Образ Петра Великого в странах Восточной Азии

427 place is given to Russia’s strengthening its military power in the course of the North war, Peter’s struggle for the access to the Baltic Sea, construction of St. Petersburg. The emperor’s efforts to eradicate conservative tendencies that hampered progress are not left out consideration either. A review of popular-scientific materials demonstrates that Chinese and English-speaking authors are unanimous in acknowledging the fact that Peter I was an outstanding emperor and reformer, and tend to highly appraise his achievements. However, in contrast to Chinese authors who highlight the positive sides of Peter’s reforms, Western writers underline the negative, even wicked, features of his character and of his cruel actions. While accepting that the tsar succeeded in putting an end to Russia’s backwardness and made it a European power, they believe that the reforms and victories in endless wars were not worthy of the hardships, sufferings and misery the Russian people endured. Therefore, it can be concluded that both Chinese school-books on history and popular-scientific materials give a more comprehensive overview of Peter the Great’s epoch, reforms and personality than British and American ones do, thus helping young people in China get better knowledge about Russia and Peter the Great and form a more objective image of the Russian emperor in comparison with their British and American counterparts. Chapter 5, “The Image of Peter the Great in Japan” (by V. Shchepkin) , traces the development of the image of the first Russian emperor in early modern, modern, and contemporary Japan. The information about the activities of Peter the Great began to spread in Japan as early as the 18th century, when Russians made their first attempts to reach Japan’s shores in search of trade relations. It was found that by the end of the 18th century, the image of Peter I as an outstanding ruler had already formed in Japan, with the expansion of Russia’s territory considered as his main achievement, since because of this ‘European’ Russia unexpectedly began to share a border with northern Japan. Starting from the turn of 19th century, the image of Peter I started to be used for popularization of the ideas to modernize Japan according to the Western models, as well as for creation of a modern nation state with strong central power, and even for expressing veiled criticisms of some central government officials with their inert views on the international position of Japan and the resulting short-sighted foreign policy. During the Meiji period (1868–1912), when Japan commenced modernizing the state and the army, to a great extent following Peter’s models, the Russian Emperor began to be viewed as the greatest ruler in the history of Russia, who, thanks to his wisdom, insight and craving for knowledge, managed to completely remodel Russia and make it a modern Overview