Secondary Source Review - Essay Example

the Russian Empire or within the Russian Army during the Seven Years War; due in part to the fact that most of the battles and exploits of the war did not take place within Russian territory of that time. Nonetheless, the shifts and changes that this level of Western exposure effected on the Russian Empire, specifically upon the military, paved the way for rapid success and development that would be effected during and after Peter the Greats reign as Tsar. The main source of primary material that is utilized was drawn from the art of the era and the sketches of officers and cadets that sought to capture in drawing the changes in tactics, dress, and discipline that were being effected on an army that had otherwise changed very little over the past several centuries.

The addition of these sketches is essential in helping the reader t o visualize the changes not only in the way that troops dressed but with respect to the way in which military service was performed and the changes that existed between the new Western models and the older traditional model of military strategy and engagement that had been the staple of the Russian army for such a long period of time. The primary argument of the author is concentric upon the fact that even though most scholarship concerning the Seven Years War has been focused on Western Europe, important changes were also being exhibited within the Russian Empire of Peter the Great; changes that would ultimately lead this newly resilient Russian Empire to defeat the Swedish and claim further territory throughout Northern Europe.

Moreover, the author also points to the understanding that it was the Seven Years War, and by extension Peter the Great that ultimately set the stage for Catherine the Great and the era in which this Tsaress would capitalize on the modernizations and improvements in tactics, approach, equipment, and training that Peter the Great had made as a means of expanding the Russian Empire to a degree not previously