Essay, Research Paper: Peter The Great

Spencer Tiehen
05/11/00
World History-6
Summary
Peter The Great
In 1682, Sophia Romanov sent her palace guards to get rid of her heirs and other conflicts with her reign. Luckily, her two brothers 16 year old Ivan, and 10 year old Peter escaped with there step-mother. Later on, Sophia declared that both Peter and Ivan are the czars of Russia. In 1689, Sophia lost the mobility of her legs. She had her guards, once again try and kill Peter. The guards, realizing that Peter was in communication with the Gods, didn t touch Peter for they feared the wrath of God would get them. Peter instantly had Sophia banished to a tower outside the city of Moscow. Soon after, Peter married, and had an heir to the throne.
Eight million people lived in Russia. Ninety-five percent of all of the population consisted of serfs, the merchants, nobles, and elite only populated five percent of Russia. The elite, like the serfs, were not very well educated at all. Timmerman, a knowledgeable man from Germany, taught and showed Peter all of the nautical instruments need to navigate a ship. Peter became very interested in nautical things. Peter soon left Russia and plundered Europe for knowledge, inventions, and great minds to bring back to Russia. His voyage ended in the rich and luxurious city of Amsterdam. Peter began to study Holland s ships and navy, and hired ship builders to go home with him, and help him prepare a sea power. Peter, wanting to really learn how to build a ship, signed on as a carpenter to hide his true identity, because he wanted to work without that being a distraction. After 4 months, Peter had built a ship of his own, called the Peter and Mary. Soon enough, he sailed out to distant countries to borrow plans for astronomical tools, mints, cannons, and weapons. During his voyage, Peter s palace guards had started a revolt in Moscow. Peter rushed back and saw 1800 servants in chains. He knew there was more behind this revolt than just bad ruling. He had every one of his guards interrogated 6 days a week, but found no new evidence. In the end, Peter had hung 1200 men.
The day Peter returned from his voyage, he went to the church about the way Russian men must crop their beards. Peter saw in Europe, that everyone had their beards very short and maintained. Instantly, Peter cut all of his general s and servant s beards. If they refused, he made them pay a tax and wear a gold medallion saying they have paid it.
At the age of 28, peter had finally built a navy fleet and army. He chose to try out the Swedish army, for they had a port on the Baltic Sea he had his eyes on. Peter s army gets crushed, and he returns to Russia to rebuild his army. Once in Russia again, Peter realizes he has no natural materials to rebuild the weapons out of, so he has the bells off of the churches melted down and made into cannon balls. In 1701, Charles of Sweden pursued his conquering north towards Poland. Peter, hearing this, takes advantage of it and goes to the Swedish port. Peter takes over the land and destroys the army protecting it. With this new land, Peter began the construction of St. Petersburg. The expense for the development of this city was immense, and Peter had all of the materials imported. Hearing of Charles return to take over the land and pilgrimage the villages for food, Peter scorches all of the outer lying villages. In 1709, Peter goes after Russia once and for all, Peter destroys Charles s army and sends him riding to Turkey on a borrowed horse from the Russian Army.
Peter and his heir and son, Alexis don t have a real relationship. Peter tells Alexis that he shall either become fit for the position of ruling Russia, or become a monk in his monastery. Disliking both of these choices, Alexis flees to nearby countries. Guards find Alexis in Italy and take him back to St. Petersburg and the wrath of Peter. Peter takes Alexis away has him tried for treason and tortured. Soon after Alexis dies. Peter continues to glorify St. Petersburg s beauty and puts Russia on the map as a world power. In 1723, Peter is struck down with a bladder infection but survives. A few years after, while at sea, Peter catches a cold and dies after jumping in the ocean to save a few sailors that had fallen overboard. Peter was the greatest thing Russia had ever seen.
I think this movie was actually pretty good. It had a lot of info packed into the twenty some minutes it was. I had never really learned much about the rise of Russia, and this movie really helped me understand how it all came to be. I liked the go get it attitude of Peter and this movie really does a good job of pointing this out, by showing his every move to glorify Russia. I would like to see more of these shorter, detailed movies in the future.