The speaker for November is Jill Lisk, a graduate of Bed
ford College, London and Oxford, who has taught at the
Open University and is also a lecturer on cruise ships.
She will speak to the Association on Peter the Great and
Catherine the Great, the two founders of the modern
Russian state. In the 1690s Peter became Tsar of a
backward and landlocked Muscovy which was seen of small
importance in European affairs. He opened a "Window on
the West" by conquering the site of St Petersburg, which
he then built with its amazing boulevards and palaces.
When he died in 1725, Russia was a leading naval and
military presence in the Baltic and had become a major
power in European politics.
On the murder of her husband, Catherine the Great
took power in 1762. German by birth, she consciously
built on Peter´s work in a brilliant partnership with
Prince Potemkin and in correspondence with philosophers
of the Enlightenment. Russia owes her present great size
to Catherine´s huge territorial expansion south to the
Crimea and east into Poland. By the time of her death in
1796 Russia was a European superpower.
This is one of the Associations' occasional history
talks, and promises to be an unusual and fascinating
glimpse into Russian history. As Jill is so popular on
the cruise ships, it is certainly worth making the
effort to hear this unusual talk.