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115-562: Its regulations were published on 11 January 1811, but they had received the Imperial sanction on 12 August 1810, when the four-story "new" wing of the Great Palace was appointed for its accommodation. The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was opened on 19 October 1811. The first graduates included Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov . In January 1844, the Lyceum was moved to St Petersburg . In May 1918,

230-617: A common interest in lizards . Together they went to see patients. He arrived in Utrecht on a barge and met stadtholder William III in a tavern. When he visited the States-General of the Netherlands he left the hall and the astonished attendees with his wig pulled over his head, according Massie. He visited Jan van der Heyden , the inventor of a fire hose . He collected paintings by Adam Silo with ships and seascapes . In October 1697,

345-548: A convent, where she gave up her name and her position as a member of the royal family. Meanwhile, he was a frequent guest in German quarter, where he met Anna and Willem Mons . In 1692 he sent Eberhard Isbrand Ides as envoy to the Kangxi Emperor of China. In 1693 he sailed to Solovetsky Monastery and accepted divine providence after surviving a storm. Still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power

460-629: A cook, a priest, six trumpeters, 70 soldiers from the Preobrazhensky regiment , four dwarfs and a monkey which he purchased in Amsterdam; Jacob Bruce accompanied him. Peter stayed at 21 Norfolk Street, Strand , and met with Bishop of Salisbury Gilbert Burnet and Thomas Osborne and posed for Sir Godfrey Kneller . He watched the proceedings within the Parliament from a rooftop window. At some time, he had an affair with actress Letitia Cross . He visited

575-604: A critic and as a journalist marked the birth of Russian magazine culture which included him devising and contributing heavily to one of the most influential literary magazines of the 19th century, the Sovremennik ( The Contemporary , or Современник ). Pushkin inspired the folk tales and genre pieces of other authors: Leskov , Yesenin and Gorky . His use of Russian formed the basis of the style of novelists Ivan Turgenev , Ivan Goncharov and Leo Tolstoy , as well as that of subsequent lyric poets such as Mikhail Lermontov . Pushkin

690-593: A decree was issued that allowed factory owners, regardless of whether they had a noble rank, to buy serfs . Peter made a temporary peace with the Ottoman Empire that allowed him to keep the captured fort of Azov, and turned his attention to Russian maritime supremacy. He sought to acquire control of the Baltic Sea, which had been taken by the Swedish Empire a half-century earlier. Peter declared war on Sweden, which

805-571: A factory for the development in the Samara Oblast . In 1721 the shipyard Petrozavod and Petrodvorets Watch Factory was established. Some 3,500 new words—German, French, Dutch, English, Italian, Swedish in origin—entered Russian in Peter's period, roughly one-fourth of them shipping and naval terms. As part of his reforms, Peter started an industrialization effort that was slow but eventually successful. Russian manufacturing and main exports were based on

920-773: A foreign expert in the German Quarter . Peter befriended Andrew Vinius , a bibliophile, who taught him Dutch and two Dutch carpenters, Frans Timmerman and Karsten Brandt. Peter studied arithmetic, geometry, and military sciences ( fortification ). He was not interested in a musical education but liked fireworks and drumming. Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name; Boris Golitsyn and Fyodor Apraksin played an important role. He engaged in such pastimes as shipbuilding in Pereslavl-Zalessky and sailing at Lake Pleshcheyevo , as well as mock battles with his toy army . Peter's mother sought to force him to adopt

1035-470: A keen interest in The Education of a Christian Prince which offers advice to rulers on how to govern justly and wisely. He introduced into the concept of the autocrat's power the notion of the monarch 's duties. He considered it necessary to take care of his subjects, to protect them from enemies, to work for their benefit. Above all, he put the interests of Russia. He saw his mission in turning it into

1150-612: A more conventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689. The marriage was a failure, and 10 years later, Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union. By the summer of 1689, Peter, planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns against the Crimean Khanate in an attempt to stop devastating Crimean Tatar raids into Russia's southern lands. When she learned of his designs, Sophia conspired with some leaders of

1265-570: A new state body known as the Governing Senate . Normally, the Boyar duma would have exercised power during his absence. Peter, however, mistrusted the boyars; he instead abolished the Duma and created a Senate of ten members. The Senate was founded as the highest state institution to supervise all judicial, financial and administrative affairs. Originally established only for the time of the monarch's absence,

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1380-804: A nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland by the Ottomans , then freed by the Russian Emperor and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson . He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum . Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem " Ode to Liberty ", one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I . While under strict surveillance by

1495-414: A power similar to Western countries, and subordinated his own life and the lives of his subjects to the realization of this idea. Gradually penetrated the idea that the task should be solved with the help of reforms, which will be carried out at the autocrat's will, who creates good and punishes evil. He considered the morality of a statesman separately from the morality of a private person and believed that

1610-560: A ship in Emmerich am Rhein and sailed to Zaandam, where he arrived on 18 August 1697. Peter studied saw-mills , manufacturing and shipbuilding in Zaandam but left after a week. He sailed to Amsterdam after he was recognized and attacked. The log-cabin he rented became the Czar Peter House . He sailed to Texel to see a fleet. Through the mediation of Nicolaas Witsen , an expert on Russia,

