HISTORY OF RUSSIA PART 1

Slavs in Russia: from 1500 BC
The steppes, which form a broad pathway into southern Russia from central Asia, have been occupied by nomads since distant prehistoric times. By contrast the northern forests, in a region covered by an ice cap until the end of the latest glacial period, only become open to human settlement some 10,000 years ago (see Ice Ages). From about 1500 BC the Slavs, an Indo-European group, settle in the region of Poland and western Russia. Vulnerable to attack along the steppes, they are often dominated by other groups (in particular the Khazars). But they hold their territory until the arrival of Vikings from the north.
Vikings in Russia: from the 9th century
Unusually for the Vikings, trade rather than plunder is the main reason for their penetration deep into Russia during the 9th century AD. The rivers of eastern Europe, flowing north and south, make it surprisingly easy for goods to travel between the Baltic and the Black Sea. One spot is particularly well-favoured as a trading centre. Near Lake Ilmen the headwaters of the Dvina, Dnieper and Volga rivers are close to each other. Respectively they flow into the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Caspian. Goods ferried by water between these important trading regions converge on this area. By the early 9th century Viking tribes known as the Rus have a base on the site of Novgorod.
Although they are not Slavs, there is justice in the Rus giving Russia her name. Their development of trade, particularly down the Dnieper (a route which becomes known as Austrvegr, or the 'Great Waterway'), lays the foundation of the Russian nation. In 882 a Viking leader, Oleg, moves his headquarters down the Dnieper, seizing the town of Kiev. Here, in 911, he negotiates a commercial treaty with the Byzantine empire.
A Viking successor of Oleg's in Kiev, two generations later, describes how this first Russian city is the centre of a triangular trade between civilized Byzantium in the south, the steppe lands in the middle, and the wild forests of the north. In this place 'all goods gather from all parts: gold, clothes, wine, fruits from the Greeks; silver and horses from the Czechs and Hungarians; furs, wax, honey and slaves from the Rus'.
The first Russians: 10th - 11th century
The rulers of Kiev in the 10th century are still Vikings. But as they settle and become more prosperous they begin to seem something new and different - Russians. This is particularly true of Vladimir, who is proclaimed prince of all Russia in 980 after capturing Kiev from a rival. Vladimir's early life is spent in full-blooded pagan style, fighting and wenching (the chronicles credit him with 800 concubines), but in about 988 he takes a step which gives Russia its characteristic identity and brings him personally the halo of a saint. He sends envoys out to discover which is the best religion. Their report persuades him to choose for Russia the Greek Orthodox brand of Christianity.
The new religion is rapidly imposed upon the towns under the control of Vladimir and his family. The inhabitants of Novgorod, the most prosperous of these towns apart from Kiev itself, are forcibly baptized in 989. Vladimir won Kiev in 980 after a fight to the death between himself and various brothers, and the process is repeated after his own death in 1015. His successor, Yaroslav the Wise, is the survivor of five sons of Vladimir. Yaroslav kills the last of them in 1019 and is accepted as grand prince of Kiev.

