Peter the Great

Peter grew up at Izmaylovo Estate and was educated at the Amusement Palace from an early age by several tutors commissioned by his father Tsar Alexei Mikailovich, most notably Nikita Zotov, Patrick Gordon, and Paul Menesius. When his father died in 1676, he left the sovereignty to Peter's elder half-brother, the crippled Feodor III. Throughout this period, the government was largely run by Artamon Matveyev, an enlightened friend of Alexis, who was the political head of the Naryshkin family of Peter's mother Natalya Naryshkina and one of Peter's greatest childhood benefactors.

This position changed when Feodor died in 1682. As Feodor did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family (Maria Miloslavskaya was the first wife of Alexis I) and Naryshkin family (Natalya Naryshkina was his second wife) over who should inherit the throne. He jointly ruled with his elder half-brother, Ivan V, until 1696. Ivan was next in line but was weakminded and blind. Consequently, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) chose the 10-year-old Peter to become tsar, with his mother as regent. A hole was cut in the back of the throne, so that she, literally behind the scenes, could whisper to the two boys.

The "Moscow Grand Discharge" started in 1677 and was completed in 1688; it affected noble families with high ranks in the administration; the ministries were also reduced in number. This provoked fierce reactions. Sophia, one of Alexis' daughters from his first marriage, led a rebellion of the streltsy (Russia's elite military corps) in April–May 1682. In the subsequent conflict, some of Peter's relatives and friends were murdered, including Artamon Matveyev, and Peter witnessed some of these acts of political violence.

The streltsy made it possible for Sophia, the Miloslavskys (the clan of Ivan), and their allies to insist that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint tsars, with Ivan being acclaimed as the senior. Sophia then acted as regent during the minority of the sovereigns and exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat.

From 1682 to 1689, Peter and his mother were banned to Preobrazhenskoye. At the age of 16, he discovered an English boat on the estate, had it restored and learned to sail. He received a sextant, but did not know how to use it. Peter was fascinated by sundials. Therefore, he began a search for a foreign expert in the German Quarter. Peter befriended Andrew Vinius, a bibliophile, who taught him Dutch and two Dutch carpenters, Frans Timmerman and Karsten Brandt. Peter studied arithmetic, geometry, and military sciences (fortification). He was not interested in a musical education but liked fireworks and drumming.

Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name; Boris Golitsyn and Fyodor Apraksin played an important role. He engaged in such pastimes as shipbuilding in Pereslavl-Zalessky and sailing at Lake Pleshcheyevo, as well as mock battles with his toy army. Peter's mother sought to force him to adopt a more conventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689. The marriage was a failure, and 10 years later, Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union.

By the summer of 1689, Peter, planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns against the Crimean Khanate in an attempt to stop devastating Crimean Tatar raids into Russia's southern lands. When she learned of his designs, Sophia conspired with some leaders of the Streltsy, who continually aroused disorder and dissent. Peter, warned by others from the Streltsy, escaped in the middle of the night to the impenetrable monastery of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra; there he slowly gathered adherents who perceived he would win the power struggle. Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Peter forced Sophia to enter a convent, where she gave up her name and her position as a member of the royal family.

Meanwhile, he was a frequent guest in the German quarter, where he met Anna and Willem Mons. In 1692 he sent Eberhard Isbrand Ides as envoy to the Kangxi Emperor of China. In 1693 he sailed to Solovetsky Monastery and accepted divine providence after surviving a storm.

Still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power was instead exercised by his mother. It was only when Natalya died in 1694 that Peter, then aged 22, became an independent sovereign. Formally, Ivan V was a co-ruler with Peter, though being ineffective. Peter became the sole ruler when Ivan died in 1696 without male offspring.

Peter grew to be extremely tall, especially for the time period, reportedly standing 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). He was seen as a "second Goliath" or Samson. Saint-Simon described him in 1717 as "tall, well-formed and slim... with a look both bewildered and fierce". Peter had noticeable facial tics, and he may have suffered from neck spasm.