1725-490: A short story frequently anthologized in English translation. Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers. Glinka 's Ruslan and Lyudmila is the earliest important Pushkin-inspired opera, and a landmark in the tradition of Russian music. Tchaikovsky 's operas Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades ( Pikovaya Dama , 1890) became perhaps better known outside of Russia than Pushkin's own works of

1840-406: A sword and a quill in one right hand") and courageous behavior he demonstrated to his subjects his personal positive example, showed how to act, fully devoting himself to the fulfillment of duty and service to the fatherland . Peter reigned for around 43 years. He implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing Russia. Heavily influenced by his advisors, like Jacob Bruce , Peter reorganized

1955-596: A visit to a friend's mansion near Nigtevecht , a silk manufacture and a paper-mill. At five in the morning he was received by Herman Boerhaave who showed Peter the Botanical Garden . In April 1717 he continued his travel to Austrian Netherlands , Dunkirk and Calais. In Paris he obtained many books, requested to become a member of the Academie de Sciences and visited the parliament, the Sorbonne and Madame Maintenon . Via

2070-410: Is a work of such complexity that, though it is only about a hundred pages long, translator Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning into English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers such as Henry James . Pushkin wrote The Queen of Spades ,

2185-556: Is also known for his short stories. In particular his cycle The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin , including The Shot , were well received. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "the narrative logic and the plausibility of that which is narrated, together with the precision, conciseness – economy of the presentation of reality – all of the above is achieved in Tales of Belkin , especially, and most of all in

2300-488: Is now a museum . Pushkin had four children from his marriage to Natalia: Maria (b. 1832), Alexander (b. 1833), Grigory (b. 1835) and Natalia (b. 1836), the last of whom married morganatically Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and was granted the title of Countess of Merenberg . Her daughter Sophie married Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia , a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I . Only

2415-775: The Azov campaigns to take the fortress, but his attempts ended in failure. Peter returned to Moscow in November 1695 and began building a large navy in Voronezh . He launched about thirty ships against the Ottomans in 1696, capturing Azov in July of that year. He appointed Alexander Gordon , who later would publish a biography on Peter. Peter used to hold all his important meetings and numerous celebrations in Le Fort 's palace. Peter knew that Russia could not face

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2530-554: The British Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg , to be his second. Magenis did not formally accept but on 26 January (7 February) approached Viscount d'Archiac to attempt a reconciliation; however d'Archiac refused to speak with him as he was not yet officially Pushkin's second. Magenis, unable to find Pushkin in the evening, sent him a letter through a messenger at 2 o'clock in the morning declining to be his second, as

2645-647: The Byzantine calendar that was long used in Russia, but the Russian Orthodox Church was particularly resistant to this change. In 1703, he introduced the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti , and ordered the civil script , a reform of Russian orthography largely designed by himself. On the shores of the Neva River, he founded Saint Petersburg , a city famously dubbed by Francesco Algarotti as

2760-585: The Emperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, Boris Godunov . His novel in verse Eugene Onegin was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife's alleged lover and her sister's husband, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès , also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment . Pushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848),

2875-569: The Great Northern War ended Sweden's era as a great power and was followed by the proclamation of the Russian Empire . Peter led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernized , and based on radical Enlightenment . In December 1699, he introduced the Julian calendar , which replaced

2990-670: The Moscow Print Yard . In 1707, Tsar Peter I bought a fully equipped printing house in Holland , including staff. Peter replaced the Cyrillic numerals with Arabic numerals (1705–1710) and the Cyrillic font with a civil script (1708–1710). In 1708, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz became an advisor and offered to write new laws for the country. In December Russia was divided into eight governorates ( guberniya ). Matwei Petrowitsch Gagarin

3105-668: The Palace of Saint-Cloud , the Grand Trianon at Versailles, Fontainebleau , Spa he travelled on to Maastricht , at that time one of the most important fortresses in Europe. He went back Amsterdam to attend a Treaty with France and Prussia on 15 August. He achieved a diplomatic success, and his international prestige, consolidated. Again he visited the Hortus Botanicus and left the city early September 1717, heading for Berlin. In October he

3220-777: The Royal Mint four times; it is not clear whether he ever met Isaac Newton , the mint's warden , who introduced milling on the coinage. Peter was impressed by the Great Recoinage of 1696 , according to Massie. At some time he visited Spithead , Plymouth , with captain John Perry to watch a mock battle . In February he attended a Fleet Review in Deptford , and inspected the Woolwich Dockyard and Royal Arsenal with Anthony Deane . For three months he stayed at Sayes Court as

3335-534: The Russian invasion of Ukraine . These monuments, along with any toponymy named after him, are now illegal in Ukraine following the implementation of a law that bans symbols "dedicated to persons who publicly, including … in literary and other artistic works, supported, glorified, or justified Russian imperial policy". The centennial of Pushkin's death in 1937 was one of the most significant literary commemorations of

3450-547: The Table of Ranks in 1722 had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign. Peter grew up at Izmaylovo Estate and was educated at the Amusement Palace from an early age by several tutors commissioned by his father, most notably Nikita Zotov , Patrick Gordon , and Paul Menesius . When his father died in 1676, he left the sovereignty to Peter's elder half-brother,

