Czar Peter the Great of Russia casts a long shadow over history. A giant of a man, with appetites for learning and adventure to match, he did more to modernize his country than pretty much any ...

Peter the Great visited the West twice during his lifetime. ... 7-year-old King Louis XV and the Tsar during Peter the Great's visit toFrance on May 10, 1717.

But, above all, it shifted the center of power in northern Europe from Stockholm to St. Petersburg and turned Russia into an empire, with its tsar, Peter the Great, becoming its first emperor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute on Thursday to Tsar Peter the Great on the 350th anniversary of his birth, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests ...

Peter the Great didn't wear a beard, but he did sport a groovy 'stache. Wikimedia Commons. Around this day in 1698, Tsar Peter I—known as Peter the Great—established a beard tax.

A portrait of Czar Peter I, painted in 1717. Mondadori Portfolio / via Getty Images file. Peter the First, or Peter the Great, is credited with expanding Russia into an empire and a major European ...

Vladimir Putin likened himself to the revered 17th century tsar, and drew parallels between his invasion of Ukraine and Peter the Great's quest to "reclaim" Russian lands from neighboring countries.

How did Catherine the Great seize power from Peter III? When Peter inherited the throne in 1762, Catherine became empress consort. Peter only reigned for six months, as his political vision was ...

Putin said Peter the Great's 18th century war with Sweden was to "return" land that was rightfully Russia's and compared it to his actions in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin's admiration for Peter the Great is well known but he now seems to have ideas of "Great"-ness himself. He has openly compared himself to the Russian tsar, equating Russia's invasion ...