Peter I of Russia

Peter I of Russia or Peter I Alexéevich, nicknamed Peter the Great (Russian: Пётр I, Пётр Великий, Пётр Алексéевич; Moscow, May 30^Jul./ June 9, 1672^greg.- Saint Petersburg, January 28^Jul./ February 8, 1725^greg.), was one one of the most outstanding rulers in the history of Russia, belonging to the Romanov dynasty.

He ruled Russia from May 7 (April 27 C.J.), 1682, until his death, and before 1696 he ruled with his weak and infirm brother, Ivan V of Russia. He carried out a process of modernization through westernization and expansion that transformed Muscovite Russia into one of the major European powers. He married Eudoxia Lopujiná, with whom he had a son and, in his second marriage, with his servant, who would take the title of Catherine I when he succeeded Pedro after his death in Saint Petersburg on February 8, 1725 as a result of an infection. in the bladder.

Biography

Early years and accession to the throne

Peter was the son of Tsar Alexios I (Aleksei Mikhailovich) and the Tatar boyar Natalia Narýshkina, the tsar's second wife, who had five children. The children from Tsar Alexios I's first marriage to Maria Miloslavskaya—Theodore III (Fyodor Alekseevich), Ivan V (Ivan Alexeyevich), and Sophia (tsarevna Sophia Alexeyevna)—were alive when Peter was born. Alexios I died in 1676 and was succeeded by the eldest of his surviving sons, Theodore III.

Pedro was described as a newborn as "in good health, his mother's vaguely Tatar black eyes, and a lock of auburn hair"

When Fyodor Alexeyevich died without issue at the age of 20, a dispute arose over the throne. Ivan was officially next in line, but he did not have the skills to take over. The Council of Boyars (Russian nobles) chose Peter, who was 10 years old at the time, to become Tsar with his widowed mother exercising the regency. However, the tsarevna Sofía Alekséievna, led a rebellion of the Streltsi (Russian elite military corps). In the conflict, many of Pedro's relatives and friends were killed, to the point that Pedro even witnessed the carnage that a crowd of people provoked in one of his uncles. It is possible that this memory produced some trauma.

Arrival from Ivan V and Peter I to the coronation ceremony of the latter. Lithography of Iliá Repin.

The uprising allowed Sofia, Ivan's sister and Peter's half-sister, and her allies to insist that Peter and Ivan be jointly proclaimed tsars, with Ivan being the older tsar of the two. Sofia acted as regent during their minority. A hole was cut in the back of the double throne, through which Sofia listened to Pedro converse with the nobles and passed information to him to answer questions and problems. The throne can be seen in the Kremlin museum in Moscow. For seven years, Sofia ruled as an autocrat.

A few years followed in which the education of Pedro I was abandoned. He spent his childhood in gross debauchery, amusing himself with gangs of urchins; However, driven by curiosity, he frequented the foreigners' quarter of Moscow and there he was able to observe Western progress and thus came into contact with European merchants, with whom he trained militarily and politically.

For a long time, historians have portrayed Sofia as an envious, Machiavellian woman who would do whatever it takes to seize power. Pedro I himself associated Sofia with the dark forces of the opposition, forgetting that in the seven years of his regency neither Pedro nor his mother were threatened or received any harm.

La zarevna Sofia Alekséievna during his detention at the Novodévichi Monastery. Picture of Iliá Repin.

Peter, meanwhile, was not particularly concerned that others would rule in his name. He embarked on navigation and shipbuilding during those times. The ships he built were used in simulated battles. His mother, on the other hand, sought to force him to adopt a more conventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopujiná in 1689. The marriage was a complete failure, and ten years later Pedro forced her to take the habit and thereby freed himself from the marriage.

In the summer of 1689, Peter planned to retake power from Sophia, whose position had been weakened by the two failed Crimean campaigns. When she found out about her, Sofia began to conspire with the Streltsi. Unfortunately for her, Pedro, tipped off by the Streltsi, escaped in the middle of the night to the impenetrable Troitsky Monastery, where he gradually attracted his supporters and others who thought he could win the power struggle. Sofía was deposed, with Pedro I and Iván V still acting as cozares. Pedro forced Sofía to seclude herself in a convent, where she was forced to leave her name and position as a member of the royal family.

Meanwhile, Peter could not acquire full control over Russian affairs. Power was exercised by his mother, Natalia Narýshkina, and it was not until her death in 1694 that Pedro achieved true independence. Formally, Iván V continued to be co-regent with Pedro, although he did not act as such. Peter became the sole ruler upon Ivan's death in 1696.