3565-470: The "window to the West". In 1714, Peter relocated the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg, a status it retained until 1918. Peter had a great interest in plants, animals and minerals, in malformed creatures or exceptions to the law of nature for his cabinet of curiosities . He encouraged research of deformities, all along trying to debunk the superstitious fear of monsters . He promoted industrialization in

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3680-762: The Black Sea, which would require expelling the Tatars from the surrounding areas. As part of an agreement with Poland that ceded Kiev to Russia, Peter was forced to wage war against the Crimean Khan and against the Khan's overlord, the Ottoman Sultan. Peter's primary objective became the capture of the Ottoman fortress of Azov , near the Don River . In the summer of 1695 Peter organized

3795-472: The French Enlightenment , to which he would remain permanently indebted throughout his life, especially Voltaire , whom he described as "the first to follow the new road, and to bring the lamp of philosophy into the dark archives of history". Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform, and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from

3910-581: The Great Peter I ( [ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪt͡ɕ] ; Russian : Пётр I Алексеевич , romanized :  Pyotr I Alekseyevich ; 9 June [ O.S. 30 May] 1672 – 8 February [ O.S. 28 January] 1725), was Tsar of all Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia , known as Peter the Great , from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, Peter

4025-561: The Great established the Olonets Shipyard at Lodeynoye Pole , where Russian frigate Shtandart was built. While the Poles fought the Swedes, Peter founded the city of Saint Petersburg on 29 June 1703 on Hare Island . He forbade the building of stone edifices outside Saint Petersburg, which he intended to become Russia's capital, so that all stonemasons could participate in the construction of

4140-516: The Gregorian calendar) 1837 Pushkin sent a "highly insulting letter" to Gekkern. The only answer to that letter could be a challenge to a duel, as Pushkin knew. Pushkin received the formal challenge to a duel through his sister-in-law, Ekaterina Gekkerna, approved by d'Anthès, on the same day through the attaché of the French Embassy, Viscount d'Archiac. Pushkin asked Arthur Magenis , then attaché to

4255-914: The Lyceum was closed following order by the Council of People's Commissars . During the 33 years of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum's existence, there were 286 graduates. The most famous of these, in addition to the above two, were Anton Delvig , Wilhelm Kuchelbecker , Nicholas de Giers , Dmitry Tolstoy , Yakov Grot , Nikolay Danilevsky , Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky , Fyodor Shcherbatskoy and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin . 59°43′3″N 30°23′49″E  /  59.71750°N 30.39694°E  / 59.71750; 30.39694 Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (6 June [ O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [ O.S. 29 January] 1837)

4370-404: The Ottoman Empire alone. In March 1697, he traveled "incognito" to Western Europe on an 18-month journey with a large Russian delegation—the so-called "Grand Embassy" . Peter was the first tsar to leave Russia for more than 100 years. He used a fake name, allowing him to escape social and diplomatic events, but since he was far taller than most others, he could not fool anyone. One goal was to seek

4485-471: The Ottoman Empire. Russia had defeated what was considered to be one of the world's best militaries, and the victory overturned the view that Russia was militarily incompetent. In Poland, Augustus II was restored as King. Peter, overestimating the support he would receive from his Balkan allies, attacked the Ottoman Empire, initiating the Russo-Turkish War of 1710 . Peter's campaign in the Ottoman Empire

4600-539: The Ottoman Sultan. Peter failed to expand the anti-Ottoman alliance. In Riga, the local Swedish commander Erik Dahlbergh decided to pretend that he did not recognize Peter and did not allow him to inspect the fortifications. (Three years later, Peter would cite the inhospitable reception as one of the reasons for starting the Great Northern War). He met Frederick Casimir Kettler , the Duke of Courland. In Königsberg ,

4715-557: The Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic". Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature. He is seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, and he is also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Whenever he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devised calques . His rich vocabulary and highly-sensitive style are

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4830-458: The Russian Church of the opportunity to regain a single spiritual leader. Reducing the number of monasteries, he converted all monasteries with less than 30 monks into schools or churches. He encouraged the development of private entrepreneurship, but under strict state control. He initiated the construction of canals by John Perry and implemented a monetary reform, using the decimal principle as

4945-599: The Russian Empire and higher education. The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Saint Petersburg State University were founded in 1724, and invited Christian Wolff and Willem 's Gravesande . Peter is primarily credited with the modernization of the country, quickly transforming it into a major European power. His administrative reforms, creating a Governing Senate in 1711, the Collegium in 1717 and

5060-425: The Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power . He faced much opposition to these policies at home but brutally suppressed rebellions against his authority, including by the Streltsy , Bashkirs , Astrakhan , and the greatest civil uprising of his reign, the Bulavin Rebellion . In his process to westernize Russia, he wanted members of his family to marry other European royalty. In

5175-404: The Russian people as rude, unintelligent, stubborn in their sluggishness, a child, a lazy student. He highly appreciated the state's role in the life of society, saw it as an ideal instrument for achieving high goals, saw it as a universal institution for transforming people, with the help of violence and fear, into educated, conscious, law-abiding and useful to the whole society subjects. Peter had