As a young man, Peter I adopted the Protestant model of existence in a pragmatic world of competition and personal success, which largely shaped the philosophy of his reformism. He perceived the Russian people as rude, unintelligent, stubborn in their sluggishness, a child, a lazy student. He highly appreciated the state's role in the life of society, saw it as an ideal instrument for achieving high goals, saw it as a universal institution for transforming people, with the help of violence and fear, into educated, conscious, law-abiding and useful to the whole society subjects. Peter had a keen interest in The Education of a Christian Prince which offers advice to rulers on how to govern justly and wisely.

He introduced into the concept of the autocrat's power the notion of the monarch's duties. He considered it necessary to take care of his subjects, to protect them from enemies, to work for their benefit. Above all, he put the interests of Russia. He saw his mission in turning it into a power similar to Western countries, and subordinated his own life and the lives of his subjects to the realization of this idea. Gradually, Peter penetrated the idea that the task should be solved with the help of reforms, which will be carried out at the autocrat's will, who creates good and punishes evil. He considered the morality of a statesman separately from the morality of a private person and believed that the sovereign in the name of state interests can go to murder, violence, forgery and deceit.

He went through the naval service, starting from the lowest ranks: bombardier (1695), captain (1696), colonel (1706), schout-bij-nacht (1709), vice-admiral (1714), admiral (1721). By hard daily work (according to the figurative expression of Peter the Great himself, he was simultaneously "forced to hold a sword and a quill in one right hand") and courageous behavior he demonstrated to his subjects his personal positive example, showed how to act, fully devoting himself to the fulfillment of duty and service to the fatherland.

Peter reigned for around 43 years. He implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing Russia. Heavily influenced by his advisors, like Jacob Bruce, Peter reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He faced much opposition to these policies at home but brutally suppressed rebellions against his authority, including by the Streltsy, Bashkirs, Astrakhan, and the greatest civil uprising of his reign, the Bulavin Rebellion.

In his process to westernize Russia, he wanted members of his family to marry other European royalty. In the past, his ancestors had been snubbed at the idea; however, it was proving fruitful. He negotiated with Frederick William, Duke of Courland to marry his niece, Anna Ivanovna. He used the wedding in order to launch his new capital, St Petersburg, where he had already ordered building projects of westernized palaces and buildings. Peter hired Italian and German architects to design it. He attracted Domenico Trezzini, Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond and Andreas Schlüter.

To improve his nation's position on the seas, Peter sought more maritime outlets. His only outlet at the time was the White Sea at Arkhangelsk. The Baltic Sea was at the time controlled by Sweden in the north, while the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Empire respectively in the south. The country's need for metal was exacerbated by the outbreak of wars for access to the Black and Baltic Seas.

Peter attempted to acquire control of the Black Sea, which would require expelling the Tatars from the surrounding areas. As part of an agreement with Poland that ceded Kiev to Russia, Peter was forced to wage war against the Crimean Khan and against the Khan's overlord, the Ottoman Sultan. Peter's primary objective became the capture of the Ottoman fortress of Azov, near the Don River. In the summer of 1695 Peter organized the Azov campaigns to take the fortress, but his attempts ended in failure.

Peter returned to Moscow in November 1695 and began building a large navy in Voronezh. He launched about thirty ships against the Ottomans in 1696, capturing Azov in July of that year. He appointed Alexander Gordon, who later would publish a biography on Peter. Peter used to hold all his important meetings and numerous celebrations in Le Fort's palace.

Peter knew that Russia could not face the Ottoman Empire alone. In March 1697, he traveled "incognito" to Western Europe on an 18-month journey with a large Russian delegation—the so-called "Grand Embassy". Peter was the first tsar to leave Russia for more than 100 years. He used a fake name, allowing him to escape social and diplomatic events, but since he was far taller than most others, he could not fool anyone. One goal was to seek the aid of European monarchs, but Peter's hopes were dashed. France was a traditional ally of the Ottoman Sultan, and Austria was eager to maintain peace in the east while conducting its own wars in the west. Peter, furthermore, had chosen an inopportune moment: the Europeans at the time were more concerned about the War of the Spanish Succession over who would succeed the childless King Charles II of Spain than about fighting the Ottoman Sultan. Peter failed to expand the anti-Ottoman alliance.

