The last years of Peter's reign 1. The main dates of the life and activities of Peter the Great. Empire building. Northern War and expansion to the South

The years of the reign of Peter 1, the great Russian Tsar, were difficult years that occupy a worthy place in history.

The great Russian Tsar Peter Alekseevich was born on the thirtieth of May in 1672. He was Alexei Mikhailovich’s 14th child, however, for his mother, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, he became the first-born. He was a very active and inquisitive boy, and therefore his father had high hopes for him, unlike his half-brothers Fyodor and Ivan, who were in poor health.

Four years after Peter's birth, his father Tsar Alexei dies. His half-brother Fyodor ascended the throne and began educating the future Russian Tsar. Even in early childhood, the Great Tsar became interested in geography, which was of great help during the reign of Peter 1. The great king composed his own alphabet, which was easy to remember and easy to speak. In addition, Peter 1 dreamed of devoting the years of his reign to writing a book on the history of his Motherland.

With the coming of age and marriage of Peter the Great, he receives the absolute right to ascend to the throne. However, in the summer of 1689 he provoked a Streltsy uprising, which was directed against Peter. Then the king takes refuge in the Sergeev Lavra, which is in Troitsk. The Preobrazhensky and Streletsky regiments arrived here and suppressed the rebellion. Sophia was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent, where she died.

With the death of the weak-minded Ivan in 1696, Peter 1 becomes the only one. However, then he was too keen on “military fun”, and his mother’s relatives, the Naryshkins, were involved in state politics. Peter's idea to go to the sea was grandiose and was crowned with success. It was during the reign of Peter 1 that Russia turned into a Great Empire, and the Tsar became Emperor. Emperor Peter's domestic and foreign policies were very active. In history, Peter 1 is known as the Russian reformer Tsar who introduced a lot of innovations. Despite the fact that his reforms killed the identity of Russia, they were timely.

Peter the Great died in 1725 and his wife, Tsarina Catherine the First, ascended the throne.

Peter I Alekseevich


Coronation:
	Sofya Alekseevna (1682 - 1689)
Co-ruler:	Ivan V (1682 - 1696)
Predecessor:	Fedor III Alekseevich
Successor:	Title abolished

Successor:	Catherine I
Religion:	Orthodoxy
Birth:

Buried:	Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg
Dynasty:	Romanovs
	Alexey Mikhailovich
	Natalya Kirillovna
	1) Evdokia Lopukhina 2) Ekaterina Alekseevna
	(from 1) Alexey Petrovich (from 2) Anna Petrovna Elizaveta Petrovna Peter (died in childhood) Natalya (died in childhood) the rest died in infancy
Autograph:
Awards::

Peter's first marriage

Accession of Peter I

Azov campaigns. 1695-1696

Grand Embassy. 1697-1698

Russia's movement to the east

Caspian campaign 1722-1723

Transformations of Peter I

Personality of Peter I

Peter's appearance

Family of Peter I

Succession to the throne

Offspring of Peter I

Death of Peter

Performance evaluation and criticism

Monuments

In honor of Peter I

Peter I in art

In literature

In cinema

Peter I on money

Criticism and assessment of Peter I

Peter I the Great (Pyotr Alekseevich; May 30 (June 9), 1672 - January 28 (February 8), 1725) - Tsar of Moscow from the Romanov dynasty (since 1682) and the first All-Russian Emperor (since 1721). In Russian historiography he is considered one of the most outstanding statesmen who determined the direction of Russia's development in the 18th century.

Peter was proclaimed tsar in 1682 at the age of 10, and began to rule independently in 1689. From a young age, showing interest in science and foreign lifestyles, Peter was the first of the Russian tsars to make a long trip to the countries of Western Europe. Upon returning from it in 1698, Peter launched large-scale reforms of the Russian state and social structure. One of Peter's main achievements was the significant expansion of Russian territories in the Baltic region after the victory in the Great Northern War, which allowed him to take the title of first emperor of the Russian Empire in 1721. Four years later, Emperor Peter I died, but the state he created continued to expand rapidly throughout the 18th century.

The early years of Peter. 1672-1689

Peter was born on the night of May 30 (June 9), 1672 in the Terem Palace of the Kremlin (in 7235 according to the then-accepted chronology “from the creation of the world”).

The father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, had numerous offspring: Peter was the 14th child, but the first from his second wife, Tsarina Natalya Naryshkina. On June 29, on the day of Saints Peter and Paul, the prince was baptized in the Miracle Monastery (according to other sources, in the Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea, in Derbitsy, by Archpriest Andrei Savinov) and named Peter.

After spending a year with the queen, he was given to nannies to raise. In the 4th year of Peter’s life, in 1676, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich died. The Tsarevich's guardian was his half-brother, godfather and new Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. Deacon N.M. Zotov taught Peter to read and write from 1676 to 1680.

The death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the accession of his eldest son Fyodor (from Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna, née Miloslavskaya) pushed Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna and her relatives, the Naryshkins, into the background. Queen Natalya was forced to go to the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow.

Streletsky riot of 1682 and the rise to power of Sofia Alekseevna

On April 27 (May 7), 1682, after 6 years of gentle rule, the liberal and sickly Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich died. The question arose of who should inherit the throne: the older, sickly and feeble-minded Ivan, according to custom, or the young Peter. Having secured the support of Patriarch Joachim, the Naryshkins and their supporters enthroned Peter on April 27 (May 7), 1682. In fact, the Naryshkin clan came to power and Artamon Matveev, summoned from exile, was declared the “great guardian.” It was difficult for supporters of Ivan Alekseevich to support their candidate, who could not reign due to extremely poor health. The organizers of the actual palace coup announced a version about the hand-written transfer of the “scepter” by the dying Feodor Alekseevich to his younger brother Peter, but no reliable evidence of this was presented.

The Miloslavskys, relatives of Tsarevich Ivan and Princess Sophia through their mother, saw in the proclamation of Peter as tsar an infringement of their interests. The Streltsy, of whom there were more than 20 thousand in Moscow, had long shown discontent and waywardness; and, apparently incited by the Miloslavskys, on May 15 (25), 1682, they came out openly: shouting that the Naryshkins had strangled Tsarevich Ivan, they moved towards the Kremlin. Natalya Kirillovna, hoping to calm the rioters, together with the patriarch and boyars, led Peter and his brother to the Red Porch.

However, the uprising did not end. In the first hours, the boyars Artamon Matveev and Mikhail Dolgoruky were killed, then other supporters of Queen Natalia, including her two brothers Naryshkin.

On May 26, elected officials from the Streltsy regiments came to the palace and demanded that the elder Ivan be recognized as the first tsar, and the younger Peter as the second. Fearing a repetition of the pogrom, the boyars agreed, and Patriarch Joachim immediately performed a solemn prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral for the health of the two named kings; and on June 25 he crowned them kings.

On May 29, the archers insisted that Princess Sofya Alekseevna take over control of the state due to the minor age of her brothers. Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna was supposed to, together with her son - the second Tsar - retire from the court to a palace near Moscow in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. In the Kremlin Armory, a two-seat throne for young kings with a small window in the back was preserved, through which Princess Sophia and her entourage told them how to behave and what to say during palace ceremonies.

Preobrazhenskoe and amusing shelves

Peter spent all his free time away from the palace - in the villages of Vorobyovo and Preobrazhenskoye. Every year his interest in military affairs increased. Peter dressed and armed his “amusing” army, which consisted of peers from boyhood games. In 1685, his “amusing” men, dressed in foreign caftans, marched in regimental formation through Moscow from Preobrazhenskoye to the village of Vorobyovo to the beat of drums. Peter himself served as a drummer.

In 1686, 14-year-old Peter started artillery with his “amusing” ones. Gunsmith Fedor Sommer showed the king grenades and firearms. 16 guns were delivered from the Pushkarsky order. To control the heavy guns, the tsar took from the Stable Prikaz adult servants who were keen on military affairs, who were dressed in foreign-style uniforms and designated as amusing gunners. The first to put on a foreign uniform Sergey Bukhvostov. Subsequently, Peter ordered a bronze bust of this the first Russian soldier, as he called Bukhvostov. The amusing regiment began to be called Preobrazhensky, after its quartering place - the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow.

In Preobrazhenskoye, opposite the palace, on the banks of the Yauza, an “amusing town” was built. During the construction of the fortress, Peter himself worked actively, helping to cut logs and install cannons. The “Most Joking, Most Drunken and Most Extravagant Council”, created by Peter, was located here - a parody of the Orthodox Church. The fortress itself was named Preshburg, probably named after the then famous Austrian fortress of Presburg (now Bratislava - the capital of Slovakia), which he heard about from Captain Sommer. At the same time, in 1686, the first amusing ships appeared near Preshburg on the Yauza - a large shnyak and a plow with boats. During these years, Peter became interested in all the sciences that were related to military affairs. Under the leadership of the Dutchman Timmerman he studied arithmetic, geometry, and military sciences.

One day, walking with Timmerman through the village of Izmailovo, Peter entered the Linen Yard, in the barn of which he found an English boot. In 1688 he entrusted the Dutchman Carsten Brandt repair, arm and equip this boat, and then lower it to the Yauza.

However, the Yauza and Prosyanoy Pond turned out to be too small for the ship, so Peter went to Pereslavl-Zalessky, to Lake Pleshcheevo, where he founded the first shipyard for the construction of ships. There were already two “Amusing” regiments: Semenovsky, located in the village of Semenovskoye, was added to Preobrazhensky. Preshburg already looked like a real fortress. To command regiments and study military science, knowledgeable and experienced people were needed. But there were no such people among the Russian courtiers. This is how Peter appeared in the German settlement.

Peter's first marriage

The German settlement was the closest “neighbor” of the village of Preobrazhenskoye, and Peter had been keeping an eye on its curious life for a long time. More and more foreigners at the court of Tsar Peter, such as Franz Timmerman And Karsten Brandt, came from the German settlement. All this imperceptibly led to the fact that the tsar became a frequent visitor to the settlement, where he soon turned out to be a great admirer of relaxed foreign life. Peter lit a German pipe, began attending German parties with dancing and drinking, met Patrick Gordon, Franz Yakovlevich Lefort - Peter's future associates, and started an affair with Anna Mons. Peter's mother strictly opposed this. In order to bring her 17-year-old son to reason, Natalya Kirillovna decided to marry him to Evdokia Lopukhina, the daughter of a okolnichy.

Peter did not contradict his mother, and on January 27, 1689, the wedding of the “junior” tsar took place. However, less than a month later, Peter left his wife and went to Lake Pleshcheyevo for several days. From this marriage, Peter had two sons: the eldest, Alexei, was heir to the throne until 1718, the youngest, Alexander, died in infancy.

Accession of Peter I

Peter's activity greatly worried Princess Sophia, who understood that with the coming of age of her half-brother, she would have to give up power. At one time, supporters of the princess hatched a coronation plan, but Patriarch Joachim was categorically against it.

The campaigns against the Crimean Tatars, carried out in 1687 and 1689 by the princess’s favorite V.V. Golitsyn, were not very successful, but were presented as major and generously rewarded victories, which caused discontent among many.

