The Unknown Frederick the Great

This book is a revision of old dogmas; a careful and uncompromising study of the true, unvarnished historical reality based on documents and eyewitness accounts—of the outstanding King of Prussia Frederick the Great, a monarch who commanded incredible authority among contemporaries, from the common people, from men of science and scholars, to ruling dynasties of European countries, and even to the fathers of American democracy—Franklin, Adams, Jefferson; of a tragic person in his private life; of a celebrated commander whose battles entered the annals of the art of war, who shared with soldiers all the hardships of war and turned his country into a flourishing garden and Berlin into “Athens on the Spree”; of an outstanding politician and statesman, a great and tolerant reformer who was in many ways ahead of his time, who decisively rooted out petty quarrels and religious fanaticism.

The great monarch was a wonderful musician, poet, and composer, highly valued and encouraged the development of science and the arts, philosophy and culture, architecture and music. “In his education, he reached such a level that he could communicate on equal terms with the most outstanding scientists, philosophers, and people of art.” The book includes excerpts from Frederick the Great’s letters and works, historical parallels and notes revealing the true essence of famous and great people and events of the 18th century, chapters on “blank spots” of history that have been disclosed with reluctance up to the present; a fresh look at the Enlightenment era; the sharp contrast between Frederick II’s personality and the life-burning kings of neighboring countries adjacent to Prussia and their greedy favorites; the colossal difference between the backward European states of the 18th century and Prussia; the results of the king’s far-sighted educational activity—NOT accepted in other states—which led Europe to the tragedy of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; debunking myths about the fall of the Bastille, a detailed account of the events of the French Revolution of 1789, when—so that the philosophers’ “great ideas” could be put into life—the blood of those slaughtered by the guillotine poured in a torrential stream, and the foundations of the terrorist practice of all revolutions were laid; the book offers a broad view of the interweaving of destinies and rulers of the European powers of the 18th century; details of the main battles of the Seven Years’ War; a comparative analysis of the English, French, and American revolutions, the lives of Frederick II and his cruel father—Frederick William I—the tyrant and despot; chapters about the park Sanssouci in Potsdam, which “seems to await the return of its sovereign lord in a shabby frock coat with a flute in hand.”