Peter The Great

Peter was an outstanding Russian tzar and the first Emperor (after the victory over Sweden Russia officially became an Empire and a Great Power). He traveled to Europe just before the war with Sweden and visited Vienna, Amsterdam, and London. Peter was travelling incognito – he really wanted to escape all the official ceremonies. As he was absent for over half a year the country was ruled by his deputy. His travels were crazy for the Russian mentality at that time; Europeans were considered heretics and it was impossible for a Russian tzar to leave the country and go there. Further on, a majority of society was suspicious about Europe and didn’t really like it. People believed that their tsar went insane. But Peter was madly in love with European culture, lifestyle, and he admired the technology and progress. He wanted to bring all of it to Russia. Cutting beards, smoking tobacco (people in Russia thought it was evil with the smoke coming out of the nose), coffee, European costumes, education - everything! Peter never got a systematic education himself, but he was studying all his life. In Amsterdam he worked as a carpenter and learned as much as he could about shipbuilding. He was even a dentist! In Kunstkamera (the first Russian museum, founded by Peter) you can find the teeth of boyars that Peter pulled out himself! Lots of Europeans were hired to come to Russia (architects, engineers, military officers, scientists etc). His reforms touched all aspects of life in Russia: military, economy, and culture. During 30 years at the throne he changed and turned upside down many things! A new capital, new status as an Empire, new schools and fabrics, he invented passports, a new military system, built one of the strongest fleets in Europe, he changed the Russian calendar, holidays, introduced fireworks and fountains, oversaw new rules for how people should get married, dressed, celebrate the New Year…

One more unbelievable story about him - his second wife, Catherine, was a Latvian peasant washergirl who was captured among others by the Russian army and later became a Russian Empress After Peter’s death in 1725 she took the throne but died 2 years later. Just imagine, a peasant girl became a Russian tzarine! Peter’s time literally turned everything upside down!

However, The rest of the 18th century was the epoch of palace revolutions and Russia went through a great number of rulers who were brought to the throne by different groups of nobility. Most of them were women and children.
It was not until the reign of Catherine the Great that Russia proved itself as a great European power.