About book Peter The Great: His Life And World (2001)
Robert Massie's "Peter the Great: His life and World" has been a wonderful book to listen to, for me. The book is well researched and offers what is likely an accurate picture of an important figure in the History of Western Civilization. Before I get to deep into my romantic vision of what Massie has done here, let me say that this is first and foremost a text of history. It is almost 38 hour narrated as an audiobook and covers Peter's life in three segments, his rise to power, wars (mostly with Sweden and Charles the 11th) and his radical and sweeping reforms of Russian government and monarchy. If you are not someone who enjoys history, and understands that history often involves a dizzying number of characters, names, nations and dates then you'll be fine here, this is better than most at getting the story out and keeping the minutia managed. It's still a non-fiction tome of history. I will talk about Massie's wonderful ability to "tell Peter's story" without fictionalizing soon. The only warning with this is this:You do not have to be a student of history, an associate professor, or even a avid historical hobbyist to read this. It is understandable, complete and detailed enough for anyone to understand Massie's Peter the Great and the world around him. It is not a great novel of fictionalized history, or a historical novel so praise of Massie's ability to tell Peter's story should not be confused. That makes him a wonderful historian to read. He's not the second coming of Tolkien. So, why five stars?What Massie has done created a wonderful tableau of Peter's life. Peter the great was a very complex man. He lived in a very difficult time full of war. Massie managed to capture the complexity that surrounds the reign of the man who built Russia, but he also captured the essence of what it meant to be a Russian in the time of Peter the Great. As Peter rose to prominence, so did Russia. As the Czar learned to wield power, so did Russia. As the man, Peter, learned to love, so did the people he surrounded himself with. In this book are wonderful stories and anecdotes about the events that shaped peter's life. Perhaps the most wonderful among these is the love he shared with his third wife Kathrine, who succeeded him as the first Empress of Russia (Sophia was regent, and Kathrine the Great was actually the third Empress Cathrine). Peter's love was a simple Flemish serving girl who caught Peter's eye and developed into one of the most interesting warm women in history. Though it comes near the end of the book, and it is a well known story, I loved the story about how Peter had accused (tried and convicted) a member of the Russian court of being corrupt. Most of his court and his loving wife believed the man to be innocent. They begged the Czar to reconsider over and over until, in anger he ordered them to stop and never mention it to him again. So, Kathrine, wrote another appeal for the man's pardon and signed it "Lissette" then fixed the note to the collar of Peter's favorite dog, an Italian Greyhound named, Lisette. When Peter came back from the Senate, which was likely a very trying time for him at any point in his life, the dog, as dogs can be, was very excited to see him. Greeting the dog, Peter saw the note and picked him up as he read it. Then he chuckled and sighed telling the dog."Well, since this is the first time you've asked anything of me, perhaps I should reconsider?" And the man was pardoned. Saved by the grace of miniature greyhound and a cunning and determined wife, whom he loved.Massie also manages to capture the boyish nature of Peter that never left him. The educated, genius barbarian savage. I suppose you can take the Cossack out of the off of the steps but you can never wash the steps off of the Cossack. Why this story has not been turned into an Oscar wining movie about the life of the czar is beyond me. Peter is no prize, yet, after all of the stories of war, torture, murder, love, laughter, lots and lots of drinking (VODKA!), parties that last weeks and explosions, blunders, brutality it becomes impossible to separate the evil wicked side of the Czar who ruthlessly pursued those he thought were plotting against him and dealt with them mercilessly from the tragic figure who struggled between being a tyrant father with an estranged son, and the State which must be preserved. And thent here was the good Peter who fought corruption in his government and actually wanted to lift his people from the dark ages into the modern world. An example of the complexity (one of many facets) is how, after many years of war with Sweden and Charles the 11th, when he hears of Charles's death he orders Russia into a state of mourning for a week. Another might be how, whenever he could get away with it, he posed as a common laborer or journeyman even placing himself under the command of others (at least one of whom called his bluff) who enjoyed hard work with his hands. It is not a metaphor to say that Peter built the Russian Navy. Every chance he got he was at St. Petersburg with hammers and tools working. I could go on. Lets just say, I liked this book. It's not for those with a passing interest in history, but you don't have to be an educated scholar to get something from Massie's book. Recommended. Sorry to rattle on.
