they had given him ample provocation,
and it is said that when he was under the influence of drink he put to
death a number of conspirators with his own hand.

Peter, with his great love of shipbuilding, was always planning to
establish a Russian navy and build new seaports. To assure himself
control of the Russian seacoast of the Baltic sea he went to war with
Charles the Tenth of Sweden, and finally built the city of Saint
Petersburg that was named in his honor--a name that was changed to
Petrograd at the beginning of the World War. The war went against Peter
at first, but he trained his soldiers until they could achieve future
victory, and when the Swedes invaded Russia they found Peter more than
ready for them. With the efficient army that he had built up the Swedes
were badly beaten at the battle of Pultowa and were compelled to
withdraw from Russia, after sustaining terrible losses.

It is not on account of his wars, however, but his reforms, that the
name of Peter the Great is so well known to-day. He was constantly
changing and improving the order of things in his country. He went so
far as to require that the Russian civilians abandon the Asiatic dress
of their forefathers and cut their beards, and he, more than any other
man, transformed Russia from an eastern into a western nation.

Peter had divorced his wife after the revolt which took place when he
was visiting other nations, as he believed, or wished to believe, that
she had a share in the plot, and he now married a beautiful woman of
low degree named Catherine who was called Catherine the First. He had
one son by his first wife, who was named Alexis, but the Prince had
always given him serious trouble and finally tried to hatch a revolt
against his own father. For this Alexis was tried and condemned to
death, but he fell ill and died before the sentence could be
pronounced, asking and receiving forgiveness from Peter on his
deathbed.

Peter himself died in 1725 after a sudden illness. His funeral was so
elaborate that it was six weeks before the ceremonies were concluded,
for he had won a place in the hearts of the Russians that he never
lost. He was beyond any doubt the greatest and most famous of the
Russian Czars, and he left Russia in a far better position than when he
came to the throne. In addition to introducing all kinds of mechanical
reform he won a seaboard on the Baltic and Black seas which Russia had
never before possessed; he built grea