Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671-1725 by Paul Bushkovitch Review by: Lindsey Hughes The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Jan., 2003), pp. 139-140 Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies
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REVIEWS
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New Bushkovitch, Paul. Peterthe Great. 7he Struggle for Power, I67I-I725. Studies in European History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 200I. xii + 485 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $69.95: ?47.50? ANY historian who dismisses all previous studies of Peter the Great's reign as products of the 'statist' school and relegates most of them to a footnote is bound to ruffle a few feathers, but Paul Bushkovitch'spromise to 'rewrite the narrative' and produce a 'new story of Peter the Great' (p. iI) turns out to be no idle boast, at least with regard to politics. Starting from the now readily accepted premise that 'for the Russian state of the seventeenth century, politics consisted largely of the relationship of the court elite to the tsar, and to one another' (p. 28), he succeeds in chronicling and elucidating much of what the men at the top were doing. His treatment of the first decade of the Great Northern War is particularlythorough, skilfullyintegrating the permutations of the Astrakhan and Bulavin revolts and appointments to the Russian high command and offering a new slant on the guberniiareforms of I708-09 by analysing them with reference to Peter's creation of 'a new balance of power with the aristocracy'(p. 282). In particular, chapters nine and ten provide the best analysis available of the affair of Tsarevich Aleksei Petrovich and the 'conservative platform' of his sympathizers. A conversation reported by the Danish ambassador Hans Georg von Westphalen in late October I7I5 in which Peter declared his belief that it was 'the greatest of cruelties to immolate the safety of the state to the simple established law of succession' (p. 347) is just one of many new pieces of evidence offered. With the help of diplomatic papers drawn from archives in Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, many previously unpublished, as well as Russian sources, Bushkovitchoffersa vital corrective to the idea that Peter experienced little opposition from the elite and managed to suppresswhat little there was. The author does his self-allotted task very well and it would be unfair to criticize him for failing to deliver what he never promised: for example, to write a biography of Peter, provide an overview of Peter's Russia, assess the significance of his reforms or outline the historiography.But his narrativedoes have certain limitations within his stated agenda. Firstly, the story is oddly balanced, with I69 pages devoted to the period before i 689, but only eighteen to the years I7I8-25, when much of Peter's major legislation was implemented. One could argue that the main factions and relationships the focus of the narrative were in place by I 7 I8, but at the very least there is scope for exploring the political implications of such events as the arrivalof the duke of Holstein and his entourage in I72I and the William Mons affair in I724. The useful introductory device of giving a detailed description of the seventeenth-century Kremlin and court, which underlines the importance of ritual for expressing closeness to the tsar, is not repeated later in the narrative. The spatial context of St Petersburg and the ceremonies which took place there remain largely unexplored. It seems especially perverse, having scolded 'traditional accounts' for ignoring the informal structures of power, to refer only sporadically to Peter's mock institutions such as the court of PrinceCaesar and the All-Drunken Council of Prince-Pope and associated rituals.
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SEER,
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Bushkovitch acknowledges that such 'bizarre' appointments were 'important' (p. 373), but makes no attempt to explore the links between 'real' and 'mock' roles or to reflect in his narrative the comparatively large amount of time which Peter devoted to 'play'. The forthcoming work of Ernest Zitser, who argues that parodic institutions were vital for binding Peter's 'disciples' to his cause, should provide a corrective. Another omission within the goals which the author sets himself is any systematic examination of the role of women and female networks. Despite the statement that 'inattention to Peter's private life is a basic methodological error' (p. 6), he offers surprisinglylittle on Peter's relationship with his second family and especially with his second wife Catherine. The couple's wedding in I712, the guest list of which had implications for court politics, is passed over in a few sentences, Catherine's alliance with Alexander Menshikov is never explored in any detail and even her children are mostly consigned to footnotes. There is little preparation for the statement that by I 724 she had become a 'formidablefigure' (p. 433). My other criticism concerns the vexed issue of 'user-friendliness'.To take full advantage of the considerable erudition displayed here, readers need a sound knowledge of Russian history and a command of Russian and several other European languages. The footnotes, which at a rough estimate comprise some thirty per cent of the text, feature extensive extracts from primary sources in the original languages French, German, Dutch, Swedish sometimes accompanying English translationsin the text, more often without benefit of translation. Charactersand institutionsare often introduced without explanation and sometimes are spelt inconsistently (e.g., Westphal/ Westphalen, Jules/Juel). Just a few nods in the direction of intelligent nonspecialists providing a glossary of the Russian terms in the text, family trees of the royal family and leading clans, more references to further reading in English - could have widened the book's usefulness without compromising its scholarship. In conclusion, as a narrative about relations between the ruling, male elite in the period I671-17I8
aimed at specialists in Russian
history, this book has no rivals. Readers wishing to know about women, peasants, buildings, pictures, battles, ceremonies, religion, historiography, myths and legends and Peter's own pastimes and passions will need to look elsewhere. Schoolof SlavonicandEastEuropean Studies University CollegeLondon
LINDSEY HUGHES
Thyret, Isolde. BetweenGodand Tsar.ReligiousSymbolism andtheRoyalWomenof MuscoviteRussia.Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, IL, 2001. XiV+ 275 PP. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Glossary. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. [30.50. recent years, scholars of medieval and early modern Europe have shown a resurgence of interest in women's studies and in the concept of queenship. As a result, Russian women, too, have been the subjects of several new studies, among which Isolde Thyret's book is a timely and valuable addition. BetweenGod and Tsar does not replicate, nor aim to supersede, DURING
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