The Russians Document a Victory NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

Before Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725), there was no Russian navy. As the young tsar was growing up, he was strongly influenced by his friends in the foreign quarter of Moscow to believe that any respected nation had to have a fleet. With the help of a Dutch seaman, the teenager refurbished an old boat he found near his summer residence and continued his interest in shipbuilding by learning to construct barges.

In 1695, Peter embarked on a war with Turkey and met defeat because the Turks at Azov could, undeterred, supply their forces by sea. That winter, the tsar began building a fleet of thirty vessels and nearly a thousand barges; in May, he again attacked Azov and won. Peter then began using British ships as models and, in 1714, with the tsar personally taking part, the Russian navy won its first major battle near Hangö, one of the decisive moments in the victory against Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700–21). By the time of Peter’s death, the navy had grown to 800 vessels and a force of 28,000 men. Other measures aimed at building a navy included importing experienced seamen from the rest of Europe, sending students abroad to learn naval technique, developing a shipbuilding industry, and founding a naval academy in 1715.