Translated by Tobias Smollett
The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia was published in two parts: the first appeared in 1758, and according to Antony Cross in Peter the Great Through British Eyes: Perceptions and Representations of the Tsar Since 1698, Empress Elizabeth was persuaded to allow Ivan Shuvalov to provide Voltaire with a mass of archival, as well as published materials to help him in his endeavour. The second volume was published in 1763 and the English translation of the first part was available in 1759, while the two volume work was published in 1763. Voltaire was mostly dismissive of other histories that had been written about Peter; he loathed what he saw as the dull chronicling of facts and battles, or the over-zealous attention to the personal. Antony Cross argues that the author wished to write a ‘philosophical history’; an approach that intended to use the past in order to gleam lessons for the present. Voltaire’s biography of Peter was not a bestseller upon release, although it did become incredibly influential in late eighteenth century depictions of the Emperor and of Russia.
Voltaire was incredibly impressed and amazed at what he viewed as the civilisation of Russia by Peter; he believed the Emperor had implemented enormous progress in Russia, and that the transformation of the country was the real great event of the eighteenth century. Of course, it was Peter’s adoption of self-proclaimed Western European values which Voltaire determined to be civilised. The whole notion of progress relies on the idea that prior to Peter’s reign Russia was a land of barbarism and brutality; it was a country devoid of civilisation which required Peter — via the knowledge he gained on his European travels — to bring arts, commerce, law, industry and even reason and morals to his homeland. The author portrayed Russia as emerging from chaos and darkness to imitate European ideals, viewing Peter as the great figure responsible for this radical and enlightening change.