Vladimir's descendants: 1019-1169
The 35-year reign of Vladimir's son Yaroslav establishes Russia, with its capital at Kiev, as a kingdom in the mainstream of medieval Europe. It also secures the throne for a dynasty which survives in direct descent for six centuries (till the time of Boris Godunov), even though those centuries see much diminution of Russian territory and a shift of power from Kiev to Moscow. Yaroslav turns Kiev into a glorious Christian city in the Byzantine tradition, founding monasteries, adding a spectacular Golden Gate to the town's fortress, and building a cathedral dedicated, like Justinian's great example in Constantinople, to holy wisdom - Santa Sophia.
He also follows Justinian in commissioning a codification of Russia's laws. The legal code known as Russkaya Pravda(Russian Truth) is founded in his reign. On the international stage Yaroslav plays the medieval game of matrimonial diplomacy as assiduously as any of his contemporaries. He marries his three daughters to kings of Norway, France and Hungary. He also has four sons, guaranteeing on past evidence a frenzy of bloodshed after his death. To avoid this Yaroslav devises a code of inheritance. Surprisingly, for two generations at least, it works.
Under Yaroslav's system of inheritance all Russia is to be jointly held by the ruling family. His eldest son is to rule in Kiev, while others are assigned to territories elsewhere. When a prince of Kiev dies, there is to be general post. The next senior brother will move to Kiev, with equivalent adjustments throughout the realm. The principle that brothers take precedence over sons is an essential element of the scheme, for it gives the younger brothers a chance to inherit without risking all in warfare. As a measure of the success of Yaroslav's plan, he is peacefully succeeded by three of his sons in succession over a span of nearly forty years (1054-1093).
After the second generation, with the family structure becoming more diffuse, one line of descent prevails over all the others. It is that of Yaroslav's third son, married to a Greek princess from the imperial family in Constantinople. A little more than a century after Yaroslav's death, cousins in this line of descent are fighting each other for the succession. Kiev, from 1169, is no longer the capital city. There are several reasons: new dangers in the south, threatening Kiev; the independence of Novgorod, granted to the city by Yaroslav himself; and a shift of power towards the north, around Moscow.
The decline of Kiev: 12th - 14th century
Part of Kiev's initial trading advantage has been its access to the wide steppes of eastern Europe and central Asia. But the steppes are also a source of danger. A Russian chronicle of 1054 provides the first mention of the arrival on the steppes of a fiercely marauding group of nomads, the Kipchak Turks (known to the Russians as the Polovtsy). The Kipchaks frequently disrupt Kiev's trade, and it is a weakened city which is conquered in 1169 by a rival member of the royal family based in Vladimir. A greater disaster follows in the form of the Mongols, who destroy the city in 1240. And during the following century holy Kiev, the birthplace of Russian Orthodox Christianity, is annexed by pagan Lithuania.
Independent Novgorod: 1019-1478
The special advantages of Novgorod as a trading centre (linking the Baltic with the fur-rich forests of northern Russia and the developed civilizations of eastern Europe) caused it to be the first important settlement of the Rus. These same advantages continue to bring the town prosperity. Like other great mercantile centres of Europe in the Middle Ages, it acquires the status of a commune. The grand prince Yaroslav, helped to the throne of Kiev in 1019 with the active support of Novgorod, grants the city in that year a charter of self-government.
Novgorod is ruled from 1019 by an assembly of citizens known as the veche. The city still has a prince, whose main function is military. But the prince of Novgorod is selected from the royal family (and on occasion dismissed) by a vote of the veche. In the 13th century, when Kiev has lost its authority, Novgorod asserts a greater degree of independence. From 1270 the veche elect a city magistrate in place of the prince. Executive responsibility lies with the magistrate, but the ultimate authority resides in an abstract civic concept - Gospodin Veliki Novgorod (Lord Novgorod the Great). The city itself is the ruler.
Novgorod is more than a successful market place. It behaves as a sovereign state, marching to war against its neighbours and negotiating treaties. The neigbours of importance are Sweden to the northwest (soundly defeated by Alexander Nevsky on behalf of Novgorod in 1240), Lithuania and Poland to the southwest, and the grand principality of Vladimir, which develops into that of Moscow, to the southeast. From the late 14th century Novgorod is contended for by Poland and Moscow, until the contest is decisively won in 1478 by Moscow.
Vladimir:1157-1252
During the 12th century various princes of the royal dynasty move far northeast from Kiev into the Russian forest, forsaking the easy but insecure terrain of the steppes. In 1157 one of them, Andrew Bogolyubski, makes his capital at Vladimir. He builds a cathedral and several churches in the town and actively colonizes the region, importing craftsmen and peasants. By 1169 he is strong enough to send an army against Kiev. When the old capital city falls to him, he transfers this dignity to Vladimir and assumes the title of grand prince.
In 1238 Vladimir is sacked by the Mongols - a fate shared in the same year by Moscow, a town lying about 120 miles to the west. These are years of alarming pressure from all sides. While the Mongols rampage through the country, Sweden and the Teutonic knights both take the opportunity to converge on Novgorod. They are dramatically seen off by Alexander Nevsky in 1240 (on the ice of the Neva) and in 1242. Alexander, who becomes grand prince of Vladimir in 1252, is as skilful a diplomat as he is a soldier. He saves his inheritance in the same way as his descendants will increase it - by accepting a position of subservience to the Mongols.
