Tsar and autocrat of all the Russias, who endures to this day as an iconic symbol of Russian might - drenched in blood and violence? What amalgamation of court politics and family feuding saw him ...

But, above all, it shifted the center of power in northern Europe from Stockholm to St. Petersburg and turned Russia into an ...

In the June 19 column, we discussed the rise of Russian imperial power in the time of Peter the Great, with particular reference to his impact on Russian religion and political expansion into Ukraine.