In Riga, the local Swedish commander Erik Dahlbergh decided to pretend that he did not recognize Peter and did not allow him to inspect the fortifications. (Three years later, Peter would cite the inhospitable reception as one of the reasons for starting the Great Northern War). He met Frederick Casimir Kettler, the Duke of Courland. In Königsberg, the tsar was apprenticed for two months to an artillery engineer. (Decrees were issued on the construction of the first Ural blast furnace plants.) In July he met Sophia of Hanover at Coppenbrügge castle. She described him: "The tsar is a tall, handsome man, with an attractive face. He has a lively mind is very witty. Only, someone so well endowed by nature could be a little better mannered." Peter rented a ship in Emmerich am Rhein and sailed to Zaandam, where he arrived on 18 August 1697.

Peter studied saw-mills, manufacturing and shipbuilding in Zaandam but left after a week. He sailed to Amsterdam after he was recognized and attacked. The log-cabin he rented became the Czar Peter House. He sailed to Texel to see a fleet. Through the mediation of Nicolaas Witsen, an expert on Russia, the tsar was given the opportunity to gain practical experience in shipyard, belonging to the Dutch East India Company, for a period of four months, under the supervision of Gerrit Claesz Pool. The diligent and capable tsar assisted in the construction of an East Indiaman Peter and Paul specially laid down for him. Peter felt that the ship's carpenters in Holland worked too much by eye and lacked accurate construction drawings. During his stay the tsar engaged many skilled workers such as builders of locks, fortresses, shipwrights, and seamen—including Cornelis Cruys, a vice-admiral who became, under Franz Lefort, the tsar's advisor in maritime affairs; engineer Menno van Coehoorn refused. Peter put his knowledge of shipbuilding to use in helping build Russia's navy.

Peter and Witsen visited Frederik Ruysch who had all the specimens exposed in five rooms. He taught Peter how to catch butterflies and how to preserve them. They also had a common interest in lizards. Together they went to see patients. He arrived in Utrecht on a barge and met stadtholder William III in a tavern. When he visited the States-General of the Netherlands he left the hall and the astonished attendees with his wig pulled over his head, according to Massie. He visited Jan van der Heyden, the inventor of a fire hose. He collected paintings by Adam Silo with ships and seascapes. In October 1697, the Tsar visited Delft and received an "eal viewer" from the microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. After the Peace of Ryswick he was invited by King of England to visit him. The Dutch regents considered the Tsar too inquisitive, and this affected their willingness to help the Russians.

On 11 January 1698 (O.S.), Peter arrived at Victoria Embankment with four chamberlains, three interpreters (Peter Shafirov, LeFort), two clock makers, a cook, a priest, six trumpeters, 70 soldiers from the Preobrazhensky regiment, four dwarfs and a monkey which he purchased in Amsterdam; Jacob Bruce accompanied him. Peter stayed at 21 Norfolk Street, Strand, and met with Bishop of Salisbury Gilbert Burnet and Thomas Osborne and posed for Sir Godfrey Kneller. He watched the proceedings within the Parliament from a rooftop window. At some time, he had an affair with actress Letitia Cross. He visited the Royal Mint four times; it is not clear whether he ever met Isaac Newton, the mint's warden, who introduced milling on the coinage. Peter was impressed by the Great Recoinage of 1696, according to Massie.

At some time he visited Spithead, Plymouth, with captain John Perry to watch a mock battle. In February he attended a Fleet Review in Deptford, and inspected the Woolwich Dockyard and Royal Arsenal with Anthony Deane. For three months he stayed at Sayes Court as the guest of John Evelyn, a member of the Royal Society. He was trained on a telescope at the Greenwich Observatory by John Flamsteed. Peter communicated with Thomas Story and William Penn about their position that believers should not join the military. King William III presented a schooner with a whole crew to Peter I in exchange for the monopoly right of English merchants to trade tobacco in Russia (see Charles Whitworth). At the end of April 1698 he left after being shown how to make watches, and carpeting coffins. Back in Holland he visited Harderwijk and Cleves.

