Peter the Great

Reign: 1721 – 1725
Life: 1672–1725

He was known as Peter the Great. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. Peter, as an autocrat, organized a well-ordered police state. His Azov campaigns were followed by the foundation of the Russian Navy; after his victory in the Great Northern War, Russia annexed a significant portion of the eastern Baltic coastline and was officially raised from a tsardom to an empire. Peter 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 the radical Enlightenment. In December 1699, he introduced the Julian calendar, and in 1703, he introduced the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, and ordered the civil script, a reform of Russian orthography largely designed by himself.

During Peter the Great's reign, Frederick William I of Prussia ruled Prussia, Louis XV of France ruled France, and John V of Portugal ruled Portugal.

Further reading: Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie

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The World During Their Reign

The most notable rulers who held power elsewhere at the same time, from European courts to Ottoman, Mughal, and Chinese thrones.

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Peter the Great

The World During Their Reign

Meanwhile in history

Further Reading

Peter the Great: His Life and World

Russia in the Age of Peter the Great