Pedro grew to be almost a giant. He literally stood a head and shoulders above his Russian and European contemporaries. However, his height was almost certainly a genetic defect. Pedro did not have the usual proportion of a man of that height. His hands and feet were very small and his shoulders surprisingly narrow for his height. Likewise, his head was too small for his body. Added to this were his notable facial tics and, according to surviving descriptions, the fact that he almost certainly suffered from epileptic episodes. Therefore, he presented the image of a very big man, but not very healthy.

Filipo Baltari, a young Italian who visited Peter's court, wrote:

The Tsar Peter was tall and thin, not robust. His hair was strong, short and dark brown; he had large eyes with long eyelashes and a well-formed mouth, although the lower lip was slightly disfigured. For his great height his feet seemed very narrow. His head was often cast to the right by seizures.

Artist Valeri Serov left us another description of Pedro:

It was scary: long, in small thin legs of wire, and with the head so small in relation to the rest of his body that it seemed more of some kind of doll than a living person. He suffered from a constant tic and was always making muecas: peeling his eyes, fruncing his mouth and nose and moving the jaw.

Otherwise, few contemporaries both in Russia and abroad commented on Peter's height or appearance.

Beginning of his reign

Peter pushed through a series of reforms called the Peter the Great Reforms, seeking to modernize Russia. Strongly influenced by his Western advisers, Peter reorganized the Russian army according to the European standards of the day, and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He encountered strong internal opposition to his policies, but brutally put down all forms of rebellion against his authority: the rebellion of the Streltsi, the Bashkirs, the Astrakhans, and even the great civil revolt in his kingdom, the Bulavin rebellion.

To improve the Russian nation's position at sea, Peter sought to gain more access to the sea. At that time he only had access to the White Sea through the city of Archangel. The Baltic Sea was at that time controlled by Sweden in the north, while the Black Sea was dominated by the Ottoman Empire in the south. Peter wanted to control the Black Sea, but to do so he had to drive the Tatars out of the underlying areas. He was forced, by an agreement with Poland ceding kyiv to Russia, to fight the Crimean Khan and his superior, the Ottoman Sultan. Pedro's first objective was to capture the Ottoman fortresses of Azov, near the Don River. In the summer of 1695 Peter organized the Azov campaigns to take the fortresses, but his attempts failed. Pedro returned to Moscow in November of that year, and soon began the construction of a large navy. He sent some thirty ships against the Ottomans in 1696, capturing Azov in July of that year. On September 12, 1698, Peter the Great officially founded the first Russian naval base, Taganrog.

Statue dedicated to Pedro el Grande in Taganrog.

Peter knew that Russia could not take on the Ottoman Empire on its own. In 1697 he traveled to Europe incognito with a large Russian delegation (the so-called Grand Embassy ) to enlist the aid of the European monarchs. However, Peter's hopes were dashed: France was a traditional ally of the Ottoman sultan, and Austria was keen to keep the peace in the east while dealing with its wars in the west. Pedro, in addition, had chosen the most inopportune moment, since the Europeans were involved in the succession of King Carlos II in the War of the Spanish Succession.

The "Grand Embassy", although it failed in its mission to create an alliance against the Ottomans, continued its journey through Europe. He visited England, the Holy Roman Empire, and France, and Pedro learned a lot about Western culture. He studied shipbuilding at Deptford, Amsterdam and Zaandam, and artillery at Königsberg. Through the mediation of Nicolaes Witsen, the mayor of Amsterdam, the tsar had the opportunity to gain practical experience in one of the largest private shipyards in the world, belonging to the Dutch East India Company, for a period of four months. During his visit, the tsar met many skilled workers: The best known of those who later made the journey to Russia was Cornelius Cruys, a vice admiral who became the tsar's most important adviser on maritime affairs.

On his return from his trip, Pedro also ended his unhappy marriage. He divorced the tsarina, Eudoxia Lopujiná. The Tsarina had borne Peter three children, though only one, Alexis Petrovich, had survived past infancy.

In 1698, Peter sent a delegation to Malta under the command of Boris Sheremetev to observe the training and skills of the Knights of the Order of Malta and their fleet. The envoy also investigated the possibility of joint action in the future, including some action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base.

Caricature of the seventeenth century, on the tax of carrying the beard.

