In Moscow, the capital of today’s Russia, and in the last third of the seventeenth century, Peter Alekseevich (Alex I) Mikhail Romanov, the fifth Tsar of Russia (1672-1725), who would later be known as the most important and great Tsar of the country, the builder of its modern renaissance, and the developer of its career was born , Expanded its geography in Asia and Europe, built its new capital, "St. Petersburg", and formulated its strategy as an influential global power, and the first to wrest from the Russians two ports of entry on the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea from the Ottomans and the Swedes.

A man who combined the power of bluntness, bloodshed, and brutal treatment on the one hand, and political intelligence, military skill, and urban, industrial, and military ambitions on the other.

Before the reign of Peter the Great, Russia was living in a kind of primitiveness and barbarism. It is true that his grandfather Ivan IV “the Terrible” (d. 1488) was able to unite the conflicting and scattered Russian principalities between Moscow and Kiev, which owed absolute dependence on the influence of the Muslim Mongols, the rulers of Russia, as he was able to subdue the rulers of Russia. Most of the Mongol khanates in Russia except for the Crimean Tatar khanate, but the grandson's ambitions greatly exceeded the grandfather's imaginations.

The French philosopher Voltaire once asked: What steps did people take from barbarism to civilization?

He was provoked by the personality of Tsar Peter the Great and saw in it a vivid answer to his above question. Frederick II, King of Prussia (Eastern and Northern Germany) (1712-1786) was also impressed by his contemporaries, Peter the Great, who said of him: “He was the only truly educated king. He was not only the ruler and legislator of his country, but he had a complete understanding of all marine sciences, and he was an architect, a surgeon, an expert soldier, and a brilliant economist... He only lacked an education of the least barbaric and ferociousness, to be an example to all kings.”[1]

Peter and Imperial Russia

Peter Alexievich

At the beginning of his reign, Peter was forced to rule with his sick brother from Father Ivan V (d. 1696), but Ivan's sister, Sophia, wanted the rule to be her brother and her after him, and to take full control of matters, and she was supported in this by the special Tsarist guard in The Kremlin, when Peter the Great was able to rise to power through his associates and supporters, decided to “slaughter the Moscow garrison with sadistic pleasure and cruelty,” as some historians describe.

Peter was, as the famous historian Will Durant describes him, "a man of the type of Ivan the Terrible, but cheerful, yearning for civilization but envious of the West; not for its favours and arts, but for its armies and fleets, its trade, its industry and its wealth. He viewed these ends as the ingredients of civilization, and hence came His insatiable curiosity; he wants to know about everything, how it goes, and then how to make it go better, and he exhausted his assistants during his trips by running here and there to see this and that even during the night.”[2]

For this reason, he became famous for his interest and imitation of the advanced European countries at the time, such as Holland, France, Britain and Sweden, until he was receiving every European talent in order to benefit from him in building his state. In favor of the Europeans, however, his biographer Boganov explained the reasons for this, noting that Tsar Peter the Great’s dependence on foreigners, not the Russians at that stage, was for the sake of his country and its future. And he seeks to take it in new paths with the help of the Russians before others. He wanted to move the Russian society with his will and energies, and with falaqa when necessary. He was dissatisfied with many aspects of this society and wanted to correct and renew a lot.”[3]

For this, Peter proceeded to build a new imperial capital for Russia away from the traditional and monotonous Moscow, which is St. Petersburg, which he proceeded to build in the Western style, and the capital near the Baltic Sea, as some historians say, expresses a future and a new vision for the country: “It was in Peter His longing to Westernize Russia made him turn it towards the Baltic, as if to drag it on. For this purpose, and in order to provide a base for his fleet and a port for foreign trade, he sacrificed all other considerations. It is true that the port will be surrounded by ice five months a year, but it means that His country will face the West and touch the sea, and just as the Dnieper (River) made Russia a Byzantine, and the Volga (River) made it Asian, so the Neva (River) will tempt it - in the West - to be European."[4]