5290-461: The Senate became a permanent body after his return. A special high official, the Ober-Procurator , served as the link between the ruler and the senate and acted, in Peter own words, as "the sovereign's eye". Without his signature no Senate decision could go into effect; the Senate became one of the most important institutions of Imperial Russia. In 1701, 1705 and 1712, Peter I issued decrees establishing an Engineering School in Sukharev Tower , which

5405-486: The Soviet era, second only to the 1928 centennial of Leo Tolstoy 's birth. Although Pushkin's image was prominently displayed in Soviet propaganda, from billboards to candy wrappers, it conflicted with the ideal Soviet persona. Pushkin was reputed as a libertine with aristocratic tendencies, which clashed with Soviet values and led to a form of repressive revisionism, akin to the Stalinist reworking of Tolstoy's Christian anarchism . [REDACTED] Category Peter

5520-407: The Streltsy, who continually aroused disorder and dissent. Peter, warned by others from the Streltsy, escaped in the middle of the night to the impenetrable monastery of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra ; there he slowly gathered adherents who perceived he would win the power struggle. Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Peter forced Sophia to enter

5635-574: The Strong abdicated in 1706. Swedish king Charles XII turned his attention to Russia, invading it in 1708. After crossing into Russia, Charles defeated Peter at Golovchin in July. In the Battle of Lesnaya , Charles suffered his first loss after Peter crushed a group of Swedish reinforcements marching from Riga . Deprived of this aid, Charles was forced to abandon his proposed march on Moscow. Charles XII refused to retreat to Poland or back to Sweden and instead invaded Ukraine . Peter withdrew his army southward, employing scorched earth , destroying along

5750-520: The Strong . Peter's visit was cut short, when he was informed of the second Streltsy uprising in June. The rebellion was easily crushed by General Gordon before Peter returned home early September. Peter nevertheless acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers; 4,600 rebels were sent to prison. Around 1,182 were tortured and executed, and Peter ordered that their bodies be publicly exhibited as a warning to future conspirators. The Streltsy were disbanded, and Peter's half-sister Sophia, who they sought to put on

5865-452: The Tsar visited Delft and received an "eal viewer" from the microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek . After the Peace of Ryswick he was invited by King of England to visit him. The Dutch regents considered the Tsar too inquisitive, and this affected their willingness to help the Russians. On 11 January 1698 ( O.S. ), Peter arrived at Victoria Embankment with four chamberlains, three interpreters ( Peter Shafirov , LeFort), two clock makers,

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5980-436: The aid of European monarchs, but Peter's hopes were dashed. France was a traditional ally of the Ottoman Sultan, and Austria was eager to maintain peace in the east while conducting its own wars in the west. Peter, furthermore, had chosen an inopportune moment: the Europeans at the time were more concerned about the War of the Spanish Succession over who would succeed the childless King Charles II of Spain than about fighting

6095-465: The back of the throne, so that she, literally behind the scenes, could whisper to the two boys. The "Moscow Grand Discharge" started in 1677 and was completed in 1688; it affected noble families with high ranks in the administration; the ministries were also reduced in number. This provoked fierce reactions. Sophia , one of Alexis' daughters from his first marriage, led a rebellion of the streltsy (Russia's elite military corps) in April–May 1682. In

6210-545: The basis of the monetary system (1698-–1704). Peter attracted many foreign specialists and opened an educational institution for surgery , led by Nicolaas Bidloo . In 1701, the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation was founded, led by Jacob Bruce ; for fifteen years, naval officers, surveyors, engineers, and gunners were educated there. In 1700, Jan Thesingh (-1701) received a monopoly on printing and importing books, maps and prints into Russia for fifteen years. In 1701 he appointed Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov as head of

6325-410: The capital in May 1820. He went to the Caucasus and to Crimea and then to Kamianka and Chișinău in Bessarabia . He joined the Filiki Eteria , a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Empire broke out, he kept a diary recording the events of

6440-443: The court apothecary; Johann Daniel Schumacher was appointed secretary and librarian of the Kunstkamera . The country's first scientific library was opened in his palace in the Summer Garden. Peter ordered the development of Aptekarsky Island , headquarters for the Medical Clerical Office and the Main Pharmacy. Gottlieb Schober was commissioned to examine hot springs and discovered rich deposits of sulfur ; Peter immediately set up

6555-401: The crippled Feodor III . Throughout this period, the government was largely run by Artamon Matveyev , an enlightened friend of Alexis, the political head of the Naryshkin family and one of Peter's greatest childhood benefactors. This position changed when Feodor died in 1682. As Feodor did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family ( Maria Miloslavskaya was

6670-432: The drama was not staged until 2007. Around 1825–1829 he met and befriended the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz , during exile in central Russia. In 1829 he travelled through the Caucasus to Erzurum to visit friends fighting in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish War . At the end of 1829 Pushkin wanted to set off on a journey abroad, the desire reflected in his poem Let's go, I'm ready . He applied for permission for

6785-565: The emperor's Titular Counsel of the National Archives. However, because insurgents in the Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of Pushkin's earlier political poems, the emperor retained strict control of everything Pushkin published and he was banned from travelling at will. During that same year (1825) Pushkin also wrote what would become his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov , while at his mother's estate. He could not, however, gain permission to publish it until five years later. The original and uncensored version of

