Father of the Fatherland : part 1 The Personality of the Reformer Victory at Any Cost : part 2 The Narva Confusion "Seek to overthrow the foe" Industrialization Petrine-Style "It's difficult for a man to know and direct everything sight unseen" On the Roads of War : from Narva to Poltava The Breakthrough : from Poltava to Hango Birth of the Empire : part 3 The Realization of Peter's State Ideal The Serf Economy Producing the All-Russian Subject People Reforming the Clerical Rank "The police is the soul of the citizenry" The Imperial Idea Heritage and Heirs : part 4 "To whom shall I leave the planting described above?"
This psychologically penetrating revisionist account of the life and rule of Rusia's 18th-century Tsar-reformer develops an important theme - that is, what happens when the drive for "progress" is linked to an autocratic, expansionist impulse rather than to a larger goal of human emancipation? And, what has been the price of power - both for Peter and for Russia?
