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The territory ruled by the Romanov dynasty was often called " Muscovy" in Western Europe until well into the eighteenth century. Before the proclamation of the Russian Empire in 1721, before 1713 the state was referred to in its official documents as "Rusia" (17th c. Russian Русія) or "Rosia" (17th c. Russian Росія, apparently under influence of Greek Ρωσια), a longer form of the traditional East Slavic name Rus' (Русь). While the Russian population itself has always considered "Rus" to be a name for their country and nation, modern Ukrainian commentators and certain scholars outside Russia have disputed the accuracy of this self-identification. The modern spelling Россия (with s doubled) was in official use after about 1713 (if the pre-1918 distinction between и and і is disregarded).
War dominated much of Peter's reign. At first Peter attempted to secure the state's southern borders against the TatarThe term Tatar may refer to A member of the Tatars Tatar language Native people of Tatarstan. See also: Crimea, Turkic peoples, Turkic languages, Tatar invasions.s and the Ottoman TurksThe Ottoman Turks were the ethnic subdivision of the Turkic people who dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were first known to the west in 1227, when they fled the Mongol Empire into the Seljuk Empire in what is now called Anato. His campaign against a fort on the Sea of AzovThe Sea of Azov Azovskoye More is a northern section of the Black Sea, linked to the larger body through the Kerch Strait. It is bounded on the north by Ukraine, on the east by Russia and on the west by the Crimean peninsula. To the west also lie the 110 failed initially, but after embarking on the construction of a navy, Peter was able to take the port of AzovAzov (city) is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia Sea of Azov is a northern section of the Black Sea Castle of Azov was a fortified city controlled by Crimean Khanate, and later by Ottoman Empire. in 1696The year 1696 had the earliest equinoxes and solstices for 400 years in the Gregorian calendar, because this year is a leap year and the Gregorian calendar would have behaved like the Julian calendar since March 1500 had it have been in use that long.. To continue the war with the Ottoman EmpireOsmanlı İmparatorluğu Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye The Ottoman Coat of Arms Imperial motto: unknown The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople) Sovereigns Sultans, Peter traveled to Europe to seek allies. The first tsar to make such a trip, Peter visited BrandenburgSurrounding but excluding the national capital Berlin, Brandenburg is one of Germany's sixteen Bundeslander (federal states). Lying in the east of the country, it is one of the new states created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany a, the NetherlandsDutch redirects here. For other uses, see Dutch (disambiguation). The Netherlands ( Dutch: Nederland is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a constitutional monarchy. It is located in northwestern Europe and borders the North Sea, Belgium, England, and the Holy Roman Empire during his so-called Grand Embassy . Peter learned a great deal and enlisted into his service hundreds of West European technical specialists. The embassy was cut short by the attempt to place Sofia on the throne instead of Peter, a revolt that was crushed by Peter's followers. As a result, Peter had hundreds of the participants tortured and killed, and he publicly displayed their bodies as a warning to others.
Peter was unsuccessful in forging a European coalition against the Ottoman Empire, but during his travels he found interest in waging war against Sweden, then an important power in northern Europe. Seeing an opportunity to break through to the Baltic Sea, Peter made peace with the Ottoman Empire in 1700 and then attacked the Swedes at their port of Narva on the Gulf of Finland. However, Sweden's young king, Charles XII, proved his military acumen by crushing Peter's army. Fortunately for Peter, Charles did not follow up his victory with a counteroffensive, becoming embroiled instead in a series of wars over the Polish throne. This respite allowed Peter to build a new, Western-style army. When the armies of the two leaders met again at the town of Poltava in 1709, Peter defeated Charles. When Charles escaped to Ottoman territory, Peter again went to war with the Ottoman Empire. The tsar agreed to return the port of Azov to the Ottomans in 1711. The Great Northern War, which in essence was settled at Poltava, continued until 1721, when Sweden agreed to the Treaty of Nystad. The treaty allowed the conquered Baltic territories to be retained: Livonia, Estonia, and Ingria. Through his victories and territorial expansion, Peter acquired a direct link with Western Europe. Later, in celebration, Peter assumed the title of emperor as well as tsar: the Russian Empire was proclaimed in 1721.
Peter achieved Russia's expansion and its transformation into the Russian Empire through several major initiatives. He established Russia's naval forces, reorganized the army according to European models, streamlined the government, and mobilized Russia's financial and human resources. Under Peter, the army drafted soldiers for lifetime terms from the taxpaying population, and it drew officers from the nobility and required them to give lifelong service in either the military or civilian administration. In 1722 Peter introduced the Table of Ranks, which determined a person's position and status according to service to the tsar rather than to birth or seniority. Even commoners who achieved a certain level on the table were ennobled automatically.
Peter's reorganization of the government structure was no less thorough. He replaced the prikaz y with collegies or boards and created a senate to coordinate government policy. Peter's reform of local government was less successful, but his changes enabled local governments to collect taxes and maintain order. As part of the government reform, the Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure. Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced it with a collective body, the Holy Synod, led by a lay government official.
Peter tripled the revenues of the state treasury through a variety of taxes. He levied a capitation, or poll tax, on all males except clergy and nobles and imposed a myriad of indirect taxes on alcohol, salt, and even beards. To provide uniforms and weapons for the military, Peter developed metallurgical and textile industries using serf labor. Peter wanted to equip Russia with modern technology, institutions, and ideas. He required Western-style education for all male nobles, introduced so-called cipher schools to teach the alphabet and basic arithmetic, established a printing house, and funded the Russian Academy of Science, which was established just before his death in 1725 and became one of Russia's most important cultural institutions. He recommended that many Russians acquire the clothing, tastes of art, and customs of the West. The result was a deepening of the cultural rift between the nobility and the mass of Russian people. The best illustration of Peter's support for "Westernization", his break with old traditions, and his coercive methods was his construction in 1703 of a new, architecturally Western capital, St. Petersburg, situated on land newly conquered from Sweden on the Gulf of Finland. Although St. Petersburg faced westward, its "Westernization" was by coercion, and it could not arouse the individualistic spirit that was an important element in the Western ways Peter so admired.
Peter's reign raised questions about Russia's "backwardness", its relationship to the West, the appropriateness of reform from above, and other fundamental problems that have confronted many of Russia's subsequent rulers. In the nineteenth century, Russians debated whether Peter was correct in opening Russia to the West or whether his reforms had been a violation of Russia's natural traditions.
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