Peter the Great: A True Revolutionary

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Peter the Great: A True Revolutionary

Words you think of when you think of Russia throughout history: unmodernized, backward, retrogressive, archaic, medieval, dank and slovenly etc. I could go on, but I digress, the picture has been set. Russia hasn’t exactly been the picturesque empire, if that, that so many believe it could have or should have been. Being one of the physically largest country in the world during almost all of its 1500 + year existence(Liversidge 2), Russia is also denoted as being one of histories most notoriously hapless underachiever, with a few moments of illumination followed inevitably by years of “two steps back”. This can only be attributed to the, well nothing short of ‘colorful’ Tsars mother Russia has seen.

One of the most vivacious leaders ever to grace the throne was Peter the Great. Long before he proclaimed himself “The Great”, baby Peter was born to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and his second wife Nataliya Naryshkina on June 9 1672 in Moscow (Liversidge 2). Being the fourteenth child of Alexis, Peter wasn’t destined for much to start. He was ascended to the throne at age ten, however, due to his sick and invalid siblings; eventually his brother and Feodor died childless in 1682, leaving ten year old Peter and his imbecile brother Ivan to compete for the throne. Peter won out, and was sent from his childhood home at the country estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin (the Russian White House).

No sooner was he established, however, than Ivan’s family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The outcome of the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan placed under the regency of Ivan's elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia. Never the less, Peter regained his title at age 17 after Sophia’s failed plot to murder the opposing heir, and sentenced her to life to a convent cell. He kept his brother Ivan as a figure head on the thrown though to deal with frivolous court traditions, while he kept sole power of Russia and learned many skills soon to be utilized in his sovereignty .

Standing at over 6 foot 8 inches tall(World History, 136), Peter was a big strong man and such was reflected in his legacy.

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