About the book: 2009 / A native of Geneva, Franz Lefort (1656-1699) left a deep mark on the history of Russia. One of Peter's closest associates, a general and admiral of the Russian service, the first ambassador of the Grand Embassy, ​​he had a huge influence on the formation of the personality of Tsar Peter I and, one might say, stood at the origins of the Europeanization of Russia. One of the districts of Moscow still bears the name of Lefort. The fate of this extraordinary man and his role in Peter’s transformations is described in a new book by the oldest author of the “Life of Remarkable People” series, a recognized classic of the historical and biographical genre, Nikolai Ivanovich Pavlenko.