Peter was able to subject vast areas of the kingdoms of Sweden, Latvia, Finland and Estonia to the sovereignty of Russia, and the construction of St. Petersburg and its adoption as the capital of the Russian Empire was tantamount to declaring Russia a great world power in the meantime. His army and his people, by saying: “O princes, notables of my country, and friends who accompanied me in all my conquests and helped me in all my projects, did it occur to any of you or your forefathers twenty years ago that we would reach this situation and that you would fight with me in the Baltic Sea, and build ships to sail the banners of victory, capturing On all its coasts, and the Russian banners hoisted over its fortresses and harbors, not to mention that you scattered the enemy fleet and tore it to pieces, every fleet you extended with your hands, and you fought over it with your courage, and there is no doubt that you feel today the pleasure of those conquests” [5].

sweeping ambition

And if Peter was able to extend Russian sovereignty to the Baltic Sea in and around Novograd, and even managed to build his new capital, St. Petersburg, his most important achievement was extending Russia’s control to the coasts of the Black Sea when he seized the Azak fortress on the Sea of ​​Azov branching from the Black Sea Northern in 1700. Before the end of that same year, Peter set out for Britain on a journey that lasted four whole months, at the invitation of the English King William III.

During his visit, the Kaiser spent the greater part of the time in shipyards. At Detford, on the outskirts of London, he received a theoretical course in shipbuilding under the supervision of Inspector of the Royal Fleet Sir Anthony Dean. He also went to Portsmouth, the main base of the British fleet, and watched the maneuvers of the warships, which are the largest of ships. in the world at that time”[6], as his biographer Buganov states.

And in 1709, the most important battle in the history of Russia at that time took place, when Peter the Great and his forces faced the Swedish army led by King Charles XII in the Poltova region, which is located in the north-east of Ukraine, in this battle, Peter managed to crush the Swedish army and eliminate its rising power In northwestern and north-central Europe, the defeat forced the Swedish King Charles to flee towards the Ottoman Empire as a refugee, while Peter was able to expand his state to northeastern Ukraine, Belarus and a large part of present-day Poland.

Over the next fifteen years, Peter devoted himself to expanding the area of ​​his state, strengthening its fleets and war industry, and even intervening in the affairs of the neighboring countries of his empire to bring them under permanent Russian control, including Poland, Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars, the North Caucasus, and the more distant regions of Bagdan and Wallachia (Romania) and Bulgaria Montenegro and Serbia, most of which - as we see - were areas that were under the authority of the Ottoman Empire at that date.

The commandments of Peter the Great .. Do they inspire Vladimir Putin?

During the years of his rule, which lasted for more than thirty years, Emperor Peter the Great managed to build a political, military and diplomatic strategy for the survival and permanence of Russian power in the surrounding world, a strategy that he wrote down in the form of wills for his successors after him, and it is remarkable that this strategy that was written three centuries ago we see - When contemplating and comparing - it corresponds to the wars of the current Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Caucasus, Ukraine, the Black Sea, and others. It is also remarkable that Russian President Putin has always expressed great admiration for the personality of Peter the Great, and perhaps these combined reasons prompted some American thinkers and strategists who met Putin - such as Harald Malgram, an advisor to a number of American presidents such as Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford - to describe him as a contemporary Russian embodiment of the personality of Peter the Great[7].

Most of the commandments of Emperor Peter the Great (d. 1725) revolved around the subjugation of the Caucasus, Crimea, Baltic regions and Ukraine, the necessity of perpetuating the Russian threat to Finland and Sweden, and placing the Orthodox Church in its rightful place globally as the “third Rome” and the kiss of Christians, as well as the Russians’ play to provoke disputes and disagreements between European powers.

Many historians have transmitted these commandments, perhaps the most famous of them is Ahmed Jawdat Pasha (1822-1895) in his history marked “The History of Jawdat Pasha,” and the Egyptian historian and fighter Muhammad Farid Bey transmitted it from him.

Jawdat Pasha's history

In the first article of Peter’s commandments, we see him urging Russian decision-makers to the necessity and permanence of war, “It is necessary that the soldiers get used to war and fight always, and the Russian nation should be on the alert, with the need to leave time for the soldiers to rest in order to reform financial affairs, and organize The soldiers are constantly until the time is right to attack, and in this way, Russia should take advantage of the time of peace and security in increasing its supplies and expanding the scope of its benefits, so that it takes peace as a means of war.”[8]

If we compare Peter the Great’s will to the strategy followed in the Putin era, we will notice the Russian president’s deep faith in it. Putin has fought no less than five (official) wars and military invasions since he came to power in 2000, starting with the Chechnya war in 2004, then the Ossetia war. The South in 2008, the Crimean War in 2014, then the Syrian War in 2015, and finally the current war in Ukraine, all this in addition to the unofficial military activities of Russian mercenaries in Ukraine, Libya, Syria and a number of African countries.