The Golden Horde: 1237-1395
Zolotaya Orda, or the Golden Horde, is the name given by Russians to the invading Mongols who sweep through the country from 1237 and who subsequently dominate the region, for nearly two centuries, from their encampments on the lower reaches of the Volga. The phrase is traditionally said to derive from a golden tent used by the horde's leader, Batu Khan. The Mongols, in this Russian context, are also often described by yet another name - the Tatars. Most of the Russian cities of any note are ravaged by the Mongols in the two years between their sacking of Vladmimir and Moscow (1238) and of Kiev (1240). In 1241 the horde returns to the grasslands around the Volga.
From this region the leaders of the Golden Horde control the petty princes of much of Russia - largely by the simple device of treating them as glorified tax collectors. The princes are given free rein in their own territories as long as they deliver sufficient tribute. Batu makes his capital from 1243 at a place on the Volga named after him - Sarai Batu, the 'encampment' of Batu. His brother Berke, succeeding to the leadership in 1255, adopts Islam as the religion of the horde. His capital, Sarai Berke (to the east of modern Volgograd), becomes a thriving city of mosques and public baths, in the central Asian tradition, with some 600,000 inhabitants. It lasts until 1395, when it is destroyed by Timur.
Princes of Moscow: c.1280-1462
The Russian prince who collaborates most fully with the Mongol invaders is Alexander Nevsky. The Mongols appoint him prince of Kiev in 1246 and grand prince of Vladimir in 1252. He energetically assists them in their purpose of carrying out a census of the Russian people. He visits the Golden Horde and keeps close diplomatic links with its leader, Berke Khan. As a result Alexander is able to limit Mongol interference in his own domains. It is a practical policy continued by his descendants.
The main task which the Mongols require of their Russian vassals is the collection of large amounts of tax. In this degrading procedure Alexander's descendants play the leading role, with the right to extract money - often by force - from lesser Russian principalities. By this means the family builds up an unprecedented position of strength within Russia. Their base is now not Vladmir but Moscow, which Alexander's son Daniel makes his headquarters from about 1280.
The pre-eminent position of Moscow is given extra validity in 1326 when the metropolitan (or patriarch) of the Russian Orthodox church transfers his permanent residence from Vladimir. Two years later Alexander's grandson Ivan I is granted by the Mongol khan the title of grand prince of Vladimir, which therefore also becomes transferred to Moscow. During the next half century the grand princes of Moscow steadily increase their territory, until they at last feel in a position to challenge the Mongols.
In 1380 the grand prince Dimitri Donskoi gathers a vast army from all the Russian principalities. Dimitri wins a crushing victory over a Mongol army on the Kulikovo plain near the source of the river Don - hence his honorary name Donskoi. This does little to end the Mongol domination of Russia (indeed a Mongol army sacks Moscow only two years later), but it establishes Moscow incontrovertibly as the leading power among the Russian principalities. The grand princes are now sometimes describing themselves as 'of Moscow and all Russia'. That becomes more than an empty boast during the reign of Ivan III, who succeeds to the throne of Moscow in 1462.
Ivan III: 1462-1505
Ivan III, coming to the throne at the age of twenty-two, is determined to bring all Russian lands under Moscow's control and to liberate Russia from the Mongol yoke. His greatest prize will be the rich and independent territory to the northwest, the commercial empire of Novgorod. In an invasion in 1471 he appropriates several of Novgorod's colonies. Finally, in 1478, he brings to an abrupt end the merchant city's long-standing independence. The veche, or city council, has refused to acknowledge his sovereignty. The veche bell, symbol of their freedom, is removed from its tower. The direct authority of Moscow is imposed upon the city.
With this matter resolved, Ivan takes an important next step. In 1480, for the first time in more than 200 years, the grand prince of Russia refuses to pay the annual tribute of tax to the Golden Horde. The Mongol khan marches against Moscow but withdraws without a fight. This important symbolic moment enables Ivan III to present himself internationally as the free sovereign of an independent state. Russia's image of herself has also been provided recently with another glittering opportunity, which Ivan and his descendants make much of.
The Third Rome: 15th century
The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 severs the ancient link, dating back to Constantine, between a Christian emperor and the Greek Orthodox church. The church survives now only in a state of subjection to the infidel. But the Russian Orthodox church - headed by the metropolitan and the grand prince in Moscow - is in fine fettle. It can be seen as a renewal of the Byzantine Christian empire, just as that in its time was a development of the pagan empire of Rome.
Thus there develops the concept of the third Rome. The first fell to barbarians and to the Roman Catholic heresy. The second, Constantinople, is in the hands of Turks. The third, Moscow, becomes the centre of the Christian world. The theory is made even more persusasive by Ivan III's marriage in 1472 to the only female relative (a niece) of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI. A Russian monk writes in 1512 to Ivan's son, Vasili III, expressing Profound satisfaction at this situation. In the next reign, that of Vasili's son Ivan the Terrible, the Russians begin calling their monarch tsar - or Caesar.