On July 8, 1689, on the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the first public conflict occurred between the matured Peter and the Ruler. On that day, according to custom, a religious procession was held from the Kremlin to the Kazan Cathedral. At the end of the mass, Peter approached his sister and announced that she should not dare to go along with the men in the procession. Sophia accepted the challenge: she took the image of the Most Holy Theotokos in her hands and went to get the crosses and banners. Unprepared for such an outcome, Peter left the move.

On August 7, 1689, unexpectedly for everyone, a decisive event occurred. On this day, Princess Sophia ordered the chief of the archers, Fyodor Shaklovity, to send more of his people to the Kremlin, as if to escort them to the Donskoy Monastery on a pilgrimage. At the same time, a rumor spread about a letter with the news that Tsar Peter at night decided to occupy the Kremlin with his “amusing” ones, kill the princess, Tsar Ivan’s brother, and seize power. Shaklovity gathered the Streltsy regiments to march in a “great assembly” to Preobrazhenskoye and beat all of Peter’s supporters for their intention to kill Princess Sophia. Then they sent three horsemen to observe what was happening in Preobrazhenskoe with the task of immediately reporting if Tsar Peter went anywhere alone or with regiments.

Peter's supporters among the archers sent two like-minded people to Preobrazhenskoye. After the report, Peter with a small retinue galloped in alarm to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The consequence of the horrors of the Streltsy demonstrations was Peter's illness: with strong excitement, he began to have convulsive facial movements. On August 8, both queens, Natalya and Evdokia, arrived at the monastery, followed by “amusing” regiments with artillery. On August 16, a letter came from Peter, ordering commanders and 10 privates from all regiments to be sent to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Princess Sophia strictly forbade the fulfillment of this command on pain of the death penalty, and a letter was sent to Tsar Peter informing him that it was impossible to fulfill his request.

On August 27, a new letter from Tsar Peter arrived - all regiments should go to Trinity. Most of the troops obeyed the rightful king, and Princess Sophia had to admit defeat. She herself went to the Trinity Monastery, but in the village of Vozdvizhenskoye she was met by Peter’s envoys with orders to return to Moscow. Soon Sophia was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent under strict supervision.

On October 7, Fyodor Shaklovity was captured and then executed. The elder brother, Tsar Ivan (or John), met Peter at the Assumption Cathedral and actually gave him all power. Since 1689, he did not take part in the reign, although until his death on January 29 (February 8), 1696, he continued to be a co-tsar. At first, Peter himself took little part in the board, giving powers to the Naryshkin family.

The beginning of Russian expansion. 1690-1699

Azov campaigns. 1695-1696

The priority of Peter I in the first years of autocracy was the continuation of the war with Crimea. Since the 16th century, Muscovite Rus' has been fighting the Crimean and Nogai Tatars for possession of the vast coastal lands of the Black and Azov Seas. During this struggle, Russia collided with the Ottoman Empire, which patronized the Tatars. One of the stronghold military points on these lands was the Turkish fortress of Azov, located at the confluence of the Don River into the Sea of Azov.

The first Azov campaign, which began in the spring of 1695, ended unsuccessfully in September of the same year due to the lack of a fleet and the unwillingness of the Russian army to operate far from supply bases. However, already in the fall. In 1695-96, preparations began for a new campaign. The construction of a Russian rowing flotilla began in Voronezh. In a short time, a flotilla of different ships was built, led by the 36-gun ship Apostle Peter. In May 1696, a 40,000-strong Russian army under the command of Generalissimo Shein again besieged Azov, only this time the Russian flotilla blocked the fortress from the sea. Peter I took part in the siege with the rank of captain on a galley. Without waiting for the assault, on July 19, 1696, the fortress surrendered. Thus, Russia's first access to the southern seas was opened.

The result of the Azov campaigns was the capture of the Azov fortress, the beginning of construction of the port of Taganrog, the possibility of an attack on the Crimean peninsula from the sea, which significantly secured the southern borders of Russia. However, Peter failed to gain access to the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait: he remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Russia did not yet have the forces for a war with Turkey, as well as a full-fledged navy.

To finance the construction of the fleet, new types of taxes were introduced: landowners were united into so-called kumpanstvos of 10 thousand households, each of which had to build a ship with their own money. At this time, the first signs of dissatisfaction with Peter's activities appear. The conspiracy of Tsikler, who was trying to organize a Streltsy uprising, was uncovered. In the summer of 1699, the first large Russian ship “Fortress” (46-gun) took the Russian ambassador to Constantinople for peace negotiations. The very existence of such a ship persuaded the Sultan to conclude peace in July 1700, which left the Azov fortress behind Russia.

During the construction of the fleet and the reorganization of the army, Peter was forced to rely on foreign specialists. Having completed the Azov campaigns, he decides to send young nobles to study abroad, and soon he himself sets off on his first trip to Europe.

Grand Embassy. 1697-1698

In March 1697, the Grand Embassy was sent to Western Europe through Livonia, the main purpose of which was to find allies against the Ottoman Empire. Admiral General F. Ya. Lefort, General F. A. Golovin, and Head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz P. B. Voznitsyn were appointed great ambassadors plenipotentiary. In total, up to 250 people entered the embassy, among whom, under the name of the sergeant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Peter Mikhailov, was Tsar Peter I himself. For the first time, a Russian Tsar undertook a trip outside the borders of his state.

Peter visited Riga, Koenigsberg, Brandenburg, Holland, England, Austria, and a visit to Venice and the Pope was planned.

The embassy recruited several hundred shipbuilding specialists to Russia and purchased military and other equipment.

In addition to negotiations, Peter devoted a lot of time to studying shipbuilding, military affairs and other sciences. Peter worked as a carpenter at the shipyards of the East India Company, and with the participation of the Tsar, the ship “Peter and Paul” was built. In England, he visited a foundry, an arsenal, parliament, Oxford University, the Greenwich Observatory and the Mint, of which Isaac Newton was the caretaker at that time.

The Grand Embassy did not achieve its main goal: it was not possible to create a coalition against the Ottoman Empire due to the preparation of a number of European powers for the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). However, thanks to this war, favorable conditions developed for Russia’s struggle for the Baltic. Thus, there was a reorientation of Russian foreign policy from the southern to the northern direction.

Return. Crucial years for Russia 1698-1700

In July 1698, the Grand Embassy was interrupted by news of a new Streltsy rebellion in Moscow, which was suppressed even before Peter’s arrival. Upon the tsar’s arrival in Moscow (August 25), a search and inquiry began, the result of which was the one-time execution of about 800 archers (except for those executed during the suppression of the riot), and subsequently several thousand more until the spring of 1699.

Princess Sophia was tonsured a nun under the name of Susanna and sent to the Novodevichy Convent, where she spent the rest of her life. The same fate befell Peter’s unloved wife, Evdokia Lopukhina, who was forcibly sent to the Suzdal monastery even against the will of the clergy.

During his 15 months in Europe, Peter saw a lot and learned a lot. After the return of the tsar on August 25, 1698, his transformative activities began, aimed first at changing the external signs that distinguished the Old Slavic way of life from the Western European one. In the Preobrazhensky Palace, Peter suddenly began to cut the beards of nobles and already on August 29, 1698, the famous decree “On wearing German dress, on shaving beards and mustaches, on schismatics walking in the attire specified for them” was issued, which prohibited the wearing of beards from September 1.

The new year 7208 according to the Russian-Byzantine calendar (“from the creation of the world”) became the 1700th year according to the Julian calendar. Peter also introduced the celebration on January 1 of the New Year, and not on the day of the autumn equinox, as was celebrated before. His special decree stated:

Creation of the Russian Empire. 1700-1724

Northern War with Sweden (1700-1721)

After returning from the Great Embassy, the tsar began to prepare for a war with Sweden for access to the Baltic Sea. In 1699, the Northern Alliance was created against the Swedish king Charles XII, which, in addition to Russia, included Denmark, Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by the Saxon elector and the Polish king Augustus II. The driving force behind the union was the desire of Augustus II to take Livonia from Sweden; for help, he promised Russia the return of lands that previously belonged to the Russians (Ingria and Karelia).

To enter the war, Russia had to make peace with the Ottoman Empire. After reaching a truce with the Turkish Sultan for a period of 30 years, Russia declared war on Sweden on August 19, 1700, under the pretext of revenge for the insult shown to Tsar Peter in Riga.

Charles XII's plan was to defeat his opponents one by one through a series of rapid amphibious operations. Soon after the bombing of Copenhagen, Denmark withdrew from the war on August 8, 1700, even before Russia entered it. Augustus II's attempts to capture Riga ended unsuccessfully.

The attempt to capture the Narva fortress ended with the defeat of the Russian army. On November 30, 1700 (New Style), Charles XII with 8,500 soldiers attacked the camp of Russian troops and completely defeated the 35,000-strong fragile Russian army. Peter I himself left the troops for Novgorod 2 days before. Considering that Russia was sufficiently weakened, Charles XII went to Livonia to direct all his forces against what he thought was his main enemy - Augustus II.

However, Peter, hastily reorganizing the army along European lines, resumed hostilities. Already in 1702 (October 11 (22), Russia captured the Noteburg fortress (renamed Shlisselburg), and in the spring of 1703, the Nyenschanz fortress at the mouth of the Neva. Here, on May 16 (27), 1703, the construction of St. Petersburg began, and on the island of Kotlin the base of the Russian fleet was located - the Kronshlot fortress (later Kronstadt). The exit to the Baltic Sea was breached. In 1704, Narva and Dorpat were taken, Russia was firmly entrenched in the Eastern Baltic. Peter I’s offer to make peace was refused.

After the deposition of Augustus II in 1706 and his replacement by the Polish king Stanislav Leszczynski, Charles XII began his fatal campaign against Russia. Having captured Minsk and Mogilev, the king did not dare to go to Smolensk. Having secured the support of the Little Russian hetman Ivan Mazepa, Charles moved his troops south for food reasons and with the intention of strengthening the army with Mazepa’s supporters. On September 28, 1708, near the village of Lesnoy, Levengaupt's Swedish corps, which was marching to join the army of Charles XII from Livonia, was defeated by the Russian army under the command of Menshikov. The Swedish army lost reinforcements and a convoy with military supplies. Peter later celebrated the anniversary of this battle as a turning point in the Northern War.

In the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709, the army of Charles XII was completely defeated, the Swedish king with a handful of soldiers fled to Turkish possessions.

In 1710, Türkiye intervened in the war. After the defeat in the Prut campaign of 1711, Russia returned Azov to Turkey and destroyed Taganrog, but due to this it was possible to conclude another truce with the Turks.

Peter again focused on the war with the Swedes; in 1713, the Swedes were defeated in Pomerania and lost all their possessions in continental Europe. However, thanks to Sweden's dominance at sea, the Northern War dragged on. The Baltic Fleet was just being created by Russia, but managed to win its first victory in the Battle of Gangut in the summer of 1714. In 1716, Peter led a united fleet from Russia, England, Denmark and Holland, but due to disagreements in the Allied camp, it was not possible to organize an attack on Sweden.