Among the commandments of Peter the Great is also the necessity of the Russians’ involvement in the affairs of the European continent, and stirring up unrest and divisions between its states and kingdoms, because the unification of Europe is a threat to Russian interests. What is going on in it, especially what is happening in Germany, which is close to us, to benefit directly from it.”

Today we see Russia's presence in Germany through the two Nord Stream gas pipelines 1 and 2 (before the last line was suspended due to the Ukraine war), as well as its ideological influence remaining since the Soviet era when East Germany came under the influence of Russia, and we know today the role that Putin played as An intelligence employee in East Germany during the time of the Soviet Union, which shapes his thinking towards the European country and the continent in general until today.

And if making differences between Europeans is in Russia’s interest, then, in Peter the Great’s view, interference is a duty in Swedish and Polish affairs, because they are within Russia’s immediate and near geopolitical field. its notables by providing them with money, and working to control the council of government,” and “we should seize some areas of Sweden as much as possible, and then seek to seize the opportunity to seize the rest. This can only be done by provoking Sweden to attack Russia.”

Perhaps Putin’s warning to Sweden and Finland from joining NATO is a realistic translation of this strategy developed by Peter the Great centuries ago, which also includes the necessity of Russian control over the Baltic and Black Sea, where he said: “The Russians should spread north on the coasts of the Baltic Sea and in the south on the coasts of the Baltic Sea. The Black Sea day by day"[9], which results in Russia's efforts to control Ukraine to become the owner of the largest and most powerful authority on the Black Sea.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Foreign Minister Anne Linde

Things do not stop at this point. Peter the Great set his eyes on the capture of Istanbul as a strategic Russian goal, realizing the importance of Istanbul and its strategic, geographical and global location, saying: “Whoever rules Istanbul can really rule over the entire world, so it is necessary to carry out successive wars with the state. The Ottoman Empire” [10], and perhaps the Russian expansion in the Black Sea through the occupation of Crimea and Ukraine, and before it its intervention in Syria, may be considered a policy of Russian encirclement of Turkey from the north and south.

Perhaps we can also note Putin’s revival of the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in foreign relations, and benefiting from this role not only in expanding Russian influence over the Orthodox in Russia, Europe, Asia and North Africa, but also in preaching the Russian Orthodox vision among doctrinal opponents. We have dealt with this issue more broadly in Our article is "Putin is the leader of the Christian world," but what is striking is that this trend made Peter the Great a part of the Russian strategy in his commandments, which he stated:We must win over all the Christians who are of the Roman sect, who deny the spiritual leadership of the Pope and who are spread in the countries of Hungary and the Ottoman kingdoms (in Anatolia, Asia, Africa, the Caucasus, the Balkans, etc.) and make them take the state of Russia as their reference. From the monastic influence over them, we seek by this means to acquire many jealous friends whom we may seek help from in the guardianship of any of our enemies”[11].

Peter the Great clarified in the last two clauses of his will or “strategy” the purpose and the greatest goal of all these commandments, which is to agree with France and Austria, the two rising global powers at that time, on “how to divide the countries of the world among us… and the state that accepts our conditions from them we help them to Abuse the other” so that Russia has the upper hand as a European and global superpower.

With this review of the most important achievements of Peter the Great, and the revolutionary role he played in the history of Russia, transforming it from a mere “Tsarism” regional power to a real global and imperial power, then standing on his commandments to his successors and decision makers after him, and comparing them with what Putin did in his wars and attempts to interfere in affairs It is revealed to us that the policy pursued by Russia today is not a product of the moment, and that it is rooted in the eras of Tsarism and its glories that seem to inspire the Russian president and his men to this day.

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Sources

[1] Will Durant: The Story of Civilization 33/41.

[2] The Story of Civilization 33/44.

[3] Boganev: The Life of Peter the Great, pg. 40.

[4] Durant: Previous 33/49.

[5] The Qilfat Palm: The History of Peter the Great 1/232.

[6] Boganov: Ibid, p. 97.

[7] HARALD MALMGREN, What the West gets wrong about Putin

[8] Muhammad Farid: History of the Attic State, p. 330, 331.

[9] Muhammad Farid: Previous pg. 332.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid, p. 333.