6900-420: The end of April 1698 he left after being shown how to make watches, and carpeting coffins. Back in Holland he visited Harderwijk and Cleves. The Embassy next went to Leipzig, Dresden, where he met with the Queen of Poland . Three times he visited the Kunstsammlung , then Königstein Fortress , Prague, Vienna, to pay a visit to Leopold I . At Rava-Ruska , he crossed the border and Peter spoke with Augustus II

7015-407: The first wife of Alexis I) and Naryshkin family ( Natalya Naryshkina was his second wife) over who should inherit the throne. He jointly ruled with his elder half-brother, Ivan V , until 1696. Ivan, was next in line but was weakminded and blind. Consequently, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) chose the 10-year-old Peter to become tsar, with his mother as regent . A hole was cut in

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7130-412: The forces of Charles XII, rather than employ a slow methodical siege, attacked immediately using a blinding snowstorm to their advantage. After the battle, Charles XII decided to concentrate his forces against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which gave Peter time to reorganize the Russian army and conquered Nyenschantz in the Ingrian campaign . Bidloo had to organize a military hospital. Robert Bruce

7245-517: The foundation for modern Russian literature. His accomplishments set new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in the 19th century, marking the highest achievements of the 18th century and the beginning of literary process of the 19th century. He introduced Russia to all the European literary genres as well as a great number of West European writers. He brought natural speech and foreign influences to create modern poetic Russian. Though his life

7360-418: The genius Leibniz . Blumentrost and Areskine accompanied him. In early December Peter arrived in Amsterdam and visited Nicolaas Witsen . He bought the anatomic and herbarium collection of Frederik Ruysch , Levinus Vincent and Albertus Seba . He obtained many paintings among other from Maria Sibylla Merian for his Kunstkamera and Rembrandt's "David and Jonathan" for Peterhof Palace . He paid

7475-452: The guest of John Evelyn , a member of the Royal Society . He was trained on a telescope at the Greenwich Observatory by John Flamsteed . Peter communicated with Thomas Story and William Penn about their position that believers should not join the military. King William III presented a schooner with a whole crew to Peter I in exchange for the monopoly right of English merchants to trade tobacco in Russia (see Charles Whitworth ). At

7590-499: The heroine of Eugene Onegin . Authorities summoned Pushkin to Moscow after his poem Ode to Liberty was found among the belongings of the rebels from the Decembrist Uprising (1825). After his exile in 1820 Pushkin's friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meeting Emperor Alexander I and then Emperor Nicholas I on the heels of the Decembrist Uprising. Upon meeting Emperor Nicholas I Pushkin obtained his release from exile and began to work as

7705-610: The journey but received negative response from Nicholas I on 17 January 1830. Around 1828 Pushkin met Natalia Goncharova , then 16 years old and one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow. After much hesitation Natalia accepted a proposal of marriage from Pushkin in April 1830, but not before she received assurances that the Tsarist government had no intention of persecuting the libertarian poet. Later Pushkin and his wife became regulars of court society. They officially became engaged on 6 May 1830 and sent out wedding invitations. Owing to an outbreak of cholera and other circumstances,

7820-471: The lines of Alexander and Natalia still remain. Natalia's granddaughter, Nadejda , married into the extended British royal family, her husband being the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , and is the grandmother of the present Marquess of Milford Haven . Descendants of the poet now live around the globe in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United States. Critics consider many of his works masterpieces, such as

7935-403: The mining and lumber industries. In 1719, the privileges of miners were enshrined in law with the Berg Privilege, which allowed representatives of all classes to search for ores and build metallurgical plants. At the same time, manufacturers and artisans were exempted from state taxes and recruiting , and their houses were exempt from the post of troops. The law also guaranteed the inheritance of

8050-403: The minority of the sovereigns and exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat. From 1682 to 1689, Peter and his mother were banned to Preobrazhenskoye . At the age of 16, he discovered an English boat on the estate, had it restored and learned to sail. He received a sextant , but did not know how to use it. Peter was fascinated by sundials . Therefore, he began a search for

8165-620: The national uprising. He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems which brought him acclaim: The Prisoner of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray . In 1823, Pushkin moved to Odessa , where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile on his mother's rural estate of Mikhailovskoye , near Pskov , from 1824 to 1826. In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife of Malorossia 's General-Governor . Then Pushkin worked on his verse-novel Eugene Onegin . In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote

8280-660: The new city. While the city was being built along the Neva he lived in a modest three-room log cabin (with a study but without a fire-place) which had to make room for the first version of the Winter Palace . The first buildings which appeared were a shipyard at the Admiralty , Kronstadt (1704-1706) and the Peter and Paul Fortress (1706). Peter took his whole family on a boat trip to Kronstadt. Following several defeats, Polish King Augustus II

8395-399: The ownership of factories, proclaimed industrial activity a matter of state importance and protected manufacturers from interference in their affairs by local authorities. The same law established the Collegium of Mining , and managed the entire mining and metallurgical industry , and local administrations. The Demidovs became the first Russian exporters of iron to Western Europe . In 1721,

8510-555: The past, his ancestors had been snubbed at the idea; however, it was proving fruitful. He negotiated with Frederick William, Duke of Courland to marry his niece, Anna Ivanovna . He used the wedding in order to launch his new capital, St Petersburg, where he had already ordered building projects of westernized palaces and buildings. Peter hired Italian and German architects to design it. He attracted Domenico Trezzini , Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli , Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond and Andreas Schlüter . To improve his nation's position on

