494 



PETER I. 



mother, had already laid a solid foundation Tor the 

 improvement of his mind and the formation of his 

 diameter. Sophia herself soon perceived his superior 

 talents, when, in the beginning of 1688, he appeared, 

 for the first time, in the privy council. In 1689, 

 Peter's marriage with Eudoxia Federowna Lapuchin, 

 effected through the influence of his prudent mother, 

 withdrew him from his former orgies, and gave him 

 a new hold on the affections of the people. Sophia, 

 ha\ ing desired to be present, as regent, at a reli- 

 gious celebration, at which the czars themselves 

 were commonly present, Peter opposed it in vain ; 

 and, a few faithful Strelitzes having betrayed to him 

 her intention to assassinate him, with his wife, 

 mother, and sister, lie took refuge with them in the 

 monastery of Troizkoi. Here he summoned to his 

 aid general Gordon, a Scotchman, who, with all the 

 foreign officers, immediately hastened to Peter. The 

 czar soon found himself surrounded by numerous 

 friends, and Sophia was obliged to take the veil. 

 Peter then made a solemn entry into Moscow, and, 

 in sight of all the people, embraced his brother 

 Ivan, who left all the power in the more able hands 

 of liis brother. The first aim of Peter was the forma- 

 tion of a standing army, according to the European 

 tactics. Lefort and Gordon trained the new troops, 

 among whom were a great number of Huguenots, 

 who had fled to Russia, after the repeal of the edict 

 of Nantes. Peter soon saw himself surrounded by 

 20,000 well disciplined troops, and, at the same time, 

 engaged in forming a naval force. His father, 

 Alexis, desirous to trade with Persia by means of 

 the Caspian sea, had procured a ship to be built by 

 some Dutch shipwrights, which arrived at Astrachan, 

 but was there burned by the Cossacks, and of the 

 crew only two, one of whom was the gunner, Karsten 

 Brand, returned to Moscow. Brand now became 

 Peter's principal ship-builder, and, in 1693, the 

 emperor sailed to Archangel in his own ship, the 

 St Peter, to purchase clothes for his army. In 1794, 

 he entered Arcliangel with several Russian vessels, 

 and appointed prince Romanadowski admiral of the 

 fleet. Regarding commerce as of the utmost im- 

 portance for the civilization of his subjects, he cast 

 his eyes upon the Black and Baltic seas, into which 

 the great rivers of his empire emptied themselves. 

 Being at war with the Porte, he first turned his 

 attention to the outlet of the Don ; at this point, he 

 wished to conquer Azoph, to procure him an em- 

 porium on the Black sea. In July, J695, he com- 

 menced the attack by land, but soon found it neces- 

 sary to change the storming to a blockade. In the 

 mean time, he hastened back to Moscow, embraced 

 his dying brother Ivan, and furnished his subjects, 

 who were suffering from the bad crops, with corn 

 from Riga and Dantzic, in Russian ships. At the 

 same time, he collected skilful engineers and artil- 

 lerists from Austria, Brandenburg and Holland, and 

 introduced greater uniformity into the army, of 

 which the boiar Alexis Semenowitsch was the 

 nominal commander, while Gordon, Lefort, and 

 Golowin were in fact its soul. The new ship-yard, 

 at Woronesch, on the Don furnished him, as early 

 as 1696, wilh a fleet of twenty-three galleys, two 

 galleasses, and four fire-ships, with which he defeated 

 the Turkish fleet, in sight of Azoph. All relief by 

 eea being now cut off, he pushed the siege with 

 renewed vigour, and in two months (July 29) the 

 Russians entered Azoph. To secure the possession 

 of this key to the Black sea, Peter ordered fifty-five 

 ships of war to be built, and a canal to be con- 

 structed connecting the Volga and the Don, and 

 sent a number of the young nobles to Italy and Hol- 

 liuid, to learn the art of ship-building, and to Ger- 

 many to become acquainted with military discipline. 



After having suppressed (February 2, 1697) a 

 conspiracy of the Strelitzes and several noblemen 

 against his life, in which he displayed much ptrsunal 

 courage, he travelled in foreign countries. The 

 affairs of the government, during his absence, were 

 committed to prince Romanadowski and three boiars ; 

 and the Strelitzes were dispersed throughout the 

 country, to secure the internal tranquillity of the 

 empire. He set out on his celebrated journey in 

 April, 1697, travelling, not in the character of czar, 

 but as a member of an embassy, which was to visit 

 foreign courts, according to the old Russian custom. 

 Having passed through Esthonia, Livonia (countries 

 then belonging to Sweden), Brandenburg, Hanover, 

 and Westphalia, he arrived at Amsterdam, where 

 lie worked, incognito, in a Dutch ship-yard. From 

 Amsterdam, he went to the village of Saardam, 

 where he appeared in the dress of his own country, 

 and caused himself to be enrolled among the work- 

 men, under the name of Peter Michaeloff. Here he 

 lived in a little hut for seven weeks, made his own 

 bed, and prepared his own food, corresponded with 

 his ministers at home, and laboured at the same 

 time in ship-building. He then returned to Amster- 

 dam, and superintended the building of a ship of 

 war of sixty guns, which he sent to Archangel. 

 Nothing passed him unobserved ; he caused every 

 thing to be explained to him, and even performed 

 several surgical operations. The petition of the 

 Jews of Holland to be received into his country he 

 refused. He was induced, by his love for the sea, 

 to accept the invitation of king William III. to 

 visit London. Here Peter resided in the royal 

 ship-yard, and often declared that, if he were not 

 czar of Russia, he would be a British admiral. 

 He took into his service upwards of 500 persons 

 officers, engineers, cannoneers, surgeons, &c. He 

 received a doctorate from the university of Oxford, 

 and, after a stay of three months, went through 

 Holland and Dresden to Vienna. But an insurrec- 

 tion of the Strelitzes induced him to hasten home, 

 and he arrived at Moscow, September 4, 1698. The 

 insurrection had already been suppressed by Gordon ; 

 but Peter erected a bloody tribunal ; every day of 

 the succeeding month saw the blood of the rebels 

 flow ; and as there were the strongest reasons to 

 suspect his sister Sophia of being the author of this 

 disturbance, he caused twenty-eight gibbets to be 

 erected, and 130 of the conspirators to be executed 

 before her monastery ; and three of them, who had 

 drawn up a petition to Sophia, were hung before the 

 windows of her cell, with the petitions in their liands. 

 Five hundred were banished ; the corps of the Stre- 

 litzes was abolished, and the last remains finally be- 

 came extinct in Astrachan in 1705. It was probably 

 merely from personal dislike that he accused his wife 

 Eudoxia, who was impatient of his amours, of being 

 engaged in the conspiracy. She was banished to 

 Suzdal, where she was obliged to take the veil, un- 

 der the name of Helen. To reward his faithful ad- 

 herents, he established the order of St Andrew, Aug. 

 30, 1698, which Golowin was the first to receive. 

 The death of his favourite Lefort and of Gordon 

 plunged him into the deepest grief. Menzikoff, who 

 rose from obscurity by his talents and activity, now 

 became the favourite of Peter. He supplied the 

 place of the Strelitzes by twenty-seven new regiments 

 af infantry, and two of dragoons (in all 32,029 men), 

 who, within three months, were disciplined and 

 brought into marching order. Nothing but merit 

 and length of services was regarded in the appoint- 

 ment of officers. 



Peter devoted himself with incessant activity to 

 .he internal regulation of his empire, which assumed, 

 by degrees, the appearance of a new creation. The 



