This deceptively simple book pulls off a nearly impossible task. It tells the story of Peter the Great and the different, complex worlds in which he lived-from the Moscow of the boyars to the Greenwich observatory to the shipyards of Zaandam and Amsterdam. Bushkovitch brings to life both Peter and the entire Russian court in their encounter with Europe beyond Poland, Sweden, and Denmark. Scottish doctors, English astronomers, Italian architects, French garden designers, Ukrainian clerics, and German engineers all take their turn in bringing Peter and his family into an ever-wider orbit. Most remarkable is the balance of deft, vivid character sketches with a sophisticated analysis incorporating the latest research. Bushkovitch manages to distill decades of scholarship and reflection into a single short volume. Thus this is not only an introduction to Peter and to Russia in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but to the state of the field.
Nadieszda Kizenko, University of Albany An outstanding study of a fascinating and crucially important monarch by one of the Western world's most thoughtful and inspiring experts on Russian history.
Dominic Lieven, University of Cambridge Bushkovitch writes with admirable directness, and this fine book argues more vigorously than any other for the significance of the Muscovite legacy in the reign of Peter the Great.
Simon Dixon, University College London