As Russia's Baltic Fleet strengthened, Sweden felt the danger of an invasion of its lands. In 1718, peace negotiations began, interrupted by the sudden death of Charles XII. The Swedish queen Ulrika Eleonora resumed the war, hoping for help from England. The devastating Russian landings on the Swedish coast in 1720 prompted Sweden to resume negotiations. On August 30 (September 10), 1721, the Peace of Nystad was concluded between Russia and Sweden, ending the 21-year war. Russia gained access to the Baltic Sea, annexed the territory of Ingria, part of Karelia, Estland and Livonia. Russia became a great European power, in commemoration of which on October 22 (November 2), 1721, Peter, at the request of senators, accepted the title Father of the Fatherland, Emperor of All Russia, Peter the Great:

... we thought, from the example of the ancients, especially the Roman and Greek peoples, to take the boldness, on the day of the celebration and announcement of what they concluded in. V. through the labors of all Russia for a glorious and prosperous world, after reading its treatise in the church, according to our all-submissive thanksgiving for the destruction of this world, to bring our petition to you publicly, so that you deign to accept from us, as from your faithful subjects, in gratitude the title of Father of the Fatherland, Emperor of All Russia, Peter the Great, as usual from the Roman Senate for the noble deeds of emperors, such titles were publicly presented to them as a gift and signed on statues for memory for eternal generations.

Russo-Turkish War 1710-1713

After the defeat in the Battle of Poltava, the Swedish king Charles XII took refuge in the possessions of the Ottoman Empire, the city of Bendery. Peter I concluded an agreement with Turkey on the expulsion of Charles XII from Turkish territory, but then the Swedish king was allowed to stay and create a threat to the southern border of Russia with the help of part of the Ukrainian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars. Seeking the expulsion of Charles XII, Peter I began to threaten war with Turkey, but in response, on November 20, 1710, the Sultan himself declared war on Russia. The real cause of the war was the capture of Azov by Russian troops in 1696 and the appearance of the Russian fleet in the Sea of Azov.

The war on Turkey's part was limited to the winter raid of the Crimean Tatars, vassals of the Ottoman Empire, on Ukraine. Russia waged a war on 3 fronts: troops made campaigns against the Tatars in the Crimea and Kuban, Peter I himself, relying on the help of the rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia, decided to make a deep campaign to the Danube, where he hoped to raise the Christian vassals of the Ottoman Empire to fight the Turks.

On March 6 (17), 1711, Peter I left Moscow for the troops with his faithful friend Ekaterina Alekseevna, whom he ordered to be considered his wife and queen (even before the official wedding, which took place in 1712). The army crossed the border of Moldova in June 1711, but already on July 20, 1711, 190 thousand Turks and Crimean Tatars pressed the 38 thousand Russian army to the right bank of the Prut River, completely surrounding it. In a seemingly hopeless situation, Peter managed to conclude the Prut Peace Treaty with the Grand Vizier, according to which the army and the Tsar himself escaped capture, but in return Russia gave Azov to Turkey and lost access to the Sea of Azov.

There had been no hostilities since August 1711, although during the process of agreeing on the final treaty, Turkey threatened several times to resume the war. Only in June 1713 was the Treaty of Andrianople concluded, which generally confirmed the terms of the Prut Agreement. Russia received the opportunity to continue the Northern War without a 2nd front, although it lost the gains of the Azov campaigns.

Russia's movement to the east

Russia's expansion to the east under Peter I did not stop. In 1714, Buchholz's expedition south of the Irtysh founded Omsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk and other fortresses. In 1716-17, a detachment of Bekovich-Cherkassky was sent to Central Asia with the goal of persuading the Khiva Khan to become a citizen and to scout out the route to India. However, the Russian detachment was destroyed by the khan. During the reign of Peter I, Kamchatka was annexed to Russia. Peter planned an expedition across the Pacific Ocean to America (intending to establish Russian colonies there), but did not have time to carry out his plan.

Caspian campaign 1722-1723

Peter's largest foreign policy event after the Northern War was the Caspian (or Persian) campaign in 1722-1724. The conditions for the campaign were created as a result of Persian civil strife and the actual collapse of the once powerful state.

On June 18, 1722, after the son of the Persian Shah Tokhmas Mirza asked for help, a 22,000-strong Russian detachment sailed from Astrakhan along the Caspian Sea. In August, Derbent surrendered, after which the Russians returned to Astrakhan due to problems with supplies. The following year, 1723, the western shore of the Caspian Sea with the fortresses of Baku, Rasht, and Astrabad was conquered. Further progress was stopped by the threat of the Ottoman Empire entering the war, which captured western and central Transcaucasia.

On September 12, 1723, the Treaty of St. Petersburg was concluded with Persia, according to which the western and southern coasts of the Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku and the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad were included in the Russian Empire. Russia and Persia also concluded a defensive alliance against Turkey, which, however, turned out to be ineffective.

According to the Treaty of Istanbul (Constantinople) of June 12, 1724, Turkey recognized all Russian acquisitions in the western part of the Caspian Sea and renounced further claims to Persia. The junction of the borders between Russia, Turkey and Persia was established at the confluence of the Araks and Kura rivers. Troubles continued in Persia, and Turkey challenged the provisions of the Treaty of Istanbul before the border was clearly established.

It should be noted that soon after the death of Peter, these possessions were lost due to high losses of garrisons from disease, and, in the opinion of Tsarina Anna Ioannovna, the lack of prospects for the region.

Russian Empire under Peter I

After the victory in the Northern War and the conclusion of the Peace of Nystadt in September 1721, the Senate and Synod decided to present Peter with the title of Emperor of All Russia with the following wording: “ as usual, from the Roman Senate, for the noble deeds of emperors, such titles were publicly presented to them as a gift and signed on statutes for memory for eternal generations.»

On October 22 (November 2), 1721, Peter I accepted the title, not just an honorary one, but indicating a new role for Russia in international affairs. Prussia and Holland immediately recognized the new title of the Russian Tsar, Sweden in 1723, Turkey in 1739, England and Austria in 1742, France and Spain in 1745, and finally Poland in 1764.

Secretary of the Prussian embassy in Russia in 1717-33, I.-G. Fokkerodt, at the request of Voltaire, who was working on the history of Peter's reign, wrote memoirs about Russia under Peter. Fokkerodt tried to estimate the population of the Russian Empire by the end of the reign of Peter I. According to his information, the number of people in the tax-paying class was 5 million 198 thousand people, from which the number of peasants and townspeople, including women, was estimated at approximately 10 million. Many souls were hidden by the landowners, The repeated audit increased the number of tax-paying souls to almost 6 million people. There were up to 500 thousand Russian nobles and families; officials up to 200 thousand and clergy with families up to 300 thousand souls.

The inhabitants of the conquered regions, who were not subject to universal taxes, were estimated to number from 500 to 600 thousand souls. Cossacks with families in Ukraine, on the Don and Yaik and in border cities were considered to number from 700 to 800 thousand souls. The number of Siberian peoples was unknown, but Fokkerodt put it up to a million people.

Thus, the population of the Russian Empire amounted to up to 15 million subjects and was second in Europe only to France (about 20 million).

Transformations of Peter I

All of Peter’s state activities can be conditionally divided into two periods: 1695-1715 and 1715-1725.

The peculiarity of the first stage was haste and not always thought out, which was explained by the conduct of the Northern War. The reforms were aimed primarily at raising funds for the Northern War, were carried out by force and often did not lead to the desired result. In addition to government reforms, at the first stage, extensive reforms were carried out to change the cultural way of life.

Peter carried out a monetary reform, as a result of which accounts began to be kept in rubles and kopecks. The pre-reform silver kopek (Novgorodka) continued to be minted until 1718 for the outskirts. The copper kopeck came into circulation in 1704, at the same time the silver ruble began to be minted. The reform itself began in 1700, when copper half-polushka (1/8 kopeck), half-ruble (1/4 kopeck), denga (1/2 kopeck) were put into circulation, and since 1701, silver ten money (five kopecks), ten kopecks (ten kopecks), half-fifty (25 kopecks) and half. Accounting for money and altyns (3 kopecks) was prohibited. Under Peter, the first screw press appeared. During the reign, the weight and fineness of coins were reduced several times, which led to the rapid development of counterfeiting. In 1723, copper five kopecks ("cross" nickel) were introduced into circulation. It had several degrees of protection (smooth field, special alignment of the sides), but counterfeits began to be minted not in a homemade way, but in foreign mints. Cross nickels were subsequently confiscated to be re-coined into kopecks (under Elizabeth). Gold chervonets began to be minted according to the European model; later they were abandoned in favor of a gold coin of two rubles. Peter I planned to introduce a copper ruble payment based on the Swedish model in 1725, but these payments were implemented only by Catherine I.

In the second period, reforms were more systematic and aimed at the internal development of the state.

In general, Peter's reforms were aimed at strengthening the Russian state and introducing the ruling stratum to European culture while simultaneously strengthening the absolute monarchy. By the end of the reign of Peter the Great, a powerful Russian Empire was created, headed by an emperor who had absolute power. During the reforms, the technical and economic lag of Russia from European countries was overcome, access to the Baltic Sea was won, and transformations were carried out in all spheres of life of Russian society. At the same time, the popular forces were extremely exhausted, the bureaucratic apparatus grew, and the preconditions were created (Decree on Succession to the Throne) for a crisis of supreme power, which led to the era of “palace coups.”

Personality of Peter I

Peter's appearance

Even as a child, Peter amazed people with the beauty and liveliness of his face and figure. Due to his height - 200 cm (6 ft 7 in) - he stood out a whole head in the crowd. At the same time, with such a large height, he wore size 38 shoes.

Those around were frightened by very strong convulsive twitching of the face, especially in moments of anger and emotional excitement. Contemporaries attributed these convulsive movements to childhood shock during the Streltsy riots or an attempt to poison Princess Sophia.

During his visit to Europe, Peter I frightened sophisticated aristocrats with his rude manner of communication and simplicity of morals. Elector Sophia of Hanover wrote about Peter as follows:

Later, already in 1717, during Peter’s stay in Paris, the Duke of Saint-Simon wrote down his impression of Peter:

« He was very tall, well-built, rather thin, with a roundish face, high forehead, and beautiful eyebrows; his nose is quite short, but not too short, and somewhat thick towards the end; the lips are quite large, the complexion is reddish and dark, beautiful black eyes, large, lively, penetrating, beautifully shaped; the look is majestic and welcoming when he watches himself and restrains himself, otherwise he is stern and wild, with convulsions on the face that are not repeated often, but distort both the eyes and the whole face, frightening everyone present. The spasm usually lasted one moment, and then his gaze became strange, as if confused, then everything immediately took on its normal appearance. His whole appearance showed intelligence, reflection and greatness and was not without charm.»

Family of Peter I

For the first time, Peter married at the age of 17, at the insistence of his mother, to Evdokia Lopukhina in 1689. A year later, Tsarevich Alexei was born to them, who was raised by his mother in concepts alien to Peter’s reform activities. The remaining children of Peter and Evdokia died soon after birth. In 1698, Evdokia Lopukhina became involved in the Streltsy revolt, the purpose of which was to elevate her son to the kingdom, and was exiled to a monastery.

