Why did the Grand Embassy of Peter I go to Europe and what did the police officer Peter Mikhailov do on the trip?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The history of Russia was turned upside down - or vice versa - by the eighteen months that Peter I spent in Europe. And now it already seems that the tsar went abroad precisely for the sake of such historical changes written down in textbooks. But what really drove the young ruler, who, in the absence of education, experience and even the slightest serious plan of action, embarked on this long journey? The fact that throughout the history of mankind influences the actions of the great more than logic and calculation. This is a real passion that defies division into paragraphs and paragraphs, the one that gave Peter the energy to change the history of Russia.

State of affairs at the time of departure

On March 9, 1697 (or rather 7205 - after all, the chronology was still conducted "from the creation of the world"), the Great Embassy started from Moscow towards the Baltic States. Peter was twenty-five; he had already managed to learn all the delights of state intrigues, saw riots and their cruel suppression, knew how to fear for his own and his mother's life, and knew how to frighten enemies with the loss of their own lives.

Peter was born in 1672, he was the first child of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from Natalia Naryshkina and the fourteenth of all the official children of the sovereign. For a long time, Peter's elder brothers were contenders for the throne, and after his proclamation as tsar, together with his brother Ivan, Sophia ruled the country as regent, and therefore his childhood passed away from the capital, and the boy was left to himself and his games.

By the time the Embassy set off, the tsar had already ruled the state for eight years and had buried his mother, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, who had a great influence on her son, for three years. He was married to Evdokia Lopukhina, who gave birth to two sons - the youngest, Alexander, died in infancy, and the eldest, Alexei, would be destined to die later due to the anger of his father.

Young Peter could hardly be called a strategist ruler, or a thoughtful politician building complex schemes of interaction in the diplomatic arena. Peter never received a good education, but from a young age he was sociable, knew how to find a common language with a variety of people, and besides that, constantly strived for new skills, abilities, which eventually led him to the main, perhaps, passion of his whole life. At the age of about fifteen, he found an old English boat in one of the barns in Izmailovo. Tested in the waters of the Yauza River, this ship was then sent to Lake Pleshcheyevo, where Peter was already doing his new favorite job with might and main - creating amusing regiments and a funny flotilla, arranging either games or military exercises, completely immersing himself in the process and involving everyone in it. who was at hand.

The boy who raved about shipbuilding

At that time, the only seaport of Russia was in Arkhangelsk, and the tsar, who finally became ill with the fleet and navigation, made several small trips from there on yachts. Then he set as his goal to get new outlets to the sea - and approached this goal, taking the Azov fortress in 1696. But since the Kerch Strait remained under the control of the Ottomans, it was required to free the waters of the Black Sea from Turkish control. In the north, Peter studied the possibility of gaining access to the Baltic shores.

Everyone knows how the Great Embassy ended and what changes it brought to the life of the Russian state. The calendar, European dress, shaving of beards, many innovations in the system of public administration, new names of departments and positions - it seems that the tsar conscientiously carried out his plan. But if you try to take a closer look at Peter the man, and not a political figure, you can see in this journey a lot of sentimental and even youthful, adolescent.

He set off under the name of Peter Mikhailov - incognito. Not that someone was misled by such a conspiracy - the appearance of the Russian tsar was too noticeable, and Peter was not going to hide his identity. But his unofficial status allowed him to deviate from the observance of various ceremonies and feel much freer on the trip, being not bound by the protocol. In total, the embassy numbered more than two dozen nobles and more than three dozen volunteers, those who were supposed to adopt the wisdom of European masters and then apply them at home. Among the plenipotentiary ambassadors was Franz Lefort of the German Quarter, a Swiss, whose authority was unshakable for Peter from the early childhood of the tsar. The tsar owed Lefort both his active character, which required mastering all new skills, and his interest in everything Western, and even his acquaintance with Anna Mons, his first serious love.

