This chapter comes from The Story of the World, Vol. III, by Susan Wise Bauer, ©2004 Peace Hill Press. Reproduction or distribution in any format is strictly prohibited.

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Chapter 17: Russia Looks West

Peter the Great

If English farmers and European philosophers lived in the West, and the people of Japan and China lived in the East, who lived in the middle?

The Russians!

The enormous country of Russia lay between the Western countries of Europe and the Eastern countries of Asia. In medieval times, Russia was much more Eastern than Western. Russian men wore long, eastern robes and beards. Russian women didn’t mingle with men; they stayed in separate rooms and wore veils. And Russia’s kings, called czars, ruled with absolute power, like the emperors of China and the shoguns of Japan.

But then a young man of seventeen took control—and turned his gaze to the West.

Peter I, who became known as “Peter the Great,” became Czar of Russia in 1682, one year after William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania. The young czar was only ten, so his older sister Sophia took control of the royal palace in Moscow and ruled as his regent. Peter was sent to the country, where he spent hours climbing trees, roaming through the fields—and playing war games. He divided his friends into regiments and gave them uniforms, flags, and drums. When Peter was eleven, he was allowed to use real cannons in his war games!

Meanwhile, Sophia ordered Russian troops into battle, had herself painted wearing the crown of the czars, and behaved more and more as though she were the real czar of Russia. When Peter was seventeen, Sophia tried to convince her royal guard to attack Peter and his mother in their country home. But the royal guard refused! They had grown tired of Sophia andher tyranny. Instead, the royal guard swore allegiance to Peter, the rightful czar of Russia. Sophia, frightened of her brother, fled to a convent—where she would spend the rest of her life.

Now Peter was truly czar of Russia!

Peter had always been fascinated by the West. But not very many Europeans traveled to Russia, and those who settled in Russia lived apart from the Russians, in special colonies for “foreigners.” Peter had spent hours in these colonies, talking to the Westerners who lived there. He had even found an old, rotten English sailboat in a shed—and was fascinated by it. Peter wanted ships like the English had. He wanted to build a navy that could sail to Europe. He wanted a fleet of merchant ships that could take Russian honey, wax and furs to Europe, and bring back all the luxuries of the West for Russians to enjoy.

But Peter knew that Russia would never be able to visit the West without a good port for ships to sail in and out of. Russia’s northern coast was so cold and icy that ships couldn’t even reach it for most of the year. And Peter’s only port city, the city of Archangel, was so far north that it was frozen solid for half the year. During the cold dark Arctic winters, the sun only rose for five short hours a day. And the air was so cold that if you spat on the ground, your spit would freeze before it landed!

Russia needed a warmer port, and Peter had his eye on one: the port of Azov. The Sea of Azov led right into the Black Sea, which led to the Mediterranean. Azov belonged to the Ottoman Turks, but Peter was sure that the Russian army could defeat the Turks in battle and claim Azov for Russia.

So Peter marched his army down to Azov and laid a siege around the fortress that protected the port. He wrote out a demand for surrender, attached it to an arrow, and ordered an archer to shoot it into the city. But the Turks simply laughed at Peter’s demand. Peter soon saw why. Turkish ships could sail right into Azov to bring food and weapons to the Turks inside the fortress. Meanwhile, the Russians camped outside the walls began to run out of food and ammunition. And the weather was growing colder. A savage winter was coming!

Peter realized that he would never be able to capture Azov unless he could stop Turkish ships from reaching it. So he withdrew his army and ordered his men to build twenty-five warships and hundreds of barges—all before spring! The Russian soldiers labored all winter, building this huge fleet and learning to sail it. When spring came, the brand-new Russian navy drove away the Turkish galleys that arrived to save Azov. Meanwhile, Russian soldiers began to build a pile of rubble high against Azov’s walls. When the mound was high enough, soldiers poured over it into the fortress. The Turks waved their turbans in surrender. Azov had fallen!

Now Peter had his port. He still couldn’t trade freely with the West, because the Ottoman Turks also guarded the strait, or narrow place, that led out of the Sea of Azov toward the Mediterranean. Peter planned to drive the Turks away from this strait too. Then, his path to the West would be open!

But Peter needed help if he was going to keep on fighting against the Turks. So he decided to visit Europe. He would be able to see how Western countries ran their navies and their trading companies. And he would try to convince the nations of Europe to join with him in war against the Ottoman Turks. He would be the first Russian czar to travel to the West.

Peter collected an enormous group of noblemen, officials, servants, soldiers, and sailors into an expedition and set off for the West. He planned to visit Poland, just to the west of Russia, and then to travel on through Germany, Holland, and England. His journey took a year and half! Peter spent months learning all about the accomplishments of Western countries. In Prussia, he studied gunnery for weeks. In Holland, Peter worked at the docks of the East India Company, in Amsterdam, for four whole months. When he visited England, he spent another four months working in English docks. He visited the Tower of London and the Mint. He listened to the meetings of the Royal Society. He even went to a Quaker meeting and met William Penn! (But afterward he remarked to one of his courtiers, “What use is a bunch of men who won’t fight for their country?”)

The Westerners who met the Czar of Russia admired his curiosity and his quick brain, but they also thought he seemed savage and foreign. He drank a lot: brandy, vodka, wine, beer, and more. His clothes were patched, darned, and not too clean. He punched and kicked his friends and advisors if they displeased him. He even made one of his aides eat an entire tortoise, just for fun. “One could wish,” wrote one aristocratic German lady who met Peter at a ball, “that his manners were a little less rustic….One can see also that he has had no one to teach him how to eat properly.”

Peter returned to Russia full of new ideas. He shaved off his beard, so that he would look more Western. Then he ordered his noblemen, called boyars, to shave their beards too. He thought that all those Russian beards made them look too old-fashioned and too eastern.

Russian noblemen hated this idea. They didn’t want to look like Europeans! Many believed that their beards symbolized a special relationship with God. Some were even afraid that they wouldn’t be able to get into heaven without beards—so they kept the shaved beards in special bags, hoping to put the beards in their coffins. But Peter was adamant. He carried a pair of scissors with him everywhere. If he saw a nobleman with a beard, he would begin to cut it off!

Peter also ordered his noblemen to wear Western clothes. If he saw a courtier with a long Eastern tunic, he used his scissors to hack off its bottom and its flowing sleeves! He also wanted women to take off their veils and mingle with men at social gatherings. He even wanted them to have tutors and be educated like men.

But although Peter hoped to make Russians look and act more Western, he didn’t want them to be Westerners. Western philosophers in countries such as France and Spain were insisting that all men and women were equal—and that rulers, even czars, shouldn’t have the power to do exactly as they pleased. Peter didn’t want Russia to become that Western!

Peter’s Port to the West

Peter’s journey to Europe was a success—he learned all about the countries of the West. But it was also a failure—because he couldn’t convince England and Holland to join him in a war against the Turks. Peter owned the Port of Azov, but he still couldn’t get into the Mediterranean. And now Peter had eighty-six warships—with nowhere to go!

Peter knew that if he kept on fighting the Turks without help, he would probably lose. He studied his maps, looking for another clear path to Europe. But the only other way to send his ships to Europe would be to launch them into the Baltic Sea.

Unfortunately, Sweden owned the shores of the Baltic!

So Peter declared war on Sweden. Sweden’s neighbor, Denmark-Norway, joined with him. Once, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden had all been ruled by one king—but Sweden had broken away, and now was growing larger, stronger—and greedier. The people of Denmark-Norway hoped that, together with Russia, they could …