Who Was Peter The Great?

Peter the Great was born on June 9th, 1672 in Moscow, Russia. He was the Tsar of Russia in the late 17th century.Most people know him for turning Russia into a great nation with many aggressive Domestic reforms. There is controversy over whether or not he was actually “Great”. Peter deserves "the Great" after his name because his actions, though extreme, helped developed Russia into a world power. Peter the Great deserved his name because he brought Western ideas to Russia, he gained land for Russia through battle and made many Domestic reforms. Peter the Great brought many western Ideas to Russia that he thought would make Russia a national power. Peter changed Russia into a technologically and scientifically focused country, this is what a lot of the western countries were focusing on at this time. In Russia at this time it was religious for boyars, to have a beard and not to shave. In the west, not many people had beards, so Peter had the idea that every boyar had to cut off their beard, or he will do it for them. A Boyar is a
person that is a class under the King, and they were his consultants. He enforced this rule strictly and if he saw someone that had a beard, he would cut it off with a blade. At this time, there was no shaving cream or nice razor blades so they would cut the skin from the chin a lot of the time when trying to shave their beards. He also forced the Boyars to change the way they dress to a more western style. Finally, Peter added letters to the old Russian alphabet. He got this idea from western Russia who had a different alphabet. This does not seem like it is a big deal, but he was doing this to be more like the western world and be more contemporary.
Although Peter was not the clearest headed person he was a strong military leader. In his reign, he conquered; Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. Peter’s goal was to get to the Black Sea for trade and the advancement of his Navy. He had many battles with turkey until he finally gained access to the Black sea. This lead to an advancement in the trade with western countries. Peter was also a smart strategery, he was fighting part of the Swedish army, but he was smart and led the to a city in Russia called; Poltava. It was in the middle of winter and the Swedes were not prepared, so the Russians took advantage and manage to pull out a decisive victory, but this did not end the war between the two countries. These battles went on for many more years. Peter wanted to be a dominant force in Europe, but if he wanted to do that, he had educated all of his military officers. Peter did many things within the idea of domestic reforms, such as stated above, how he added and got rid of letters in the alphabet and how we forced people to change the way they look, but he did more than that with his reforms.
He set blueprints to a school of Science that was built to catch up with the other western countries who were excelling in Science and Technology. A quote by a European historian said: “Education also had to be modernised if Russia was going to survive as a power in Europe.” This proves how much being intelligent and up to date on your technology helps become a world power. Peter was religious and taunted secular schools that conflicted with his religious ideals. Peter did something amazing for Russia, he had the first newspaper called “Vedomosti” printed, this was a big thing because many of the things printed were bibles. This gave the citizens of Russia more knowledge of what is going on around
them.

Although Peter was delirious and was later killed by Pneumonia he was the reason for great strides in Russian advancement. He was able to advance the Navy because he gained an access point to the Black Sea, so he could control trade routes that were near Russia’s port. This also was important for Russia's own trade, they became a wealthy country because they could trade their materials for other materials which could be traded for money. With all of the factors put together, Peter did deserve his full name because he was the start of the world power we know as Russia.