On This Day In History: Tsar Peter The Great Opens New Chapter in Russia’s History – On Mar 19, 1697
MessageToEagle.com – On March 19, 1697, Tsar Peter the Great left Moscow to travel to Western Europe. He was the first Tsar to leave his country in peacetime and ‘opened a window into Europe’.
On his return Russia would never be the same and the West would become a model for changes to come.
The Grand Embassy, lead by Peter, comprised of around 250 people and its first aim was to strengthen and expand the union between Russia and Europe in the fight against Turkey.
They traveled through Germany, Holland and Austria and throughout this fascinating journey Peter I collected knowledge of western technology and hired thousands of craftsmen, engineers, military personnel, architects and painters to take back to Russia.
He met King William III of England and visited Oxford University and the Greenwich Observatory. As well as English royals at the Royal Mint, he met Isaac Newton.
He attended sessions of the English parliament and talked with church bishops and politicians and other prominents people. Traveling in disguise, Peter I sought technological innovations and inventions, especially in shipbuilding. He observed and even worked in dockyards and visited cannon foundries, schools, museums, factories and medical practices.
But his diplomatic mission was unsuccessful as Europe was too preoccupied with the Spanish and French wars to worry about problems further east and Turkey.
On his return to Moscow, Peter I demanded western standards of appearance and that beards be shaved off at court and more European dresses be worn. The tsar chose a more western way of development for his country and many reforms followed. One of them being a change from the old Russian calendar to the Julian calendar used in the West, where years were counted from the birth of Christ, rather than the creation of the world.
Many people later praised Peter I for his reforms, but others felt he betrayed his country’s traditions.
MessageToEagle.com
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