Alexei Petrovich, the official heir to the Russian throne, condemned his father’s reforms, and eventually fled to Vienna under the patronage of his wife’s relative (Charlotte of Brunswick), Emperor Charles VI, where he sought support in the overthrow of Peter I. In 1717, the weak-willed prince was persuaded to return home, where he was taken into custody. On June 24 (July 5), 1718, the Supreme Court, consisting of 127 people, sentenced Alexei to death, finding him guilty of treason.

On June 26 (July 7), 1718, the prince, without waiting for the sentence to be carried out, died in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The true cause of the death of Tsarevich Alexei has not yet been reliably established.

From his marriage to Princess Charlotte of Brunswick, Tsarevich Alexei left a son, Peter Alekseevich (1715-1730), who became Emperor Peter II in 1727, and a daughter, Natalya Alekseevna (1714-1728).

In 1703, Peter I met 19-year-old Katerina, whose maiden name was Marta Skavronskaya, captured by Russian troops as booty during the capture of the Swedish fortress of Marienburg. Peter took a former maid from the Baltic peasants from Alexander Menshikov and made her his mistress. In 1704, Katerina gives birth to her first child, named Peter, and the following year, Paul (both soon died). Even before her legal marriage to Peter, Katerina gave birth to daughters Anna (1708) and Elizabeth (1709). Elizabeth later became empress (reigned 1741-1761), and Anna's direct descendants ruled Russia after Elizabeth's death, from 1761 to 1917.

Katerina alone could cope with the king in his fits of anger; she knew how to calm Peter’s attacks of convulsive headaches with affection and patient attention. The sound of Katerina's voice calmed Peter; then she:

The official wedding of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna took place on February 19, 1712, shortly after returning from the Prut campaign. In 1724 Peter crowned Catherine as empress and co-regent. Ekaterina Alekseevna bore her husband 11 children, but most of them died in childhood, except for Anna and Elizaveta.

After Peter's death in January 1725, Ekaterina Alekseevna, with the support of the serving nobility and guards regiments, became the first ruling Russian Empress Catherine I, but she did not rule for long and died in 1727, vacating the throne for Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich. The first wife of Peter the Great, Evdokia Lopukhina, outlived her lucky rival and died in 1731, having managed to see the reign of her grandson Peter Alekseevich.

Succession to the throne

In the last years of the reign of Peter the Great, the question of succession to the throne arose: who would take the throne after the death of the emperor. Tsarevich Pyotr Petrovich (1715-1719, son of Ekaterina Alekseevna), declared heir to the throne upon the abdication of Alexei Petrovich, died in childhood. The direct heir was the son of Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Charlotte, Pyotr Alekseevich. However, if you follow the custom and declare the son of the disgraced Alexei as the heir, then the hopes of opponents of the reforms to return to the old order were aroused, and on the other hand, fears arose among Peter’s comrades, who voted for the execution of Alexei.

On February 5 (16), 1722, Peter issued a Decree on Succession to the Throne (cancelled by Paul I 75 years later), in which he abolished the ancient custom of transferring the throne to direct descendants in the male line, but allowed the appointment of any worthy person as heir at the will of the monarch. The text of this important decree justified the need for this measure:

The decree was so unusual for Russian society that it had to be explained and consent was required from the subjects under oath. The schismatics were indignant: “He took a Swede for himself, and that queen will not give birth to children, and he made a decree to kiss the cross for the future sovereign, and they kiss the cross for the Swede. Of course, a Swede will reign.”

Peter Alekseevich was removed from the throne, but the question of succession to the throne remained open. Many believed that the throne would be taken by either Anna or Elizabeth, Peter’s daughter from his marriage to Ekaterina Alekseevna. But in 1724, Anna renounced any claims to the Russian throne after she became engaged to the Duke of Holstein, Karl Friedrich. If the throne had been taken by the youngest daughter Elizabeth, who was 15 years old (in 1724), then the Duke of Holstein would have ruled instead, who dreamed of returning the lands conquered by the Danes with the help of Russia.

Peter and his nieces, the daughters of his elder brother Ivan, were not satisfied: Anna of Courland, Ekaterina of Mecklenburg and Praskovya Ioannovna.

There was only one candidate left - Peter's wife, Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna. Peter needed a person who would continue the work he had started, his transformation. On May 7, 1724, Peter crowned Catherine empress and co-ruler, but a short time later he suspected her of adultery (the Mons affair). The decree of 1722 violated the usual structure of succession to the throne, but Peter did not have time to appoint an heir before his death.

Offspring of Peter I

	Date of Birth	Date of death	Notes
With Evdokia Lopukhina
Alexey Petrovich			He was considered the official heir to the throne before his arrest. He was married in 1711 to Princess Sophia Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbittel, sister of Elizabeth, wife of Emperor Charles VI. Children: Natalya (1714-28) and Peter (1715-30), later Emperor Peter II.
Alexander Petrovich
With Ekaterina
Anna Petrovna			In 1725 she married the German Duke Karl Friedrich. She left for Kiel, where she gave birth to her son Karl Peter Ulrich (later Russian Emperor Peter III).
Elizaveta Petrovna			Empress since 1741. In 1744 she entered into a secret marriage with A.G. Razumovsky, from whom, according to contemporaries, she gave birth to several children.
Natalya Petrovna
Margarita Petrovna
Pyotr Petrovich			He was considered the official heir to the crown from 1718 until his death.
Pavel Petrovich
Natalya Petrovna

In most history books, including some popular Internet resources, as a rule, a smaller number of children of Peter I are mentioned. This is due to the fact that they reached the age of maturity and left a certain mark on history, unlike other children who died in early childhood. According to other sources, Peter I had 14 children officially registered and mentioned on the family tree of the Romanov dynasty.

Death of Peter

In the last years of his reign, Peter was very ill (presumably kidney stones, uremia). In the summer of 1724, his illness intensified; in September he felt better, but after a while the attacks intensified. In October, Peter went to inspect the Ladoga Canal, contrary to the advice of his physician Blumentrost. From Olonets, Peter traveled to Staraya Russa and in November traveled by water to St. Petersburg. Near Lakhta, he had to stand waist-deep in water to save a boat with soldiers that had run aground. The attacks of the disease intensified, but Peter, not paying attention to them, continued to engage in government affairs. On January 17, 1725, he had such a bad time that he ordered a camp church to be erected in the room next to his bedroom, and on January 22 he confessed. The patient’s strength began to leave him; he no longer screamed, as before, from severe pain, but only moaned.

On January 27 (February 7), all those sentenced to death or hard labor (excluding murderers and those convicted of repeated robbery) were amnestied. That same day, at the end of the second hour, Peter demanded paper and began to write, but the pen fell out of his hands, and only two words could be made out from what was written: “Give everything...” The Tsar then ordered his daughter Anna Petrovna to be called so that she could write under his dictation, but when she arrived, Peter had already fallen into oblivion. The story about Peter’s words “Give up everything...” and the order to call Anna is known only from the notes of the Holstein Privy Councilor G. F. Bassevich; according to N.I. Pavlenko and V.P. Kozlov, it is a tendentious fiction aimed at hinting at the rights of Anna Petrovna, the wife of the Holstein Duke Karl Friedrich, to the Russian throne.

When it became obvious that the emperor was dying, the question arose as to who would take Peter's place. The Senate, the Synod and the generals - all institutions that did not have the formal right to control the fate of the throne, even before Peter's death, gathered on the night of January 27-28, 1725 to resolve the issue of Peter the Great's successor. Guards officers entered the meeting room, two guards regiments entered the square, and to the drumbeat of troops withdrawn by the party of Ekaterina Alekseevna and Menshikov, the Senate made a unanimous decision by 4 o'clock in the morning on January 28. By decision of the Senate, the throne was inherited by Peter's wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna, who became the first Russian empress on January 28 (February 8), 1725 under the name Catherine I.

At the beginning of six o'clock in the morning on January 28 (February 8), 1725, Peter the Great died. He was buried in the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.

The famous court icon painter Simon Ushakov painted an image of the Life-Giving Trinity and the Apostle Peter on a cypress board. After the death of Peter I, this icon was installed above the imperial tombstone.

Performance evaluation and criticism

In a letter to the French ambassador to Russia, Louis XIV spoke of Peter in the following way: “This sovereign reveals his aspirations with concerns about preparing for military affairs and the discipline of his troops, about training and enlightening his people, about attracting foreign officers and all kinds of capable people. This course of action and the increase of power, which is the greatest in Europe, make him formidable to his neighbors and excite very thorough envy."

Moritz of Saxony called Peter the greatest man of his century.

S. M. Solovyov spoke about Peter in enthusiastic terms, attributing to him all the successes of Russia both in internal affairs and in foreign policy, showing the organic nature and historical preparedness of the reforms:

The historian believed that the emperor saw his main task in the internal transformation of Russia, and the Northern War with Sweden was only a means to this transformation. According to Solovyov:

P. N. Milyukov, in his works, develops the idea that the reforms carried out by Peter spontaneously, from case to case, under the pressure of specific circumstances, without any logic or plan, were “reforms without a reformer.” He also mentions that only “at the cost of ruining the country, Russia was elevated to the rank of a European power.” According to Miliukov, during the reign of Peter, the population of Russia within the borders of 1695 decreased due to incessant wars.

S. F. Platonov was one of Peter’s apologists. In his book “Personality and Activity” he wrote the following:

N.I. Pavlenko believed that Peter’s transformations were a major step along the road to progress (albeit within the framework of feudalism). Outstanding Soviet historians largely agree with him: E.V. Tarle, N.N. Molchanov, V.I. Buganov, considering the reforms from the point of view of Marxist theory.

Voltaire wrote repeatedly about Peter. By the end of 1759 the first volume was published, and in April 1763 the second volume of “History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great” was published. Voltaire defines the main value of Peter’s reforms as the progress that the Russians have achieved in 50 years; other nations cannot achieve this even in 500. Peter I, his reforms, and their significance became the object of dispute between Voltaire and Rousseau.

N. M. Karamzin, recognizing this sovereign as the Great, severely criticizes Peter for his excessive passion for foreign things, his desire to make Russia the Netherlands. The sharp change in the “old” way of life and national traditions undertaken by the emperor, according to the historian, is not always justified. As a result, Russian educated people "became citizens of the world, but ceased to be, in some cases, citizens of Russia."

V. O. Klyuchevsky gave a contradictory assessment of Peter’s transformations. “The reform (of Peter) itself came out of the urgent needs of the state and the people, instinctively felt by a powerful man with a sensitive mind and strong character, talents... The reform carried out by Peter the Great did not have as its direct goal to rebuild either the political, social, or moral order established in this state was not directed by the task of putting Russian life on Western European foundations that were unusual for it, introducing new borrowed principles into it, but was limited to the desire to arm the Russian state and people with ready-made Western European means, mental and material, and thereby put the state on a level with the conquered them by the situation in Europe... Started and led by the supreme power, the habitual leader of the people, it adopted the character and methods of a violent revolution, a kind of revolution. It was a revolution not in its goals and results, but only in its methods and in the impression it made on the minds and nerves of his contemporaries."

V. B. Kobrin argued that Peter did not change the most important thing in the country: serfdom. Feudal industry. Temporary improvements in the present doomed Russia to a crisis in the future.

According to R. Pipes, Kamensky, E.V. Anisimov, Peter’s reforms were extremely contradictory. Feudal methods and repression led to an overstrain of popular forces.