The Embassy next went to Leipzig, Dresden, where he met with Queen Christiane Eberhardine of Poland-Lithuania. Three times he visited the Kunstsammlung, then Königstein Fortress, Prague, and Vienna, where he paid a visit to Leopold I. At Rava-Ruska, he crossed the border and Peter spoke with Augustus II the Strong. Peter's visit was cut short, when he was informed of the second Streltsy uprising in June. The rebellion was easily crushed by General Gordon before Peter returned home early September. Peter nevertheless acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers; 4,600 rebels were sent to prison. Around 1,182 were tortured and executed, and Peter ordered that their bodies be publicly exhibited as a warning to future conspirators. The Streltsy were disbanded, and Peter's half-sister Sophia, who they sought to put on the throne, was kept in strictest seclusion at Novodevichy Convent.

Peter's visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing (no caftans) and cut off their long beards, causing Boyars and Old Believers, who were very fond of their beards, great upset. Boyars who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles. In the same year, Peter also sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, because he thought such a practice was barbaric and led to domestic violence, since the partners usually resented each other.

In 1698, Peter sent a delegation to Malta, under boyar Boris Sheremetev, to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet. Sheremetev investigated the possibility of future joint ventures with the Knights, including action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base. On 12 September 1698, Peter officially founded the first Russian Navy base, Taganrog on the Sea of Azov.

In 1699, Peter changed the date of the celebration of the new year from 1 September to 1 January. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from the purported creation of the World, but after Peter's reforms, they were to be counted from the birth of Christ. Thus, in the year 7207 of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was 1700. On the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as Peter's prime favourite and confidant. Yakov Fyodorovich Dolgorukov also provided critical advice and support to the Tsar throughout his attempts at modernizing Russia.

In 1700, Peter I prevented the election of a new patriarch and deprived the Russian Church of the opportunity to regain a single spiritual leader. Reducing the number of monasteries, he converted all monasteries with less than 30 monks into schools or churches. He encouraged the development of private entrepreneurship, but under strict state control. He initiated the construction of canals by John Perry and implemented a monetary reform, using the decimal principle as the basis of the monetary system (1698–1704).

Peter attracted many foreign specialists and opened an educational institution for surgery, led by Nicolaas Bidloo. In 1701, the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation was founded, led by Jacob Bruce; for fifteen years, naval officers, surveyors, engineers, and gunners were educated there.

In 1700, Jan Thesingh (-1701) received a monopoly on printing and importing books, maps and prints into Russia for fifteen years. In 1701 he appointed Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov as head of the Moscow Print Yard. In 1707, Tsar Peter I bought a fully equipped printing house in Holland, including staff. Peter replaced the Cyrillic numerals with Arabic numerals (1705–1710) and the Cyrillic font with a civil script (1708–1710).

In 1708, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz became an advisor and offered to write new laws for the country. In December Russia was divided into eight governorates (guberniya). Matwei Petrowitsch Gagarin was the first governor of Siberia.

In the winter of 1723, Peter, whose overall health was never robust, began having problems with his urinary tract and bladder. In the summer of 1724, a team of doctors performed surgery releasing upwards of four pounds of blocked urine. Peter remained bedridden until late autumn. In the first week of October, restless and certain he was cured, Peter began a lengthy inspection tour of various projects. Rastrelli finished his monument to Peter I. According to legend, in November, at Lakhta along the Gulf of Finland to inspect some ironworks, Peter saw a group of soldiers drowning near shore and, wading out into near-waist deep water, came to their rescue. This icy water rescue is said to have exacerbated Peter's bladder problems and caused his death. The story, however, has been viewed with skepticism by some historians, pointing out that the German chronicler Jacob von Staehlin is the only source for the story.

In early January 1725, Peter was struck once again with uremia or azotemia. Legend has it that before lapsing into unconsciousness Peter asked for a paper and pen and scrawled an unfinished note that read: "Leave all to ..." and then, exhausted by the effort, asked for his daughter Anna to be summoned.

Peter died between four and five in the morning 8 February. An autopsy revealed his bladder to be infected with gangrene. He was fifty-two years, seven months old when he died, having reigned forty-two years. He is interred in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral.

