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Analysts have seen it as a revelation of President Vladimir Putin’s “true intentions” in Ukraine.
In a surprise statement, the Russian president compared himself to Tsar Peter I the Great, and equated the ruthless conqueror’s military campaigns with the current invasion of Ukraine.
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“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, which took something from them. He took nothing from them, he gave back [parte de Suecia a Rusia]Putin said Thursday after a visit to an exhibition marking the 350th anniversary of the czar’s birth.
The member of the Romanov dynasty, born in the 17th century, is known for having carried out the modernization of Russia, for transforming it into an empire and for seizing territories from numerous countries, including Sweden and Poland.
The admiration and influence of the tsar in Putin’s life is well known: St. Petersburgwhere the president was born, was built by the monarch on territory annexed from Sweden.
However, it is one of the first times that the Russian president has associated himself – at least publicly – with Peter the Great and that he recognizes “historical links” between the czar’s military campaigns and the one he is currently carrying out.
“Apparently, it is also our destiny to return [lo que es de Rusia] and strengthen it. And if we start from the fact that these basic values form the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in solving the challenges we face,” he said.
Putin, who has been in power for 23 years, has tried to justify with references to history his opinion that Ukraine has no basis for being an independent country, that it has no tradition as a state and that it is a “center of spiritual life and culture of Russia”.
However, the president’s statements on Thursday contrast with previous appearances and with the official propaganda of the Kremlin, which assures that behind the current war are Ukraine’s attempts to join NATO and the presence of “Nazis” that threaten the Ukrainian Russian-speaking population.
The comparison provoked numerous questions from Ukraine to other European nations, who fear that Putin decides to continue his expansion to the west or to the Baltic countries.
A Ukrainian government adviser said the comments showed attempts to negotiate with Russia were misguided as there was “no ‘conflict’ (to start the invasion), only the bloody takeover of the country on artificial pretexts.”
Meanwhile, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt considered that Putin’s confession could be a “recipe for years of war.”
On Wednesday, a Russian legislator presented a project to the Duma (lower house) in which he asks that the Kremlin stop recognizing Lithuania’s independence, considering its separation from the former USSR as “illegal”.
But who was Peter the Great and what did he do to become one of the historical figures who have been reborn in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union?
The return of Peter the Great
Shortly after the fall of the USSR, Leningrad regained its name from tsarist times: St. Petersburg, the city that became one of Peter the Great’s greatest projects.
It was this tsar who ordered its construction in an invaded swampy area on the Baltic coast and it was such a pharaonic effort that it is believed that thousands of serfs who worked as slaves for its construction died in the process.
It was there that Peter I decided to move the Russian capital from Moscow and where he arranged for his tomb to be found.
The memory of the tsar and the city he built were clouded during the Soviet era.
However, since the end of communism – and especially under Putin’s rule – images and sculptures of the tsar have become increasingly popular in the country.
Peter the Great, who ruled for 43 years, unified and expanded Russia beyond its current territory.
And, to do so, he reorganized the army according to the European standards of the time, for which he used Western technology.
He founded the Russian Navy with the aspiration to make his country a sea power.
At that time, the Baltic Sea was controlled by Sweden, while the Black Sea was in the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Russia only had access to the sea through the White Sea.
That’s when he declared war on Sweden and began a long series of conflicts dubbed the “Great Northern War,” the same one Putin mentioned on Thursday that lasted from 1700 to 1721.
The conflict ended with the Swedish defeat and the rise of Russia as a major power: Pedro I obtained access to the Baltic Sea and, with it, took advantage of all the commercial possibilities in the region.
In his campaigns against the Ottomans he was also victorious and managed to control the Black Sea, expel the Tatars and even reached an agreement with Poland to obtain the city of kyiv.
The Empire
Shortly after the war ended, in 1721, Peter I decided to declare Russia an empire and assumed the title of “emperor of all the russias“.
He was seen as a modernizing and at the same time ruthless ruler: among his great reforms he made changes in the Orthodox Church, he renewed the Russian alphabet and the Russian calendar.
He also ordered and witnessed the torture to death of his own son, Tsarevich Alexei. He ordered the killing of more than 1,000 guards after a rebellion in Moscow and brutally ended other uprisings, such as that of the Turkic people of the Bashkirs or the violent Bulav Rebellion.
Just three years after becoming emperor, on February 8, 1725, Peter the Great died of a bladder infection.
He was buried in the imperial crypt of the famous Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg and his second wife, Catherine I – officially named empress by him – succeeded him on the throne.
Contrary to current views of Putin, historians say the tsar had a “European mentality”: he created a philosophy called “the window” with which he sought to westernize Russia.
Indeed, he imposed European fashions and customs and even instituted a beard tax as part of his efforts to make Russians look and act more like “Western Europeans.”
“Putin, who celebrates the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great, is again confused about history,” the Russian political analyst wrote on Twitter. Andrey Kolesnikov.
“Peter the Great opened a window to Europe, Putin is closing it with rotten planks from the time of Ivan the Terrible,” he added.
Source: Elcomercio
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.