Ivan the Terrible: 1547-1584

The grand prince Vasili dies when his son Ivan is only three. In the next few years the child is at the centre of a violent struggle between factions of boyars - Russia's landed nobility, drawn from a small number of families (about 200) who take for granted a position of influence in the council of any grand prince of Moscow.

The young Ivan's experience of the boyars shapes his subsequent determination to clip the wings of Russia's nobility by creating a strong centralized state - though this is a policy shared, admittedly, by any 16th-century monarch who has the strength to attempt it.

Ivan IV is crowned at the age of sixteen, in 1547, taking the title tsar rather than grand prince. Three weeks later he marries Anastasia, from one of the great boyar families. (Her father's name is Roman. When Anastasia's great-nephew is elected tsar, in 1613, his dynasty becomes known as the Romanovs.)

Ivan is a man of piety who rules with ferocious severity. In his old age he sends money to monasteries with a list of 3000 people for whom the monks are to pray; the names are of men he has executed. Understandably he earns the name Terrible. The Russian word grozny is closer to Awe-Inspiring, but in a reign such as this awe and terror are akin.
 
While strengthening the administration, Ivan lays plans to increase Russia's territory and trade. To the east his main concern is to extend the dominance of his grandfather, Ivan III, over the Tatar khans. Three separate Tatar regions are brought under control. In 1552 Ivan marches into Kazan, on the upper reaches of the Volga; four years later he annexes Astrakhan, the area through which the great river flows into the Caspian. The Volga becomes wholly Russian.

Close to the end of Ivan's reign, in 1581, the khanate of western Siberia is conquered - beginning a process of imperial expansion which, in less than 100 years, brings the Russian frontier to the Pacific.


Livonian War: 1558-1583

Ivan's policies are less successful in the west. Here his ambition is to trade with western Europe through the Baltic. Since the seizure of Novgorod in 1478, Moscow has had access to the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland. But down the Baltic coast, in Livonia, there are established commercial towns and harbours. The weakness of the Teutonic Knightsin the mid-16th century makes these desirable outlets seem a tempting acquisition.

In 1558 Ivan invades the region, launching the 25-year Livonian War. In spite of initial successes, it brings Russia nothing but expense and aggravation.


The war ranges Poland and Sweden against Russia, in what can be seen as an early bout in a long battle for the Baltic. When peace is finally signed - with Poland in 1582, with Sweden in 1583 - the tsar has to cede all the early gains he has made in Livonia. He even loses to Sweden some of Russia's territory on the Gulf of Finland.

Shortly before the end of this conflict, in 1581, Ivan the Terrible deals himself his own worst blow. In a family quarrel he strikes and mortally wounds his heir and favourite son, also called Ivan. As a result he is succeeded in 1584 by a somewhat inadequate younger son, Fedor I.

