PETER I 



PETERBOROUGH 



he had completed his travels he was recalled to 

 Russia by a rising of the imperial guard, which 

 he put down with great severity, suppressing 

 the organization entirely. 



No subject was too trivial to feel the effects 

 of Peter's reforming energy. He ordered his 

 subjects to adopt European dress instead of the 

 flowing Oriental costumes, and he taxed beards 

 and mu.staches to discourage the custom of 

 weiring them. But he did not confine himself 

 ;ch externals; he encouraged foreign com- 

 merce; reorganized the Church, making himself 

 its head; reformed the calendar and released 

 women from their almost Asiatic seclusion. Nor 

 did he cease his struggle for open ports. 



National Projects. To secure access to the 

 Baltic Sea he entered upon a contest with 

 Sweden which lasted from 1700 to 1721. In his 

 first battles with Charles XII he was utterly de- 

 feated, but he expected such an outcome, and 

 persisted until, in 1709, he gained a complete 

 victory at Poltava. Two years later, however, 

 in a war with the Turks which Charles XII had 

 instigated, he suffered reverses, and lost Azov. 

 Meanwhile, in 1703, Peter had begun the 

 construction of his new capital, Saint Pe- 

 tersburg, called since 1914 Petrograd, on terri- 

 tory which he had wrested from the Swedes, 

 and in 1712 transferred his government from 

 Moscow to that city, to the great indignation 

 of the old nationalist party. Peace with the 

 Swedes was not signed until 1721. but by it Rus- 

 sia gained Livonia, Esthonia, Ingermauland, 



lia and part of Finland. In the same 

 Peter was proclaimed emperor of all Russia 

 and "Father of the Fatherland." He was thus 

 really the first of the czars. 

 His Character. That Peter's intense desire 

 ivihzation did not free him from barba- 

 rous instincts and passions is shown by his cru- 

 elty toward anyone who incurred his disfavor. 

 Because he thought that his own son was en- 

 couraging the reactionary party, Peter had him 

 - de;ith. and though hr afterward 

 :oned him the priii- Meets 



he tortures which had been inflicted upon 

 him. A few years after mm drove his 



from him because tin- two ditTm d on poli- 

 cies of state as well as on personal matters; 

 she displayed autocratic and reactionary 

 threatened to nullify son 

 .stitutcd. In 1792 I I 1m 



mistress, Catharine, who succeeded him upon 

 his death, in 1725, as Catharine I; she had been 

 downed in the preceding year, that her 

 sion might be assured. 



Peter's rages were terrific, but he never al- 

 lowed them to lead him into courses that would 

 injure his nation. Unlike other rulers who have 

 attempted reforms in Russia, Peter did not at- 

 tempt to force upon his barbarous or half-civ- 

 ilized people institutions or principles which 

 were beyond their comprehension. A.MCC. 



In addition to references above, see RUSSIA, 

 subtitle History of Russia. Consult Barrows' 

 Life of Peter the Great; Abbott's History of 

 Peter the Great of Russia. 



PETER I, called KARACTOBGEVTTCH (1846- 

 ), king of Serbia, born in Belgrade. His 

 father, Alexander, was forced to abdicate in 1858 

 and he took his boy to Hungary. There P 

 studied, and later he was graduated from the 

 French military school of Saint-Cyr. While 

 mg as an officer in the French army during 

 the Franco-German War he was captured three 

 times by the Germans, but each time escaped. 

 Much through his influence the Balkans were 

 encouraged in their revolt, which led in 1877 

 to the Russo-Tiirki.*h War and terminated in 

 independence for Serbia. Peter became con- 

 nected with the rulers of Russia and Italy 

 through his marriage in 1883 to Princess Zorka, 

 daughter of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro. 

 They lived quietly together at Cettinje, and 

 after Zorka's death Peter removed to Geneva. 

 In 1903, when King Alexander and Queen Draga 

 of Serbia were assassinated, Peter was chosen 

 king by the clement that had brought about 

 the royal murders. 



In 1915 the German invasion and occupation 

 of Serbia drove Peter and his court from his 

 unfortunate country, and he went to Paris. 



PETERBOROUGH, pc'tcrbnro, a city in 

 Ontario, the county town of Peterborough 

 County. the center of a river and lake district 

 which i- \<rv popular among sportsmen, and 

 one of the largest centers of electrical develop- 

 in Canada. It is situated on both banks 

 of the Otonahec- River, on the Tivnt Canal, 

 and on the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk 

 railways, seventy-six miles northeast of Ton 



pouch i- notid among other things for 

 the gn-at hydraulic lift lock on the Trent Ca- 

 nal. th largest lock < : in the world. 



Tin- city i* the *at of a Roman Catholic 

 :id has a tin. cathedral. It has a pro- 

 vincial norm d -. hool. collegiate fine 

 municipal ImildiMRtf and * 'lie parks. 

 iks are owned I I'opu- 

 oo m I'.'ll. Is.HftO; in 1916. estimated, 24,- 

 000, making it the - -\rnth oiy in sue in On- 

 tario. 



