. Also covered are the burgeoning of commerce and the economy, construction projects, the modernization of the Russian church, and generally bringing some of the institutional refinements of civilized society to St. Petersburg: museums, an art gallery, a library, and even a zoo. After one more military campaign led personally by Peter against the Persians, in which Persia ceded several provinces to Russia, Peter entered his twilight years. He arranged for the succession of his wife Catherine, whom he had married privately in 1707 and publicly in 1712. After a long illness, Peter the Great, Russia's most powerful tsar, died on the morning of January 28, 1725, in the fifty-third year of his life and the forty-third year of his reign, and his wife became Catherine I, the first Empress to rule the country.
Massie's very accessible narrative shows Peter to be a captivating historical figure, and his chronicling of events in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe is enlightening and easy to follow. At nearly nine hundred pages, Massie's book is a great book about a great man during great times.
Book Review: A Thrill to Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This book captivates the nature of a world that is not our own and sets it free in our hearts. Anyone who loves history will be thrilled by this book, the rest will be entertained by Massie's account of the Tsar's life. I've read several other accounts of Peter the Great's life, but this version is by far the most complete. The memories of each character leaves you with virtues that one cannot help wanting to duplicate in their own person.Book Review: A Tsar of Tsars
Summary: 5 Stars
I actually thought I was buying the TV movie about Peter the Great. My mistake. I gave it to another history teacher I work with.Book Review: A biography that reads like an outstanding novel
Summary: 5 Stars
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.