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Peter the Great

1672 CE – 1725 CE

Retrace Peter the Great's life across the map — 21 events in chronological order, from a cinematic flythrough to a full timeline.

Life journey

1. Third Russo-Turkish War1686 CE
   The Russo-Turkish War of 1686–1700 was part of the joint European effort to confront the Ottoman Empire. The larger European conflict was known as the Great Turkish War.
2. Azov campaigns1695 CE
   The Azov campaigns of 1695–1696 were two Russian military campaigns during the Russo-Turkish War of 1686–1700, led by Peter the Great and aimed at capturing the Turkish fortress of Azov with the aim of controlling the southern mouth of the Don River gaining access to the Sea of Azov and entrance to the Black Sea. Despite stubborn resistance and heavy casualties, the Russians under General Sheremetev after a failed siege in 1695 managed to capture the fort, accompanied by a naval force, in July 1696, marking the first major Russian victory against the Turks.
3. Great Northern War1700 CE
   In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by Russia successfully contested the supremacy of Sweden in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony-Poland-Lithuania. Frederick IV and Augustus II were defeated by Sweden, under Charles XII, and forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706, respectively, but rejoined it in 1709 after the defeat of Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava. George I of Great Britain and the Electorate of Hanover joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715.
4. Siege of Nöteborg1702 CE
   The siege of Nöteborg was one of the first sieges of the Great Northern War, when Russian forces captured the Swedish fortress of Nöteborg in October 1702. Peter the Great had assembled a force of 20,000 men for this task, and marched for ten days to his destination. About 12,000 of these men were positioned on the banks of the Neva river, where they camped until 6 October (N.S.). On that day, after giving command of the main force to Boris Sheremetev, he moved toward Nöteborg. After the Swedish commander, Wilhelm von Schlippenbach, refused to give up the fort immediately, the Russians began bombarding it. A final Russian assault on the fort was tactically unsuccessful, resulting in heavy casualties, but forced the fort's defenders to surrender on 22 October 1702. After taking control, Peter immediately began reconstructing the fort for his own purposes, renaming it Shlisselburg.
5. Siege of Narva1704 CE
   The siege of Narva, also known as the second battle of Narva, was the second Russian siege of Swedish Narva during the Great Northern War from 8 July to 20 August 1704.
6. Campaign of Grodno1705 CE
   The Campaign of Grodno was a plan developed by Johann Patkul and Otto Arnold von Paykull during the Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a part of the Great Northern War. Its purpose was to crush Charles XII's army with overwhelming force in a combined offensive of Russian and Saxon troops. The campaign, executed by Peter I of Russia and Augustus II of Saxony, began in July 1705 and lasted almost a year. In divided areas the allies would jointly strike the Swedish troops occupied in Poland, in order to neutralize the influence the Swedes had in the Polish politics. However, the Swedish forces under Charles XII successfully outmaneuvered the allies, installed a Polish king in favor of their own and finally won two decisive victories at Grodno and Fraustadt in 1706. This resulted in the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706) in which Augustus renounced his claims to the Polish throne, broke off his alliance with Russia, and established peace between Sweden and Saxony.
7. Bulavin Rebellion1707 CE
   The Bulavin Rebellion was a war which took place in the years 1707 and 1708 between the Don Cossacks and the Tsardom of Russia. Kondraty Bulavin, a democratically elected Ataman of the Don Cossacks, led the Cossack rebels. The conflict was triggered by a number of underlying tensions between the Moscow government under Peter I of Russia, the Cossacks, and Russian peasants fleeing from serfdom in Russia to gain freedom in the autonomous Don area. It started with the 1707 assassination of Prince Yury Vladimirovich Dolgorukov, the leader of Imperial army's punitive expedition to the Don area, by Don Cossacks under Bulavin's command. The end of the rebellion came with Bulavin's death in 1708.
8. Battle of Grodno1708 CE
   The Battle of Grodno (1708) was the first battle of the Swedish invasion of Russia on 26 January 1708, during the Great Northern War. Grodno was a city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at this time.
9. Battle of Lesnaya1708 CE
   The Battle of Lesnaya was fought on 9 October during the Swedish invasion of Russia in the Great Northern War. Russia was the sole remaining enemy of Sweden following the dissolution of the anti-Swedish coalition in 1706. Peter I of Russia led a flying corps, supported by two additional divisions, to destroy a convoy under general Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt that was heading for the Swedish main army in Ukraine with reinforcements and supplies. Peter caught up with the convoy at the village of Lesnaya (Lyasnaya) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, present-day Belarus.
10. Battle of Malatitze1708 CE
    The Battle of Molyatichi, also known as the Battle of Dobroye, took place on August 31, 1708 at Molyatichi during the Great Northern War. The Russian army of Peter the Great under the command of Mikhail Golitsyn launched a surprise attack on the isolated vanguard of Charles XII's Swedish Army, under the direct command of Carl Gustaf Roos, in order to destroy it. Their cavalry was unable to arrive in time to cut Roos' command off before Swedish reinforcements arrived, forcing the Russians to retreat.
11. Battle of Poltava1709 CE
    The Battle of Poltava fought on 8 July 1709, was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. A Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeated a Swedish army commanded by Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld. The battle would lead to the Swedish Empire losing its status as a European great power and also marked the beginning of Russian supremacy in eastern Europe.
