[RUSSIA / PETER THE GREAT] Büyük Petro'nun eyyâm-i hükümetinde Rusya'da... [i.e. Description of the internal and external historical situation in Russia during the rule of Peter the Great, and the progressions in science, technology and industry]

IVAN IVANOVICH SHUVALOV, (1727-1797), Yeni Matbaa, Istanbul, [AH 1270] = 1854.

Contemporary non-aesthetic burgundy cloth bdg. Demy 8vo. (22 x 14,5 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 299, [6] p. Fading on cloth, minor repairs on some pages, otherwise a good copy.

Lithographed edition. First and only Turkish edition of this uncommon and very scarce early book of the history of Russia under the rule of Peter the Great. This book was published during the Crimean War, which was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom, and Piedmont-Sardinia.

The first four chapters describe the general political and social history of Russia at the time of Peter the Great. The following chapters narrate important events like the new revolution in Sofia, the first diplomatic relations with China in the period and the first agreement between the Russian and Chinese Empires, The Siege of Azov Fortress, the agreement with the Saxony, Peter the Great's travels to Europe, rebuild of St. Petersburg, The Battle of Narva and the Siege of Narva, return of the Great Tsar to Russia from France, commerce in Russia in the period of the Peter the Great's rule, etc.

Peter I, most commonly known as Peter the Great, was a monarch of Russia who modernized it and made it a European power. He ruled the Tsardom of Russia from 7 May [O.S. 27 April] 1682 to 1721 and subsequently the Russian Empire until his death in 1725, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. To improve his nation's position on the seas, Peter sought more maritime outlets. His only outlet at the time was the White Sea at Arkhangelsk. The Baltic Sea was at the time controlled by Sweden in the north, while the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Empire respectively in the south. Peter attempted to acquire control of the Black Sea, which would require expelling the Tatars from the surrounding areas. As part of an agreement with Poland that ceded Kyiv to Russia, Peter was forced to wage war against the Crimean Khan and against the Khan's overlord, the Ottoman Sultan. Peter's primary objective became the capture of the Ottoman fortress of Azov, near the Don River. In the summer of 1695, Peter organized the Azov campaigns to take the fortress, but his attempts ended in failure.

Through a number of successful wars, he captured ports at Azov and the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy, ending uncontested Swedish supremacy in the Baltic, and beginning the Tsardom's expansion into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernised, and based on the Enlightenment.

Shuvalov was called the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment and the first Russian Minister of Education. Russia's first theatre, university, and Academy of Arts were instituted with his active participation. He was born in Moscow, the only son of Ivan Menshoi Shuvalov, an army captain who died when the boy was ten, and Tatiana Rodionovna. The Shuvalov family fortunes changed drastically in 1741 when Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ascended to the Russian throne with help from Ivan's powerful cousins - Peter Shuvalov and Alexander Shuvalov. The following year, they had the fourteen-year-old Ivan attached to the imperial court as a page.

Complete title: "Büyük Petro'nun eyyâm-i hükümetinde Rusya'da cereyân eden ahvâl-i dahiliyye ve umûr-i hâriciyyeye ve husûsiyle nizâmât-i mevzûa-i cecdîdeye ve oralarda bulunan milel ve akvâm-i muhtelifenin ahlâk ve âdâb ve fünûn ve sanâyilerine dair Büyük Petro'nun kizi Elizabete'nin kurenâsindan Sovalef nâm zâtin bazi resâil-i mevsûka ve senedât-i sahîhadan vukûf ve ittılâi hâsil olan ahvâl ve keyfiyâti nakil ve hikâyeye mübâseret olunmustur."

Özege 17170.