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5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Introduction to Peter the Great's reforms, October 29, 2009
This review is from: The Revolution of Peter the Great (Paperback)
James Cracraft's The Revolution of Peter the Great provides a concise version of Peter the Great's life. Cracraft utilized both primary and secondary works, but his book does not give us new answers about Peter, rather The Revolution of Peter the Great focuses on illuminating the major points of interest during the "Petrine era" (viii). To that end Cracraft relies heavily upon the works listed in "Further Reading" including five of the author's books on Peter (p. 185-186). Cracraft's book excels at providing an interesting and succinct history of Peter the Great and his revolutions.
Cracraft took a unique approach to Peter's personal life in his first chapter "Peter and Company." As the title suggests, the chapter provides a quick overview of Peter's life and those who surrounded him. Peter's ascension to the throne, his marriage to Catherine and the crucial moments in the tsar's reign, like his European tour, are covered in first twenty-eight pages. Cracraft closes out the chapter by reiterating that his purpose is not to write a biography of Peter, and while a biography is "helpful," in studying history, "it is not history itself. History is never about one person, however important" (p. 28).
The main body of The revolution of Peter the Great examines the tsar's major "revolutions." Peter's first reform targeted the military. As Cracraft argues, Russia's army and navy were of great interest to Peter. The war games of his youth intrigued Peter to create a military with the same standards, and armaments as his western neighbors. The "Great Northern War" with Sweden turned his reforms into a necessity (p. 31). While some have called the military advances an economic drain, Cracraft balances the expenses against Russia's long-term economic, political, and diplomatic gains (p. 36). Peter took a hands-on approach to his navy. Cracraft stresses the tsar's naval interests and describes him as "the first Russian in history to master the new nautical science and one of the first, if not the very first, to learn how to build a full-scale sailing ship" (p. 41). The chapter closes with Cracraft mentioning the hideous statue of Peter aboard a ship, which towers above much of the Moscow skyline. Cracraft argues regardless of its aesthetic flaws, the statue reminds us Russia's navy brought the county "into Europe and the modern world" (p. 53).
When Peter took the throne he inherited a system of government, described as "an amalgam of monarchical, dynastic, patrimonial, and theocratic elements, an amalgam that itself warns us against classifying the Muscovite polity as modern" (p. 58). Peter reformed the right of succession. No longer would the throne be simply inherited by the eldest son, but rather the ruling tsar named their heir. As Cracraft points out, this allowed women to be named to the throne, like in the case of his own wife Catherine I (p. 63). Peter opened Russia to the west. For the first time Russian nobility intermarried with the elites of western Europe, and influenced laws in other countries (p. 73). Peter's diplomatic "revolution" brought Russia out of its isolation (p. 74).
The revolutionary changes to Russia's military and diplomacy brought about a "cultural revolution (p. 75). It is surprising that Cracraft uses this phrase, given its many negative connotations in the field of history. Peter's "cultural revolution" focused on "the architectural, the visual, and the verbal" (p. 77). Peter's interest in the west led to his new city of St. Petersburg to be modeled after the Baroque, and Italian Renaissance design. Leaving Moscow behind in the "middle ages" (p. 83). Peter personally learned art techniques and styles during his tour of Western Europe (p. 91). While the printing press arrived in Russia more than a century before his birth, Peter established the first permanent paper mills, reformed the Cyrillic alphabet, and sent emissaries abroad to collect books for reprinting in Russia (p. 98, 99, 109). His reforms were aggressive, but arguably necessary.
Many resisted Peter the Great's revolutions. Tsarevich Aleksei, the tsar's son, opposed his father's reforms and died in St. Petersburg's Peter-Paul fortress as a result (p. 114). In 1707 the Don Cossacks led by Kondraty Bulavin rebelled against the tsar's restrictions on Cossack freedoms (p. 117). Reforms to the Church led many in the clergy to oppose Peter; some called him the antichrist (p. 127). Peter brought Russia into diplomatic relations with the rest of Europe. Cracraft points out that theoretically, though absurdly, Russia's involvement in the two World Wars can be blamed on Peter. He does this to illustrate the long-term effects of Peter's revolutions (p. 134).
After discussing the city of St. Petersburg, its founding, and its place in Russian history since Peter's death, Cracraft concludes with a historiographical discussion of his work. Cracraft's work is concise summary of his thirty-year career spent studying Peter the Great, and his revolutionary contributions to Russia's government and society (p. 157). St. Petersburg and its Western European style architecture remain today as a monument to Peter the Great's revolution and his ambition (p. 164, 165).
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