Peter The Great

Born in 1672, Peter the Great became tsar by popular vote at the age of four. Seizing power from the regent Sophia, Peter immediately improved Russia’s armed forces, and was inspired by his desire for Russian commercial power to create a navy from scratch. Even three centuries after his death, the Russia of Peter the Great was a monument to his power and influence on the continent. Browning’s portrait of the man who built Russia is just as monumental.