Peter the Great: a true revolutionaryWords you think of when you think of Russia throughout history: unmodernised, backward, regressive, archaic, medieval, damp and sloppy etc. I could go on, but I digress, the photo has been set. Russia was not exactly the picturesque empire that many believe it could or should have been. As one of the world's physically largest countries throughout almost all of its 1500+ years of existence (Liversidge 2), Russia is also listed as one of the most unfortunate countries in history, with a few moments of enlightenment inevitably followed by years of " two steps back”. This can only be attributed to the, to say the least, “colorful” tsars that Mother Russia saw. One of the most vibrant leaders to ever grace the throne was Peter the Great. Long before he proclaimed himself “The Big,” little Peter was born by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and his second wife Nataliya Naryshkina on June 9, 1672 in Moscow (Liversidge 2). Being the fourteenth child of Alexis, Peter was not destined to start much. However he ascended the throne at the age of ten due to the his sick and invalid brothers; eventually his brother and Feodor died childless in 1682, leaving ten-year-old Peter and his imbecile brother Ivan to compete for the throne. Peter won and was sent from his childhood home in the Kolomenskoye country estate to the Kremlin (the Russian White House). As soon as he was established, however, Ivan's family reacted. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup, and Peter was forced to endure the horrific sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the great red staircase of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The result of the coup was a joint tsarist ship, with Peter and Ivan placed under the regency of Ivan's older and not exactly impartial sister, Sophia. Nonetheless, Peter regained his title at the age of 17 after Sophia's failed plot to kill the opposing heir, and sentenced her to life imprisonment in a convent cell. He retained his brother Ivan as a figurehead to deal with frivolous court traditions, while maintaining Russia's exclusive power, and learned many skills that would soon be used in his sovereignty. Standing over 6 feet 8 inches tall (World History, 136), Peter was a large, strong man and this was reflected in his legacy.