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![Tsarina: A Novel by [Ellen Alpsten]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+cBtpEh5L._SY346_.jpg)
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The blurb doesn't do this book justice! Tsarina is the life story of an absolutely remarkable woman, who rose from among the lowest of serfs to rule one of the world's mightiest countries.Tsarina is told entirely from Catherine's pov, and the writing the author employs is enthralling! It begins with the death of Peter in 1725 and from there, her story unfolds. The storytelling is gripping, and follows Catherine's life with occasional interjections of the events in 1725 until Catherine decides to rule, the first woman in Russia to do so in her own right, not as a regent.At the start, she's just Marta, a serf, property of a monastery in Livonia. When she is bought from the monastery to be a maid for a for an abusive merchant, Marta's life changes, and from that point on, she embraces the attitude of a survivor. From maid and runaway, she survives to live a few years of peace until she is married to a Swedish Dragoon when war comes to her village. When Marta is rescued from rape by enemy soldiers and taken as a spoil of war, she makes the best of it. She builds a friendship with her new owner and his mistress, a friendship that will last the rest of her life. Alexander Menshikov is the best friend and brother in all but blood to Peter, Tsar of Russia, and it is through him that Marta and Peter meet.Theirs is a long and convoluted relationship. Peter is both great, and terrible. He will do anything to advance his vision of a modern, Westernized Russia. Through battles, wars, love and betrayal, Marta stays with Peter. She helps him build his namesake city, St. Petersburg out of nothing more than dreams in a swamp. She is renamed Catherine Alexeyevna, births 12 children, and walks the delicate balance of Peter's temper.Make no mistake, Peter the Great is a huge part of Catherine's story. But Tsarina is most definitely the story of a woman, one who loved her husband, loved her children, and loved the Russia that Peter built.Quote: "The choice to be with them or with their father, was, as always, terrible, but despite the honors that Peter had heaped on me, life with him was like a walk on the first, brittle ice of the Neva in the early winter. It might carry me on to shining joy and glory; it might also break and allow the black, icy water to swallow me forever."Note: CW/TW: rape, physical abuse, spousal/domestic abuse, pregnancy loss, stillbirth, torture, murder, mutilation, executions,The time in which Marta/Catherine lives, 1690s-1720s Russia was incredibly harsh, and moreso for women and serfs. This book features the horrors of that time faithfully, neither glorifying nor minimizing their impact.
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