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Abstract:

The article considers the description of the Petrine epoch in the novel Peter the Great from the historical accuracy point of view. A number of inconsistencies that were made by A.N. Tolstoy are noted, e. g., the episode when Peter the Great allows himself to spit a bone at K. Kruys. In reality such a scene could not have happened. The image of Charles XII in the novel is considered in detail. Memories of contemporaries, materials of biographers testify to the Swedish king as a reserved and modest man who always respected his surroundings. In the novel Tolstoy creates the opposite image, partly endowing Charles XII with some features of the Russian Emperor Peter I. The author of the article also points out a number of inaccuracies made by the writer in the scenes of the first siege of Narva. Nevertheless, a number of Tolstoy’s mistakes are a consequence of inaccurate data, which he took from historians’ books published at the time of writing the novel. It can be argued that sometimes Tolstoy’s narrative is historically more truthful than the account of the same events in the books by many historians, e. g., the description of the departure of Peter the Great on the eve of the approach of Swedish troops led by King Charles and the tragedy of the Russian army during the battle of Narva on November 19, 1700.