SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to “return” Russian lands

Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute on Thursday to Tsar Peter the Great on the 350th anniversary of his birth, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands.

“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned [what was Russia’s],” Putin said after a visiting an exhibition dedicated to the Tsar.

Russia Vladimir Putin at Peter the Great exhibition

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin listens to explanations as he visits an exhibition opened to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Russian tsar and the first Russian Emperor Peter the Great in Moscow, Russia, on 9th June. PICTURE: Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via Reuters

In televised comments on day 106 of his war in Ukraine, he compared Peter’s campaign with the task facing Russia today.

“Apparently, it also fell to us to return [what is Russia’s] and strengthen [the country]. And if we proceed from the fact that these basic values form the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in solving the tasks that we face.”

Putin, now in his 23rd year in power, has repeatedly sought to justify Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where his forces have devastated cities, killed thousands and put millions of people to flight, by propounding a view of history that asserts Ukraine has no real national identity or tradition of statehood.


We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!

For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.


Peter the Great, an autocratic moderniser admired by liberal and conservative Russians alike, ruled for 43 years and gave his name to a new capital, St Petersburg – Putin’s hometown – that he ordered built on land he conquered from Sweden.

It was a project that cost the lives of tens of thousands of serfs, conscripted as forced labourers to build Peter’s “window to Europe” in the swamps of the Baltic Sea coast.



Prior to Putin’s visit to the exhibition, state television aired a documentary praising Peter the Great as a tough military leader, greatly expanding Russian territory at the expense of Sweden and the Ottoman Empire with the modernized army and navy he built.

Interest in history
In recent years, Putin’s interest in Russian history has loomed ever larger in his public appearances.

In April, 2020, as Russia entered its first coronavirus lockdown, he drew bemusement in some quarters when he compared the pandemic to 9th century Turkic nomadic invasions of medieval Russia during a televised address to the nation.

In July, 2021, the Kremlin published an almost 7,000-word essay by Putin, entitled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, in which he argued that Russia and Ukraine were one nation, artificially divided. It laid the groundwork for his deployment of troops to Ukraine in February.

Moscow says it sent troops into Ukraine to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour. Ukraine and its allies say Putin has launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

Russia Putin Peter the Great

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visits an exhibition opened to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Russian tsar and the first Russian Emperor Peter the Great in Moscow, Russia, on 9th June. PICTURE: Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin

In the run up to the launch of what Russia calls its “special military operation”, Putin blamed Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, for creating Ukraine on what Putin said was historically Russian territory, and for planting the seed of the USSR’s eventual collapse.

By contrast, the Russian leader offered cautious praise for Josef Stalin for creating “a tightly centralised and absolutely unitary state”, even as he acknowledged the Soviet dictator’s record of “totalitarian” repression.

Putin has a history of praising leaders sharing his own conservative views, including Tsar Alexander III and pre-revolutionary prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, both of whom have had monuments in their honour erected across the country.

Meanwhile, leaders seen as antithetical to a strong, unitary Russian state, including Lenin and Nikita Khrushchev, have seen their contributions played down.

“Putin likes leaders he sees as tough, strong managers,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“He wants to be seen as a Peter [the Great]-style moderniser, even though he will go down in history as a cruel ruler more like Ivan the Terrible,” he added.

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.