Paul Bushkovitch is a Professor of History at Yale University, where he has taught for the past 36 years. He is the author of Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671 1725 (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Religion and Society in Russia: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1991) and The Merchants of Moscow, 1580 1650 (Cambridge University Press, 1980). His articles have appeared in the Slavic Review, the Russian Review, Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteruopas and Kritika. He is a member of the editorial board for the Cahier du Monde Russe.