PETER THE GREAT 



89 



Lopukhin ; and in October of the same year called 

 upon his sister to resign the government. In the 

 ensuing contest Peter was at first worsted, and 

 compelled to flee for his life ; but he was joined by 

 the foreigners in the Knssian service, with Patrick 

 Gordon (q.v.)and Lefort at their head; and the 

 streltzi flocking to hi> standard, Sophia resigned 

 the contest, and was shut up in a convent, whence, 

 till her death in 1704, she ctid not cease to annoy 

 him by her intrigues. On October 11, 1689, Peter 

 made his public entry into Moscow, where he was 

 rnet by Ivan, to whom he gave the nominal suprem- 

 acy and precedence, reserving the sole exercise of 

 |K)\ver for himself. Ivan only enjoyed his puppet 

 sovereignty till 1696. 



Peter's first care on assuming the government 

 was to form an army disciplined according to 

 European tactics, in which laoour he was greatly 

 aided by Gordon and Lefort, both of whom were 

 military men. He also laboured to create a navy, 

 both armed and mercantile ; but at this period 

 Russia presented few facilities for such an attempt, 

 for she was shut out from the Baltic by Sweden 

 and Poland (the former of whom possessed Fin- 

 land, Ingria, and the Baltic provinces), and from 

 the Black Sea by Turkey, leaving only the White 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean, with the solitary port 

 of Archangel, available for the Russian navy. 

 Peter, thinking the possession of a portion of the 

 Black Sea would best supply the required facilities 

 of accessible seaboard and port, declared war 

 against Turkey, and took (1696) tne city of Azov 

 at the mouth of the Don, after a long siege. 

 Skilled engineers, architects, and artillerymen 

 were now invited from Austria, Venice, Prussia, 

 and Holland ; ships were constructed, and the 

 army further improved both in arms and dis- 

 cipline. Many of the young nobility were 

 ordered to travel in foreign countries, chiefly in 

 Holland and Italy, and to take special notice of all 

 matters in connection with shipbuilding and naval 

 equipments ; others were sent to Germany to study 

 tin? military art. Peter was eager to see for him- 

 self the countries for which civilisation had done 

 so much ; and, after repressing a revolt of the 

 streltzi and dispersing them among the various 

 provinces, he left Russia in April 1697, in the 

 train of an embassy of which Lefort was the head. 

 In the guise of an inferior official of the embassy 

 he visited the three Baltic provinces, Prussia, and 

 Hanover, reaching Amsterdam, where, and subse- 

 quently at Zaandam, he worked for some time as a 

 common shipwright ; and to his practice of ship- 

 building and kindred trades lie added the study of 

 astronomy, natural philosophy, geography, and even 

 anatomy and surgery. On receipt of an invitation 

 from William HI. he visited England, and for 

 three months, spent partly in London and partly 

 at Deptford, lalmnreu to amass all sorts of useful 

 information. While in England he received the 

 honorary degree of D.C. L. from the university of 

 Oxford. He left England in April 1698, carrying 

 with him English engineers, artificers, surgeons, 

 artisans, artillerymen, &c., to the number of 500, 

 and next visited Vienna, for the purjxwe of in- 

 specting the emperor of Austria's army, then the 

 best in Europe. He was about to visit Venice 

 also, when the news of a formidable rebellion of 

 the streltzi recalled him to Russia. General 

 Gordon had already crushed the revolt, and Peter 

 finally broke np the institution that had given him 

 HO much trouble. The Empress Endoxia, who was 

 sii.-iiei'teil of complicity in the conspiracy, which 

 had been the work of the old Russian or anti- 

 refiirm party, was divorced and shut up in a 

 convent, and the great reforms were begun. Peter 

 put the press on a proper footing, caused trans- 

 lations of the most celebrated works of foreign 



authors to be made and published, and established 

 naval and other schools. Ordinary arithmetic was 

 first introduced, accounts having been previously 

 kept by means of the Abacus (q.v.). Trade with 

 foreign countries, which was formerly punished 

 as a capital crime, was now permitted, or rather, 

 in the case of the principal merchants, insisted 

 upon. Many changes in dress, manners, and 

 etiquette were introduced and enforced on the 

 people at large. Even the organisation of the 

 national church could not escape Peter's reform- 

 ing zeal. 



In 1700 Peter, desirous of gaining possession of 

 Carelia and Ingria, provinces of Sweden which had 

 formerly belonged to Russia, entered into an 

 alliance with the kings of Poland and Denmark to 

 make a combined attack on Sweden ; but he was 

 shamefully defeated at Narva, his raw troops being 

 wholly unable to cope with the Swedish veterans. 

 Peter was by no means disheartened, but quietly 

 appropriated a portion of Ingria, in which he laid 

 the foundation of the new capital, St Petersburg, 

 27th May 1703. Great inducements were held out 

 to those who would reside in it, and in a few 

 years it became the Russian commercial depot 

 for the Baltic. In the long contest with Sweden 

 the Russians were almost always defeated ; but 

 Peter saw that these reverses were administering 

 to his troops a more lasting and effective dis- 

 cipline than he could have noped to give them 

 in any other way. He had his revenge at last, 

 in totally routing the Swedish king, Charles XII., 

 at Pultowa (q.v.), 8th July 1709, and in seizing 

 the whole of the Baltic provinces and a portion 

 of Finland in the following year. His success 

 against Sweden helped much to consolidate his 

 empire and to render his subjects more favour- 

 ably disposed towards the new order of things. 

 After reorganising his army he prepared for 

 strife with the Turks, who, at the instigation 

 of Charles XII. (then residing at Bender), had 

 declared war against him (see TURKEY). In this 

 contest Peter was reduced to such straits that he 

 despaired of escape. But, according to a some- 

 what doubtful tradition, the finesse and ability of 

 his mistress, Catharine, extricated him from his 

 difficulties; and a treaty was concluded (1711) by 

 which Peter lost only his previous conquest the 

 port of Azov and the territory belonging to it. 

 He was thus shut out from the Black Sea, so the 

 possession of a good seaboard on the Baltic became 

 the more necessary to him, and the war against 

 Sweden in Pomerania was accordingly pushed on 

 with the utmost vigour. In 1712 his marriage 

 with his mistress, Catharine (see CATHARINE I.), 

 was celebrated at St Petersburg, and the offices 

 of the central government were transferred to 

 the new capital. His arms in Pomerania and 

 Finland were victorious, and in 1713 the latter pro- 

 vince was completely subdued. In 1716-17, in com- 

 pany with the czarina, he made another tour of 

 Europe, this time visiting Paris, and returned to 

 Russia in October 1717, carrying with him quanti- 

 ties of books, paintings, statues, &c. It was soon 

 after this time that his son Alexei (q.v.), who had 

 opposed some of his father's reforms, was con- 

 demned to death, and died in prison apparently 

 through having been repeatedly tortured. Many 

 of the nobles who had been implicated in his 

 treasonable plans were punished with savage bar- 

 barity. In 1721 peace was made with Sweden, 

 which definitely ceded the Baltic provinces, Ingria 

 (now government of St Petersburg), and a portion 

 of Finland, with the islands oft' the coasts. In 

 1722 Peter commenced a war with Persia, in 

 order to open np the Caspian Sea to Russian 

 commerce, and secured three Caspian provinces 

 along with the towns of Derbend and Baku, For 



