Reforms of Peter the Great

This psychologically penetrating revisionist account of the life and rule of Rusia's 18th-century Tsar-reformer develops an important theme - that is, what happens when the drive for "progress" is linked to an autocratic, expansionist impulse rather than to a larger goal of human emancipation? And, what has been the price of power - both for Peter and for Russia? Introduction; Father of the Fatherland; The Personality of the Reformer; Victory at any Cost; The Narva Confusion; “Seek to overthrow the foe”; Industrialization Petrine-Style; “It's difficult for a man to know and direct everything sight unseen”; On the Roads of War: From Narva to Poltava; The Breakthrough: From Poltava to Hangö; Birth of the Empire; The Realization of Peter's State Ideal; The Serf Economy; Producing the All-Russian Subject People; Reforming the Clerical Rank; “The police is the soul of the citizenry”; The Imperial Idea; Heritage and Heirs; “To whom shall I leave the planting described above?”; Conclusion