Peter the Great

Peter the Great (1672--1755), was one of the formative figures in the history of early modern Europe: under his leadership Russia emerged from semi-Asiatic isolation to become a great political and military power in her own right, and, for the first time, a principal actor on the European stage. In this well-known book, based on Russian sources throughout, M.S. Anderson examines Peter's career and its impact on Russia and the wider world, and assesses his complex personality as both Westernising visionary reformer and brutal autocrat. This second edition of Peter the Great,in the Profiles in Powerseries, is not a biography, though inevitably it contains much biographical material, it instead analyzes the major features, achievements and failures of Peter's career.