The reign of Peter the Great
Peter the Great was born June 9, 1672 in Moscow Russia and died February 8, 1725. He took the throne for Russia in 1689. He was around seven feet tall and was known to have boundless energy, volcanic emotions, be relentless at times and at times resorted to terror. His ideals were to bring Russia into the mainstream of European civilization. During his reign he sought out tours among the foreign communities in Moscow in hopes to learn the basic skills of navigation and shipbuilding. What he came to find out was that Russia was quite limited with their knowledge of the outside world. After becoming czar, he took an eighteen month study of England and the Netherlands to tour around it. Among his studies he came upon the Baltic coast and stated "here there shall be a town". Construction on the new city began on May 16, 1703.He named this new city St. Petersburg and made it Russia's new capitol. His hopes of the new capitol were to make Russia more like the modern world and just like what he saw on his tour to Europe and the Netherlands. St. Petersburg didn't last for long but he was still able to carry out his ideas of bringing Russia into the modern world. By the end of his reign Peter had made a large impact on Russia and changed it in many ways. His power and control came to an end due to his death in 1725.
Peter the Great Meditating the Idea of Building St Petersburg The 1782 statue of Peter I in Saint Petersburg, known as the Bronze Horseman
at the Shore of theBaltic Sea by Alexandre Benois, 1916
at the Shore of theBaltic Sea by Alexandre Benois, 1916
Czar: Tsar: An emperor of Russia before 1917.