Vestnik MGIMO-Universiteta (Dec 2021)
War and Peace of Peter the Great
Abstract
The article analyzes the plans of Peter the Great related to the consolidation of Russia on the shores of the Baltic Sea. It focuses on the emergence of the idea to gain access to the Baltic Sea and the stages of its implementation. During the Northern War of 17001721, Russia's peace conditions changed. The article tries to explain the basis for the evolution of Peter the Greate's ideas of achieving the desired peace.It shows that after the "embarrassment at Narva" in November 1700 and the first success of B.P. Sheremetev at Erestfer in December 1701 in 1702 1709, the conduct of hostilities and the diplomatic efforts of Russia were directed exclusively at keeping the outlet to the sea. The creation of St. Petersburg, the transfer of the capital to it, the construction of a defensive system at the mouth of the Neva all this was aimed at securing the mouth of the Neva for Russia. Russia agreed to the conclusion of a peace, according to which it received only Ingria and Karelia – the old Russian provinces.After the victory under Poltava in 1709, a new struggle for peace began. The annexation of Livonia, Estland, the temporary occupation of Finland – all these conquests were motivated by the idea for which Russia started the war: keeping and ensuring the safe outlet to the sea. Russia constantly showed its readiness to conclude peace, but Sweden rejected all such attempts because it could not get along with the idea of parting with imperial ambitions.Russia began ten-year-long harsh coercion of Sweden to peace, which resulted in the devastation of a part of the Swedish territories proper by the Russian army and the forced consent of the Swedes to peace. The Nishtad Peace of 1721 ended the war and became the starting point for the extraordinary development of the imperial imagination of Peter the Great. Russia's entry into the world arena as an empire, an autocratic state dangerous to its neighbors and actively participating in the incessant division of the world.
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