Boris Godunov: 1584-1605

Knowing that his son Fedor is feeble-minded, Ivan IV appoints two guardians to act as regents. One is Boris Godunov. A member of a Tatar family, whose ancestors arrived in Russia with the Golden Horde, he is given the status of boyar in 1580 when Ivan chooses Boris's sister Irina to be the bride of Fedor. So Boris is brother-in-law as well as guardian to the new tsar, when he succeeds his father in 1584.

Early in Fedor's reign there is some support for another son of Ivan's - an infant, by the name of Dimitri, born in the year of the tsar's death. His existence would be insignificant but for its provoking, some twenty years later, a trio of pretenders - the false Dimitris.
To nip rebellion in the bud, Boris Godunov exiles the infant and his mother to Uglich. There Dimitri dies at the age of seven, in 1591. Rumour has often pointed to Boris as his murderer, but there is no clear evidence of this - and the three subsequent pretenders deny even the death of the child.

During Fedor's reign Boris rules with complete confidence, as if he were himself the tsar. Towns lost to Sweden in 1583 are recovered. The new Russian presence in Siberia is strengthened. A measure to increase rural stability has less good effects; Boris denies to the peasants any right of transferring their labour from one landowner to another. He thus introduces the serfdom in Russia which prevails until 1861.



After Fedor I dies childless in 1598, Boris is elected tsar by the zemski sobor (land assembly). This council, similar to the estates general in other countries, is an innovation of Ivan IV who first summons it in 1549. In Russia there are four constituent parts, meeting separately - the church, the boyars, other landowners, and freemen from certain cities.

Although Boris is elected by the full assembly, there is opposition to him among the boyars. He has continued Ivan IV's policy of restraining their power, and he is personally resented as an upstart. As a result there is some support from the boyars, in 1604, for the first of the false Dimitris.

False Dimitris and other troubles: 1604-1613

In 1603 a minor Russian nobleman arrives in Poland and lets it be known that he is Dimitri, son of Ivan IV and the rightful heir to the throne in Moscow. He convinces almost everyone, thanks to a blend of gullibility and a Polish inclination to interfere in Russian affairs. In August 1604 he marches into Russia with an army.

The pretender has some early successes, reinforced by the reluctance of many boyars to destroy any enemy of Boris Godunov. But his real stroke of good fortune comes with the sudden death of Boris in April 1605. Two months later Boris's widow and young son are murdered. The pretender enters Moscow to general acclamation as the rightful tsar.

The false Dimitri cannot long convince Moscow's grandees, and his foreign retinue gives offence. In May 1606 he is assassinated in the Kremlin - an event followed by the butchering of some 2000 foreigners in the streets of Moscow.

In 1607 a second Dimitri emerges. This time nobody believes him, but it suits many to join his campaign. With an army of Poles, Cossacksand discontented Russians he nearly reaches Moscow in 1608 - and again in 1610, before he is murdered later in that year. A third Dimitri is acclaimed tsar in 1612 by a mob of Cossacks rampaging around Moscow. Within months he is captured and executed in the city.



This anarchy, particularly in the period from 1610 to 1613, becomes known in Russian history as the 'time of troubles'. It is an anarchy which Russia's neighbours hope to turn to their advantage.

Sigismund III of Poland has designs on the tsarist throne; in 1610 a Polish army is invited into Moscow by one Russian faction. Another faction seeks Swedish support, offering the crown to the brother of Gustavus II. In the autumn of 1612 a Russian army with Swedish sympathies advances on Moscow. The Poles in the city withdraw into the impregnable Kremlin.
 
This impasse finally unites the rival factions. The Poles capitulate and leave Moscow. The Russians at last agree on a national candidate for the throne.

During the troubles the 17-year-old Michael Romanov has been in hiding with his mother in a monastery near Kostroma. The young man has distinguished family connections. His great-aunt was Anastasia, first wife of Ivan the Terrible. In March 1613 a message reaches the monastery: a zemski soborhas elected Michael as tsar. It is the beginning of the Romanov dynasty.



Expansion to the east: 1613-1676

The reigns of the first two Rom tsars (Michael 1613-45, Alexis 1645-76) are notable chiefly for the rapid expansion of Russian territory to the east. There is also one significant gain in the west, when Kiev and a large part of Ukraine is ceded by Poland - but this is largely the result of an uprising by the Cossacks in the region.