12. Treaty of Thorn1709 CE
    Concluded on 9 October 1709, the Treaty of Thorn was an agreement signed in Thorn (Toruń) between Augustus the Strong of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and his counterpart, Peter the Great the Tsar of Russia. Through this agreement, the two parties revived an alliance from an earlier treaty between them in 1699, which their common rival Charles XII of Sweden had dismantled through the 1706 Treaty of Altranstädt. In the 1709 treaty, the two parties agreed to restore the Polish crown to Augustus among various other provisions with different implications for both parties and their respective nations. A close examination of the background to the agreement as well as the terms, implementation, and implications of the Treaty of Thorn underscores its significance in marking the Tsar’s and Russia’s ascendance into a powerful regional player in northeastern Europe.
13. Pruth River Campaign1710 CE
    The Russo-Ottoman War of 1710–1713, also known as the Pruth River Campaign, was a brief military conflict between the Tsardom of Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The main battle took place during 18–22 July 1711 in the basin of the Pruth river near Stănilești after Tsar Peter I entered the Ottoman vassal Principality of Moldavia, following the Ottoman Empire's declaration of war on Russia. The ill-prepared Russians, Cossacks, and Moldavians found themselves surrounded by the Ottoman Army under Grand Vizier Baltacı Mehmet Pasha. After three days of fighting and heavy casualties the Tsar and his army were allowed to withdraw after agreeing to abandon the fortress of Azov and its surrounding territory. The Ottoman victory led to the Treaty of the Pruth which was confirmed by the Treaty of Adrianople.
14. Siege of Vyborg1710 CE
    The siege of Viborg took place in the spring of 1710 during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), as a second attempt by the Russians to capture the fortress port of Viborg, near the modern border between Russia and Finland, after a failed attempt in 1706. After the outbreak of the war, Swedish forces had fortified themselves in the port of Viborg. In order to assure safety for the newly founded city of Saint Petersburg, Peter the Great ordered the Swedish fort to be secured. A first unsuccessful attempt was made in 1706. Later plans were put on hold because of other ongoing conflicts but, after the Russian success at the Battle of Poltava in June 1709, the men and resources were available to capture the town.
15. Battle of Helsinki1713 CE
    The Battle of Helsinki was fought between the Russian army under Tsar Peter the Great and Admiral Fyodor Apraksin and the defending Finnish army of Sweden under General Carl Gustaf Armfeldt between 8 and 11 May 1713, as part of the Great Northern War. It resulted in a Russian victory, leading to the Swedes commanded by Armfelt burning the entire city of Helsinki when retreating. Destroyed after the actual battle, the city changed hands twice more in the following months until it remained permanently in the hands of the Russians.
16. Battle of Gangut1714 CE
    The Battle of Gangut took place on 27 JulyJul./ 7 August 1714Greg. during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), in the waters of Riilahti Bay, north of the Hanko Peninsula, near the site of the modern-day city of Hanko (Hangö), Finland, between the Swedish Navy and Imperial Russian Navy. It was the first important victory of the Russian fleet in its history. It is commemorated in Russia as one of the Days of Military Honour.
17. Treaty of Nystad1721 CE
    The Treaty of Nystad, or the Treaty of Uusikaupunki, was the last peace treaty of the Great Northern War of 1700–1721. It was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and the Swedish Empire on 10 September [O.S. 30 August] 1721 in the then Swedish town of Nystad. Sweden had settled with the other parties in Stockholm and in Frederiksborg (1720).
18. Battle of Derbent1722 CE
    The Battle of Derbent was the occupation of Derbent by the Russian Empire during the Russo-Persian War. It took place in August 1722.
19. Capture of Rasht1722 CE
    Peter the Great's capture of Rasht, occurred between December 1722 and late March 1723 amidst the successful spree of campaigns of Peter the Great during the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723). The capture of Rasht brought the Caspian Sea town alongside the rest of Gilan into Russian possession for a decade, until the Treaty of Resht of 1732, when they would be returned.
20. Russo-Persian War of 1722–231722 CE
    The Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723, known in Russian historiography as the Persian campaign of Peter the Great, was a war between the Russian Empire and Safavid Iran, triggered by the tsar's attempt to expand Russian influence in the Caspian and Caucasus regions and to prevent its rival, the Ottoman Empire, from territorial gains in the region at the expense of declining Safavid Iran.
21. Russian colonisation of Central Asia1839 CE
    In the 16th century, the Tsardom of Russia embarked on a campaign to expand the Russian frontier to the east. This effort continued until the 19th century under the Russian Empire, when the Imperial Russian Army succeeded in conquering all of Central Asia. The majority of this land became known as Russian Turkestan—the name "Turkestan" was used to refer to the area due to the fact that the vast majority of the population was inhabited by Turkic peoples, excluding the Tajiks, who are ethnolinguistically Iranian people; the ethnolinguistic map of the region has not changed significantly since then. Upon witnessing Russia's absorption of the various Central Asian realms, the British Empire sought to reinforce India, triggering the Great Game, which ended when both sides eventually designated Afghanistan as a neutral buffer zone.

Event data from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC-BY-SA). Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].