Peter the Great

Peter the Great, the Tsar of Russia from 1682-1725 was a hero for the Russian people. He fought to make the country bigger and improve trade, made huge changes in the social and economic structures of Russia, and expanded the Russian military strength into a much larger power.
Peter the Great spent two years trying to capture territory near Turkey called Azov. He did this for two different reasons. The first was to strengthen alliances in Europe against Turkey because of religious tensions. The second was to approach the Black Sea, which was a key location for Peter to anchor Russia’s military power, and his new foreign policies. After the second try, he captured Azov. He also spent many months in Western Europe learning from each of the countries about their cultures and technologies. Through taking Azov, Peter started a project to expand Russia’s power into Europe, because up until then the country had been cut off from most of the European culture. By doing this, Peter the Great improved life for the Russian people by adding protection and international connections, and improved the way the people worked, making the industries better.
When Peter the Great took power, he completely changed the social structure to clean up the broken government. He gave power to each city and an elected official was responsible for control of each one. These cities answered to the districts, who answered to one of the 50 provinces that he created. In the end, every level of government was responsible to him. This change let the small businesses that had already been set up in each of the towns to do better, and this change made the economy better in each city because it meant that any person could go to any town and register to do business there. This made it possible for any person in Russia to legally trade goods. Peter the Great instituted a lot of new education policies, like bringing European books to Russia so they could be translated, and creating a newspaper. He also created a college, the Russian Academy of Sciences. Peter the Great was also responsible for bringing European society and culture to Russia by making rules about how the people dressed. Peter took a Russia that was stuck in the Dark Ages, and brought it up into the modern times. He completely re did the government and economic systems to make it easier for Russia to trade, and he made it easier for his own people to make money. Peter the Great made the lives of the people of Russia better by making their country stronger on the inside so it could present itself better on the outside.
Peter the Great was a very military kind of person, and he planned a lot of wars to make his country better. During the Azov Campaign, he created a navy which was made bigger later on after the Northern War. Part of his travelling in Europe was to study the militaries of different countries, and he tried to make alliances with armies so he could expand into Turkey and finally take the Black Sea. In the end, Peter didn’t make any alliances, and did not make his country as big as he wanted to. But his work with the military gave the Russians a full navy that they didn’t have before, and made them more intimidating by making their army stronger.
Even though Peter the Great may not be known as the best ruler Russia has ever had, he is the one who gave them a lot of what they have now, by starting a navy and expanding their land. Peter the Great is a hero for the Russian people because he stood for making their lives better in what he did while he was the Tsar.