A barbarous, volatile feudal tsar with a taste for torture; a progressive and enlightened reformer of government and science; a statesman of vision and colossal significance: Peter the Great embodied the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Russia while being at the very forefront of her development.Robert K. Massie delves deep into the life of this captivating historical figure, chronicling the pivotal events that shaped a boy into a legend - including his 'incognito' travels in Europe, his unquenchable curiosity about Western ways, his obsession with the sea and establishment of the stupendous Russian navy, his creation of an unbeatable army, and his relationships with those he loved most: Catherine, his loving mistress, wife, and successor; and Menshikov, the charming, unscrupulous prince who rose to power through Peter's friendship. Impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel, a man of enormous energy and complexity, Peter the Great is brought fully to life.

    

    From these examples he claims that all the basic principles of socialist ideology derive from the urge to suppress individuality. The Socialist Phenomenon consists of three major parts: 1. Chiliastic Socialism: Identifies socialist ideas amongst the ancient Greeks, especially Plato, and in numerous medieval heretic groups such as the Cathars, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Taborites, Anabaptists, and various religious groups in the English Civil War, and modern writers such as Thomas More, Campanella, and numerous Enlightenment writers in 18th-century France. 2. State Socialism: Describes the socialism of the Incas, the Jesuit state in Paraguay, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. 3. Analysis: Identifies three persistent abolition themes in socialism - the abolition of private property, the abolition of the family, and the abolition of religion (mainly, but not exclusively, Christianity).Shafarevich argues that ancient socialism (such as Mesopotamia and Egypt) was not ideological, as an ideology socialism was a reaction to the emergence of individualism in the Axial Age. He compares Thomas More's (Utopia) and Campanella's (City of the Sun) visions with what is known about the Inca Empire, and concludes that there are striking similarities. He claims that we become persons through our relationship with God, and argues that socialism is essentially nihilistic, unconsciously motivated by a death instinct. He concludes that we have the choice of either pursuing death or life.

    Partly this is because of the Russian Revolution of 1917 & the search for its origins, but mostly it is because of the intellectual vigor of the radicals themselves. Gleason (History, Brown) focuses on the transition period between radicals whose commitment was to revolutionizing--or being revolutionized by--the Russian masses & the emergence of the individual revolutionary (in Russia, often with smoking bomb in hand). He clarifies the various labels involved--noting, for example, that the Slavophiles, with their almost mystical faith in the traditions of the people, & the Populists, with their faith in progress & desire to catch up to Europe, came to overlap in the intelligentsia's desire to liberate the peasants. The importance the Russians themselves placed on the distinctions between generations of radicals finds its place too, as he depicts the rise & decline of central figures like Herzen & Chernyshevsky as well as the shifting intellectual climates that shaped them. Other, more specifically literary figures--Pushkin, Leskov, Tolstoy, Turgenev--also pass thru the narrative. All of this has, of course, been gone over before--on a massive scale by Franco Venturi in Roots of Revolution. This focused study is meant to be more intimate. He achieves that aim not only in the final chapter on Nechaev, the anarchist loner, but in a long portrait of the little-known Pavel Ivanovich Iakushkin, a populist archetype who "played no great role, influenced the course of events slightly, if at all, & left no important literary legacy." He follows the bohemian Iakushkin around as he wanders about from handout to handout spreading the gospel of peasant emancipation until his death in 1872. Readers of Venturi or Isaiah Berlin will be familiar with the story overall, but others will find this an accessible introduction.--Kirkus (edited)