Peter's visits to the west left him with the idea that European customs were in some ways superior to Russian traditions. He ordered all the members of his court and his officers to cut off their long beards, which caused the boyars, who were very proud of their beards, to raise strong objections to the measure. Boyars who wanted to keep their beards would have to pay an annual tax of one hundred rubles. In 1699, Peter also abolished the traditional Russian calendar, where the year began on September 1, in favor of the Julian calendar, which begins on January 1. The years were traditionally counted from the moment the world was believed to have been created, but after Peter's reforms they began to be counted from the birth of Christ. Russia switched to the Julian calendar while the rest of Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar. Russia would maintain the Julian calendar until the October Revolution of 1917.

He allowed women to stop covering their faces and to socialize. To understand the backwardness of the Russians at that time, it is enough to mention that Peter the Great imposed on the boyars (nobles) the reading of a book that taught the most elementary rules of education, among them, not to use the tip of the knife to clean their neither the teeth nor the index finger to do the same with the nose. In addition, in imitation of the Europeans, he favored public education and created the first higher institutes, such as the Polytechnic School and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He stimulated the printing of texts and in 1703 the first Russian newspaper appeared (the translation of its title was as follows: News of military events and other events worth remembering ).

The Great Northern War

Peter made peace with the Ottoman Empire and turned his attention to achieving Russian maritime supremacy. He sought control of the Baltic Sea, which had been seized by Sweden half a century earlier. Peter declared war on Sweden, which was then under the reign of Charles XII. Sweden was also faced by Denmark, Norway, Saxony and the Republic of the Two Nations.

Russia proved unprepared to fight the Swedes, and its first attempt to ravage the Baltic coast ended in disaster at the Battle of Narva in 1700. In the conflict, Charles XII's forces used a storm to their advantage. of snow that prevented the vision of the Russians. After the battle, the Swedish king decided to concentrate his forces against the Republic of Two Nations, giving Peter I time to reorganize the Russian army.

While those sides were fighting, Peter founded the great city of St. Petersburg (named after St. Peter) on Ingria (which had recaptured the Swedes) in 1703. He forbade the construction of stone buildings outside St. Petersburg, which he hoped would to become the Russian capital, so that all the stone builders would participate in the construction of the new city. He also chose Marta Skavronskaya (future Catherine I of Russia) as his companion. Marta converted to Orthodox Christianity and took the name Yekaterina, Catalina in Spanish, apparently marrying Pedro in secret in 1707.

After a series of defeats, the Polish King Augustus II abdicated in 1706. Charles XII turned his attention to Russia, invading it in 1708. After crossing Russia, Charles XII defeated Peter at the Battle of Holowczyn in July. At the Battle of Lesnaya, however, Charles XII suffered his first defeat when Peter crushed a group of Swedish reinforcements marching from Riga. Seeing himself deprived of this help, Carlos XII had to abandon his march towards Moscow.

Pedro I in the Battle of Poltava (mosaic of Mikhail Lomonosov).

Charles XII refused to retreat to Poland or Sweden, and instead invaded the Ukraine. Pedro withdrew the army from him to the south, destroying any property that the Swedes could use to support his advance. Without local supplies, the Swedes had to halt the advance in the winter of 1708-1709. In the summer of 1709 they continued their efforts to conquer the Ukraine, culminating in the Battle of Poltava on June 27. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Swedish forces, ending Charles XII's campaign in the Ukraine and forcing him into exile in the Ottoman Empire. In Poland, Augustus II was restored to the throne.

Peter attacked the Ottomans in 1711. Normally, the Boyar Duma would have held power in his absence, but Peter did not trust the boyars: he abolished the Duma and created the ten-member Ruling Senate. The campaign against the Ottoman Empire was disastrous: To achieve a peace treaty, Peter was forced to return the Black Sea ports he had captured in 1697. In exchange, the sultan expelled Charles XII from his territory.

Russian armies from the north seized the Swedish province of Livonia (the northern half of present-day Latvia and the southern half of present-day Estonia), pushing the Swedes into Finland. Much of Finland was occupied by the Russians in 1714. The tsar's navy was so powerful that the Russians could penetrate Sweden. Peter also obtained the help of Hanover and the Kingdom of Prussia. However, Charles XII refused the surrender, and it was not until his death in battle in 1718 that a peace agreement could be reached. Sweden made peace with all forces except Russia in 1720. In 1721, the Treaty of Nystad officially ended the Great Northern War. Russia acquired Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and a substantial part of Karelia. In exchange, Russia paid two million riksdaler (Swedish currency) and ceded most of Finland. The tsar was, however, able to retain some Finnish land near Saint Petersburg, which he had made the capital in 1712.

