Table of Contents

Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Prologue: court politics and reform; 1. Tsar and boyars: structures and values; 2. The ascendancy of Artamon Matveev, 1671–6; 3. The reign of Tsar Fyodor, 1676–82; 4. The regency of Sofia, 1682–9; 5. Peter in power, 1689–99; 6. Peter and the favourites: Golovin and Menshikov, 1699–1706; 7. Poltava and the new gubernias, 1707–9; 8. The Senate and the eclipse of Menshikov, 1709–15; 9. The affair of the tsarevich, 1715–17; 10. The end of Aleksei Petrovich, 1718; Epilogue and conclusion, 1718–25; Bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

A narrative of political struggles at the Russian court during Peter the Great's reign.

About the Author

Paul Bushkovitch has been Professor of History at Yale University since 1992, having taught there since 1975. His books include The Merchants of Moscow 1580-1650 (Cambridge UP, 1980) and Religion and Society in Russia: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Oxford UP, 1992).

Reviews

'... based on a massive amount of research in Russia and Europe and is a masterpiece of scholarship.' Contemporary Review '... an outstanding work of scholarship. The scale of the achievement is enviable: by scouring European archives and applying his forensic intelligence to a daunting range of published sources in several languages, Paul Bushkovitch has given us a wholly refreshing view of the politics of Peter's reign, rich in texture and all the more attractive for being expressed in plain English ... there is not a dull page in the book ... readers at almost every level of sophistication have much to learn from it.' Reviews in History