Books by Paul (Yale University Bushkovitch

This revisionist history of the transfer of the tsar's power in early modern Russia, from the Moscow princes of the fifteenth century to Peter the Great, overturns generations of scholarship to argue that legal primogeniture never existed: the monarch designated an heir that was usually the eldest son only by custom, not by law.

Accessible to students and general readers alike, this book provides a broad overview of Russian history since the ninth century. Paul Bushkovitch emphasizes recent enormous changes in the understanding of Russian history, giving equal weight to each time period discussed.

A narrative of the fifty years of political struggles at the Russian court, 1671-1725. This book shows how Peter the Great was not the all-powerful tsar working alone to reform Russia, but that he colluded with powerful and contentious aristocrats in order to achieve his goals.