Peter the Great (1672-1725), also called Peter I and Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov, Tsar and Autocrat of all the Russias. Crowned in 1682, Tsar Peter instituted reforms which made Russia a global power. He opened the country to the West, inviting in engineers, craftsmen, architects and merchants, and sending thousands of Russians into Europe to get the best possible education. In the North he started a war with Sweden to gain control of the Baltic Sea and its trade, eventually winning it to make St Petersburg, his newly formed capital, a major sea port. Illustration published in 1874.