Peter the Great

Peter I (Pyotr I Alekseyevich, ˈpjɵtr ɐljɪˈksjejɪvjɪtɕ; –), commonly known as Peter the Great, was Tsar of all Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, Peter was an absolute monarch who remained the ultimate authority. His methods were often harsh and autocratic. Through a number of successful wars, he captured ports at Azov and the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy, ending uncontested Swedish supremacy in the Baltic, and beginning Russia's expansion into an empire. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernized, and based on radical Enlightenment. In 1700, he introduced the Gregorian calendar but the Russian Orthodox Church was particularly resistant to this change; they wanted to maintain its distinct identity and avoid appearing influenced by Catholic practices. In 1703, he introduced the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, ordered the civil script, designed by himself and became the main contributor. In May 1703, he founded the city of Saint Petersburg on the shore of the Neva as a "window to the West". Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712. He promoted higher education and the industrialization in the Russian Empire. Peter had a great interest in plants, animals and minerals, in malformed creatures or exceptions to the law of nature for his cabinet of curiosities. He encouraged research of deformities, all along trying to debunk the superstitious fear of monsters. The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Saint Petersburg State University were founded in 1724, a year before his death. Peter is primarily credited with the modernization of the country, transforming it into a major European power.