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for political prisoners. The five
DECEMBRISTS
sen-
tenced to death in 1826 for their role in the con-
spiracy were executed on the grounds of the
fortress. The members of the
PEOPLE
'
S WILL
who
assassinated
ALEXANDER II
, radical writers such as
Nikolai
CHERNYSHEVSKY
, Maksim
GORKY
, and rev-
olutionaries such as Peter
KROPOTKIN
and Leon
TROTSKY
were all imprisoned in the fortress's Tru-
betskoi Bastion. Today, a museum celebrates this
revolutionary legacy. During the
OCTOBER REVO
-
LUTION
of 1917, the fortress's personnel sided
with the Bolsheviks, and the attack on the Win-
ter Palace was planned from its grounds. In
1941-44, during the siege of Leningrad, the local
authorities successfully camouflaged the cathe-
dral's spire, and damage to the fortress was lim-
ited. Every day at noon a cannon is fired from
the fortress.
in 1689 and the emergence of Peter as the de
facto ruler. With the death of Ivan V in 1696,
Peter became sole ruler of Russia. His first major
initiative was to undertake his famous
GRAND
EMBASSY
(1697-98), an extensive journey across
Brandenburg, the Netherlands, Britain, and
Austria, a sign of his interest in European culture
and his desire to recruit European technical and
military expertise.
Russia's participation in what became the
Great Northern War (1700-1721) allied with
Poland against Sweden was the military center-
piece of Peter's reign and the motive for many of
the reforms that came to characterize his reign.
The war began badly for Russia as Charles XII of
Sweden defeated Peter's navy at the Battle of
Narva on the Baltic Sea in 1700. Peter reorga-
nized his armies and the government, and nine
years later at the Battle of
POLTAVA
in Ukraine, he
defeated the Swedes, a turning point for the war.
The war dragged on until 1721, when the Peace
of Nystadt awarded Russia a long-sought coast-
line on the Baltic.
During this long war, Peter brought many
changes to Russian government and society,
even though not all of them achieved long-term
results. Some were substantial changes needed
for military victory. He also brought Western
experts to provide the technical expertise neces-
sary to explore mines and build a naval fleet.
Through state companies Peter sought to pro-
mote commercial activity in Russia. He created a
system of obligatory service for the gentry, who
were now required to provide civil or military
service. In 1722 this service system was given a
hierarchical structure through the
TABLE OF
RANKS
, which allowed individuals to advance
from one position to another, theoretically on
the basis of merit, and at a certain stage they
received noble status. Other changes were more
symbolic but equally important. On the banks of
the Neva River near the Gulf of Finland, he built
a new capital, St. Petersburg (named after the
apostle) that would serve as Russia's “window
on the west,” a strikingly beautiful, Western-
looking city designed in contrast to Moscow, rep-
resentative of the old Russia. Beginning with the
Peter I
(1672-1725)
(Petr Alekseevich, Peter the Great)
emperor
A greatly influential ruler whose military victo-
ries and Westernizing policies decisively brought
Russia into the concert of European nations and
civilization and established the foundations of
the modern Russian state, Peter is more com-
monly known to subsequent generations as
Peter the Great. The youngest son of Czar
ALEK
-
SEI
by his second marriage, to Natalia Naryshk-
ina, Peter was not given the education reserved
for an heir to the throne, instead, he learned
freely from his frequent visits to the foreigners'
quarter in
MOSCOW
. When his half brother and
successor to Aleksei,
FEODOR III
, died in 1682
without issue, his half sister
SOPHIA
prevented
Peter from becoming successor as the patriarch
and leading boyars wanted, and instead engi-
neered for Peter and his half brother, the sickly
IVAN V
, to serve as corulers with Sophia as regent.
While Sophia's favorite, Prince Vasili
GOLITSYN
,
ruled in her name, Peter retired to the village of
Preobrazhenskoe near Moscow with members of
the Naryshkin family. Successive defeats at the
hands of Crimean Tatars in 1687 and 1689 and
other problems led to the overthrow of Sophia
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