XVI

INTRODUCTION

ought to be his primary objective in the inevitablestruggle and how it could be reached.

The loss or retention by Sweden of the con-quests of Gustavus Adolphus was not a question ofimmediate urgency. Its solution would follow as adirect, if not an early result of the execution ofcertain strategic plans which Peter was contem-plating. The immediate objective was the commandof the Baltic Sea. As he has said himself, in thepreface to the celebrated ‘ Maritime Regulations,’he turned his whole mind to the construction of afleet. The combination of industry, energy, andpersistence which he displayed in the execution ofhis project is inadequately characterised by theadjective ‘extraordinary.’ It was unprecedented,unparalleled. It was one of those very rare casesin which the enjoyment of a passionately lovedamusement and the zealous discharge of a para-mount duty happen to coincide. Some of hispredecessors, as we have seen, had fancied thatit might be a good thing to have a public vesselor two, if only on a river. Peter was the firstto conceive the possibility of creating a real Navy,and making Russia a real naval power. Fragmentsof the story of this great performance are familiarto English readers. Nevertheless, the followingattempt to introduce it briefly may be found worthyof attention.

In 1688, when he had just completed hissixteenth year, Peter was on a visit to an estate,not far from Moscow, which he had inheritedfrom a collateral ancestor, Nikita IvanovitchRomanof. This personage had been noted for