The book "The Deeds of Peter the Great", 1788, vol. 10

A very rare edition in excellent collector's condition. Hard leather binding, embossed with gold. The format is 150*230 mm. The paper is verger. Tears on the last page of the table of contents. Guarantee of authenticity.

"The Deeds of Peter the Great, the wise Transfigurator of Russia, collected from reliable sources and arranged by year" (Rus. doref. The name of Peter the Great, the wise transfigurator of Russia, collected from reliable sources and arranged by year) is a historical work by I. I. Golikov. The events of the Peter the Great era in this work are presented in chronological order, special attention is paid to military events, transformations in the army, the construction of the fleet and fortresses, economic reforms, political struggle, cultural innovations are highlighted. It is based on both folk legends and archives of the Academy of Sciences and the Foreign Collegium, letters and memoirs of Peter's associates and confidants. The author used the data without checking the facts with frequent errors. The feeling of delight and boundless reverence for Peter I, naive admiration for his "hero" deprived the author of the opportunity to critically understand the sources.

The first 12-volume edition was published in 1788-1789. The success of the book, which quickly sold out, prompted the author to release 18 volumes of "Supplements" in 1790-1797. The second compact edition of the materials (M., 1837-1843) is more convenient than the first due to the general index, but is considered less complete.

For their time, "Deeds" were important as the first diligent set of facts and an attempt to systematize them. More than one generation of Russian readers was brought up on "Deeds", and that aura of the extraordinary, rootless in the past, which surrounded the activities of Peter the Great until the middle of the XIX century, was created largely by the work of the author. Judging by the memoirs of M. A. Dmitriev, "Deeds ..." were available in the libraries of every educated Russian, being part of the cultural household of almost all landowner families, more or less interested in reading, along with "Telemak" and "Ancient Russian viviography". Before the works of N. G. Ustryalov and S. M. Solovyov, in general, before the publication of new data on the Petrine era under Emperor Alexander II, Golikov's work served as the only serious source for all historians of Peter's reign. Alexander Pushkin used "Deeds" as the historical basis for his poem "Poltava".