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Easton Press, Norwalk CT. 1993 Henri Troyat "Peter the Great" Limited Edition. Full genuine leather. The Library of Great Lives. As New, sealed without any flaws. Russia's Peter the Great, a cruel visionary imbued equally with a fascination for progress and absolute power. About Peter The Great Peter I, most commonly known as Peter the Great, was a monarch of Russia who modernised it and made it a European power. He ruled the Tsardom of Russia from 7 May 1682 to 1721 and subsequently the Russian Empire until his death in 1725, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars, he captured ports at Azov and the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy, ending uncontested Swedish supremacy in the Baltic and beginning the Tsardom's expansion into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernised and based on the Enlightenment.[1] Peter's reforms had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign. He adopted the title of Emperor in place of the old title of Tsar in 1721, and founded and developed the city of Saint Petersburg, which remained the capital of Russia until 1918. However, the formation of local elites domestically was not his main priority, and the first Russian university—Saint Petersburg State University—was founded only a year before his death, in 1724. The second one, Moscow State University, was founded 30 years after his death, during the reign of his daughter Elizabeth. Features Includes all the classic Easton Press qualities: * Premium Leather * Silk Moire Endleaves * Distinctive Cover Design * Hubbed Spine, Accented in Real 22KT Gold * Satin Ribbon Page Marker * Gilded Page Edges * Long-lasting, High Quality Acid-neutral Paper * Smyth-sewn Pages for Strength and Durability * Beautiful Illustrations About Henri Troyat Troyat was born Lev Aslanovich Tarasov, (Russian: Лев Асланович Тарасов, Lev Aslanovich Tarasov) in Moscow to parents of mixed heritage, including Armenian, Russian, German and Georgian. According to his autobiography he states that his surname is Armenian (Torossian), while his maternal grandmother was German and his maternal grandfather was of mixed Georgian and Armenian descent. His family fled Russia after the outbreak of the revolution. After a long exodus taking them to the Caucasus on to Crimea and later by sea to Istanbul and then Venice, the family finally settled in Paris in 1920, where young Troyat was schooled and later earned a law degree. The stirring and tragic events of this flight across half of Europe are vividly recounted by Troyat in Tant que la terre durera. His first marriage produced a son before ending in divorce. He later married the love of his life, a widow with a young daughter whom he raised as his own. Troyat received his first literary award, Le prix du roman populaire, at the age of twenty-four, and by twenty-seven, he was awarded the Prix Goncourt. He published more than 100 books, novels and biographies, among them those of Anton Chekhov, Catherine the Great, Rasputin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan the Terrible and Leo Tolstoy. Troyat's best-known work is La neige en deuil, which was adapted as an English-language film in 1956 under the title The Mountain. Troyat was elected as a member of the Académie française in 1959. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving member. Features Includes the classic Easton Press qualities: * Premium Leather * Silk Moire Endleaves * Distinctive Cover Design * Hubbed Spine, Accented in Real 22KT Gold * Satin Ribbon Page Marker * Gilded Page Edges * Long-lasting, High Quality Acid-neutral Paper * Smyth-sewn Pages for Strength and Durability * Beautiful Illustrations