In 1700 he entered upon war with Sweden which lasted for twenty-one years. This long struggle, with its series of victories and defeats, trials and triumphs, would make a book of itself. Suffice it to say that he was defeated by his great rival, Charles XII, at the battle of Narva, in the early days of the war, which proceeded with various results until 1709, when he completely routed Charles at the decisive battle of Pultowa. In the following year the Sultan of Turkey declared was on him, and he narrowly escaped capture in the campaign of 1711. This war ended in 1713.
Peter was the first Czar to consolidate within himself not only the political power but the primacy of the church. He suppressed the Patriarchate, which had been so prominent under the first Romanoff, and assumed the dignity himself. Henceforth the Czar of Russia became also the head of the church of the Orthodox faith of the empire.
In 1703 he founded St. Petersburg and began the fortifications of Cronstadt, and from this time to the present the capital of Russia has remained in the great city of the Neva, built by him and which bears his name.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
