彼得大帝 Peter the Great – Reading history between lines

测量仪

Peter was put to throne at the age of 10 when his half brother died in 1682. However his half sister, Sophia, conspired a plot, which succeeded in putting herself as a regent. Peter narrowly escaped and resided in a remote town.

After staying powder in 7 years, Sophia was kicked off the Crown and Peter took powder. How could a teenage, merely 17 years old, compete a regent in powder for 7 years?

More amazingly, after resumed the throne, Peter went to western Europe and spent two years (1696-1698) in western Europe. I really can’t image how could a head of a country spent two whole years outside of this country, considering his half sister still had strong supporters trying to bring her back to powder during this period.


The next crazy thing Peter did was to disband his own army and built a new one consisted of foreigners only.  If it had happened in the modern times, the government would be overthrown. However Peter succeeded in the end.

My sympathy all lies with the Swedish king Charles XII, who eventually lost contest with Russia  


There are quite a few things history has not fully presented to us. I found this period of Russia, in particular, amazingly unbelievable.