Peter the Great

On May 30, 1672, Peter Romanov, later to be known as Peter the Great, was born in Moscow. Born into royalty, Peter's grandfather, Michael Romanov, was czar of Russia. Peter had an average sized family which consisted of father, Czar Alexis, and his mother was Natayla Naryshkin. Alexis's second wife, Maria Miloslavsky, had Peter's siblings Feodor III, Sophia Alekseyvna, and Ivan. When Alexis died, Peter, at age 10, was forced to rule alongside his brother Ivan, "under the patronage of his sister Sophia." (cityvision)

As an outcast, Peter spent majority of his childhood in a community of Moscow, which contained acquaintances from the noble families and from the rough social families. Peter had a natural ability to lead and this talent soon became obvious when he organized military games with maneuvers that he later used in life. Peter also built and study shipbuilding on Lake Pereyaslavl. Peter learned the basics of Western military science from European soldiers and explorers who lived in a foreign settlement called Preobrazhenskoye, near Moscow. There he lived with mother, fearing for his safety at all times. At age 17, he married Eudoxia, which was a political movement projected to show that Peter was a grown man who had the right to rule Russia. This marriage didn't last long, because Peter forgot about her and sent her to a convent in 1698.

While Peter made this political movement, Sophia and her assembly tried to use the revolt of the strelsty, to their advantage for a coup d'Ð"©tat, but it only helped Peter gain control to the throne. He romoved Sophia from power and banished her to the Novodevichy convent. Peter still shared the title of Czar with his brother, until Ivan's death in 1696.

Peter continued to build ships and nautical amusements, and also sailed first seaworthy ship built in Russia. Peter's introduction to power started with a great task. Russia was a dominant power, but had no access to the Caspian, Black, or Baltic seas, and this became Peter's main goal for foreign policy.

The first steps taken in this direction were the campaigns of 1695 and 1696, with the object of capturing Azov from the Crimean Tatar vassals of Turkey. On the one hand, these Azov campaigns could be seen as fulfilling Russia's commitments, undertaken during Sophia's regency, to the anti-Turkish "Holy League" of 1684 (Austria, Poland,