8625-481: The period of Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met one of Russia's other influential early writers, Nikolai Gogol . After reading Gogol's 1831–1832 volume of short stories Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka , Pushkin supported him and would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories in the magazine The Contemporary , which he founded in 1836. By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and faced scandalous rumours that his wife

8740-474: The poem The Bronze Horseman and the drama The Stone Guest , a tale of the fall of Don Juan . His poetic short drama Mozart and Salieri (like The Stone Guest , one of the so-called four Little Tragedies , a collective characterization by Pushkin himself in 1830 letter to Pyotr Pletnyov ) was the inspiration for Peter Shaffer 's Amadeus as well as providing the libretto (almost verbatim) to Rimsky-Korsakov 's opera Mozart and Salieri . Pushkin

8855-595: The poem To*** . It is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern , but there are other opinions. Poet Mikhail Dudin believed that the poem was dedicated to the serf Olga Kalashnikova. Pushkinist Kira Victorova believed that the poem was dedicated to the Empress Elizaveta Alekseyevna. Vadim Nikolayev argued that the idea about the Empress was marginal and refused to discuss it, while trying to prove that poem had been dedicated to Tatyana Larina,

8970-497: The possibility of a peaceful settlement had already been quashed, and the traditional first task of the second was to try to bring about a reconciliation. The pistol duel with d'Anthès took place on 27 January (8 February) at the Black River , without the presence of a second for Pushkin. The duel they fought was of a kind known as a "barrier duel". The rules of this type dictated that the duellists began at an agreed distance. After

9085-544: The possibility of future joint ventures with the Knights, including action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base. On 12 September 1698, Peter officially founded the first Russian Navy base, Taganrog on the Sea of Azov . In 1699, Peter changed the date of the celebration of the new year from 1 September to 1 January. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from

9200-485: The prestigious Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo , near Saint Petersburg, his talent was already widely recognized on the Russian literary scene. At the Lyceum, he was a student of David Mara, known in Russia as David de Boudry  [ fr ] , a younger brother of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat . After school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of St. Petersburg, which

9315-532: The purported creation of the World , but after Peter's reforms, they were to be counted from the birth of Christ . Thus, in the year 7207 of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was 1700. On the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as Peter's prime favourite and confidant. In 1700, Peter I prevented the election of a new patriarch and deprived

9430-548: The quarrelsome Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin with which Peter wanted an alliance. He obtained the assistance of the Frederick William I of Prussia who sieged the strong Swedish fortress Wismar . In Altona he met with Danish diplomats, supporting Prussia. He sailed to Copenhagen heading an allied fleet. In Wittenberg he visited the monastery, where Luther lived. In May he went on to Bad Pyrmont , and, because of his physical problems he stayed at this spa. There he met with

9545-1369: The same name. Mussorgsky 's monumental Boris Godunov (two versions, 1868–9 and 1871–2) ranks as one of the very finest and most original of Russian operas. Other Russian operas based on Pushkin include Dargomyzhsky 's Rusalka and The Stone Guest ; Rimsky-Korsakov 's Mozart and Salieri , Tale of Tsar Saltan , and The Golden Cockerel ; Cui 's Prisoner of the Caucasus , Feast in Time of Plague , and The Captain's Daughter ; Tchaikovsky 's Mazeppa ; Rachmaninoff 's one-act operas Aleko (based on The Gypsies ) and The Miserly Knight ; Stravinsky 's Mavra , and Nápravník 's Dubrovsky . Additionally, ballets and cantatas , as well as innumerable songs , have been set to Pushkin's verse (including even his French-language poems, in Isabelle Aboulker 's song cycle " Caprice étrange "). Suppé , Leoncavallo and Malipiero have also based operas on his works. Composers Yudif Grigorevna Rozhavskaya , Galina Konstantinovna Smirnova , Yevgania Yosifovna Yakhina , Maria Semyonovna Zavalishina , Zinaida Petrovna Ziberova composed folk songs using Pushkin's text. The Desire of Glory , which has been dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova,

9660-473: The same year, Peter also sought to end arranged marriages , which were the norm among the Russian nobility , because he thought such a practice was barbaric and led to domestic violence, since the partners usually resented each other. In 1698, Peter sent a delegation to Malta , under boyar Boris Sheremetev , to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet . Sheremetev investigated

9775-598: The scholars Dieudonné Gnammankou and Hugh Barnes eventually conclusively established that Gannibal was instead born in Central Africa, in an area bordering Lake Chad in modern-day Cameroon . After education in France as a military engineer , Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chief (the third most senior army rank) in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. Born in Moscow, Pushkin

9890-720: The seas, Peter sought more maritime outlets. His only outlet at the time was the White Sea at Arkhangelsk . The Baltic Sea was at the time controlled by Sweden in the north, while the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Empire respectively in the south. The country's need for metal was exacerbated by the outbreak of wars for access to the Black and Baltic Seas. Peter attempted to acquire control of