The Cossacks also play a large part in Russia's drive to the east. The pattern is for Cossack bands to press into new regions of Siberia, as yet occupied only by tribes of hunters. The Cossacks establish fortified settlements and demand tribute for Moscow from the local people


There is nothing surprising about this to the native Siberians. TheMONGOL  have previously been here, collecting tribute in the same way, and the tribute is now paid to Russia in the same currency - fur. The furs of Siberia become a major part of Moscow's trade with the nations of Europe.

The speed of advance across these open but inhospitable regions is astonishing. At the start of the Romanov era, in 1613, there are Russian outposts as far as the Yenisei river (1750 miles east of Moscow). The Lena river (another 1000 miles east) is reached in 1630, and the Pacific coast (750 miles further) in 1649. the next century Vitus Bering explores the Siberian coast up into the Arctic Circle (see Bering's voyages).

From the start the Russian authorities find a secondary use for Siberia, as a place of enforced exile in appalling conditions. One of the first to suffer this very Russian punishment is the leader of the rebels in the doctrinal crisis which splits the Russian Orthodox church during the 17th century.

He is Avakkum Petrovich, whose offence is to reject the reforms introduced by Nikon, the patriarch of Moscow.


Russian Orthodoxy and the Old Believers: 1652-1667

The only major schism within Russian Orthodoxy is created almost single-handedly by an energetic monk who is appointed patriarch of Moscow and all Russia in 1652. He is Nikita Minin, who becomes known by the single name Nikon.

From early in the Romanovdynasty there has been a reform movement within the Russian church, attempting to correct the ritual wherever it has deviated over the centuries from the Greek Orthodox example. Nikon is an enthusiastic reformer, and as a close friend of the tsar (Alexis) he has almost unlimited power to insist on changes.
 
Many of the errors which Nikon discovers and corrects seem trivial. Russians have been crossing themselves with two fingers where they should have used three; conversely they have been singing three alleluias where they should have sung two. But by 1655 the patriarch is going further. He sets about removing from churches and homes any icons which show the holy figures in an incorrect manner.

By 1656 there is such vocal opposition to the new measures that Nikon excommunicates all who reject his reforms. But well before this he has used simpler methods to silence his opponents.


From the start of the reforms it is clear that Nikon's chief opponent is the priest Avvakum Petrovich. In 1653 Avvakum is banished to Tobolsk in Siberia. He is subsequently sent even further east, to the Lena river. It is ten years before he is recalled to Moscow.

By then the tsar has had enough of Nikon's autocratic ways and has dismissed him. But his reforms are retained, with the result that the dissidents eventually become a separate sect known as the Old Believers (Raskolniki). They themselves later split into the Popovtsi, who establish a church hierarchy of their own, and the more radical Bezpopovtsi, who survive to this day without either priests or sacraments.


The schism becomes final when a church council of 1666-7 offers no concessions, opting instead for a policy of continuing persecution.

Avvakum is sent to imprisonment in a small fort within the Arctic Circle, near Naryan-Mar. Here he spends the last fourteen years of his life writing books. They include the first Russian autobiography, entitled simply Zhitie (Life). In a racy and colourful style, which has made his book a classic of early Russian literature, Avakkum describes the battle to defend the old rites - together with the bitter experiences of the first Russian author to suffer exile in Siberia.


Boyhood of Peter the Great: 1676-1689

The death of the tsar Alexis, in 1676, is followed by a struggle between two halves of his family. His many children by his first wife include a talented daughter, Sophia, and two extremely feeble sons. The elder, Fedor, is merely sickly; the younger, Ivan, is mentally deficient.

By his second wife, Natalia Naryshkina, Alexis has a vigorous and bright child, Peter, who is only four when the tsar dies in 1676. For a few years the rivalry between the families is muted, because Fedor III is the obvious heir and is capable of ruling. But he dies, at the age of twenty, in 1682.










The unsuitability of Ivan for the throne causes a zemski sobor in Moscow to proclaim Peter as tsar. But Sophia and her relations contrive to turn an uprising by the dissatisfied household troops, the Streltsy, against the family of Peter's mother, the Naryshkin - many of whom are killed in a palace massacre.

