PETER I., ALF.XEYEVITCII ( 1672-1725) . Em peror of Russia from 1682 to 1725. generally known as Peter the Great. lie was the son of the Czar Alexei Mikhailovitch by his second wife, Natalia Naryshkin, and was born at Moscow, June 9 (May 30), 1672. Peter's half-brother Feodur, who succeeded his father in 1676, died without issue in 1682, having named l'eter as his successor, to the exclusion of his own full broth er, Ivan, a feeble-minded prince. The Grand Duchess Sophia, Peter's half-sister, attempted to set aside this arrangement and to obtain control of affairs. To this end she brought about an insurrection of the Streltsi (q.v.), and after much bloodshed Ivan and Peter were crowned as joint rulers and Sophia became Regent (July, 1682). Peter's education was not carefully looked after, and at an early age he gave evidence of those stormy passions which were to characterize his en tire life. In February, 1689, Peter married Eudox ia Feodorovna Lapukhin, and soon after he called upon his sister to resign the government. This she would not do without a contest, and Peter was forced to flee from the capital, hut the foreigners in the Russian service, led by Lefort and the Seotehman Gordon (q.v.), joined his party, and when the Streltsi deserted her the Regent yielded and was shut up in a convent. On October 11, 1689, Peter made his public entry into Moscow, where he was met by Ivan, to whom he gave a nominal precedence, reserving the sole exercise of power for himself. Ivan died in 1696. I'eter was the first of Russian sovereigns to grasp the value and significance of Western civilization. Ile at once began the slow task of forming out of the barbarous and undisciplined material available an army on the European model. His ambitions were ehietly directed. however, toward creating a navy and developing the commerce of his country. Russia hail no practicable seaboard, being shut out from the Baltic by Sweden, which possessed Finland, Ingermanland, Estlionia, and Livonia, and from the Black Sea by Turkey; leaving only the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, with the solitary port of Archangel. available for a Russian navy. Peter therefore set on foot what has become the established Russian policy, of seeking in every direction an outlet into ice-free seas. The Black Sea seemed to him to be the
most available for a first move. He launched Russia upon her career of warfare against the Turks, and succeeded in making himself master of the city of .Azov, at the mouth of the Don, in 1696. Peter brought in engineers, naval architects, and ordnance experts from Austria, Venice, Prus sia, and Holland; built ships; improved the equipment and discipline of the army; and many of the young nobility to study in foreign countries. After repressing at revolt of the Streltsi in February, 1697, Peter put the admin into the hands of a conned and left Russia in April, traveling as a subordinate mem ber of an embassy, headed by Lefort. for the pur pose of acquiring at first hand the knowledge necessary to develop his Empire. Ile this visited the Baltic provinces. Prussia, and Hanover, and subsequently Holland, where at Amsterdam and Saardam he worked as a common shipwright. on the invitation of William Ill.. King of Eng land, he visited that country, remaining for three months.. lie left England in April, 1698, taking with him about 500 English engineers, surgeons, and artisans, and visited Vienna for the purpose of the Austrian army. His travels were cut short by a second revolt of the Streltsi, which necessitated his return to Russia in Sep tember. 1698. General Gordon had crushed the revolt, but Peter determined to be finally rid of this turbulent soldiery, and the organization was broken up and its members executed in large numbers. l'eter divorced the Czarina Eudoxia, who with his sister Martha was suspected of complbdty in the outbreak, which had been fostered by the Old Russian Party. The process of introducing Western civilization continued. Printing and education were promoted• the calen dar was partially reformed. and Western methods of enumeration were Systematic tax ation of commodities was adopted as a source of revenue•; foreign commerce was encouraged; and much of the Orientalism in dress, manners, and customs which had grown up during the Mongol supremacy gave place to the ways of the Occi dent. The Church was reorganized, its govern ment being intrusted to the lloly Synod, of which the Czar was the head.