The Pulitzer prizewinning biography of Peter the Great, the ruler who brought Russia from darkness into light.

Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, Robert K. Massie unfolds the extraordinary story of Peter the Great. A volatile feudal tsar with a taste for barbaric torture; a progressive and enlightened reformer of government and science; Peter the Great embodied the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Russia while being at the very forefront of her development.

Robert K. Massie delves deep into Peter's life and character, chronicling the pivotal events that transformed the boy star into a national icon. His portrayal of the complexities and contradictions of this most energetic of Russian rulers brings a towering historical figure unforgettably to life.

Prizes

Winner of Pulitzer Prize 1981

Enthralling. As fascinating as a novel and more so than most * New York Times *
Urgently readable... The work of a master of narrative history' * Newsweek *
Exceptional * New Yorker *

Robert K. Massie was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and studied American history at Yale and European history at Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He was president of the Authors Guild from 1987 to 1991. His books include Nicholas and Alexandra; The Romanovs: The Final Chapter; Dreadnought; Castles of Steel; and Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman.