Peter the Great. Benefit or harm for Russia?

The reformist legacy of Peter the Great, like his personality itself, still generates fierce debates in Russian society. In the 19th century, disagreements in the assessment of Peter's activities largely prompted the emergence of two main directions of ideological struggle in the Russian intellectual elite — Westernizers and Slavophiles. Evgeny Anisimov took a bold step: to present two viewpoints on the historical role of the reformist tsar on equal terms. The book is written in the form of a dialogue, or rather — fierce debates between two opponents: a supporter of European development and a supporter of the 'special path'. According to the author, both positions have the right to exist, both are true in their own way, and both reflect such a complex, ambiguous phenomenon as the era of Peter in Russian history.