The girl from the German settlement, the daughter of a wine merchant, was much dearer to Peter's heart than the daughter of the boyar Lopukhin. Going to the world where the main woman of his life was from at that time was an additional incentive to visit European countries. Even before leaving for Europe, Peter made an attempt to tonsure Evdokia as a nun, but then it failed.

Of course, the diplomatic tasks of the Embassy could not be relegated to the background - during the trip Peter had a chance to meet with many rulers of different lands, and in a year and a half the Embassy concluded a number of agreements and alliances that predetermined Russia's foreign policy for the near future. Peter solved the Polish question by supporting the Saxon Elector August II and having achieved his election as King of Poland, made friends with William III of Orange, and reached agreements with Austria. The tsar made a vivid impression on the ladies of the European high society. The wife of the Hanoverian elector spoke so in her letter about Peter: "".

Upon closer examination of the journey of "Peter Mikhailov" through European countries, at every step one sees not so much ladies as ships, shipbuilding, shipyards and the navy.

Embassy route

From Moscow, the embassy went to Livonia, to the Baltic states. In Riga, at that time a Swedish city, Petra was interested in the fortress, but the governor did not give permission to inspect it. So the city has earned from the king the nickname "cursed place". But in Mitava, the capital of the Duchy of Courland, the guests were given a much warmer welcome. Further, the route planned in advance changed - the visit to Austria lost its relevance, since the treaty of alliance against the Ottomans that Russia needed had already been signed by Ambassador Nefimonov.

Then Peter independently went by sea to Konigsberg, where he met with the Elector Frederick III. The Embassy itself arrived a few days later. Then the path lay to Holland. There was something to negotiate about, Russia needed support in creating an anti-Turkish coalition. But still, the king spent a huge amount of time in the shipyards - first in the city of Zaandam, where they built small merchant ships. Then Peter, striving to master the process of creating large ships, obtained permission to work at the shipyards of the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam. For this, a new ship was laid, and the king was able to participate in the construction process from the very beginning.

On November 16, 1697, the frigate "Peter and Paul" was launched. Peter was somewhat disappointed with the Dutch art of building ships: all the craftsmen based their work only on personal experience, without using drawings, without a theoretical basis. For her, the king went to England. There Peter spent time from January to April 1698, there, together with William III of Orange, he took part in the spectacle of a training naval battle with 12 large ships. In England, the king studied the theoretical foundations of shipbuilding.

In May, Peter finally went to Vienna. The visit to Venice and Rome had to be canceled, as news of the archers' uprising came from Russia, and the tsar decided to return. The riot was suppressed while Peter was on the road. The Grand Embassy ended not only and not so much with the agreements reached - the tsar realized that the Europeans were guided not by abstract ideals with the support of certain powers, but rather by their own practical benefits. They returned to Russia having bought a huge amount of equipment - primarily what was required to launch shipyards - carpentry tools, sailcloth, cloth, as well as weapons, navigation devices, medical instruments and various "curiosities".

In Arkhangelsk, ships arrived with foreign specialists invited to work in Russia - a total of about nine hundred people. Nobles and volunteers visited many workshops of European masters, studied the basics of construction, medicine, and various applied sciences. All this huge baggage of knowledge and technology was just waiting in the wings to begin to transform the Moscow way of life that dominated the country for centuries. But Peter's main acquisition was his skills in the field of shipbuilding and management of sea vessels, their equipment using the latest technologies for that time.

In August 1698 the embassy returned to Moscow. In a few days, Peter will finally get rid of his hated wife, sending her to the Suzdal-Pokrovsky Monastery, in two years he will change the chronology in Russia, in five years the construction of a new capital will begin on the swampy shores of the Gulf of Finland. Later, Peterhof will also appear - the second Versailles, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, overlooking the sea horizons.

Peter, no doubt, was Great, but did he become so already during his journey to foreign European lands? Or did following his dream make him a real innovator and creator? In any case, love for the sea and for shipping was also manifested among his followers, who not only continued Peter's work on the development of the Russian fleet, but also supported a separate phenomenon in the history of Russian shipbuilding - imperial yachts.