Last years and death

The Bronze Rider (the equestrian celebration of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg).

The last years of Pedro I were marked by new reforms in Russia. On October 22, 1721, shortly after peace was signed with Sweden, he was proclaimed Emperor of All Russia . Some proposed that he take the title Emperor of the East, but he refused. Gavriil Golovkin, state chancellor, was the first to add "the Great, Father of the Fatherland, Emperor of All Russia" to Peter's traditional title, Tsar, following a speech by the Archbishop of Pskov in 1721.

Peter's imperial title was recognized by Augustus II of Poland, Frederick William I of Prussia, and Frederick I of Sweden, but not by other European monarchs. In the minds of many, the word emperor had the connotation of superiority or pre-eminence over "mere" kings. Several rulers feared that Peter would claim authority over them, just as the Holy Roman Emperor had previously claimed over all Christian nations.

Peter also reformed the government of the Russian Orthodox Church. The traditional leader of this was the Patriarch of Moscow. In 1700, when the position became vacant, Peter refused to name a successor, allowing the vice-patriarch to carry on the duties of the position. Twenty-one years later, in 1721, Peter followed the advice of Feofan Prokopovich and instituted the Most Holy Ruling Synod: a council of ten clergymen who would take the place of the patriarch and vice-patriarch. The institution of the Patriarchate was restored in 1918 when the Soviet government separated the State Church.

In 1722, Pedro created a new hierarchy that he embodied in the so-called Table of Ranks. Before, pre-eminence was determined by birth, but as a measure to deprive the boyars of their positions, Peter determined that the hierarchical position would be determined by merit and service to the emperor. The Table of Ranks remained in force until the Russian monarchy was deposed in 1917 during the February Revolution.

Peter also introduced new taxes to finance improvements in St. Petersburg. He abolished the land and house tax, and replaced it with a head tax (an equal amount for all citizens). Taxes on land or homes were only paid by property owners, while the latter were paid by everyone.

In 1724, Peter had his second wife, Catherine, crowned empress (although he retained all power). All of Peter's male children were dead: the eldest, Alexios Petrovich, had been tortured on Peter's orders in 1718 for disobeying his father and opposing official policies. His mother, Eudoxia, had also been punished. She was dragged out of her house and charged with false charges of adultery. However, upon learning of the betrayal of her lover Anna Mons, Pedro was less severe of her, condemning her to a brief house arrest in 1704.

In 1725, construction was completed on Peterhof Palace (German for 'Peter's Court') near St. Petersburg. It was a grand residence that became known as the Russian Palace of Versailles.

Pedro I on his deathbed. Iván Nikítin picture.

In the winter of 1723, Peter, who had never been in robust health, began to have problems with his urinary system and bladder. In the summer of 1724, a team of doctors carried out an operation in which the urine blocked in it was emptied. Pedro stayed in bed until late autumn. In the first week of October, restless and sure that he was already cured, Pedro embarked on an inspection tour of a series of projects. According to the accounts, it was in November when, on an inspection tour in the Gulf of Finland, Pedro saw a group of drowning soldiers off the coast and waded into the water to rescue them.

It is said that this immersion in the icy water worsened Peter's bladder problems and caused his death on January 28, 1725. The story, however, has been viewed with skepticism by several historians, who point out that the German chronicler Jacob von Stählin is the only source for the story, and it seems unlikely that anyone else would have documented such an act of heroism. This and the lengthy time interval between action and death seem to rule out any direct coincidence. However, the story may contain, in part, some truth.

In early January 1725, Peter again suffered from uremia. Legend has it that before falling unconscious he asked for a pen and paper and began to write a letter that he did not finish that read "I bequeath everything to..." and that, exhausted by the effort, he asked that his daughter Anna was brought before him, as recounted in a text by the German Count Henning Friedrich von Bassewitz. Russian historian Evgenij Viktorovič Anisimov commented that Bassewitz's goal was to convince readers that Anna, and not Empress Yekaterina, was heiress that Peter had chosen.

Pedro died between four and five in the morning on January 28—February 8 according to the Julian calendar—1725. An autopsy revealed that his bladder was gangrenous. He was 52 years and seven months old when he died, after a reign of forty-two years.

