Voltaire as a Classic of the French Rossica: 260 Years Later

This review examines the first full publication in Russian of the most famous work by Voltaire and in French Rossica of the eighteenth century about the history of Russia under Peter the Great. The work was prepared at Saratov University by S. A. Mezin, head of the Department of Russian History and Archaeology, together with A. E. Kulakov, associate professor of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology, and with the participation of M. V. Kovalev, now senior research fellow at the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The book was published by a well-known scholarly publishing house in St Petersburg. The edition reviewed includes a translation of both parts of the History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great, two Prefaces and Anecdotes Concerning Peter the Great by Voltaire. Russian scholars have prepared footnotes to the author’s texts, a name index and a substantial essay Voltaire, a Historian of Russia preceding the publication with a serious source study and historiographical analysis. The publication is recognised by the reviewer as a valuable contribution to the knowledge of national specialists and readers. It provides a comprehensive overview of the historical and biographical literature of the French Enlightenment, with a particular focus on the reign of Peter I. The review emphasises that the History by Voltaire shows the “mutually beneficial alliance” he concluded with Empress Elizabeth’s government and the importance of his work as one of the motivating reasons for Catherine II’s transition to the “Enlightened Absolutism” policy.