I'm going to go. He's

a-a-ra-s-s-s-s-a-s-s-a-s-a-s- Welcome to the Russian rulers podcast episode 35 the great northern war and Peter makes a comeback.

Last week, Peter the Great squared off against Charles the 12th of Sweden with disastrous

results with a loss of thousands of men at the Battle of Narva.

He then begins the painful rebuilding of the Russian army and navy to try to reverse the losses

in the battlefield and in international prestige.

He then comes upon a swampy land that he views as the ideal state for a new westernized European city, a city to be known eventually as St. Petersburg.

With some minor victories under his belt, Peter looked at the results of the Great Northern War and said, quote,

The Swedes will go on beating us for a long time, but eventually they will teach us how to beat them.

Typical of Peter to learn from defeat,

no matter the sacrifices his people had to make.

While the war continued in spurts,

the Tsar's attention was on building

his new city of St. Petersburg.

Colleagues and friends were aghast at Peter's decision to build there

because the incredibly cold winters and swampy conditions the land had the rest of the year.

But Peter thought if the Dutch could build a city like Amsterdam on soggy ground, why can't he?

The Tsar also needed a port for trade as well as a center to move his rebuilt army to

but he soon realized that the city needed to be important in its own right and not just exist. He was to make it the capital

of all of Russia, which would occur by 1713. His vision would have some eventually calling the city the Venice of the north

Others would have a bleaker description as the city built on bones

The city was built by people forced to go there each summer, 30 to 40,000 strong.

...