Alexey Tolstoy - Peter the Great in 2 volumes. Gift books bound in leather

A new Russia through authentic period language and historical destinies

"Peter the Great" is not just a novel, it is a long, many times reinterpreted and touched upon theme in the own life of Alexei Tolstoy (1882-1945). Just as Tsar Peter was engulfed in the construction of a new Russia, so A. N. Tolstoy saw himself at the beginning of a new state of the twentieth century. The country was changing before the writer's eyes: he returned from emigration under Lenin and Trotsky and witnessed a rapid and brutal ideological breakdown. But the writer's idea was not driven by the desire to liken two rulers - the tsar and the general secretary. Tolstoy was fascinated by the distant epoch that opened up to him, seen by him through the authentic language of time. This language turned out to be so vivid and clear that the past suddenly approached and became almost today. The fates of the fictional characters of the novel, intertwined with the biographies of authentic historical figures, allowed Tolstoy to create the illusion of the reader's presence at dramatic events, and helped the writer himself to mix his own sorrows and joys into the thickness of history.