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Peter I, known as Peter the Great, b. June 9 (N.S.), 1672, d. Feb. 8 (N.S.), 1725, tsar of Russia (1682-1725) and the first Russian emperor (from 1721), was an unusually powerful and prepossessing ruler; his military achievements and westernizing reforms of the Russian government, army, and society laid the foundation of the modern Russian state.

The youngest son of Tsar Alexis by a second marriage, Peter was not expected to rule and so avoided the customary ritual and secluded upbringing of the royal family. He associated with and learned from foreigners, especially Dutch, in the foreign quarter of Moscow where European merchants and representatives resided. After Alexis's death (1676) Fyodor III, Peter's half brother, became tsar. Fyodor died in 1682, however, and Peter became co-tsar with his half brother Ivan V, under the regency of his half sister, Sofia. Peter gained effective control of the government in 1689 in a plot engineered by his mother, Natalya Naryskin. And he also arrested her half sister (Sofia) in convent. During the early years of his rule Peter learned the arts of war and sailing in skirmishes (1695, 1696) against the Turks at Azov on the Black Sea. After becoming sole tsar on Ivan's death (1696), he traveled (1697-98) to Europe (Brandenburg, Dutch, Britain, Austria) -- the first journey of its kind for a Russian ruler-to examine the latest technical advances and to recruit engineering and military experts for his service.

Peter began his reign in earnest in 1700, when he joined a European alliance that initiated the Great Northern war (1700-21) against Sweden. He hoped to annex territories along the Baltic coast and thereby open warm-water ports to give Russia a "window to the west." Charles XII of Sweden defeated Peter at the Baltic city of Narva in 1700, but he didn't give up and tried to defeat Charles Sweden army many times, and finally he defeated Sweden army in Pultava (1709) in the Ukraine. Pultava was the scene of a great Russian victory, and the Peace of Nystadt, signed in 1721, gave Russia its new Baltic coastline and proclaimed Peter as emperor of all the Russians.

The Great Northern War required Peter to reorganize his empire in order to prepare it for a major European conflict. He needed troops for his army, necessitating a census and a system of conscription, which in turn required experts to train and arm the new soldiers. Peter needed artillery, which meant mines to be explored, transport to be arranged, and forges to be built and run by Western experts. He needed a fleet for the Baltic and the Black seas, which required special training for Muscovites who had not sailed before. The resources of Russian society had to be harnessed to the state's military effort. The nobles, previously uneducated and attached to their distant lands, were required to attend schools and to devote their lives to civil or military service. The Guards Regiments, aristocratic units that were the core of Peter's army, became especially powerful. Peter also coerced the Russian Orthodox church into service to the state, refusing to replace the patriarch in 1701, making the church a part of government administration through the creation of a Holy Synod controlled by the tsar, and organizing the huge material resources of the church for the government's use.

Peter's heavy emphasis on military and technical development also accelerated the commercial life of Russia, especially through its new Baltic ports, and hastened the growth of manufacturing through state-created and -supervised companies. Peter disbanded Strelts from army (killed them all). Strelts were like Janizarys for Ottoman Army (captured children from other cities/states for state's army). Strelts were fanatic troops and they were against every new plans/changes in politic and they usually murdered every reformist nobles (and Tsars).

Peter's desire to strengthen Russia also speeded the trend toward the secularization and modernization of culture. Peter built a new city and capital, St. Petersburg, on the Baltic lands taken from Sweden. He intended the city to be a symbol of the new Russia, free of outmoded traditions. Peter promoted secular education, prohibited men under 30 from becoming monks, encouraged Western dress, modernized the calendar and alphabet, and edited the first Russian newspaper. Peter's attempt to arrange the succession to the throne, however, met with difficulties. After his death his second wife ruled, ineffectually, as Catherine I and was followed by his sickly grandson Peter II (r. 1727-30). After Peter the succession was determined by a series of coups d'etat.