Russia was already a great territory when Peter the Great ascended to power. However, the country did not have easy access to the sea and Pedro wanted to change that. In 1700, he led a Russian war against Sweden, which controlled the Baltic Sea. This conflict became known as the Great Northern War. During the conflict, Peter built a new capital, St. Petersburg, on lands that had been taken from the Swedes. Russia ended up winning the war in 1721.
<span> He modernized the country, importing western technology and ideas. He also turned it into European power, by defeating Sweden( a local superpower of that day) in the Great Northern War. Finally, he established royal authority over the church. Other, minor reforms, included having the nobility shave their beards.Finally, and perhaps most famously,he built the city of Saint Petersburg, later Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg again. On the negative side, he was a paranoid tyrant who solidified Czarist absolutism, but as Lenin later said, to make an omelette, one has to break a few eggs. </span>