E.V. Anisimov believed that, despite the introduction of a number of innovations in all spheres of life of society and the state, the reforms led to the conservation of the autocratic serfdom system in Russia.

An extremely negative assessment of Peter's personality and the results of his reforms was given by the thinker and publicist Ivan Solonevich. In his opinion, the result of Peter’s activities was the gap between the ruling elite and the people, the denationalization of the former. He accused Peter himself of cruelty, incompetence and tyranny.

A. M. Burovsky calls Peter I, following the Old Believers, “the Antichrist Tsar,” as well as a “possessed sadist” and a “bloody monster,” arguing that his activities ruined and bled Russia. According to him, everything good that is attributed to Peter was known long before him, and Russia before him was much more developed and free than after.

Memory

Monuments

Monuments were erected in honor of Peter the Great in different cities of Russia and Europe. The very first and most famous is the Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg, created by the sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet. Its production and construction took more than 10 years. The sculpture of Peter by B.K. Rastrelli was created earlier than the Bronze Horseman, but was installed in front of the Mikhailovsky Castle later.

In 1912, during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Tula Arms Plant, a monument to Peter, as the founder of the plant, was unveiled on its territory. Subsequently, the monument was erected in front of the factory entrance.

The largest in size was installed in 1997 in Moscow on the Moskva River, sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.

In 2007, a monument was erected in Astrakhan on the Volga embankment, and in 2008 in Sochi.

May 20, 2009 at the Moscow City Children's Marine Center named after. Peter the Great" a bust of Peter I was installed as part of the "Walk of Russian Glory" project.

Various natural objects are also associated with the name of Peter. Thus, until the end of the 20th century, an oak tree was preserved on Kamenny Island in St. Petersburg, according to legend, planted personally by Peter. At the site of his last exploit near Lakhta there was also a pine tree with a memorial inscription. Now a new one has been planted in its place.

Orders

1698 - Order of the Garter (England) - the order was awarded to Peter during the Great Embassy for diplomatic reasons, but Peter refused the award.
1703 - Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (Russia) - for the capture of two Swedish ships at the mouth of the Neva.
1712 - Order of the White Eagle (Rzeczpospolita) - in response to the awarding of the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus II with the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
1713 - Order of the Elephant (Denmark) - for success in the Northern War.

In honor of Peter I

The Order of Peter the Great is an award in 3 degrees, established by the public organization Academy of Defense Security and Law Enforcement Problems, which was liquidated by the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation because it issued fictitious awards that were consistent with official awards of orders and medals.

Peter I in art

In literature

Tolstoy A. N., “Peter the First (novel)” is the most famous novel about the life of Peter I, published in 1945.
Yuri Pavlovich German - “Young Russia” - novel
A. S. Pushkin made a deep study of the life of Peter and made Peter the Great the hero of his poems “Poltava” and “The Bronze Horseman”, as well as the novel “Arap of Peter the Great”.
Merezhkovsky D.S., “Peter and Alexey” - novel.
Anatoly Brusnikin - “The Ninth Savior”
Yuri Tynyanov’s story “The Wax Person” describes the last days of the life of Peter I and vividly characterizes the era and the emperor’s inner circle.
A. Volkov’s story “Two Brothers” describes the life of various layers of society under Peter and Peter’s attitude towards them.

In music

“Peter the Great” (Pierre le Grand, 1790) - opera by Andre Grétry
"The Youth of Peter the Great" (Das Petermännchen, 1794) - opera by Joseph Weigl
“The Carpenter Tsar, or The Dignity of a Woman” (1814) - singspiel by K. A. Lichtenstein
“Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, or the Livonian Carpenter” (Pietro il Grande zar di tutte le Russie or Il falegname di Livonia, 1819) - opera by Gaetano Donizetti
“The Burgomaster of Saardam” (Il borgomastro di Saardam, 1827) - opera by Gaetano Donizetti
“The Tsar and the Carpenter” (Zar und Zimmermann, 1837) - operetta by Albert Lortzing
“Northern Star” (L"étoile du nord, 1854) - opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer
“Tobacco Captain” (1942) - operetta by V. V. Shcherbachev
“Peter I” (1975) - opera by Andrei Petrov

In addition, in 1937-1938, Mikhail Bulgakov and Boris Asafiev worked on the libretto of the opera Peter the Great, which remained an unrealized project (the libretto was published in 1988).

In cinema

Peter I is a character in dozens of feature films.

Peter I on money

Criticism and assessment of Peter I

In a letter to the French ambassador to Russia, Louis XIV spoke of Peter in the following way: “This sovereign reveals his aspirations with concerns about preparing for military affairs and the discipline of his troops, about training and enlightening his people, about attracting foreign officers and all kinds of capable people. This course of action and the increase in power, which is the greatest in Europe, make him formidable to his neighbors and excite very thorough envy."

Moritz of Saxony called Peter the greatest man of his century

August Strindberg described Peter as “The barbarian who civilized his Russia; he, who built cities, but did not want to live in them; he, who punished his wife with a whip and gave the woman wide freedom - his life was great, rich and useful in public terms, and in private terms such as it turned out.”

Westerners positively assessed Peter's reforms, thanks to which Russia became a great power and joined European civilization.

The famous historian S. M. Solovyov spoke about Peter in enthusiastic terms, attributing to him all the successes of Russia both in internal affairs and in foreign policy, showing the organicity and historical preparedness of the reforms:

The historian believed that the emperor saw his main task in the internal transformation of Russia, and the Northern War with Sweden was only a means to this transformation. According to Solovyov:

In addition, Platonov pays a lot of attention to Peter’s personality, highlighting his positive qualities: energy, seriousness, natural intelligence and talents, the desire to figure everything out for himself.

N.I. Pavlenko believed that Peter's transformations were a major step towards progress (albeit within the framework of feudalism). Outstanding Soviet historians largely agree with him: E.V. Tarle, N.N. Molchanov, V.I. Buganov, considering the reforms from the point of view of Marxist theory. Voltaire wrote repeatedly about Peter. By the end of 1759 the first volume was published, and in April 1763 the second volume of “History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great” was published. Voltaire defines the main value of Peter’s reforms as the progress that the Russians achieved in 50 years; other nations cannot achieve this even in 500. Peter I, his reforms, and their significance became the object of dispute between Voltaire and Rousseau.

N. M. Karamzin, recognizing this sovereign as the Great, severely criticizes Peter for his excessive passion for foreign things, his desire to make Russia Holland. The sharp change in the “old” way of life and national traditions undertaken by the emperor, according to the historian, is not always justified. As a result, Russian educated people "became citizens of the world, but ceased to be, in some cases, citizens of Russia."

V. O. Klyuchevsky thought that Peter was making history, but did not understand it. To protect the Fatherland from enemies, he devastated it more than any enemy... After him, the state became stronger, and the people poorer. “All his transformative activities were guided by the thought of the necessity and omnipotence of imperious coercion; he hoped only to forcefully impose on the people the benefits they lacked. “Woe threatened those who, even secretly, even in drunkenness, would think: “Is the king leading us to good, and is it not in vain "Will these torments lead to the most evil torments for many hundreds of years? But thinking, even feeling anything other than submission was forbidden."

B.V. Kobrin argued that Peter did not change the most important thing in the country: serfdom. Feudal industry. Temporary improvements in the present doomed Russia to a crisis in the future.

According to R. Pipes, Kamensky, N.V. Anisimov, Peter’s reforms were extremely contradictory. Feudal methods and repression led to an overstrain of popular forces.

N.V. Anisimov believed that, despite the introduction of a number of innovations in all spheres of life of society and the state, the reforms led to the conservation of the autocratic serfdom system in Russia.

Boris Chichibabin. Curse to Peter (1972)
Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Trilogy Christ and Antichrist. Peter and Alexey (novel).
Friedrich Gorenstein. Tsar Peter and Alexei(drama).
Alexey Tolstoy. Peter the First(novel).

Date of publication or update 12/15/2017

To the table of contents: Rulers

Peter I Alekseevich the Great
Years of life: 1672-1725
Reign: 1689-1725

Russian Tsar (1682). The first Russian emperor (since 1721), an outstanding statesman, diplomat and commander, all his activities were related to reforms.

From the Romanov dynasty.

In the 1680s. under the leadership of the Dutchman F. Timmerman and the Russian master R. Kartsev Peter I studied shipbuilding, and in 1684 he sailed on his boat along the Yauza River, and later along Lake Pereyaslavl, where he founded the first shipyard for the construction of ships.

On January 27, 1689, Peter, by order of his mother, married Evdokia Lopukhina, the daughter of a Moscow boyar. But the newlyweds spent time with friends in the German settlement. There, in 1691, he met the daughter of a German artisan, Anna Mons, who became his lover. But according to Russian custom, having married, he was considered an adult and could lay claim to independent rule.

But Princess Sophia did not want to lose power and organized a revolt of the archers against Peter. Having learned about this, Peter hid in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Remembering how the archers killed many of his relatives, he experienced real horror. From that time on, Peter developed nervous tics and convulsions.

Peter I, Emperor of All Russia. Engraving from the early 19th century.

But soon Petr Alekseevich came to his senses and brutally suppressed the uprising. In September 1689, Princess Sophia was exiled to the Novodevichy Convent, and her supporters were executed. In 1689, having removed his sister from power, Peter Alekseevich became the de facto king. After the death of his mother in 1695, and in 1696 of his brother-co-ruler Ivan V, on January 29, 1696, he became an autocrat, the sole king of all Rus' and legally.

Peter I, Emperor of All Russia. Portrait. Unknown artist of the late 18th century.

Having barely established himself on the throne, Peter I personally participated in the Azov campaigns against Turkey (1695–1696), which ended with the capture of Azov and access to the shores of the Sea of Azov. Thus, Russia's first access to the southern seas was opened.

Under the guise of studying maritime affairs and shipbuilding, Peter volunteered at the Great Embassy in 1697–1698. to Europe. There, under the name of Peter Mikhailov, the tsar completed a full course of artillery sciences in Brandenburg and Koenigsberg, worked as a carpenter in the shipyards of Amsterdam, studied naval architecture and plan drawing, and completed a theoretical course in shipbuilding in England. On his orders, instruments, weapons, and books were purchased in England, and foreign craftsmen and scientists were invited. The British said about Peter that there was no craft that the Russian Tsar would not have become familiar with.

Portrait Peter I. Artist A. Antropov. 1767

At the same time, the Grand Embassy prepared the creation of the Northern Alliance against Sweden, which finally took shape only 2 years later (1699). Summer 1697 Peter I held negotiations with the Austrian emperor, but having received news of the impending uprising of the Streltsy, which was organized by Princess Sophia, who promised many privileges in the event of the overthrow of Peter, he returned to Russia. On August 26, 1698, the investigation into the Streltsy case did not spare any of the rebels (1,182 people were executed, Sophia and her sister Martha were tonsured as nuns).

Returning to Russia, Peter I began his transformative activities.

In February 1699, on his orders, the unreliable rifle regiments were disbanded and the formation of regular soldiers and dragoons began. Soon, decrees were signed, ordering men to “cut their beards,” wear European-style clothing, and women to uncover their hair, under pain of fines and flogging. Since 1700, a new calendar was introduced with the beginning of the year on January 1 (instead of September 1) and chronology from the “Nativity of Christ”. All these actions Peter I provided for the breaking of ancient mores.

