Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/115

Rh 1619-1722.] RUSSIA 97 Ivan and Peter were declared joint-sovereigns, and Sophia was to be Peter, regent during their minority. She appointed Vasilii Golitzin to be commander-in-chief of the forces. He marched against the Mongols of the Crimea, but owing to the length of the journey and sufferings of the troops was able to effect but little. In 1689 Peter married Eudokia Lopukhina ; but the union was by no means a happy one. Two sons were born to Peter, Alexander and Alexis; the first lived six months only, the latter survived to make a sad figure in Eussian history. Next we have another revolt of the streltzi, said to have been instigated by Sophia and Golitzin. It is even alleged that the object of this conspiracy was to put Peter to death. His cause, however, prevailed, and the rebels were punished with great severity. Golitzin's life was spared, but all his property was taken from him. Sophia was now permanently incarcerated in a convent under the name of Susanna, where she remained till her death fifteen years afterwards, at the age of forty-six. Thus from 1689 dates ster the the actual rule of Peter. His brother Ivan, infirm both in his faculties both of sight and speech are said to have been very imperfect. He took a wife, however, and had three daughters, concerning one of whom, at least, we have much more to hear. Ivan led a retired life, and died in 1696 at the age of thirty. Want of space compels us to deal here only with the leading facts of the reign of Peter the Great (1689-1725) ; for more minute details the reader must consult the special article (vol. xviii. p. 698). The great object of the new czar was to give Russia ports in some other direction than the White Sea, constantly blocked with ice. He had already trained an army which was officered by foreigners in his pay. The Turks were the first objects of his attack. At first he was unsuccessful in his attempt to get possession of Azoff at the mouth of the Don, partly on account of the treason of the Dutch engineer Jansen, who, in consequence of some slight put upon him, went over to the enemy. In 1696, however, he took the fort and soon afterwards made his triumphant entry into Moscow. In the following year Peter, accompanied by Lefort and Generals Golovin and Vosnitzin, set out on his travels. For some time he worked at the docks of Saardam in Holland, and then he went to England, where he remained three months. The story of his stay at Deptford is too well known to need descrip- tion here. He left England, taking with him a great number of ingenious men, who were appointed to teach the arts to the barbarous Russians. He was getting ready to go to Venice when he heard of the great revolt of the streltzi. Before his arrival their insurrection had been quelled by Gordon and others, and many of them lay in prison await- ing the sentences to be given by Peter. When he reached Moscow, a series of terrible executions took place, which have been described with only too much accuracy by some eyewitnesses, the chief being Korb, the secretary of the German embassy. In 1706 broke out the revolt of the Cossacks of the Don, and in 1709 that of Mazeppa, the hetman of the Little-Russian Cossacks, who eagerly joined Charles XII. in his struggle with Peter. As early as 1700 the Russian czar had carried on war with this last of the vikings, as he had been called. In that year Charles defeated Peter at the battle of Narva, but the latter, although humbled, was not disheartened. He gathered all his strength for another encounter. In the following year Sheremetreff defeated the Swedish general Schlippenbach in Livonia, and again in 1702. The great object of Peter was to gain possession of the Neva ; this he attained, but the Russian arms were disgraced by many cruelties and robberies in the unfortunate Baltic provinces, which had already suffered so much in the wars of Ivan the Terrible. Charles XII. now abandoned his attacks on the Polish king and invaded Russia. " I will treat with the czar at Moscow," he said. Peter replied, "My brother Charles wishes to play the part of Alexander, but he will not find me Darius." At Lesna the Swedish general Lowenhaupt fought a desperate battle with the Russians, in which, although nominally victorious, his losses were terrible. On June 15 (N.S.) was fought the battle of Poltava, which resulted in the complete defeat of Charles. He had brought it on by his recklessness, and, it may be added, complete ignorance of his duties as a general. With the fall of Mazeppa and the coalition of the Little Russians in aid of Charles fell also the independence of the Cossacks and their seek or republic. They now became entirely dependent upon the Muscovite czar. The hetmanship, which had long been a mere empty title, lasted till the year 1789. In 1712 Peter married Martha Skavronska, a Livonian or Lithuanian peasant who had been taken prisoner at the siege of Marienburg in 1702. But little is known of her previous history ; she received the name of Catherine on being baptized as a member of the Greek Church. Peter had previously divorced his wife Eudokia, who was distasteful to him on account of her sympathies with the conservative party in Russia. He now set about his great plan of civilizing the country on the model of the nations of the West. In this he was assisted by many foreigners in his pay. He abolished the patriarchate, probably from dislike of its great power, based nobility entirely upon service either civil or military, and divided the merchants into guilds, but left serfdom still existing in Russia, or perhaps we may say with truth even augmented it, by doing away with the privileges which the odnodvortzi and polovniJci had and confounding all in a common category of serfdom. His attempt to introduce primogeniture into Russia did not succeed. He put an end to the Orisntal seclusion of women and the Oriental dress of men ; for the beard and long caftan were sub- stituted the cleanly-shaved face and the dress in vogue in the West. He abolished also the pravezhe or public flagellation of defaulting debtors. The army was com- pletely remodelled on the European system. During the exile of Charles XII. at Bender Peter drove Stanis- laus Leszczynski out of Poland, and Augustus II. re- entered Warsaw. Peter conquered Esthonia and Livonia. He was not able to annex Courland, which was a feudatory of Poland, but he negotiated a marriage between the duke and his niece Anna, daughter of the late czar Ivan, who was afterwards empress. A foolish expedition undertaken against Turkey was not successful. Peter found himself but ill-supported by the inhabitants through whose territory he marched, and was compelled to sign the treaty of the Pruth in 1711, whereby he gave back Azoff, one of his most valuable conquests, to the Turks. The story of his having been rescued by the dexterity of Catherine seems to lack confirmation ; under any circum- stances, he shortly afterwards acknowledged her as his wife. In May 17.13 Peter gained some fresh victories over the Swedes. In 1717 he made another European tour, visiting, among other places, Paris. On this occasion he was accompanied by his wife ; concerning both strange stories were told, but perhaps we must be cautious how we receive too credulously, as Carlyle has done, the malicious gossip of the margravine of Baireuth. In 1721, by the treaty of Nystad with Sweden, Peter was left master of Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, and part of Finland. He had begun building St Petersburg, "the window by which Russia looks" at Europe, as early as 1703. In 1722 we find Peter descending the Volga from Nijni to Astrakhan, and gaining some important points on that river. Previous to this had occurred the sad death XXI. - 13
 * body and mind, had but little share in the government ;