Boris Akunin “Eurasian Empire. The History of the Russian State. The Era of the Empresses”

I love Akunin’s books, including the much-criticized series The History of the Russian State. Yes, the author is often not very objective and adds much of his own perspective and worldview into the text. However, because of this, his works are often more lively and interesting to read than more scientific but dry historical books.

Now, he has finally reached the 18th century, the period after the death of Peter the Great and up until the reign of Alexander I (which will be covered in the next volume of the series). Akunin calls this period the “Era of the Empresses” because women largely dictated Russia’s development during this time. Men were also in power, but far less frequently compared to the empresses.

Unfortunately, in this volume, I noticed a trend that I had already pointed out in the previous one: the “personal” tone of the author, which once drew me in, has become less interesting with each new book, but more subjective and superficial. This is the first book in the series that I didn’t devour in a couple of days. It was just too dry.

There are plenty of events, but the narrative doesn’t spark much interest, feeling more like a listing of dry facts. Personally, I found the events mixing together in my head because they aren’t presented sequentially, but rather divided into thematic chapters: economy, foreign and domestic policy, personalities… There’s logic to it, but in the end, it’s quite difficult to piece together a unified timeline unless you try to draw it yourself — figuring out what happened after what.

There are interesting fragments, but first of all, there aren’t many, and secondly, they also lack depth. Of course, coups are interesting. Pugachev’s Rebellion offers a more detached view than I remember from Soviet textbooks (though it seems the textbooks covered more than Akunin managed to fit into his specialized book). And then there are the wars for expanding the Empire. However, I felt that the conquered neighbors were given very little attention. I understand that the book is mainly about Russia, but I personally would have liked to learn more about the lands of my homeland, which were part of the Russian Empire for centuries. Here, there’s only a brief mention of the Polish Kingdom, and then suddenly, Suvorov is quashing rebellions with fire and sword, seizing vast territories as “help for brotherly nations.” At least it’s honestly acknowledged that he nearly wiped out some cities (something Soviet textbooks didn’t mention for obvious reasons).

Overall, I’ll continue reading the series, but my impressions aren’t as enthusiastic as they were with the earlier volumes. Perhaps it’s because the closer the events get to our time, the more we know about them, and the more perspectives exist (sometimes radically different). That’s why it’s more noticeable when the author takes a particular side.

My rating: 3/5