10005-531: The signal to begin, they walked towards each other, closing the distance. They could fire at any time they wished, but the duellist that shot first was required to stand still and wait for the other to shoot back at his leisure. D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen. D'Anthès was only lightly wounded in the right arm by Pushkin's shot. Two days later, at 2.45 pm on 29 January (10 February), Pushkin died of peritonitis . At Pushkin's wife's request he

10120-570: The southern half of modern Estonia ), driving the Swedes out of Finland . In 1714, the Russian fleet won the Battle of Gangut . During the Great Wrath most of Finland was occupied by Russian forces. In January 1716, Tsar Peter traveled in the Baltic region to discuss peace negotiations and how to protect the sea trade route from the Swedes. He visited Riga, Königsberg and Danzig . There his niece married

10235-412: The sovereign in the name of state interests can go to murder, violence, forgery and deceit. He went through the naval service, starting from the lowest ranks: bombardier (1695), captain (1696), colonel (1706), schout-bij-nacht (1709), vice-admiral (1714), admiral (1721). By hard daily work (according to the figurative expression of Peter the Great himself, he was simultaneously "forced to hold

10350-450: The story The Stationmaster . Pushkin is the progenitor of the long and fruitful development of Russian realist literature, for he manages to attain the realist ideal of a concise presentation of reality". Pushkin himself preferred his verse novel Eugene Onegin , which he wrote over the course of his life and which, starting a tradition of great Russian novels, follows a few central characters but varies widely in tone and focus. Onegin

10465-457: The subsequent conflict, some of Peter's relatives and friends were murdered, including Artamon Matveyev, and Peter witnessed some of these acts of political violence. The streltsy made it possible for Sophia, the Miloslavskys (the clan of Ivan ) and their allies to insist that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint tsars, with Ivan being acclaimed as the senior. Sophia then acted as regent during

10580-529: The throne, was kept in strictest seclusion at Novodevichy Convent . Peter's visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing (no caftans ) and cut off their long beards, causing Boyars and Old Believers , who were very fond of their beards, great upset. Boyars who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles . In

10695-513: The tsar engaged many skilled workers such as builders of locks, fortresses, shipwrights, and seamen—including Cornelis Cruys , a vice-admiral who became, under Franz Lefort , the tsar's advisor in maritime affairs; engineer Menno van Coehoorn refused. Peter put his knowledge of shipbuilding to use in helping build Russia's navy. Peter and Witsen visited Frederik Ruysch who had all the specimens exposed in five rooms. He taught Peter how to catch butterflies and how to preserve them. They also had

10810-417: The tsar was apprenticed for two months to an artillery engineer. (Decrees were issued on the construction of the first Ural blast furnace plants.) In July he met Sophia of Hanover at Coppenbrügge castle. She described him: "The tsar is a tall, handsome man, with an attractive face. He has a lively mind is very witty. Only, someone so well endowed by nature could be a little better mannered." Peter rented

10925-571: The tsar was given the opportunity to gain practical experience in shipyard, belonging to the Dutch East India Company , for a period of four months, under the supervision of Gerrit Claesz Pool . The diligent and capable tsar assisted in the construction of an East Indiaman Peter and Paul specially laid down for him. Peter felt that the ship's carpenters in Holland worked too much by eye and lacked accurate construction drawings. During his stay

11040-520: The way anything that could assist the Swedes. Deprived of local supplies, the Swedish army was forced to halt its advance in the winter of 1708–1709. In the summer of 1709, they resumed their efforts to capture Russian-ruled Ukraine , culminating in the Battle of Poltava on 27 June. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Swedish forces, ending Charles' campaign in Ukraine and forcing him south to seek refuge in

11155-463: The wedding was delayed for a year. The ceremony took place on 18 February 1831 (Old Style) in the Great Ascension Church on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow. Pushkin's marriage to Goncharova was largely a happy one, but his wife’s characteristic flirtatiousness and frivolity would lead to his fatal duel seven years later, for Pushkin had a highly jealous temperament. In 1831, during

11270-573: Was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), an African page kidnapped and taken to Constantinople as a gift for the Ottoman Sultan and later transferred to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great . Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of "Lagon", largely on the basis of a mythical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law Rotkirch. Vladimir Nabokov , when researching Eugene Onegin , cast serious doubt on this origin theory. Later research by

11385-450: Was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era . He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet, as well as the founder of modern Russian literature . Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow. His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. One of his maternal great-grandfathers was Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal ,

11500-587: Was an absolute monarch , an autocrat who remained the ultimate authority and organized a well-ordered police state . Most of Peter's reign was consumed by long wars against the Ottoman and Swedish Empires . Despite initial difficulties, the wars were ultimately successful and led to expansion to the Sea of Azov and the Baltic Sea , thus laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy . His victory in

11615-598: Was analysed by Nikolai Gogol , his successor and pupil, and the great Russian critic Vissarion Belinsky , who produced the fullest and deepest critical study of Pushkin's work, which still retains much of its relevance. In the centennial year of Pushkin's death in 1937, a mass renaming of streets across the entire Soviet Union occurred in his honour. Prior to 2022, Pushkin was the third most common historical figure represented in Ukraine’s streets, but his monuments were removed and streets bearing his name were renamed following

