This week we’ll be taking a closer look at the Supreme Privy council, Plus we’ll get to see how Russia and Great Britain almost came to blows and how Menshikov managed to get his daughter engaged to a member of the established imperial family. To sign-up for membership of the Boyar Duma  Go to the podcast website https://www.historyofrussia.net and visit the Membership Page or the Patreon Logo on the home page   Or go to  patreon.com/historyofrussia    Or download the Patreon app - just search for patreon in either the the Apple App store or the Google play store   List of books that I use (or have used) for the podcast Chronicle of the Russian Tsars - David Warnes  (A good high-level history) The Gates of Europe - Serhii Plokhy (Ukrainian History) Russia, A history - Gregory L Freeze Russia and the Russians - Geoffrey Hosking Russia - Martin Sixsmith (Another High-level history) The Cambridge History of Russia, Volume 1 - From the Early Rus to 1689) (Very detailed but a bit on the heavy side) Peter the Great - Robert Massie Catherine the Great - Robert Massie  The Romanovs - Simon Sebag Montefiore The Longman companion to Imperial Russia 1689 - 1917 - David Longley  - full of facts, some of which the other books just don’t include but more of a reference guide