At the same time Peter I began serious changes in government. country. Over the course of more than 35 years of rule, he managed to carry out many reforms in the field of culture and education. Thus, the monopoly of the clergy on education was eliminated, and secular schools were opened. Under Peter, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences (1701), the Medical-Surgical School (1707) - the future Military Medical Academy, the Naval Academy (1715), the Engineering and Artillery Schools (1719), and translator schools were opened. at the collegiums. In 1719, the first museum in Russian history began to operate - the Kunstkamera with a public library.

Monument to Peter the Great near the House of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg.

ABC books and educational maps were published, and a systematic study of the country's geography and cartography began. The spread of literacy was facilitated by the reform of the alphabet (cursive was replaced by civil script, 1708), and the publication of the first Russian printed newspaper Vedomosti (from 1703). In the era Peter I many buildings for state and cultural institutions, the architectural ensemble of Peterhof (Petrodvorets) were erected.

However, reform activities Peter I took place in a bitter struggle with the conservative opposition. The reforms provoked resistance from the boyars and clergy (conspiracy of I. Tsikler, 1697).

In 1700 Peter I concluded the Peace of Constantinople with Turkey and began a war with Sweden in alliance with Poland and Denmark. Peter's opponent was the 18-year-old Swedish king Charles XII. In November 1700 they first encountered Peter near Narva. The troops of Charles XII won this battle, since Russia did not yet have a strong army. But Peter learned a lesson from this defeat and actively began strengthening the Russian armed forces. Already in 1702, all the lands along the Niva to the Gulf of Finland were cleared of Swedish troops.

Monument to Peter the Great in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

However, the war with Sweden, called the Northern War, still continued. On June 27, 1709, near the Poltava fortress, the great Battle of Poltava took place, which ended in the complete defeat of the Swedish army. Peter I He himself led his troops and participated in the battle along with everyone else. He encouraged and inspired the soldiers, saying his famous words: “You are fighting not for Peter, but for the state entrusted to Peter. And about Peter, know that life is not dear to him, if only Russia lives, its glory, honor and prosperity!” Historians write that on the same day, Tsar Peter threw a big feast, invited the captured Swedish generals to it and, returning their swords to them, said: “... I drink to the health of you, my teachers in the art of war.” After the Battle of Poltava, Peter forever secured access to the Baltic Sea. From now on, foreign countries were forced to reckon with the strong power of Russia.

Tsar Peter I did a lot for Russia. Under him, industry actively developed and trade expanded. New cities began to be built throughout Russia, and the streets in the old ones were illuminated. With the emergence of the all-Russian market, the economic potential of the central government increased. And the reunification of Ukraine and Russia and the development of Siberia turned Russia into the greatest state in the world.

During Peter the Great's time, exploration of ore wealth was actively carried out, iron foundries and weapons factories were built in the Urals and Central Russia, canals and new strategic roads were laid, shipyards were built, and with them new cities arose.

However, the weight of the Northern War and reforms fell heavily on the peasantry, who made up the majority of the Russian population. Discontent erupted in popular uprisings (Astrakhan uprising, 1705; Peasant War led by K.A. Bulavin, 1707–1708; unrest of the Bashkirs 1705–1711), which were suppressed by Peter with cruelty and indifference.

After the suppression of the Bulavinsky revolt Peter I carried out the regional reform of 1708–1710, which divided the country into 8 provinces headed by governors and governors general. In 1719, the provinces were divided into provinces, and the provinces into counties.

The Decree on Single Inheritance of 1714 equalized estates and patrimonies and introduced primogeniture (granting the right to inherit real estate to the eldest of the sons), the purpose of which was to ensure the stable growth of noble land ownership.

Household affairs not only did not occupy Tsar Peter, but rather depressed him. His son Alexei showed disagreement with his father's vision of proper government. After his father's threats, Alexey fled to Europe in 1716. Peter, declaring his son a traitor, imprisoned him in a fortress and in 1718 personally sentenced Alexei to death. After these events, suspicion, unpredictability and cruelty settled into the king’s character.

Strengthening its position in the Baltic Sea, Peter I back in 1703, he founded the city of St. Petersburg at the mouth of the Neva River, which turned into a sea trade port designed to serve the needs of all of Russia. By founding this city, Peter “cut a window to Europe.”

In 1720 he wrote the Naval Charter and completed the reform of city government. The Chief Magistrate in the capital (as a collegium) and magistrates in the cities were created.

In 1721, Peter finally concluded the Treaty of Nystad, ending the Northern War. According to the Treaty of Nystad, Russia regained the Novgorod lands near Ladoga that had been torn away from it and acquired Vyborg in Finland and the entire Baltic region with Ravel and Riga. For this victory, Peter I received the title of “Father of the Fatherland, Emperor of All Russia, Peter the Great"Thus, the long process of formation of the Russian Empire was formally completed.

In 1722, a Table of Ranks of all military, civil and court service ranks was published, according to which family nobility could be obtained “for blameless service to the emperor and the state.”

Peter's Persian campaign in 1722–1723 secured the western coast of the Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku for Russia. There at Peter I For the first time in Russian history, permanent diplomatic missions and consulates were established.

In 1724, a decree was issued on the opening of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences with a gymnasium and a university.

In October 1724, Tsar Peter caught a bad cold while rescuing soldiers who were drowning during a flood in the Gulf of Finland. The Tsar died of pneumonia on January 28, 1725, without leaving a will for his heir.

Later Peter I was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The transformations he carried out made Russia a strong, developed, civilized country and brought it into the community of great world powers.

Peter was married twice:

on Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina (1670-1731), from 1689 to 1698, after which she was forcibly sent to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery. She bore Peter I three sons.

Catherine I Alekseevna (1684-1727), nee Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, being the mistress (from 1703) and wife (from 1712) of Peter I, bore him 11 children: 6 daughters and 5 sons.

U Peter I Alekseevich the Great officially there were 14 children:

Alexey (1690 – 1718) – father of the Russian Emperor Peter IIa (1715-1730)

Alexander (1691 – 1692)

Paul (born and died 1693)

Peter (1704 – 1707)

Paul (1705 – 1707)

Catherine (1706 – 1708)

Anna (1708-1728) – mother of the Russian Emperor Peter IIIa (1728-1762)

Elizabeth (1709 – 1761) – Russian Empress (1741-1762)

Natalia (1713 – 1715)

Margaret (1714 – 1715)

Peter (1715 – 1719)

Pavel (born and died in 1717)

Natalia (1718 – 1725)

Peter (1719 – 1723)

Image Peter I Alekseevich the Great was embodied in cinema (“Tsarevich Alexei”, 1918; “Peter the First”, 1938; “Tobacco Captain”, 1972; “The Tale of How Tsar Peter Married the Arab", 1976; “Peter’s Youth”, 1980; “In the Beginning glorious deeds", 1980, "Young Russia", 1982; "Dmitry Kantemir", 1974; "Demidovs", 1983; "Peter the Great" / "Peter the Great", 1985; "Tsarevich Alexei", 1997; "Secrets of palace coups ", 2000; "Prayer for Hetman Mazepa" / "Prayer for Hetman Mazepa", 2001; "Servant of the Sovereigns", 2006).

His extraordinary appearance was captured by artists (A. N. Benois, M. V. Lomonosov, E. E. Lansere, V. I. Surikov, V. A. Serov). Stories and novels about Peter have been written: Tolstoy A. N. “Peter the Great”, A. S. Pushkin “Poltava” and “The Bronze Horseman”, “Arap of Peter the Great”, Merezhkovsky D. S. “Peter and Alexei”, Anatoly Brusnikin - “The Ninth Savior”, Gregory Keyes, “Age of Madness” series.

In memory of the great Tsar, numerous monuments were built in St. Petersburg (“The Bronze Horseman” by E.M. Falcone, 1782; bronze statue of B.K. Rastrelli, 1743, bronze seated sculpture of M.M. Shemyakin in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Kronstadt (F .Jac), the cities of Arkhangelsk, Taganrog, Petrodvorets (M.M. Antokolsky), Tula, Petrozavodsk (I.N. Schroeder and I.A. Monighetti), Moscow (Z. Tsereteli). In 2007, a monument was erected in Astrakhan on the Volga embankment, and in Sochi in 2008. Memorial house museums Peter I Alekseevich were opened in Leningrad, Tallinn, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Vologda, Liepaja. The monument to Peter I in Arkhangelsk is depicted on a modern Bank of Russia ticket on a 500 ruble banknote.

The Academy of Defense Security and Law Enforcement Problems was established Order of Peter the Great.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries and the assessment of historians, the emperor, like many smart, strong-willed, determined, talented people who spared no effort in the name of a cherished goal, was strict not only with himself, but also with others. At times, Tsar Peter was cruel and merciless, he did not take into account the interests and lives of those who were weaker than him. Energetic, purposeful, greedy for new knowledge, Tsar Peter the Great, despite all his contradictions, went down in history as an emperor who managed to radically change the face of Russia and the course of history for many centuries.

The personal life and passions of Peter I were subordinated to the main work of his life. This needs to be said right away. It is enough to recall how, after the birth of the future, but unwanted heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, Peter the politician skillfully and purposefully advertised his conflicts with his son Alexei, how he persistently and consistently acted out the performance of this play and drove his son into a corner, thereby eliminating his grandson. As a result, Alexey fled abroad, was found by Peter’s people, succumbed to persuasion and the promise of his father’s forgiveness, returned home, but was sentenced to execution and either died from torture or was strangled in the ravelin, which received the name of Alekseevsky.

The Tsar, unlike the maniac Ivan the Terrible, killed his son not in a fit of rage, but in cold blood with the hands of others “according to the law,” that is, by the decision of the court he created. And what is very interesting, was almost unanimously acquitted by historians!

So what kind of person was this, talented in everything, in creation and destruction?

Peter's family life - this is an irrefutable fact - was not a safe haven, it seethed with passions and led to the death of many people, although the king sometimes sought home peace. It’s this rare desire for a quiet haven that I want to dwell on. Every person desires spiritual comfort, relaxation, and restoration of strength. If you're lucky, family life gives them, that is, a suitable partner. In this respect, the monarch is the same private person as any of his subjects. And in his choice of loved ones and persecuted, his preferences and rejections manifest themselves.

And here is the time to remember what modern science could say about addictions and aversions, then you can try to describe Peter’s personality in terms of modern psychology and, finally, analyze the events of his personal life.

Retreat into biology

Let's start with marital compatibility. It is not always clear why one and the same person’s marriage falls apart catastrophically quickly, while another turns out to be successful. They say that compatibility is the harmony of feelings. But why does harmony arise? Popular wisdom summarized everyday experience in a good proverb: “It’s not good that’s good, but good that’s good,” as if capturing the primacy of unconditional attraction in the relationship between two people. This gravity lies in the area of the unconscious. This means that it is outside the logic that builds consciousness. Hence, the charm of love only partly consists in simple joy from another, and most importantly lies in the incomprehensible foundations of this joy, those states of love feelings that are not exhausted by any words.

