Baghelkhand, or the Tigers Lair Region and the Nation in Indian History Book

Wow. A major pothole in my education was filled by this book. To muddy the metaphors, that pothole stood before an expansive vista which invites me to plunge into Russian studies. (Or maybe watch a documentary!)

So. Peter the Great. 1672-1725. Let it be said: He got things done.

What things, you ask? He traveled through Europe to learn how they did things. He learned shipbuilding, and built a navy. But first he conquered a port city since Russia was then landlocked. And a few more. He remodeled the army, from uniforms to generals. For a time he took over the administration of the church from the Patriarch. He built St. Petersburg from scratch. And forced his nobles to move there. He centralized tax collections, changed the clothing, taxed beards! *While he was Tsar* he entered the army as a drummer and the navy as a midshipman, and was promoted through normal methods.

No doubt, he was a tyrant, vicious and ferocious, in need of several anger management sessions. An English bishop remarked he could not but adore the depth of the providence of God that had raised such a furious man to so absolute an authority over so great a part of the world.

Abbott's excursions from the story include a riff about conservation — when one should preserve and when one should pull down. His discourse on why a country should have a small standing army sparkles.

One omission troubles me. Peter the Great was 6'8". Abbott never mentions this, but that's HUGE, especially for early 18th century. Peter loved to travel and work incognito, disguised as a regular Joe. How on earth could he pull that one off at that height?

I want to explore more about this time period. I want to read about Peter's second wife, Catherine, who was an infant orphan of poverty, who was 'taken' to higher homes/positions by men who saw her worth, until she became the wife of the Emperor and eventually the Empress herself. I want to read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov. I want to listen to Russian folk music and eat borscht.