Section Three, "Russia's Peter the Great and His City," dealt with the theme of Peter the Great, his transformation of Muscovite and Russian society, and its consequences, while Section Four, "Russia's 18th-century Court," discussed the Russian elite's embrace of European culture, style, and social mores in the decades after Peter's death, as well as European rapportage on Russian court intrigues and scandals.

Section Five, "Engaging Northern and Central Europe," provided examples of contemporary 17th- and mid- to late-18th-century depictions of Russia's imperial rivals – and models – in Northern and Central Europe, cultures that exerted a tremendous influence on Peter's reforms. The North window bay of the gallery contained a large graphic banner of an 18th-century Swedish engraving from a work that appeared during the country's age of imperial greatness and was intended to demonstrate Sweden's hegemony in northeastern Europe.