A grudging five stars because sometimes Massie seems ready to swamp us in details, to want to tell us everything he and his research team have uncovered for, say, campaign after campaign in the war of the moment - for Peter seemed always off on one war or another, with the Turks, the Swedes, the Poles, the Walachians, the Crimean Tatars, and on and on - giving us the names of each general commanding which brigades and assaulting that particularly wobbly center of gravity in the enemy line, at which point the story becomes one damn thing after another, threatening to bog down an almost 900 page text and prompting a pinch-eyed scream to, "Get on with it, man." (But please don't misunderstand: the battles are for the most part handsomely, impressively rendered, and Massie seems for the most part careful to raise those names that have downstream narrative significance - he's skilled at marshaling large amounts of information, although I sometimes spot-checked and found him relying for long stretches of a chapter on a single secondary source, and I continue to wonder what a academic specialist in the period might think. I did not perform that particular due diligence.)But nonetheless five stars, because Massie delivers mightily on the title, which is always a contract with the reader. Here, he satisfies every term, for we learn 1. why Peter was great; 2. the relevant details of his life, and then some, which is surprisingly well documented, down to table talk and records of official deliberations and pre-knouting interrogations (which Massie cites from secondary sources or from work done for him by the large group of Russian-surnamed helpers whose roles he doesn't specify but who are acknowledged in an afterword, the connections to which the reader must surmise [no stretch, really: Massie apparently reads no Russian - or never leads the reader to believe he might - yet lists Russian sources in his bibliography and thin source documentation]), and myriad other official records that have found their way into the extensive Peter literature, and 3. finally, a great deal about his world, both within and without Russia, sometimes with relatively fine granularity. This is a sprawling narrative of (mostly) men and great (some not so great) powers playing the Game of Nations in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and Massie spends a considerable amount of time setting up detailed entries and exits onto the stage, generally beginning by discussing a country, its mores, the sources of its relative wealth or poverty, its leading statemen and and their women, and the ambitions of both governments and their rulers and the relative success or failure in their pursuit.At the center of the story is Peter's conflict with Charles XII of Sweden in the Great Northern War, which, beginning in 1700, blew hot and cold for 20 years in several European jurisdictions during which Russia contested Swedish domination of Northern, Eastern, and Central Europe and sought to establish permanent Russian access to the Baltic Sea. But Massie also focuses on Peter's reforms. The building of a Russian Navy - a genuinely ripping yarn - the construction of Saint Petersburg, Peter's tragic conflict with his heir, the weak, ill-fated Tsarevich Alexei (think Fredo Corleone in a high-testosterone family setting), the rise of Russian commerce, and much else all receive chapter or longer - often many chapters longer - treatment.A stirring, well-told story, and easily worth your time, particularly if you've got a bunch of it. After having occupied various spaces on my shelves over the years, I finally got to it. And 'twas Putin made me do it: I've worked a bit on the USSR/Russia from time to time and never got around to this one, but Putin's sense of history, and of historical grievance, and a kind of Gaullist harking back to the grandeur of Russia, piqued my interest. Coming up Nicholas I, Putin's true role model, and Catherine the Great. But I had do Peter before his successors. So bravo. He WAS great, damn it.
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Having panned Massie's first book, Nicholas and Alexandria (1967), I have to congratulate him on this one, written thirteen years later: Peter the Great. However, I don't know as much about the period of Peter's life (1672-1725) as I did about Nicholas' (1868-1917) so some of the applause may be credited to my ignorance and credulousness, but I also think that Massie put more work into researching and writing this biography and that thirteen years, and several books, have made him a better writer. An additional consideration is that the personalities of Massie and his wife intruded more into the Nicholas book because of their interest in the hemophilia running in the family. Peter the Great is much more of an objective history, Massie's personal views and feelings being more in the background.Although my friend, John Elkin, gave me this book, he gave it to me because I had enunciated interest in reading more about Peter the Great after reading Zoe Oldenbourg's biography of Catherine the Great.
—Erik Graff
A magnificent story told by Robert K. Massie of the life and times of Peter the Great of Russia. Crowned tsar at 10, assumed control of his realm at 18 and then led his country through three and a half decades of war and transformation until his death at 54. Robert tells Peter's story - with all its warts and blemishes - through the context of the Russia, Europe, and Asia of his time. It is an amazing story of the incredible curiosity, impetuosity and energy of this one man who more than any other Russian leader before him or until the arrival of Lenin and Stalin so transformed the ways of his country and countrymen through vision, willpower and personal effort. I wish I had read this work years ago. It would have helped me understand so much more about modern Russian culture and world view. Despite the book's length I found myself eagerly awaiting the precious moments during the day or night when I could pick it up and continue the adventure. I am glad to know more great works by the Massies are awaiting my read.
—Gordon
Although long, this biography of Peter the Great was very readable. It was written at exactly the right level for me. I am interested in history, but I didn't know much about Russia before the twentieth century. Massie gives incredible detail, interspersed with appropriate anecdotes, and still the book does not drag. I very much appreciated, and enjoyed, the brief histories given of the various countries/states/empires that came into play during the book. Massie meant it when he put "and World" into the title. Unless you are an expert in European history during the late 17th / early 18th centuries, these brief histories will be helpful to you as well.In other reviews some people have disliked the amount of time spent on wars and battles, or on the navy, or the the building of St. Petersburg, but I enjoyed it all.
—Elizabeth S