After his death, students came to the Military College with a request to "leave science" under the pretext of "unconsciousness and incomprehensibility."

Peter had a great interest in dissenters and visited gatherings of Quakers and Mennonites. He did not believe in miracles and founded The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters, an organization that mocked the Orthodox and Catholic Church, when he was eighteen. In January 1695, Peter refused to partake in a traditional Russian Orthodox Epiphany Ceremony, and would often schedule events for The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters to directly conflict with the Church. He often used the nickname Pakhom Mikhailov (Russian: Пахом Михайлов) among the ministers of religion who made up his relatively close circle of long-term drinking companions.

Peter was brought up in the Russian Orthodox faith, but he had low regard for the Church hierarchy, which he kept under tight governmental control. The traditional leader of the Church was the Patriarch of Moscow. In 1700, when the office fell vacant, Peter refused to name a replacement, allowing the patriarch's coadjutor (or deputy) to discharge the duties of the office. Peter could not tolerate the patriarch exercising power superior to the tsar, as indeed had happened in the case of Philaret (1619–1633) and Nikon (1652–66). The Alexander Nevsky Lavra was constructed between 1710–1712; Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral between 1712–1733. In 1716 he invited Theophan Prokopovich, a pietist and astronomer, to come to the capital. The Ecclesiastical Regulations of 1721 are based on the ideas of August Hermann Francke. The Church reform of Peter the Great therefore abolished the patriarchate, replacing it with a Holy Synod that was under the control of a Procurator.

In 1721, Peter followed the advice of Prokopovich in designing the Holy Synod as a council of ten clergymen. For leadership in the Church, Peter turned increasingly to Ukrainians, who were more open to reform, but were not well loved by the Russian clergy. Peter implemented a law that stipulated that no Russian man could join a monastery before the age of fifty. He felt that too many able Russian men were being wasted on clerical work when they could be joining his new and improved army.

Peter the Great had two wives, with whom he had fifteen children, three of whom survived to adulthood. Peter's mother selected his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina, when he was only 16. This was consistent with previous Romanov tradition by choosing a daughter of a minor noble. This was done to prevent fighting between the stronger noble houses and to bring fresh blood into the family. Upon his return from his European tour in 1698, Peter sought to end his unhappy marriage. He divorced the tsaritsa and forced her to join a convent. She had borne him three children, although only one, Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, survived past his childhood.

Menshikov introduced him to Marta Helena Skowrońska, the daughter of a Polish-Lithuanian peasant, and took her as a mistress some time between 1702 and 1704. Marta converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Catherine. Though no record exists, Catherine and Peter married secretly between 23 October and 1 December 1707 in St. Petersburg. Peter valued Catherine and married officially, at Saint Isaac's Cathedral on 19 February 1712.

In 1718, his son Alexei Petrovich, whom he regarded as the rebellious Absalom, was locked up in the Peter and Paul fortress. He was suspected of being involved in a plot to overthrow the Emperor. Alexei was tried and confessed under torture during questioning conducted by a secular court (count Tolstoy). He was convicted and sentenced to be executed. The sentence of high treason could only be carried out with Peter's signed authorization, and Alexei died in prison, as Peter hesitated before making the decision. Alexei's death most likely resulted from injuries suffered during his torture. Alexei's mother Eudoxia was punished. She was dragged from her home, tried on false charges of adultery, publicly flogged, and confined in monasteries while being forbidden to be talked to.

In 1724, Peter had his second wife, Catherine, crowned as Empress, although he remained Russia's actual ruler.

By his two wives, he had fifteen children: three by Eudoxia and twelve by Catherine. These included four sons named Pavel and three sons named Peter, all of whom died in infancy. Only three of his children survived to adulthood. He had only three grandchildren: Tsar Peter II and Grand Duchess Natalia by Alexei and Tsar Peter III by Anna.

Anna Mons, from 1691 (or 1692) until 1704.

Letitia Cross in 1698

Lady Mary Hamilton

Miscarriage (1715)

Unnamed child (1717–1718?)

Princess Maria Dmitrievna Cantemirovna of Moldavia, daughter of Dimitrie Cantemir

Unnamed son (1722–1723?)