Description |
1 online resource (232 pages) |
Series |
Indiana-Michigan series in Russian and East European studies |
|
Indiana-Michigan series in Russian and East European studies.
|
Contents |
Origins of reform -- Emancipation of the Russian nobility -- Secularization of the ecclesiastical estates -- National revenues -- Foreign policy -- Why the coup? -- Conclusion: Russian autocracy at mid-century |
Summary |
The victim of a coup engineered by his wife, the future Catherine the Great, who portrayed him as "a libertine, a halfwit, and a drunkard whose contempt for ordinary decency and for his country made imperative his removal," Emperor Peter III has received short shrift from Russian and Western historians. Challenging traditional interpretations, Carol S. Leonard argues that the policies and legislation pursued by Peter III during his short reign in 1762 were not foolish and arbitrary but rather were firmly rooted in the traditions of Russian absolutism and the intellectual climate of the mid-eighteenth century. Leonard views Peter III as a serious ruler who, with a circle of talented advisors, instituted fundamental changes of an enlightened nature. Important turning points during Peter III's reign involved the emancipation of the nobility from compulsory service, the secularization of church property, the institution of progressive economic policies, the extrication of Russia from its costly participation in the Seven Years War, and the inception of an alliance with Prussia that was to be the cornerstone of Russian foreign policy through much of the Imperial period |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-228) and index |
Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
|
English |
|
Print version record |
|
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
Subject |
Peter III, Emperor of Russia, 1728-1762.
|
|
Peter III, Emperor of Russia, 1728-1762 |
|
Peter (Russland, Zar, III.) |
|
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical.
|
|
HISTORY.
|
|
Politik
|
|
Hervormingen.
|
|
Russia -- History -- Peter III, 1762.
|
|
Russia
|
|
Russland
|
Genre/Form |
Biographies
|
|
History
|
|
Biographies.
|
|
Biographies.
|
Form |
Electronic book
|
ISBN |
058520103X |
|
9780585201030 |
|