He chose to leave the confines of the country to explore Europe and help connect Russia with the outside world. When Peter became the sole Tsar of Russia on Ivan’s death, he began to shape the country in his own image. Ivan was sickly and chose to stay out of the limelight, passing his days and keeping the title only because it was pushed upon him. He was said to have taken to sailing and rubbed elbows with the sailors on many occasions, wanting to be ‘one of the boys’ and not treated as royalty. Peter revelled in this, as he was able to fine tune his skills and was quite hands-on. Both boys became co-tsars, with a regency put into place for a time. Massie talks about the political struggle for the next ruler and how many favoured the young Peter, while others wanted Ivan, one of the surviving sons from the first marriage.

When his father died at a young age, Peter was thrust into the position of tsar at ten. This curiosity and active nature would prove useful in the coming years. However, he was always quite keen to learn and showed much aptitude when given tasks. While he towered over others, Peter was quite slim, which made him appear less than rugged, as one might expect a ruler to be.

Peter’s health was accompanied by a great height, topping out at 6 foot seven inches in adulthood.

One such fact, that the royals used dwarves as servants and playmates to the young children to acclimate them to seeing ‘small people’. Massie speaks of Peter’s upbringing in some detail, offering up random facts that the reader may find highly amusing. Peter’s birth ushered in new hope for Russia and the Romanovs as a dynastic entity. The tsar struggled to see how his bloodline would continue as rulers of the country, as his male heirs were either weak or died at an early age. Named for the apostle, Peter was a robust blessing to a royal family that was plagued with issues when it came to potential heirs. Peter Alekseyevich Romanov was born to Tsar Alexis and his second wife, Natalya Naryshkina, in 1682. Not for the weak of arm, Massie offers up this lengthy and detailed biography of Peter the Great, whose reign in the late 17th and into the 18th centuries left a significant mark on Russia and the world as a whole. Massie and his handful of well-crafted biographies of the Romanovs. When I want to be completely inundated with information, I look to Robert K. When I want to learn a great deal in a single book, I turn to a biography.

Peter the great robert massie review