There was great shock in Russia and Europe at the news of Peter's death, though grief (at least genuine) was almost certainly not present. In the words of the Russian historian Pierre Kovalevsky:

We could always be excited about Peter's actions and not yet outline his fullness, brilliance and courage of everything he got. But by creating, he destroyed. It caused pain to all who came into contact with. He destroyed the security, peace, prosperity, interests, strength, well-being, rights and dignity of everyone he touched. He did nasty things to everyone. He hurt everyone. He touched intellectual, political, social, financial, family, moral and spiritual interests. Is it possible to love a politician like that? No way. Those men are hated..

Peter the Great and the Old Believers

In the days of Tsar Alexios I, father of Peter the Great, Patriarch Nikon saw fit to order the faithful to shave and cross themselves with three fingers, causing great scandal among them. A group of traditionalist faithful, designated as raskolniki (or Old Believers), rebelled against Nikon, considering it sacrilege to change even the slightest detail of the Old Russian liturgy. Many notable Old Believers preferred to suffer martyrdom or imprisonment rather than submit to signing the cross with three fingers, or other horrors considered "popish."

Then, it would not be strange if the raskolniki, opposed to the Russian Orthodox Church and no less to their State, made common cause with the enemies of the tsar. In the rebellion of Stenka Razin, unleashed not so much against the tsar as against the boyars who surrounded him, they participated in a direct fight against them when he besieged the Solovki monastery for seven years, which he finally treacherously conquered in 1676. It is not surprising that from then on, they would designate the tsar and his empire, as the Antichrist and his domain. They withdrew more and more from the life of the State, physically and spiritually separating themselves as much as possible from its influence and that of its officials. Often, to escape capture, they willingly threw themselves into the flames. They considered such excess an escape into a better world.

The Morozova boyarda. Vasili Surikov Oil, 1887.

In 1675, two Russian nobles, the boyar Feodosia Morózova and her sister, Princess Yevdokíya Urúsova, due to their inalienable ties to the old faith, preferred to die of hunger, among filth and misery, in an underground prison. In 1682, the leaders of the “Old Believers” sect were burned alive in Pustozersk, where they had been kept for a long time in underground prisons. At the stake, the raskolniki shouted to their executioners: "We are burning with earthly fire, but you will burn in eternal fire."

Hopes of ending them were futile. The Old Believers led all the malcontents. This happened at the beginning of the regency of Sofia, Pedro's half-sister, when together with the Streltsí, the low people imposed themselves with looting and homicides in Moscow, and penetrated the Kremlin. Popular anger was directed especially against the Naryshkin family, Pedro's relatives and his friends. The Old Believers estimated not only to be able to elevate Ivan V and Sophia to the throne, but also to restore the old faith.

For the second time, then, now with the cross and the images of saints, they entered the Kremlin led by Nikita Pustosviat. His joy was short-lived. A few days later Pustosviat was executed in the square in front of the Kremlin. Also the head of the Streltsí, Prince Jovanski, paid with death. Since then the path of the Streltsi has diverged from that of the Old Believers. Small wonder then, that they judged the end of the world imminent, and were more likely than before to see an "Antichrist" on any of his adversaries.

Peter the Great began to rule at the age of 17. Until 1694, the year of his mother's death, Peter lived in peace with the Orthodox patriarch, and under his influence. Things changed when in 1696, after the death of his half-brother and his partner on the throne, Ivan V, he was able to proceed of his own free will. Patriarch Adriano tried in vain to convince the tsar not to make a trip to Europe, finally undertaken by Pedro between 1697/1698. Part of the population, among them the Old Believers, abhorred such a trip, judging it a mistake or an absurdity.

Streltsi execution after the failed rebellion of 1698. Vasili Surikov Oil, 1881.

In Russia there was a new revolt of the Streltsi. Peter must have rushed back from Vienna. Although they had already been defeated and judged, Peter had them recondemned with much more serious penalties than those he witnessed in person. The patriarch in vain pleaded for mercy. Pedro threw him out harshly, as Ivan IV the Terrible had done with the patriarch on duty. He was determined to undertake the modernization and Europeanization of a Russia too closed in its traditions.

In 1705, Pedro required all men to shave their beards and dress in western fashion. The Old Believers kept his beard, calling him Peter Belzebulovich, that is, "Peter, son of the devil."

