Henri Troyat "Peter the Great" Leather Bound Collector's Edition [Sealed]

Easton Press, Norwalk CT. 1993 Henri Troyat "Peter the Great" Limited Edition. Full genuine leather. The Library of Great Lives. As New, sealed without any flaws. 

Russia's Peter the Great, a cruel visionary imbued equally with a fascination for progress and absolute power.

About Peter The Great

Peter I, most commonly known as Peter the Great, was a monarch of Russia who modernised it and made it a European power. He ruled the Tsardom of Russia from 7 May 1682 to 1721 and subsequently the Russian Empire until his death in 1725, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V.

Through a number of successful wars, he captured ports at Azov and the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy, ending uncontested Swedish supremacy in the Baltic and beginning the Tsardom's expansion into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernised and based on the Enlightenment.[1] Peter's reforms had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign. He adopted the title of Emperor in place of the old title of Tsar in 1721, and founded and developed the city of Saint Petersburg, which remained the capital of Russia until 1918.

However, the formation of local elites domestically was not his main priority, and the first Russian university—Saint Petersburg State University—was founded only a year before his death, in 1724. The second one, Moscow State University, was founded 30 years after his death, during the reign of his daughter Elizabeth.

About the author

Henri Troyat, who has died at the age of 95, was one of the most prolific and popular French writers of the 20th century. The author of short psychological novels, long, multi-volume historical frescos, short stories, plays, reportages and biographies, he had a literary career that spanned 70 years, and was particularly distinctive for its unique blend of French and Russian cultures.

Troyat was born Lev Aslanovich Tarassov in Moscow, the son of a wealthy Armenian draper who had made a fortune through investment in railways and banking. He was brought up in a privileged environment, with a coachman, a chauffeur and, most significantly, a Swiss governess who taught him French. All this came to an end when the Russian revolution broke out in 1917. Initially, the family retreated to their estate in the Caucasus to await the collapse of Bolshevik rule; but by 1920 it was clear that the counter-revolution was failing and that they would have to leave their homeland. They managed to catch the last émigré boat from the Crimea to Constantinople, from where they joined the exiled Russian community in Paris, settling in the prosperous suburb of Neuilly, where Troyat attended the Lycée Pasteur. Like many Russian exiles, however, the family found life in the west difficult and drifted slowly into debt, culminating with the arrival of the bailiffs and an enforced move to the Place de la Nation.