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and sacrifice of life in building a great city which might be a center
of commerce and a bond of connection between Russia and the
western world. He named his new city St. Peters-
burg 1 and to it he transferred his government from
Moscow. Russia supplanted Sweden in the leadership of the
Baltic and assumed a place among the Powers of Europe.
Peter the Great did not realize his other ambition of secur-
ing a Russian port on the Black Sea. Although he captured
and held Azov for a time, he was obliged to relinquish it, as we
have seen, in order to prevent the Turks from joining hands
with Charles XII.

Petrogard

Nevertheless, when Peter died in 1725, he left his empire
a compact state, well-organized, and well-administered, west-
ernized at least superficially, and ready to play a con-
spicuous rôle in the international politics of Europe.
The man who succeeded in doing all these things has
been variously estimated. By some he has been represented
as a monster of cruelty and a murderer, 2 by others as a demon of
the grossest sensuality, by still others as a great national hero.
Probably he merited all such opinions. But, above all, he was
a genius of fierce energy and will, who toiled always for what he
considered to be the welfare of his country.

Character
of Peter
the Great


CATHERINE THE GREAT: THE DEFEAT OF TURKEY
AND THE DISMEMBERMENT OF POLAND

It is hardly possible to feel much respect for the character
of the Russian rulers who succeeded Peter the Great in the
eighteenth century. Most of them were women with loose
morals and ugly manners. But they had little to fear from
Sweden, which, utterly exhausted, was now on a steady decline;
and domestic difficulties both in Poland and in Turkey removed
any apprehension of attacks from those countries. In policies

____________________
1 Known generally in the Teutonic form "St. Petersburg" from its foundation
until the War of the Nations in 1914, when the Slavic form of "Petrograd"
was substituted.
2 Peter had his son and heir, the Grand Duke Alexius, put to death because he
did not sympathize with his reforms. The tsar's other punishments often as-
sumed a most revolting and disgusting character.

-379-

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: A Political and Social History of Modern Europe. Volume: 1. Contributors: Carlton J. H. Hayes - author. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1916. Page Number: 379.
    
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