A. N. Tolstoy created the novel “Peter the Great” for about a decade and a half. Three books were written, the continuation of the epic was planned, but even the third book was not completed. Before writing, the author deeply studied historical sources, and as a result, we have the opportunity to see a portrait of the creator of the empire.
“Peter the Great” is a novel about the mores and life of that era, in which magnificent portraits of historical figures of Peter's time are given. This is largely facilitated by the language, which conveys the flavor of the XVII century.
The childhood and youth of the king
After the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and then his son Fyodor Alekseevich, an active and energetic Sofya Alekseevna sought to come to power, but the boyars prophesy to the kingdom of Peter - a healthy and lively son Naryshkina. “Peter the First” is a novel that describes the tragic events in Russia, where antiquity and nobility rule, not mind and business qualities, where life flows in the old fashioned way.
Sagittarius instigated by Sophia require that they be shown two young princes Ivan and Peter, who are later placed in the kingdom. But despite this, their sister Sophia really rules the state. She sends Vasily Golitsyn to the Crimea to fight with the Tatars, but the Russian army ingloriously returns. Meanwhile, Petrusha is growing up in a distance from the Kremlin. “Peter the Great” is a novel introducing the reader to those persons who will later be Peter's associates: Aleksashka Menshikov, Franz Lefort, clever boyar Boris Golitsyn, Fedor Sommer. In the German settlement, young Peter met Anna Mons, who later became the uncrowned queen. Meanwhile, the mother marries her son on Evdokia Lopukhina, who does not understand the aspirations of her husband and gradually becomes a burden to him. So the action in Tolstoy’s novel is rapidly developing.
“Peter the Great” is a novel that in the first part shows the conditions under which the autocratic’s unshakable character is forged: conflicts with Sophia, the capture of Azov, the Great Embassy, ​​shipyard work in Holland, the return and bloody suppression of the Streltsy rebellion. One thing is clear - Byzantine Rus did not happen under Peter.
Autocratic Maturity
How the king builds a new country, shows in the second volume A. Tolstoy. Peter the Great does not let the boyars sleep, elevates the active merchant Brovkin, gives his daughter Sanka to marry their former master and master Volkov. The young king longs to lead the country to the seas in order to freely and duty-free trade and riches with it. He is organizing the construction of a fleet in Voronezh. Later, Peter swims to the shores of the Bosphorus. By this time, Franz Lefort, a faithful friend and aide who understood the king better than himself, had died. But the thoughts laid down by Lefort, which Peter could not formulate, begin to be put into practice. Active energetic people surround him, and all mossy and ossified boyars, like Buinosov, have to be pulled out of their slumber by force. The merchant Brovkin is gaining great strength in the state, and his daughter, the noble noblewoman Volkova, is mastering Russian and foreign languages ​​and is dreaming of Paris. Son Jacob is in the navy, Gavrila is studying in Holland, Artamosha, who received a good education, helps his father.
War with sweden
Already laid on the swampy and swampy banks of the Neva, St. Petersburg is the new capital of Russia.
Natalia, Peter's beloved sister, does not let the boyars doze off in Moscow. She puts on plays, arranges the European court of Peter's lover - Catherine. Meanwhile, the war begins with Sweden. About 1703-1704 he tells in the third book of A. Tolstoy. Peter the Great stands at the head of the army and takes Narva after a long siege, and the general, commandant of the Gorn fortress, who doomed many people to meaningless death, is taken to prison.
Personality of Peter
Peter is the central personality of the work. Many characters from the people have been introduced into the novel, who see in him both the ruler who was replaced abroad, and the reformer king, who is hardworking and does not shy away from hard work: he himself chopped with an ax when building ships. The king is inquisitive, easy to communicate, brave in battle. The novel “Peter the First” represents Peter’s image in dynamics and development: from a young uneducated boy, who already in his childhood begins to plan the creation of a new type of army, to the purposeful builder of a huge empire.
On his way, he sweeps away everything that prevents Russia from becoming a full-fledged European state. The main thing for him at any age is to sweep away the old, musty, everything that interferes with moving forward.
Memorable paintings of the Petrine era were created by A.N. Tolstoy. The novel "Peter the First" is easy to read and captures the reader immediately. The language is rich, fresh, historically accurate. The writer's artistic skill is based not only on talent, but also on a deep study of the primary sources (the works of N. Ustryalov, S. Solovyov, I. Golikov, diaries and notes of contemporaries of Peter, torture notes). Based on the novel, feature films are set.