What was so different about Peter the Great?

Comments ( 2 )

1. TheGrandOnion says

   Tsars generally, in his time, just sat on the throne waiting around to get killed off by conspiracies. Power generally lay with the Russian nobles. Pete's case was slightly different in that while he was in power only b/c the nobles allowed it, Pete was very much a "hand's on" kind of guy, wanting to know how everything worked and literallly asking Westerners living in Russia what their home countries were like. When he heard of how some of these were big superpower countries, Pete began to wonder why the hell wasn't Russia on the track to be a superpower.

   As it was, Pete's brother ruled as co-Tsar, so Pete decided to take a trip with some western-bound traders and go see the West for himself. While there he would attempt to learn what made those countries great & see if he could either bring those skills back to Russia or convince Westerners to come back with him. No Tsar had ever done this yet off Pete went.

   He worked under an assumed name in Holland, building ships with his own hands, seeing how Western armies operated, and basically what made the West "the West". After a few years abroad Pete went home along w/a big bunch of Western advisors, military experts, etc. After his brother died, Pete went about (as sole Tsar) first to destroy anybody that might kill him off. Second to remake Russia into a superpower with the help of his advisors.

   The average Russian and Russian noble fought Pete's changes. But Pete brought medieval Russia screaming into the Age of Reason, i.e. the present. Realizing Russia could only be a superpower if it had a navy like England's, Pete & Russia would fight their next-door-neighbor Sweden for almost 20 years in order for Russia to get access to the Baltic Sea. Pete moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg and began a naval school. When he finally died in 1721, Russia was no longer living the 1300s. It was on its way to being a superpower.

   When the Communists took over in the 1920s, the one Tsar they didn't smear as being an elitist snob was Pete, who they said all Russia owed a huge debt for trying to make 'em strong.

2. Randal says

   Peter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov (Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Рома́нов, Пётр I, Pyotr I, or Пётр Вели́кий, Pyotr Velikiy) (9 June [O.S. 30 May] 1672 – 8 February [O.S. 28 January] 1725)[1] ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May [O.S. 27 April] 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V.

   He carried out a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into a 3-billion acre Russian Empire, a major European power.

   Also, standing at 6 ft 8 in(200 cm) in height, the Russian tsar was literally head and shoulders above his contemporaries both in Russia and throughout Europe.[