Peter the Great

Emperor of Russia
Lived: 1672 - 1725

§ Background:
Peter was born the fourth son of the Tsar Alexey I. After the death of his father and older brother, at the age of 10 he became co-tsar with his sickly half-brother, Ivan, under the regency of their sister Sophia Alexeevna. Apparently Peter was quite the terror in his teens. He had utter contempt for religious and political ceremony, combined with almost limitless energy and a capacity for alcohol. At 17 he had the regent (his elder sister) arrested on charges of conspiring against him and had her locked in a convent, where she would stay for the rest of her life. He took total control of the empire, his brother Ivan no more than a figurehead.
§ In addition to drinking, carousing, and political intrigue, young Peter was also fascinated by military affairs. In 1695, he ordered the army to move against the Turks. Astonishingly, he didn't command his forces in the field, instead choosing to act as an lowly artilleryman. The Russian forces emerged victorious and within a year had captured the vital port of Azov.
§ Several years later, Peter set off on a tour of Europe. He spent 16 months traveling incognito through Germany, Holland, England and Austria, at one time working as a shipwright in England and Holland. Peter learned a lot during his trip, and he later hired many western craftsmen, engineers, soldiers, sailors, architects and artists to help modernize Russia. Once home, Peter adopted many European customs, including a mandate that beards were to be shaved off at court, which was a great controversy that nearly caused a revolt with the Boyars.
§ Despite his love of European culture, Peter remained a drunken, overbearing bully, whose practical jokes stopped just short of outright torture. (Or perhaps went a little over the line.) Foreign observers noted with horror that at a state dinner Peter had one of his cronies hold another tight, pinning his arms and forcing his mouth open. The victim was known to hate salads and especially vinegar; Peter jammed salad into his mouth and down his throat and then poured vinegar up his nose until it bled.
§ Peter liked to force his guests - including foreign diplomats - to drink until they passed out, then wake them up an hour later and force them to drink more. He once woke a group of extremely inebriated men up in the middle of the night, gave them axes and demanded that they help him cut down trees to make a path to the seashore.
§ In 1700 Russia went to war against Sweden. But, Gustavus Aldolphus, the Swedish King, proved more cunning to him, striking Peter's army before it was prepared, capturing much of the Russian artillery in the process. In response Peter demanded that all of the bells in Moscow (including church bells) be melted down to make cannons. He also confiscated church treasure to fuel the war effort. The war dragged on, but in 1709 the Swedish forces were decisively defeated, and Russia gained parts of Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.
§ Peter's home life did not go particularly well. In 1698 his wife was implicated in a plot to overthrow him; he divorced her and sent her off to yet another convent. In 1712 he married his mistress, Martha Skavronsky, a former Lithuanian servant and previously the mistress of a bevey of other Russian nobles. She gave him four children. In 1718 the tsar's oldest son Alexey was imprisoned for suspected treason and died under torture.
§ Upon his death Peter was buried in Saint Petersburg, the vital port and Russian capital, which he established in 1703, in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Presumably under the heaviest rock they could find.