Peter the Great

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Alekseyevich and the family name is Romanov.
This article is about the Russian monarch. For other uses, see Peter the Great (disambiguation).

Peter I
1717 portrait by Carel de Moor
Emperor of Russia
Reign2 November 1721 – 8 February 1725
PredecessorHimself as Tsar of Russia
SuccessorCatherine I
Tsar of all Russia
Reign7 May 1682 – 2 November 1721
Coronation25 June 1682
PredecessorFeodor III
SuccessorHimself as Emperor of Russia
Co-monarchIvan V (1682–1696)
RegentSophia Alekseyevna (1682–1689)
Born(1672-06-09)9 June 1672
Moscow
Died8 February 1725(1725-02-08) (aged 52)
Saint Petersburg
Burial
Peter and Paul Cathedral
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1689; ann. 1698)​
Marta Skowrońska (later Catherine I)
​
​
(m. 1707)​
Issue
Detail
Names
Peter Alekseyevich Romanov
HouseRomanov
FatherAlexis of Russia
MotherNatalya Naryshkina
ReligionRussian Orthodoxy
SignaturePeter I's signature
Military career
AllegianceTsardom of Russia
Russian Empire
Service / branchArmy of Peter I [ru]
Imperial Russian Army
Battles / wars
Treelike list

Peter I ([ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪt͡ɕ]; Russian: Пётр I Алексеевич, romanized: Pyotr I Alekseyevich,[note 1]; 9 June [O.S. 30 May] 1672 – 8 February [O.S. 28 January] 1725), was Tsar of all Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia, known as Peter the Great,[note 2] from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, Peter was an absolute monarch, an autocrat who remained the ultimate authority and organized a well-ordered police state.[2][3]

Most of Peter's reign was consumed by long wars against the Ottoman and Swedish Empires. Despite initial difficulties, the wars were ultimately successful and led to expansion to the Sea of Azov and the Baltic Sea, thus laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy. His victory in the Great Northern War ended Sweden's era as a great power and was followed by the proclamation of the Russian Empire. Peter led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernized, and based on radical Enlightenment.[4][5]

In December 1699, he introduced the Julian calendar,[6] which replaced the Byzantine calendar that was long used in Russia,[7] but the Russian Orthodox Church was particularly resistant to this change.[8] In 1703, he introduced the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, and ordered the civil script, a reform of Russian orthography largely designed by himself. On the shores of the Neva River, he founded Saint Petersburg, a city famously dubbed by Francesco Algarotti as the "window to the West".[9][10] In 1714, Peter relocated the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg, a status it retained until 1918.

Peter had a great interest in plants, animals and minerals, in malformed creatures or exceptions to the law of nature for his cabinet of curiosities. He encouraged research of deformities, all along trying to debunk the superstitious fear of monsters.[11] He promoted industrialization in the Russian Empire and higher education. The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Saint Petersburg State University were founded in 1724, and invited Christian Wolff and Willem 's Gravesande.

Peter is primarily credited with the modernization of the country, quickly transforming it into a major European power. His administrative reforms, creating a Governing Senate in 1711, the Collegium in 1717 and the Table of Ranks in 1722 had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference A was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Kollmann, Nancy Shields (2012). "Peter the Great and spectacles of suffering". Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Russia. New Studies in European History. Cambridge University Press. pp. 403–415. ISBN 978-1-1070-2513-4. OCLC 780398248. OL 25252905M.
  3. ^ Костецкая, Е. В.; Суслова, Л. Н.; Аксенова, В. А. (7 October 2023). "Следствие по делу князя М. П. Гагарина в контексте развития системы государственного контроля в первой четверти XVIII века". Научный диалог (in Russian). 12 (7): 346–373. doi:10.24224/2227-1295-2023-12-7-346-373. ISSN 2227-1295.
  4. ^ Cracraft 2003.
  5. ^ Driessen-Van het Reve 2006, p. 264.
  6. ^ "Peter the Great ordered to establish January 1st as the New Year's Day countrywide". Presidential Library. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  7. ^ Cracraft 2003, p. 124.
  8. ^ McIntosh, Matthew (30 December 2019). "Peter the Great and the New Year in Russia". Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  9. ^ Cracraft, James (1988). The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture By James Cracraft. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-2261-1664-8.
  10. ^ Ryan, Judith; Thomas, Alfred (2013). Cultures of Forgery: Making Nations, Making Selves. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-1354-5827-0.
  11. ^ Driessen-Van het Reve, Jozien J. (2006). De Kunstkamera van Peter de Grote. De Hollandse inbreng, gereconstrueerd uit brieven van Albert Seba en Johann Daniel Schumacher uit de jaren 1711–1752 (in Dutch). Hilversum: Verloren. p. 336. ISBN 978-9-0655-0927-7.


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