Ebook: Pupils of Peter the Great

Westminster: A. Constable & Co., 1897. 318 pp. with illustr. A History of the Russian Court and Empire from 1697 to 1740.Contents:
- Introductory [Seventeen Century Russia].
- Catherine Aleksyeevna and Peter the Great [1711-1725].
- Catherine Aleksyeevna on the Throne [1725-1727].
- Reign of Peter II [1727-1730].
- Accession of Anne of Courland [1730-1733].
- The War of the Polish Succession [1733-1735].
- The First Crimean War [1736-1739].
- The Latter Days of Anne [1735-1740].
"In the following pages it will be my endeavour to follow out, step by step, the early development of the modern Russian State from the latter years of Peter the Great to the death of his niece, the Tsaritsa Anne, and I propose at the same time, to draw a picture of the Imperial Court as it struck contemporary observers. The period chosen embraces, roughly speaking, the first forty years of the Eighteenth Century, and while I hope that serious political and historical students will find much in this volume to reward their attention and awaken their interest, I feel pretty confident that the curious scrutinizer of men and manners will not be altogether disappointed if he takes the trouble to peruse it. For the history of the Russian Empire throughout this period is, very largely, the history of the Russian Court, and, speaking from a large experience, I know of no other European Court which confronts us with such strangely original and eccentric types of character, such sharp and striking contrasts and such swift, sudden and tragical revolutions of fortune. I have prefaced my narrative with an introductory chapter on Seventeenth Century Russia, still, I regret to say, an historical terra incognita in this country." Robert Nisbet Bain.