Catherine the Great
Subtitle: A Short History
Edition: 2nd edition
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 1, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 262
ISBN-13: 9780300097221
Subjects: Biography: general; Biography: royalty; European history: c 1500 to c 1750; European history: c 1750 to c 1900; c 1700 to c 1800; Russia - History; History; Biography / Autobiography; History: World; Russia; Historical - General; Women; Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union
First sentence: Catherine II, who reigned over Russia from 1762 to 1796, had no claim whatsoever to the Russian throne.
Description: Ivan IV, 'the Terrible' (1533-1584) is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror - and for killing his own son - he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole. Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan's court, and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan's archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralysed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan's reign.