PETER I. -PETER III. 



497 



was concluded \viihout exhausting the resources of 

 Peter, and the power of Russia was fixed upon an 

 immovable basis. The czar celebrated the peace by 

 thanksgivings and festivals, and a general pardon 

 (murderers and irreclaimable highwaymen only ex- 

 cepted,) and by a remission of all the claims of the 

 crown previous to 1717. The senate and the holy 

 synod requested him, in the name of the nation, to 

 accept the titles of " father of the country, and em- 

 peror of all the Russias, with the surname of the 

 Great." He was proclaimed emperor on the grand 

 celebration of the peace, October 22, 1721. This 

 title was immediately acknowledged by Prussia, 

 Holland, and Sweden, and, at a later period, by all 

 the other powers. To prevent his great creation 

 from falling to pieces in weak or incompetent hands, 

 he decreed, (February 5, 1722,) that the sovereign 

 of Russia should have full power to elect his succes- 

 sor, and to change this appointment, if he should see 

 fit. By the new judicial organization, it was pro- 

 vided that no actual senator should sit in a court of 

 justice, and no president of a court of justice in the 

 senate. 



The emperor now undertook his long meditated 

 expedition to Persia, to secure the Russian trade on 

 the Caspian sea. In 1715, 1716, and 1719, he had 

 sent experienced naval officers to examine this sea 

 and its coasts, and to hold vessels necessary for an 

 expedition in readiness. In the first year of the war, 

 he took Derbent. and built several fortified towns, 

 which he peopled with Cossacks of the Don. The 

 domestic confusions in Persia compelled the shah to 

 yield, and by the treaty of September 12, 1723 (to 

 which the Porte likewise assented, July 8, 1724,) to 

 cede to Russia the cities of Derbent and Baku, with 

 their territory, and the provinces Ghilan, Mazan- 

 deran, and Astarabad. After his return, December 

 26, 1722, he instituted new examinations for mal- 

 administration. The vice-chancellor Schaffiroff, one 

 of his favourites, was condemned to death, but, on 

 the scaffold, his punishment was commuted to ban- 

 ishment. Menzikoff was sentenced to pay 200,000 

 roubles into the exchequer ; he was deprived of a 

 large part of his income, and flogged by the em- 

 peror's own hand : for the infliction of this punish- 

 ment, Peter used his dubina (a cane of thick Spanish 

 reed.) Several others were disgraced or flogged, or 

 heavily fined. July 12, 1724, Peter again conducted 

 a fleet against Sweden, to enforce his claims on 

 Sweden and Denmark, in behalf of the duke of Hoi- 

 stein: having effected this purpose, Peter returned 

 to Cronstadt, where he celebrated, by a splendid 

 parade, the creation of his navy, which now con- 

 sisted of forty-one ships of war, with 2106 cannons, 

 and 14,960 sailors. 



This great monarch employed the last years of his 

 life in providing against the inundations to which 

 Petersburg was exposed in the autumn ; in continu- 

 ing the Ladoga canal, and in the erection of an aca- 

 demy of sciences ^February 1, 1725.) He turned 

 his attention next to the examination and punishment 

 of state criminals ; to the promotion of the labours 

 of the legislative body; the establishment of the or- 

 der of Alexander Newsky; the improvement of the 

 condition of the monks ; the banishment of the Ca- 

 puchins- from Russia ; and a new commercial treaty 

 with Sweden. He also betrothed his favourite 

 daughter Anna to the duke of Holstein, November 

 24, 1724, having already placed the crown upon the 

 head of his wife, Catharine, on the 18th of the pre- 

 ceding May, in token of his love and gratitude. He 

 likewise provided that an education should be given 

 to the surviving son of the unhappy Alexis, such as 

 would become a future emperor of Russia. But 

 Peter had long felt his strength declining, from the 



pains he had suffered tli rough the strangury, ever 

 since 1723 : hence the gloom, alternating with vio- 

 lent bursts of passion, to which he became subject ; 

 and to this, perhaps, is to be ascribed the execution 

 of Mons, first chamberlain, and favourite of the em- 

 press Catharine ; the reason assigned for which was 

 neglect of duty, bribery, &c. Late in the autumn 

 of 1724, going to visit the forge and manufactory of 

 arms at Systerbeck, he saw a boat filled with soldiers 

 and sailors stranded, and sent a shallop, which did 

 not succeed in getting it off ; determined to gain his 

 end, he set out for the spot himself, and, as his vessel 

 could not quite reach the spot, he leaped into the 

 water and waded to the boat, which he aided in get- 

 ting off. But the cold which he caught rendered his 

 condition extremely dangerous. He celebrated the 

 new year, 1725, according to his usual custom, chose 

 a new antipope, and ordered the demolition of the 

 superfluous chapels, and the removal of the images. 

 A surgical operation gave him no relief; his pain 

 often deprived him of reason. In his intervals of 

 sanity he was soothed with the consolations of reli- 

 gion by Theophanes, archbishop of Pleskow. In one 

 of these intervals, he granted full pardon to Menzi- 

 koff, at the earnest desire of Catharine. He ex- 

 pressed a wish to speak with his favourite daughter, 

 Anna; but when she came, the emperor was speech- 

 less. He expired, February 8, 1725, in the arms of 

 his wife, who had not left him for three nights. 

 Peter was fifty-three years of age, and, according to 

 his physicians, might have lived forty more, if he had 

 not so long concealed his disorder. Peter was a 

 man of powerful and original genius, who did every 

 thing himself, and was never the instrument of 

 others. His ardour was joined with prudence, reso- 

 lution, and a generous humanity. His violent pas- 

 sions and sensual excesses were the fruits of the 

 barbarism of his nation, his imperfect education, and 

 uncontrolled power. On the centennial celebration 

 of his accession to the throne, an equestrian monu- 

 ment by Falconet, representing him at full speed 

 springing up a rock, with his hand extended, and 

 the inscription Petro Primo, Catharina Secunda, 

 MDCCLXXXIL, was exposed to view in Peters- 

 burg. Voltaire wrote the life of Peter. 



PETER II., emperor of Russia, grandson of Peter 

 the Great, and son of Alexis, ascended the throne 

 in consequence of the will of Catharine I., in 1727, 

 when but thirteen years old. He died in 1730, of 

 the small- pox, and was succeeded by Anna Ivanowna. 



PETER III., (Fedrowitch) ; emperor of Russia. 

 As the male line of the Romanoffs ceased with 

 Peter II., the empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter 

 I. and Catharine I., agreeably to the order of suc- 

 cession enjoined by her father, appointed Charles 

 Peter Ulrich, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, son of her 

 sister Anna Petrowna and the duke of Holstein, her 

 successor, in 1742 ; and, in 1745, she married him 

 to the princess Sophia Augusta, of Anhalt-Zerbst 

 (at a later period the famous Catharine II.). Peter 

 III. ascended the throne in 1762. His first step 

 was a reconciliation with Frederic II., to whom he 

 restored the conquered kingdom of Prussia Proper, 

 and sent 15,000 men to assist him. He established 

 some salutary laws; but a conspiracy broke out, 

 which put an end to his life, after a reign of six 

 months. His predilection for the people of Hol- 

 stein ; his attempts to establish Prussian tactics, 

 and to overthrow the privileges of the great, had 

 made him numerous enemies. This conspiracy 

 broke out in the night of July 8, in 1762. (Sec 

 Catharine II.) He abdicated the throne July 10, 

 but could not save his life by this means. He was, 

 it is said, killed at Ropscha, a seat of count Rasu 

 moffsky, July 14, (3 old style), 1762. See Qrloff. 



