Episode Details

Peter the Great stood nearly seven feet tall, personally tortured prisoners, pulled teeth for entertainment, and forced Russian nobles to shave their beards — because he had decided that Russia would become a European power whether it wanted to or not. He built St. Petersburg on a swamp that killed tens of thousands of workers, created a navy from nothing, and modernized Russian administration through sheer physical intimidation and an obsessive will.

This episode traces Peter from his traumatic childhood through the Grand Embassy to Western Europe, the construction of St. Petersburg, the Great Northern War against Sweden, and the reforms that dragged Russia into the eighteenth century at enormous human cost.

• Peter's traumatic childhood during the Streltsy revolts and the regency that shaped his ruthlessness
• The Grand Embassy — a tsar traveling incognito through Europe to learn shipbuilding and governance
• The construction of St. Petersburg on a swamp at the cost of tens of thousands of lives
• The Great Northern War, the defeat of Sweden, and the forced modernization of Russian society