Peter the Great : Peter I (1672-1725), the first emperor (1721-25) & Czar (1682-1725) Russia. His capital St. Petersburg remained the capital of the Russian empire until 1917. The name was changed to Petrograd (1914-24), then to Leningrad (1924-92), & back to St. Petersburg in 1992.
... stretching before her, it was as though she had already conquered Turkey. After looking down for some time on the crowded harbour of Sevastopol, Catherine took from her pocket the miniature of Peter the Great which she always carried when travelling, and said to the Prince de Ligne who was with her: "What Page 46 would he say, what would he do, if he were here?" It was a rhetorical¹ question... number of inhabitants: this was truly prodigal activity." The return journey was speedy. Catherine halted at Poltava and before her eyes an army of 50,000 men re-enacted the battle in which Peter the Great had routed Charles XII and finally broken Swedish power. "This grand and magnificent spectacle worthily crowned her journey, as romantic as it was historic," wrote Ségur. At Kharkov, Potemkin ...
... troops assembled in the forecourt. At first she did not recognize them. The quartermasters, acting on their own initiative, had brought from their stores the old army uniforms, introduced by Peter the Great, which were so dear to the hearts of the Russians. The soldiers had at once torn off their hated Prussian uniforms, forced on them by Peter III, and they stood now with great pride cheering their... to Peterhof. The guards had greeted her decision to march with enthusiasm, and they were overjoyed when she took the rank of colonel of the guards, thus reviving the tradition established by Peter the Great, that the sovereign was their commanding officer. Before setting out, Catherine reviewed them, and she wore a guard's uniform, which she had borrowed from a young officer, and held a sabre in her ...
... Stalin and Hitler were most unlikely allies. What could they possibly have in common?’ asks John Toland. He gives the answer himself: in fact, there were a number of similarities. One admired Peter the Great while the other saw himself as the heir of Frederick the Great. Both were advocates of ruthless force and operated under ideologies that were not essentially different. Communists and Nazis alike ...
... people happy without making hers elf unhappy. Russia had despotic, conflicting, chaotic laws. There was a printed code which had been handed down from Czar Alexei Michaelovich, the father of Peter the Great. But chiefly the people were ruled by ukase³. Not always, however, did the Russians obey promptly. It was commonly said of the peasants when some order had not been obeyed, "They are waiting ...
... the New Monarchy from Edward IV to Elizabeth, in France the great Bourbon period from Henry IV to Louis XIV, in Spain the epoch which extends from Ferdinand to Philip II, in Russia the rule of Peter the Great and Catherine were the time in which these nations reached their maturity, formed fully and confirmed their spirit and attained to a robust organisation. And all these were periods of absolutism ...
... than in Vienna in a year." (In 1772 Naples had its first inoculation, and in 1774 Louis XV uninoculated, died of smallpox.) Her greatest achievement lay in carrying on the efforts of Peter the Great to bring Russia into Western civilization. Whereas Peter had thought of this chiefly in terms of technology, Catherine thought of it principally in terms of culture; by the force and courage ...
... the New Monarchy from Edward IV to Elizabeth, in France the great Bourbon period from Henry IV to Louis XIV in Spain the epoch which extends from Ferdinand to Philip II, in Russia the rule of Peter the Great and Catherine were the time in which these nations reached their maturity, formed fully and confirmed their spirit and attained to a robust organisation. And all these were periods of absolutism ...
... human level, the red seed of the French Revolution was planted the very day when the Valois autocrat declared his divine right of kingship. In Russia, Lenin's antithesis was posited along with Peter the Great's thesis. A similar fateful crisis – a much greater one – faces humanity today. Shall humanity yield totally and itself become the new being, through a travail more or less safe and happy? Or ...
... further reading Badian, E. — Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind Historia, 1958. pp.425-44 Burn, A. R . — Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World 2nd ed. Macmillan, 1962 Durant, Will. —The Story of Civilization: Part II, The Life of Greece, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966 Green, Peter. — Alexander the Great. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970 — Alexander... of Macedon. Penguin Books Hamilton J.R — Alexander the Great, Hutchinson University Library, Plutarch, — The Age of Alexander—Nine Greek Lives, Penguin Books Translation and notes: lan Scot-Kilvert, 1973 Renault, Mary — The Nature of Alexander, Penguin Books, U.K., 1983 Robinson,C.A. — The Extraordinary Ideas of Alexander the Great American Historical Review, 1957, pp. 326-44 Tarn... Alexander the great Ancient Greece and Alexander: A brief outline A civilisation appears to have emerged on mainland Greece about 1600 B.C. This came to be known as the Mycenaean civilisation. Feudal1 warrior leaders ruled their districts from hilltop fortresses, the principal fort being Mycenae itself. Minoan Crete exercised a strong influence in these early ...
... been ‘that Catherine,’ by whom she meant the Great Catherine II, of Russia (1729-96). 49 The characteristics of the other lives we know about are distinctly present in this incarnation too. There was the difficult start in life before Catherine became Empress, comprising ‘18 years of deception and humiliation’ during her marriage with the neurotic Peter III. There was her exceptional intelligence... Enlightenment, especially Voltaire and Diderot. There was her strength and daring: ‘For her, a foreign-born petty princess, with only a handful of friends, to lead a rising against her own husband, Peter the Great’s grandson – even in Russia no such daring coup had ever before been heard of … It was a dramatic sight, later depicted by painters: the slim figure of Catherine, for eighteen years subdued and... under her rule.’ 16 Hatshepsut married her half-brother Thutmosis II when she was about fourteen or fifteen years of age, thus becoming ‘the Great Princess, great in favour and grace, Mistress of All Lands, Royal Daughter and Royal Sister, Great Royal Wife, Mistress of the Two Lands [i.e. Upper and Lower Egypt].’ Her royal husband died young and was succeeded by her nephew, Tuthmosis III, still ...
... Suggestions for further reading Badian, E. Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind. Historia, 1958, 425.44. Bum, A. R. Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World. 2nd ed. Macmillan, 1962. Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization: Part II, The Life of Greece. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966. Green, Peter. Alexander the Great. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970. Alexander of Macedon... His intellectual abilities could never be used fully due to the early responsibilities that fell upon him —hence, a lack of maturity of mind. As often is the case with great men of action, he would always regret not having become a great thinker as well. Even after an exhausting day of marching or fighting, he would delight in spending half the night conversing -with scholars or scientists. King at twenty... ferocious and resort to excessive cruelty for which he would later feel great remorse. Despite his youth and lack of experience, he was a good administrator, ruling his empire with kindness and firmness. He respected agreements, and did not allow his appointees to oppress his subjects. He had all the potential of a great statesman, hut was not given enough time to mature in that dimension. He ...
... Afghanistan, then north or south of the great Takla Makan desert that lies to the north of Tibet and east of China. By the end of the second century BC the larger part of this route ran along the Old Silk Roads down which Chinese silk passed to the frontiers of the Roman Empire in Syria. It takes great determination to travel along these roads. Peter Fleming, the great English travel writer of the 1930s... have evolved from this tradition. There is a great deal of doubt about the accuracy of this legend, but some of the historical facts it appears to reveal, if true, are of interest. The legend reflects the fact that mutual interest in Buddhism kept China and India in contact around the sixth century AD, a fact that is confirmed in the work of the great twentieth-century sinologist, Dr Joseph Needham... countries, but rather to remember the travellers, the monk-pilgrim diplomats and the merchants, who beat the first paths between the two great cultural traditions, and to conclude that the birth place of the martial arts was on the roads that bound these two great civilizations. The spread of the martial arts The story of the martial arts from the third century AD has been one of the gradual ...
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.