His greatest achievement would be in the founding of St Petersburg itself, a beautiful city full of history and prosperity. Peter the Great, one way or another, ruled over Russia for forty two years.

Peter the Great Fact Sheet: Who was Peter the Great? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times and history of Peter the Great.

Peter the Great Fact File Biography: Lifespan: *** Full Name: Peter Alexeyevich *** Nickname: Peter the Great *** Occupation: Emperor of All Russia *** Date of Birth: Peter the Great was born on June 9th 1672 *** Place of Birth: Peter the Great was born in Moscow, Tsardom of Russia *** Family background: His father was Alexis Mikhailovich and the Tsar of Russia and his mother was Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina of noble birth *** Early life and childhood: He grew up in Russia *** Education: Peter the Great’s education was, on the instructions of his father, carried out by several tutors, Patrick Gordon, Paul Menesius and Nikita Zotov ***

Peter the Great Fact 1: Peter the Great was born on June 9th 1672 and during the 17th century period in history when Europeans began to colonize the America’s in earnest, the Ming Dynasty began to collapse, in the Near East, the Persian, Ottoman and Mughal empires were on the rise and many innovations were being made in science, medicine, technology and industry.

Peter the Great Fact 2: When Peter was only four years old his father died and the throne went to his older half brother Feodor III although he was a sickly and weak youth, he only ruled for six years and then most of the time Artamon Matveen, a friend of Feodor’s, largely ran the government.

Peter the Great Fact 3: When Feodor died the decision as to who should take the throne next was taken by the Boyar Duma which was a council of noble Russians. Their decision was that Peter should become the next Tsar with his mother Natalya acting as regent.

Peter the Great Fact 4: A daughter from his father’s first marriage took exception to this decision and led a rebellion in which Peter was to witness the deaths of various family members as well as friends.

Peter the Great Fact 5: It would mean ultimately that Sophia insisted that both Peter and Ivan be joint rulers and that she would become the ruler as an autocrat and she would sit being the two tsars and overhear conversations and prompt Peter with replies.

Peter the Great Fact 6: As Peter grew older he began to plot to wrest the power from his older half-sister which he did eventually successfully but would maintain a joint leadership with Ivan V and his mother still had her hands fully on the resigns also until she died in 1694 and although he shared the throne equally with Ivan he too died in 1696 leaving Peter as sole ruler.

Peter the Great Fact 7: With full power finally in his own hands he took immediate steps to modernize Russia largely influenced by Western European advisors. His greatest wish was to make Russia one of the great powers of the seas.

Peter the Great Fact 8: Although he faced many obstacles and various uprising, which he put down, he put into place social modernizations such as insisting the only style of clothing to be worn was that of western and French, beards were to be removed and taxes imposed on those who refused to comply.

Peter the Great Fact 9: In order to attain his dream of having greater rule of the oceans he needed to acquire further outlets. Although the task was a mammoth one, his first attempt against the Ottoman Sultan failed. He withdrew and gathered larger forces in order to accomplish his dream. His next attempt was successful and he would successfully found the first Russian Navy base in September of 1698.

Peter the Great Fact 10: As part of his plan to modernize his country he traveled Europe incognito and visited various rulers and kings across Europe, speaking to them and taking notes on their building of cities as well as ships and armies.

Peter the Great Fact 11: To further his Russian Naval dream he sought a truce with the Ottoman Empire in order to declare war on Sweden in a bid to regain control of the Baltic Sea. Their first attempt ended in disaster although he did found the city of Saint Petersburg a province in the Swedish empire and which he intended to make it Russia’s capital city.

Peter the Great Fact 12: Having little success against the Swedish in 1710 he initiated the Russo-Turkish war but again was unsuccessful.

Peter the Great Fact 13: By 1718 however when King Charles XII of Sweden died was peace finally a reality.

Peter the Great Fact 14: Post war with Sweden found Peter continuing his reforms for Russia and he was also proclaimed Emperor of All Russia. Although countries geographically closer to Russia acknowledge his title of Emperor there were those that saw the title emperor as superior or pre-eminent over kings.

Peter the Great Fact 15: Another of his reforms was within the Russia’s ranking system where you were ranked by birth but what Peter instigated was a new order of precedence which became known as the Table of Ranks whereby birth no longer held merit but service to the Emperor did.

Peter the Great Fact 16: To assist with raising money to make further improvements in Saint Petersburg he did away with taxes on land and household and instead introduced a poll tax which unlike previous taxes paid by land and property owners was now paid by paupers and serfs.

Peter the Great Fact 17: Although he had never had particularly good health he began suffering bladder and urinary tract problems.

Peter the Great Fact 18: Peter the Great died on February the 8th 1725 aged fifty two years. He had reigned for forty two years. His body was laid to rest in a tomb in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg.

Influence & Legacy: His lasting legacy is of the founding of St Petersburg as the capital city of Russia. He was also responsible for modernizing the country that he loved.