11730-415: Was appointed commander-in-chief of St. Petersburg. After the defeat at Narva, Peter I gave the order to melt the church bells into cannons and mortars. In 1701, Peter ordered the construction of Novodvinsk Fortress north of Archangelsk. Everybody was convinced they knew: his Majesty will wage war. In the siege of Nöteborg Russian forces captured the Swedish fortress, renamed Shlisselburg . In 1702 Peter

11845-538: Was at the time led by the young King Charles XII . Sweden was also opposed by Denmark–Norway , Saxony , and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The Preobrazhensky regiment took part in all major battles of the Great Northern War. Russia was ill-prepared to fight the Swedes, and their first attempt at seizing the Baltic coast ended in disaster at the Battle of Narva in 1700. In the conflict,

11960-407: Was brief, he left examples of nearly every literary genre of his day: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, the novel, the short story, the drama, the critical essay and even the personal letter. According to Vladimir Nabokov , Pushkin's idiom combined all the contemporaneous elements of Russian with all he had learned from Derzhavin , Zhukovsky , Batyushkov , Karamzin and Krylov : His work as

12075-459: Was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkin's mother, Nadezhda (Nadya) Ossipovna Gannibal (1775–1836), was descended through her paternal grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility . She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife, Maria Alekseyevna Pushkina (1745–1818). Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, Pushkin's great-grandfather,

12190-516: Was disastrous, and in the ensuing Treaty of the Pruth , Peter was forced to return the Black Sea ports he had seized in 1697. In return, the Sultan expelled Charles XII. The Ottomans called him Mad Peter ( Turkish : deli Petro ), for his willingness to sacrifice large numbers of his troops in wartime. Peter's northern armies took the Swedish province of Livonia (the northern half of modern Latvia , and

12305-407: Was entrusted to nursemaids and French tutors, and spoke mostly French until the age of ten. He became acquainted with the Russian language through communication with household serfs and his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, whom he loved dearly and to whom he was more attached than to his own mother. He published his first poem at the age of 15. When he finished school, as part of the first graduating class of

12420-584: Was having a love affair. On 4 November, he sent a challenge to a duel to Georges d'Anthès , also known as Dantes-Gekkern. Jacob van Heeckeren , d'Anthès' adoptive father, asked that the duel be delayed by two weeks. With efforts by the poet's friends, the duel was cancelled. On 17 November, d'Anthès proposed to Natalia Goncharova's sister, Ekaterina. The marriage did not resolve the conflict. D'Anthès continued to pursue Natalia Goncharova in public and rumours that d'Anthès had married Natalia's sister just to save her reputation circulated. On 26 January (7 February in

12535-410: Was instead exercised by his mother. It was only when Natalya died in 1694 that Peter, then aged 22, became an independent sovereign. Formally, Ivan V was a co-ruler with Peter, though being ineffective. Peter became the sole ruler when Ivan died in 1696 without male offspring. Peter grew to be extremely tall, especially for the time period, reportedly standing 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). He

12650-508: Was put in the coffin in evening dress, not in chamber-cadet uniform, the uniform provided by the emperor. The funeral service was initially assigned to St Isaac's Cathedral but was moved to Konyushennaya church. Many people attended. After the funeral the coffin was lowered into the basement, where it stayed until 3 February, when it was removed to Pskov province. Pushkin was buried in the grounds of Svyatogorsky monastery in present-day Pushkinskiye Gory , near Pskov, beside his mother. His last home

12765-486: Was seen as a "second Goliath " or Samson . Saint-Simon described him in 1717 as "tall, well-formed and slim... with a look both bewildered and fierce". Peter had noticeable facial tics, and he may have suffered from neck spasm . As a young man, Peter I adopted the Protestant model of existence in a pragmatic world of competition and personal success, which largely shaped the philosophy of his reformism . He perceived

12880-621: Was set to music by David Tukhmanov , as well as Keep Me, Mine Talisman – by Alexander Barykin and later by Tukhmanov. Pushkin is considered by many to be the central representative of Romanticism in Russian literature although he was not unequivocally known as a Romantic. Russian critics have traditionally argued that his works represent a path from Neoclassicism through Romanticism to Realism . An alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities which may seem Romantic in origin, but are ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including

12995-441: Was supposed to recruit up to 100 students, but had only 23. Therefore, he issued another decree in 1714 calling for compulsory education , which dictated that all Russian 10- to 15-year-old children of the nobility, government clerks, and lesser-ranked officials must learn basic arithmetic, trigonometry and geometry , and should be tested on the subjects at the end of their studies. Areskine , an iatrochemist , became head of

13110-684: Was the first governor of Siberia. Peter was visited by Cornelis de Bruijn , who spent six years in Russia and made drawings of the Kremlin. In 1711, Peter visited elector August II of Poland in Dresden, Carlsbad and Torgau where his son Aleksei married. In 1713 he visited Hamburg, sieged Tönningen with his allies. He then traveled to Hanover and was a guest of Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Salzdahlum . From Danzig he sailed to Riga, Helsingfors and Turku . In 1711, Peter established by decree

13225-453: Was then the capital of the Russian Empire . In 1820, he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila , with much controversy about its subject and style. While at the Lyceum, Pushkin was heavily influenced by the Kantian liberal individualist teachings of Alexander Kunitsyn , whom Pushkin would later commemorate in his poem 19 October . Pushkin also immersed himself in the thought of

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