It is also difficult to describe the attitude towards appearance. Everyone is familiar with the enormous interest of parents and relatives of a newborn (women primarily) in who the child is like. This topic is clearly significant for them and often causes disputes and quarrels. It is clear that the main object of the “research” is the child’s face. Well, and, of course, when meeting someone, they evaluate the face. What does this curiosity about faces mean, biologically speaking? As it turns out, he has quite serious reasons.

A person's face reflects a lot. Facial beauty is not only the correctness of features, but also their symmetry. The face of a newborn can also be used to judge the relative dominance of the parents' genes, which is expressed in who the child resembles more. In addition, similarity is an index of possible similarity of characters.

Another important detail for the desired compatibility, which can be detected by facial features, is the proportion of feminine (masculine) features. The Austrian philosopher and scientist of the early twentieth century wrote that there are no pure sexual types; in each person, both men and women, there are different proportions of masculine and feminine principles, which in the extreme case is illustrated by the existence of feminine men and masculine women. In his opinion, the best pairs are formed according to the principle of complementarity.

And the last very important everyday observation, although it is still poorly supported by science. This is the existence of stable human types, “breeds” of people. The philosopher and priest Pavel Florensky, who on his mother’s side comes from the ancient Karabakh family of the Saparovs, recalls how his sister divided all her cousins into pink and yellow, coming from the ancestors of the Saparovs and Paatovs. These types differed in skin color, posture, and demeanor. The pink ones were dominant, and the yellow ones were recessive, the pink ones were practitioners, and the yellow ones were contemplatives, completely according to Plato, said Florensky.

Everyone can add their own impressions to this observation. The fact is that certain sets of qualities that create types of people seem to be very stable over many generations, although from the point of view of genetics this is not easy to explain.

Faces of the Romanovs

Peter was little like his father and his son was little like him. Alexei Mikhailovich had narrow cheekbones, clearly defined brow ridges of a regular semicircular shape, almond-shaped small eyes and a very sharp chin. This face shape could be called a “clover leaf”. Alexei’s daughter from Miloslavskaya, the famous Tsarina Sophia, was very similar to him; by the way, judging by this portrait, she is a very pretty girl, in no way reminiscent of the creepy woman from Repin’s painting. It turns out that Alexei’s genes were quite strong and manifested themselves in this case against the background of Miloslavskaya’s genes.

But they were not stronger than Naryshkina’s genes. Tsar Peter and Princess Natalya, and granddaughters Elizabeth and Anna bear other sets of characteristics. The cheekbones of the “Naryshkin” line are slightly wider, the eyes are more rounded, and the brow ridges are slightly different. In some portraits of Peter there seems to be an “Asian look” - a slightly overhanging crease of the eyelid, epicanthus. Although upon closer examination it is clear that this is a special structure of the “Naryshkin” eyes. Peter’s lips are more tender than his father’s, they are small and thin, “girlish”. The shape of the face is different; it could be called an “alder leaf”. Historians have said more than once that the men in the Romanov family were sickly, and it was Naryshkina who brought renewal of blood. Let's look at her "contribution".

The shapes of Peter’s eyes, brow ridges and nose (illustration 2) are completely maternal, this is especially evident when the portraits are taken from one angle. There is also asymmetry of the eyes: the left eye is both rounder than the right eye, its eyelids are also naturally more rounded, the upper eyelid of the left eye is heavier than that of the right.

It would seem like a complete genetic victory for the Naryshkins! But no, far from a victory. The son and grandson of Peter Alexey Petrovich and Petr Alekseevich (illustration 1) differ from their father and grandfather very noticeably: both have long faces and high foreheads (especially Alexey), their eyes elongated, wide cheekbones, of course, there is no question, brow ridges not at all Peter’s. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is the mother's contribution. For Alexey Petrovich and Elizaveta Petrovna they are different respectively, this is the contribution of Evdokia Lopukhina and Marta Skavronskaya, who after baptism Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Let's take a closer look at the first family.

When looking for mother's traits in a son, one significant difficulty arises. Women's faces are always more rounded than the faces of their close male relatives - fathers, brothers or sons, because women's facial features are softer.

Luckily, there is a portrait of Evdokia, which is clearly unsuccessful, but gives an idea of the shape of her face, which turns out to be very long. Portraits of men from the Lopukhin family could also help, but so far only two have been found, and both are portraits of Evdokia’s great-nephew, the kind Ivan Vladimirovich Lopukhin. On them we again discover the long skull and high forehead of the Lopukhins!

Judging by the same portraits, the Lopukhins’ “blood” was very strong, that is, the genes were dominant. Let's pay attention to other generic features - the shape of the eyebrows, nose, eyes. They are similar for a mother, her son and great-nephew.

Let's look at illustration 2 again. Alexey Petrovich has a “Lopukhin” shape of the nose and eyebrows, they are noticeably different from “Naryshkin”: the arches are steeper, their upper points are shifted from the vertical of the center of the eye to the edge of the face, while in Naryshkina and Peter they are either closer to the nose or are located above the center of the eye; Alexey's nose is less soft than his father's at comparable ages. The prince's eyes are much larger than his father's, almond-shaped, but the asymmetry is obvious! Comparing fragments (4), (1) and (0), we have to talk about the transmission of the generic “Naryshkin” trait. By the way, this sign most likely indicates the similarity of the organization of the brain, that is, the dominance of the hemispheres.

So, speaking in everyday language, it becomes clear that the blood of the Lopukhins turned out to be stronger than the blood of the Romanovs. And if in the language of genetics, then it should be said that among the genes associated with characteristic appearance features, the Lopukhins probably had more dominant ones.

I wonder what is behind the Lopukhins’ genes, where did they come from? According to legend, this family of little nobility and extinct in the 18th century descended from the famous Kosozh prince Rededi, that is, it carried Circassian blood. And this seems quite plausible, because the Lopukhins’ brow ridges “remember” their Caucasian origin.

Such significant figures as the legendary prince themselves were the result of intensive selection and were truly distinguished by something, therefore their offspring for quite a long time bear the features of a characteristic mark, including external ones. In the Russian aristocracy, which included Varangian, Polish, Lithuanian, Tatar and other foreign families, it was not difficult to find bright, interesting faces and, accordingly, interesting, unusual characters - one is connected with the other.

The face and character of Peter the Great

They say you can read a person's character by looking at his face.

Let's be more careful: sometimes we can talk about a family connection between traits and character. The Naryshkins were extremely active. Peter's mother, for example, was power-hungry. After Sophia's removal, she took over the rule of the state, and Peter received full power only after her death. Peter's uncle Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin was an absurd man, always drunk, but also energetic and power-hungry. Even Peter’s love of buffoonery was partly family-based; after Peter, one of the Naryshkins became a famous jester.

It is difficult to say to what extent the generic “Naryshkin” facial asymmetry is related to these character traits. From the age of 20, Peter suffered from a sharp tic, which severely distorted his face in moments of thought and inner excitement. His head was shaking. The fits of rage that visited him were very scary for those around him. What can we say about the incredible drunkenness of the king, into which he dragged all his loved ones. In general, Peter was not a healthy person; in his behavior one can find traits of epileptoidism and mania. But the average, so to speak, normal person is not capable of such a huge activity that Peter carried out, so his actions depend on unusual, unusual character traits, including those that seem pathological. This is, of course, a person with a keen awareness of responsibility and duty, but rather indifferent to the suffering of his subjects.

Characteristic affects of character are also characteristic of Peter. He was undoubtedly very smart, exceptionally capable of science and crafts, and acted, thinking very carefully about the consequences of his steps. But he was not, as they say, a humanist - he was, say, bad at grammar and languages, he did not feel the economic consequences of his actions. His affects were manifested precisely in his incredible passion for his activities, which V. Klyuchevsky described as follows: “Peter I was ready to destroy any order to prevent disorder” and “In order to devastate the fatherland from enemies, Peter devastated it more than any enemy.” If the king loved or did not love someone, then strongly, passionately.

Peter's second family

And now we can move on to Peter’s second family. The picture turns out to be very interesting. And Peter, and his beloved sister, and Peter’s daughters, the cheerful and simple-minded Elizabeth and the meek, clever Anna, and even the grandson are very similar in the shape of their faces to their brother, father and grandfather. Naryshkin’s “blood,” unlike Peter’s first marriage, demonstrates its strength in the second. Catherine’s wide “German” chin, for example, or her brow ridges did not manifest themselves in any way in her offspring.

It turns out that in his first marriage, Peter, who carries dominant blood, came across an over-dominant one - his wife. And something clearly didn’t play a role here - the difference in appearance, characters, which are somehow connected with appearance, the dissimilarity of the sons from their father (Alexei, by the way, had a younger brother Alexander, who died early), this is not completely clear. But Peter strongly disliked his first wife. And he fell in love with the second one very much.

The vicissitudes of Peter's family life

And now we can talk about the details of Peter’s two marriages.

The first marriage took place in January 1689. It was organized by his mother Petra Natalya Kirillovna, according to Kurakin, “a woman of great intelligence.” Peter was not yet 17 years old, and his bride Evdokia Lopukhina was not quite 20. Although she was older than her very young husband, the beginning of the marriage was apparently not bad, and about a year later their son Alexei was born. Then the mother-in-law suddenly strongly disliked her daughter-in-law. One of the main reasons was supposedly a strong influx to the Lopukhins’ court.

Soon after the birth of his second son Alexander, Peter met Anna Mons in the German Settlement, and his family life received a hole that sent it to the bottom. Kostomarov, who, of course, had not seen Anna Mons, nevertheless wrote: “This was a type of woman of easy virtue, possessing an external gloss, that coquetry that seems to be the absence of any coquetry and is capable of charming an ardent person.”

Acquaintance with Mons revealed that the marriage with Evdokia lacks an important dimension - greater biological compatibility of the spouses and the associated greater harmony of feelings, and, probably, that is why acquaintance with a “woman of easy virtue” (let us still put quotation marks to Kostomarov’s words) led to that Peter actually moved to the German settlement.

Evil tongues, however, also speak about Peter’s homosexual inclinations, because he had a favorite, Aleksashka Menshikov, who officially took the position of bed guard, that is, he slept with the tsar. But Aleksashka was terribly envied, so such rumors were simply bound to arise. Franz Lefort was often named as a second partner on the basis of his love of decorating, like a woman, his fingers with rings and his neck with necklaces. The prevalence of “sodomy sin” in Rus', and especially the tolerance towards it, was also known in the West in those days. But Peter, Menshikov, and Lefort had their own families and offspring; at best, we can talk about their bisexuality. But this is also a big, big question.

After meeting Mons, Peter had one desire - to get rid of his wife. Peter always acted very decisively. And already in 1698 he sent her to a monastery. Disappointment spread to the entire Lopukhin breed. Many were executed or tortured.

But the saddest story happened with Tsarevich Alexei, who died in prison, and then was incredibly defamed by historians.

But we won’t stop there. Let's just say that Peter's son did not look like his father, but like his grandfather Alexei Mikhailovich, after whom, in fact, he was named.

It turns out that Peter, who demanded from his son that he break himself and become like him, at the same time broke a character that was surprisingly similar to the character of his father, the prince’s grandfather, and, as follows from the surviving facts, he broke it with amazing cruelty, persistence and recklessness. He broke and then destroyed a talented, educated, meek and pious man.