The Russian Orthodox Church was to suffer greatly from the Tsar. Patriarch Hadrian, a closed-minded man, was not the right man to defend the Russian Orthodox Church against the tsar. The monks had been responsible for the hostility with which the people took Peter's reforms. In addition, the corruption of the Russian clergy had reached such a point that there was often the spectacle of drunken priests who, instead of liturgical chants, sang obscene songs in the church. The monasteries served as asylum for thugs, and orgies were organized in them.

Peter reduced the number of monasteries and monks, confiscated their property and maintained rigorous surveillance of the communities. He converted most of the monasteries into hospitals and shelters for the indigent, nursing homes for the elderly and invalids, or schools. He wanted to bring down the power of the Russian Orthodox Church, as Patriarch Nikon once fought, whose early reforms must be included in the “Europeanization” of Russia. Peter deprived the Russian Orthodox Church, the main adversary of his reforms, of its own independence by suppressing the institution of the Patriarchate and substituting it for the state-run Most Holy Ruling Synod.

Stephen Yavorski, the metropolitan bishop appointed guardian of the Patriarchal Throne after the death of Patriarch Hadrian, supported the tsar against the Old Believers. Even, confronting his idea of the near end of the world, he wrote a pamphlet: “Signa adventus Antichristi et finis mundi”.

In 1722, Peter ordered all bearded Old Believers to pay a special tax and wear a particular habit, but the bloody persecutions were definitely over.

Offspring

With his first wife, Eudoxia Lopujiná, he had three children:

• Alexis Petróvich (1690-1718), married to Carlota Cristina de Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, was descended.

• Aleksandr Petróvich (1691-1692), died young.

• Pablo Petróvich (1693)

By his second wife Catherine I of Russia, he had eleven children, all of whom died in infancy, except Anne and Elizabeth.

• Pedro Petróvich (1704-1707), died in childhood.

• Pablo Petróvich (1705-1707), died in childhood.

• Catalina Petrovna (1707-1708), died in childhood.

• Ana Petrovna (1708-1728), married to Carlos Federico de Holstein-Gottorp and mother of Tsar Peter III of Russia.

• Isabel I of Russia (1709-1762), Empress and autocrat of All Russia. Married with Alekséi Razumovski, no offspring.

• Natalia Maria Petrovna (1713-1715), died in childhood.

• Margarita Petrovna (1714-1715), died in childhood.

• Pedro Petróvich (1715-1719), died in childhood.

• Pablo Petróvich (1717-1717), died in childhood

• Natalia Petrovna (1718-1725), died at age 6.

• Pedro Petróvich (1723-1723), died in childhood.

• Pablo Petróvich (1724-1724), died in childhood.

Bibliography and further reading

• Amman, A. M., S.J., Storia della Chiesa Russa e dei paesi limitrofiTorino, 1948.
• Bergier, Abate, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Theology, Volume 8, Madrid, 1833.
• Frigerio, José Oscar, Prophecies and Fears of the End of the Millennium, History, No. 79, Buenos Aires, September-November, 2000.
• Grimberg, Carl, Universal History, No. 28 and 29, Editorial Abril, Chile, 1987.
• Saba, A., Storia della ChiesaRome, 1935.
• Massie, Robert K. Peter the Great: His Life and World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980 (hardcover, ISBN 0-394-50032-6); New York: Ballantine Books, 1981 (paperback, ISBN 0-345-29806-3); 1986 (paperback, ISBN 0-345-33619-4); New York: Wings Books, 1991 (hardcover, ISBN 0-517-06483-11); London: Weidenfeld, 200112 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Peter I.
• Hughes, Lindsey. Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 1998 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-07539-1; paperback, ISBN 0-300-08266-5)
• Hughes, Lindsey. Peter the Great: A Biography. New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2002 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-09426-4); 2004 (paperback, ISBN 0-300-10300-X).
• Peter the Great and the West: New Perspectives (Studies in Russian and Eastern European History), edited by Lindsey Hughes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 (hardcover, ISBN 0-333-92009-0).
• Troyat, Henri. Peter the Great. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987 (hardcover, ISBN 0-525-24547-2).

Movie adaptations

• Slugá Gosudárev (2007), on the battle of Poltava.
• UNESCO -18- Peter the big one. (2005)
• Tsarévich Alekséi (1996)
• Peter the Great (1986) (mini)
• V nachale slávnyj del (1981)
• Yúnost Petrá (1980)
• Piotr pervi (1937-1938)
• Peter der Große (1922)
• Piotr Veliki (1910)