The result is an agreement that Ivan V and Peter I shall be joint tsars, with Sophia acting as regent. Sophia sends Peter, now aged ten, out of Moscow to live with his mother in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. An important influence in the boy's life proves to be a nearby settlement where foreigners are allowed to live. He is fascinated by news of a wider world than Russia.


By 1689, when Peter is seventeen, Sophia faces the likelihood of losing her status as regent. She fosters a new plan by the Streltsy to wipe out the Naryshkin clan and with them the young tsar. This time the Naryshkin are able to foil the plot and to take control of Moscow themselves.

Sophia is confined to a convent. Peter comes into his inheritance, nominally at first as co-tsar - until his half-witted half-brother, Ivan V, dies in 1696.



Azov: 1695-1696

Peter's first military campaigns indicate vividly the character of the man. He is irked, like his predecessors, by Russia's lack of a port on any sea (except the White Sea in the north, frozen for much of the year). He selects the fortified town of Azov as a suitable target. If he can take this from the Crimean Tatars, it will give him access to the sea of Azov and thus to the Black Sea. As the Tatars are Muslim vassals of the Turks, he will also be striking a blow for Christendom.

In the summer of 1695 he leads a large Russian army to the south. For two months they besiege Azov without success. By the end of November the young tsar is back in Moscow.


Peter's reaction to this total failure is characteristic. He organizes a rapid and astonishing response, gathering some 26,000 craftsmen and labourers in and around Voronezh. This is a town in a forested region on a tributary of the river Don, which reaches the sea at Azov. During the winter of 1695-6 Peter's labourers fell trees, drag them to new timber yards, saw them into planks and assemble them into ships. The tsar, in whose childhood the pleasures of carpentry and boating have featured prominently, now toils in the yards alongside his work force.

By April two warships, four fire-ships, twenty-three galleys and many smaller boats are ready for launching.
 
In mid-May the tsar and his fleet set off downstream towards Azov. This time, when they reach the fortress, Russian naval power prevents Turkish relief from arriving by water. In July Azov surrenders.

This brilliant revenge for last year's failure gives Peter more ambitious ideas. He decides to visit the most powerful European nations to enlist support against the Turks. At the same time he will be able to oberve at first hand details of western technology which may be of use to Russia. The proposed expedition becomes known as the Grand Embassy.


The Grand Embassy: 1697-1698

The Grand Embassy, led by three official ambassadors and consisting of some 250 people, leaves Moscow in March 1697. Peter sometimes adopts the semi-anonymous role of Petr Mikhailhov, a Russian sailor, but often - when there are negotiations to conduct or military establishments to inspect - he admits to being the tsar.

He works for four months as a ship's carpenter in the dockyards of the Dutch East India Company at Saardam. Perhaps there he manages to preserve his disguise. But in England, where he also spends time in the dockyard at Deptford, his identity is well known. He rents the house of John Evelyn, who notes in his diary some of the Tsar's engagements in the spring of 1698.


It becomes all too evident during Peter's travels that he has no chance of putting together an alliance against Turkey. The nations of Europe are preparing for a conflict on their own territory, now seen to be inevitable, when the childless king of Spain dies.

With this established, Peter again demonstrates his flexibility and resolution. If he cannot secure his new port on the Sea of Azov, perhaps he can win a much more valuable presence on the Baltic. Russia's access to that sea is blocked by Sweden. But Sweden's Charles IX has just died, in 1697. He has been succeeded by a 15-year-old.
 
As soon as he is back in Moscow, in 1698, Peter begins negotiations to make peace with Turkey. While they progress, secret discussions are held between Denmark, Poland and Russia to form an alliance against Sweden.

On 8 August 1700 the message reaches Peter that peace has been concluded with Turkey (it does not even involve the return of Azov). The very next day the Russian army is given new orders - to march into Livonia, the Swedish province which lies between Russia and the Baltic. It is the beginning of Russia's involvement in the long Northern War which will leave the country transformed, twenty-one years later, into a major European power.