Studying this story, we have to note: something is wrong in Peter’s attitude towards his son, something is very alarming. A father doesn't love his son - it happens. But in the same way, the great reformer and famous connoisseur of talent was not happy with the success of his grandson, son Alexei, the future Peter II, who also showed rare abilities in childhood. Moreover, the Prussian envoy to Russia Mardefeld reported to his government that “Peter deliberately does not care about the upbringing of his grandson, making it clear to them that he does not want this child to ever ascend to the throne” (quote: Kostomarov. “Autocratic Youth” ).

At the same time, Peter passionately loves his children from Catherine. In the literature you can find information that Peter allegedly wanted to leave the throne to his daughter Anna, a very smart girl; this, by the way, can be seen from her portrait.

But the portraits of Tsarevich Alexei also make a strong impression. High forehead, big eyes, hidden thought in them. What is he thinking about? This can probably be understood at least partly. The story brings to mind Hamlet. How not to betray the memory of your mother and grandfather? Enter into a fight with your father, the titan of will and evil? No matter how hard it is, no matter how scary, the struggle happens. The interrogation sheets preserved the cry of the soul of Alexei, exhausted from torture: “The Tsarevich declared with unusual fortitude for him that he wanted to call not only the entire Russian Empire to revolt. He also said that if the tsar wanted to kill all the supporters of his prince, he would have to destroy all of Russia. He loves the old customs and religion of Russians. Therefore, he won the hearts of all the people.”

Tsarevich Alexei’s love for the baptized Finnish or Estonian Efrosinya Fedorova, who was captured during the war with Sweden, also makes a strong impression. Euphrosyne was literate, knew several languages, could intelligently judge various subjects, and had a charming low voice. The prince spoiled her and “loved her more than life.” In Peter's decree on the prince's abdication of the inheritance, Euphrosyne was called “some kind of idle and hard-working girl.” An interesting definition if you remember that Peter’s wife, Empress Catherine, came to Russia the same way, but she was illiterate and did not understand anything.

Several details should be added to Peter’s general description of his relationship with his wife, son and grandson. Peter's ability to choose his employees and find the right people is well known. There was something physiological in his choice; Peter felt not only that this man had the necessary abilities, but also felt a certain kinship of souls with him. Conversely, those whom he did not trust, no matter what their abilities, had little opportunity to change this opinion. Actually, there was something physiological in the rejection of the Lopukhins’ blood - well, Peter could not change his antipathy and break himself!

That is, in the story with the prince, you can take a psychological point of view: I didn’t like my wife and had to remove her along with all her relatives and even her son and grandson (Kostomarov analyzed this point of view). Behind these events is a physical (most likely biological) incompatibility, which affects relationships not only with his wife, but with all people like her, and the fact that Peter himself is a person of the type for whom this difference is of great importance. And this position can be documented with portraits of the participants in the family drama and an analysis of the psychology of the conflict.

Like every volitional creation, this play has its own epilogue, because history is not subject to the will of an individual. Beloved as a child and as the future heir to the throne, Pyotr Petrovich, whose family name is Shishechka and for whose sake the blood of an unloved son was shed, in the fall of 1718 still cannot speak or walk (this is at three years old!), and in the spring of 1719 he dies. Peter had no luck with the children from Catherine after Elizabeth and Anna: all five died at an early age. Historians are discussing the possible unpleasant illness of the king.

The beloved, busty and unusually affectionate wife of the royal husband, Catherine, was caught in a love affair with the chamberlain Willem Mons in 1725; she was 41 years old at that time, and her husband was often away. Monsolubism, as it turns out, was characteristic not only of Peter, but also of his psychologically close wife - what a deep similarity of tastes! The chamberlain was executed on charges of bribery.

After the death of Peter, who in the last minutes wrote “Give everything up” on the slate board, but did not finish the inscription, a small bacchanalia of power began - the successors of Peter’s work took over his despotism. The Empress left matters to Menshikov and began to drink so uncontrollably that she died two years later. Detail of her life: On April 1, 1726, St. Petersburg was awakened in the night by the alarm. Fire? No, the empress was joking; she couldn’t miss her favorite holiday. Meanwhile, the coffin with the body of her husband still stood in the Peter and Paul Cathedral

Peter II, who grew up without the influence and upbringing of his mother, father and grandfather, also did not please the country with anything special, although he saved it from the greatest embezzler of its entire history, the persecutor of his father, Aleksashka Menshikov. Well, then the daughter of Peter’s feeble-minded brother Ivan, his niece Anna, healthy as a grenadier and brought up as if in a barracks, came to power, and arranged for herself a huge holiday lasting 10 years! Then in high society it became fashionable to kill relatives in order to correct the mistakes of their characters; this was a lesson from Peter. Finally, somehow everything “settled down”, although how much time was wasted!

Was it worth Peter to harass his smart son? Were these really the heirs of his business? But it turns out that they were. They just continued some of his habits.

And many years later it became clear that the monarchy magnifies the merits and demerits of an individual person, as if under a microscope, and dramatizes the consequences of seemingly completely private steps, including the choice of a life partner.

The future emperor was born on May 30 (June 9), 1672 in Moscow.
Peter's father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, received the nickname Quietest from his subjects during his lifetime for his meek disposition. He already had 13 children from his first marriage to Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya, most of whom died in infancy.
For his mother, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, Peter was the first-born and most beloved child, “the light of Petrushenka” throughout her life.
1676 - Peter lost his father. After the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, the fierce struggle for power waged by the Naryshkin and Miloslavsky families intensified. Four-year-old Peter has not yet laid claim to the throne occupied by his older brother, Fyodor Alekseevich. The latter supervised the education of Peter, and later appointed clerk Nikita Zotov as his teacher.
1682 - Fyodor Alekseevich dies. Peter is crowned king together with his brother Ivan, so the two noble families hoped to come to a compromise and share the sweetness among themselves. But Peter is still small - he is only ten years old, and Ivan is simply sick and weak. So, in fact, power in the country passed to their common sister, Princess Sophia.
After Sophia actually usurped power, her mother took Peter near Moscow, to the village of Preobrazhenskoye. There he spent the rest of his childhood. The future emperor studied mathematics, military and naval affairs at Preobrazhenskoe, and often visited the German settlement. For military fun, Peter was recruited from two “amusing” regiments from the boyar children, Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky. Gradually, a circle of trusted persons formed around Peter, among whom was Menshikov, loyal to the Tsar until the end of his life.
1689 - Peter I marries. The boyar's daughter, the girl Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, became the tsar's chosen one. In many ways, the marriage was concluded to please the mother, who wanted to show political competitors that Tsar Peter was already old enough to take power into his own hands.
The same year there is a Streltsy revolt, provoked by Princess Sophia. Peter manages to remove his sister from the throne. The princess is sent to the Novodevichy Convent.
1689 - 1694 - the country is ruled on behalf of Peter by his mother, Natalya Naryshkina.
1696 - Tsar Ivan dies. Peter becomes the sole ruler of Russia. Supporters and relatives of his mother help him in ruling. The autocrat spends most of his time in Preobrazhenskoe, organizing “amusing” fights, or in the German Settlement, gradually becoming saturated with European ideas.
1695 – 1696 – Peter I undertakes the Azov campaigns. Their goal was to provide Russia with access to the sea and secure the southern borders, where the Turks ruled. The first campaign was unsuccessful, and Peter realized that the only way to win for Russia was to bring the fleet to Azov. The fleet was urgently built in Voronezh, and the autocrat took personal part in the construction. In 1696 Azov was taken.
1697 - The Tsar understands that in technical terms and naval affairs Russia is still far from Europe. On the initiative of Peter, the first Grand Embassy headed by Franz Lefort, F.A. is sent to Holland. Golovin and P.B. Voznitsyn. The embassy consists mainly of young boyars. Peter travels to Holland incognito, under the name of the sailor Peter Mikhailov.
In Holland, Petr Mikhailov not only studied shipbuilding for four months, but also worked on a ship in Saardam. Then the Embassy goes to England, where Peter studied naval affairs in Dapford. At the same time, the Embassy participants conducted secret negotiations on the creation of an anti-Turkish coalition, but with little success - European states were afraid to get involved with Russia.
1698 - having learned about the Streletsky riot in Moscow, Peter returns. The uprising was suppressed with unprecedented cruelty.
Upon returning from the Embassy, Peter begins his famous reforms. First of all, a decree was issued requiring the boyars to shave their beards and dress in a European manner. For his unprecedented demands, many begin to consider Peter the Antichrist. Transformations in all spheres of life, from the political structure to the church, occur throughout the life of the king.
Then, having returned from the Embassy, Peter separated from his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina (sent to a monastery) and married the captive Latvian Marta Skavronskaya, who received the name Ekaterina at baptism. From his first marriage, the Tsar has a son, Alexei.
1700 - Peter realizes that the only exit to Europe for Russia is through the Baltic Sea. But the Baltic is ruled by the Swedes, led by the king and talented commander Charles XII. The king refuses to sell the Baltic lands to Russia. Realizing the inevitability of war, Peter uses a trick - he unites against Sweden with Denmark, Norway and Saxony.
1700 - 1721 - The Northern War was waged throughout almost the entire life of Peter, then dying out, then resuming again. The main land battle of that war was the Battle of Poltava (1709), which was won by the Russians. Charles XII is invited to celebrate the victory, and Peter raises the first glass to him, as to his main enemy. The first naval victory was the victory in the Battle of Gangut in 1714. The Russians retook Finland.
1703 - Peter decides to build a city on the banks of the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland for strategic purposes.
1710 - Turkey declares war on Russia, in which Russia, already waging battles in the north, loses.
1712 - Peter moves the capital to the Neva, to St. Petersburg. It is impossible to say that the city was built, but the foundations of the infrastructure were laid, and this seemed enough to the king.
1713 – The Treaty of Adrianople is signed, according to which Russia renounces Azov in favor of Turkey.
1714 - Peter sends a research expedition to Central Asia.
1715 - an expedition to the Caspian Sea is sent.
1717 - another expedition, this time to Khiva.
1718 - in the Peter and Paul Fortress, under circumstances that have not yet been clarified, Peter’s son from his first marriage, Alexei, dies. There is a version that the order to kill the heir was issued personally by the autocrat, suspecting him of treason.
September 10, 1721 – The Treaty of Nystad was signed, marking the end of the Northern War. In November of the same year, Peter I was proclaimed Emperor of All Russia.
1723 - in exchange for military support, the Persian khans give Russia the eastern and southern territories of the Caspian Sea.
1724 - Peter I declares his wife Catherine empress. Most likely, this was done for one purpose - Peter wanted to bequeath the throne to her. Peter had no male heirs after Alexei's death. Catherine bore him several children, but only two daughters, Anna and Elizabeth, survived.
Autumn 1724 - a shipwreck occurs in the Gulf of Finland. The emperor, who witnessed the incident, rushes into the icy water to save the drowning people. The matter ended with a severe cold - Peter’s body, undermined by inhuman stress, could not withstand the autumn swim.
On January 28 (February 8), 1725, Emperor Peter I dies in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress.