The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia

Notwithstanding the little hostilities which still continued, every thing bespoke the speedy approach of peace. The preliminaries began by mutual acts of generosity, which produce stronger effects than many hand-writings. The czar sent back without ransom marshal Erenschild, whom he had taken prisoner with his own hands, and Charles in return did the same by Trubetskoy and Gallowin, who had continued prisoners in Sweden ever since the battle of Narva.

The negotiations now advanced apace, and a total change was going to be made in the affairs of the North. Gortz proposed to the czar to put the duchy of Mecklenburg into his hands. Duke Charles, its sovereign, who had married a daughter of czar John, Peter's elder brother, was at variance with the nobility of the country, who had taken arms against him. And Peter, who looked upon that prince as his brother-in-law, had an army in Mecklenburg ready to espouse his cause. The king of England, elector of Hanover, declared on the side of the nobles. Here was another opportunity of mortifying the king of England, by putting Peter in possession of Mecklenburg, who, being already master of Livonia, would by this means, in a short time, become more powerful in Germany than any of its electors. The duchy of Courland was to be given to the duke of Mecklenburg, as an equivalent for his own, together with a part of Prussia at the expense of Poland, who was to have Stanislaus again for her king. Bremen and Verden were to revert to Sweden; but these provinces could not be wrested out of the hands of the king of England but by force of arms; accordingly Gortz's project was (as we have already said) to effect a firm union between Peter and Charles XII., and that not only by the bands of peace, but by an offensive alliance, in which case they were jointly to send an army into Scotland. Charles XII. after having made himself master of Norway, was to make a descent on Great Britain, and he fondly imagined he should be able to set a new sovereign on the throne of those kingdoms, after having replaced one of his own choosing on that of Poland. Cardinal Alberoni promised both Peter and Charles to furnish them with subsidies. The fall of the king of England would, it was supposed, draw with it that of his ally, the regent of France, who being thus deprived of all support, was to fall a victim to the victorious arms of Spain, and the discontent of the French nation.

Alberoni and Gortz now thought themselves secure of totally overturning the system of Europe, when a cannon ball from the bastions of Frederickshal in Norway confounded all their mighty projects. Charles XII. was killed, the Spanish fleet was beaten by that of England, the conspiracy which had been formed in France was discovered and quelled, Alberoni was driven out of Spain, and Gortz was beheaded at Stockholm; and of all this formidable league, so lately made, the czar alone retained his credit, who by not having put himself in the power of any one, gave law to all his neighbours.

At the death of Charles XII. there was a total change of measures in Sweden. Charles had governed with a despotic power, and his sister Ulrica was elected Queen on express condition of renouncing arbitrary government. Charles intended to form an alliance with the czar against England and its allies, and the new government of Sweden now joined those allies against the czar.

The congress at Oeland, however, was not broken up; but the Swedes, now in league with the English, flattered themselves that the fleets of that nation sent into the Baltic would procure them a more advantageous peace. A body of Hanoverian troops entered the dominions of the duke of Mecklenburg (Feb. 1716.), but were soon driven from thence by the czar's forces.

Peter likewise had a body of troops in Poland, which kept in awe both the party of Augustus, and that of Stanislaus; and as to Sweden, he had a fleet always ready, either to make a descent on their coasts, or to oblige the Swedish government to hasten matters in the congress. This fleet consisted of twelve large ships of the line, and several lesser ones, besides frigates and galleys. The czar served on board this fleet as vice-admiral, under the command of admiral Apraxin.

A part of this fleet signalized itself in the beginning against a Swedish squadron, and, after an obstinate engagement, took one ship of the line, and two frigates. Peter, who constantly endeavoured, by every possible means, to encourage and improve the navy he had been at so much pains to establish, gave, on this occasion, sixty thousand French livres110 in money among the officers of this squadron, with several gold medals, besides conferring marks of honour on those who principally distinguished themselves.

About this time also the English fleet under admiral Norris came up the Baltic, in order to favour the Swedes. Peter, who well knew how far he could depend on his new navy, was not to be frightened by the English, but boldly kept the sea, and sent to know of the English admiral if he was come only as a friend to the Swedes, or as an enemy to Russia? The admiral returned for answer, that he had not as yet any positive orders from his court on that head: however Peter, notwithstanding this equivocal reply, continued to keep the sea with his fleet.

The English fleet, which in fact was come thither only to shew itself, and thereby induce the czar to grant more favourable conditions of peace to the Swedes, went to Copenhagen, and the Russians made some descents on the Swedish coast, and even in the neighbourhood of Copenhagen, (July 1719.) where they destroyed some copper mines, burnt about fifteen thousand houses, and did mischief enough to make the Swedes heartily wish for a speedy conclusion of the peace.

Accordingly the new queen of Sweden pressed a renewal of the negotiations; Osterman himself was sent to Stockholm, and matters continued in this situation during the whole of the year 1719.

The following year the prince of Hesse, husband to the queen of Sweden, and now become king, in virtue of her having yielded up the sovereign power in his favour, began his reign by sending a minister to the court of Petersburg, in order to hasten the so much desired peace; but the war was still carried on in the midst of these negotiations.

The English fleet joined that of the Swedes, but did not yet commit any hostilities, as there was no open rupture between the courts of Russia and England, and admiral Norris even offered his master's mediation towards bringing about a peace; but as this offer was made with arms in hand, it rather retarded than facilitated the negotiations. The coasts of Sweden, and those of the new Russian provinces in the Baltic, are so situated, that the former lay open to every insult, while the latter are secured by their difficult access. This was clearly seen when admiral Norris, after having thrown off the mask, (June 1720.) made a descent in conjunction with the Swedish fleet on a little island in the province of Esthonia, called Narguen, which belonged to the czar, where they only burnt a peasant's house; but the Russians at the same time made a descent near Wasa, and burnt forty-one villages, and upwards of one thousand houses, and did an infinite deal of damage to the country round about. Prince Galitzin boarded and took four Swedish frigates, and the English admiral seemed to have come only to be spectator of that pitch of glory to which the czar had raised his infant navy; for he had but just shewn himself in those seas, when the Swedish frigates were carried in triumph into the harbour of Cronslot before Petersburg.111 On this occasions methinks the English did too much if they came only as mediators, and too little if as enemies.

Nov. 1720.] At length, the new king of Sweden demanded a cessation of arms; and as he found the menaces of the English had stood him in no stead, he had recourse to the duke of Orleans, the French regent; and this prince, at once an ally of Russia and Sweden, had the honour of effecting a reconciliation between them. (Feb. 1721.) He sent Campredon, his plenipotentiary, to the court of Petersburg, and from thence to that of Stockholm. A congress was opened at Nystadt,112 but the czar would not agree to a cessation of arms till matters were on the point of being concluded and the plenipotentiaries ready to sign. He had an army in Finland ready to subdue the rest of that province, and his fleets were continually threatening the Swedish coasts, so that he seemed absolute master of dictating the terms of peace; accordingly they subscribed to whatever he thought fit to demand. By this treaty he was to remain in perpetual possession of all that his arms had conquered, from the borders of Courland to the extremity of the gulf of Finland, and from thence again of the whole extent of the country of Kexholm, and that narrow slip of Finland which stretches out to the northward of the neighbourhood of Kexholm; so that he remained master of all Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, with the country of Wybourg, and the neighbouring isles, which secured to him the sovereignty of the sea, as likewise of the isles of Oessel, Dago, Mona, and several others: the whole forming an extent of three thousand leagues of country, of unequal breadth, and which altogether made a large kingdom, that proved the reward of twenty years' immense pains and labour.

The peace was signed at Nystadt the 10th September, 1721, N. S. by the Russian minister Osterman, and general Bruce.

Peter was the more rejoiced at that event, as it freed him from the necessity of keeping such large armies on the frontiers of Sweden, as also from any apprehensions on the part of England, or of the neighbouring states, and left him at full liberty to exert his whole attention to the modelling of his empire, in which he had already made so successful a beginning, and to cherish arts and commerce, which he had introduced among his subjects, at the expense of infinite labour and industry.

In the first transports of his satisfaction, we find him writing in these terms to his plenipotentiaries; 'You have drawn up the treaty as if we ourself had dictated and sent it to you to offer the Swedes to sign. This glorious event shall be ever present to our remembrance.'

All degrees of people, throughout the Russian empire, gave proofs of their satisfaction, by the most extraordinary rejoicings of all kinds, and particularly at Petersburg. The triumphal festivals, with which the czar had entertained his people during the course of the war, were nothing to compare to these rejoicings for the peace, which every one hailed with unutterable satisfaction. The peace itself was the most glorious of all his triumphs; and what pleased more than all the pompous shows on the occasion, was a free pardon and general release granted to all prisoners, and a general remission of all sums due to the royal treasury for taxes throughout the whole empire, to the day of the publication of the peace. In consequence of which a multitude of unhappy wretches, who had been confined in prison, were set at liberty, excepting only those guilty of highway-robbery, murder, or treason.113

It was at this time that the senate decreed Peter the titles of Great, Emperor, and Father of his Country. Count Golofkin, the high chancellor, made a speech to the czar in the great cathedral, in the name of all the orders of the state, the senators crying aloud, Long live our emperor and father! in which acclamations they were joined by the united voice of all the people present. The ministers of France, Germany, Poland, Denmark, and the states-general, waited on him, with their congratulations, on the titles lately bestowed on him, and formally acknowledged for emperor him who had been always publicly known in Holland by that title, ever since the battle of Pultowa. The names of Father, and of Great, were glorious epithets, which no one in Europe could dispute him; that of Emperor was only a honorary title, given by custom to the sovereigns of Germany, as titular kings of the Romans; and it requires time before such appellations come to be formally adopted by those courts where forms of state and real glory are different things. But Peter was in a short time after acknowledged emperor by all the states of Europe, excepting only that of Poland, which was still divided by factions, and the pope, whose suffrage was become of very little significance, since the court of Rome had lost its credit in proportion as other nations became more enlightened.

CHAP. XXXV

Conquests in Persia.

The situation of Russia is such, as necessarily obliges her to keep up certain connexions with all the nations that lie in the fifth degree of north latitude. When under a bad administration, she was a prey by turns to the Tartars, the Swedes, and the Poles; but when governed by a resolute and vigorous prince, she became formidable to all her neighbours. Peter began his reign by an advantageous treaty with the Chinese. He had waged war at one and the same time against the Swedes and the Turks, and now prepared to lead his victorious armies into Persia.

At this time Persia began to fall into that deplorable state, in which we now behold her. Let us figure to ourselves the thirty years' war in Germany, the times of the league, those of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the reigns of Charles VI. and of king John in France, the civil wars in England, the long and horrible ravages of the whole Russian empire by the Tartars, or their invasion of China; and then we shall have some slight conception of the miseries under which the Persian empire has so long groaned.

A weak and indolent prince, and a powerful and enterprising subject, are sufficient to plunge a whole nation into such an abyss of disasters. Hussein, sha, shaic, or sophi of Persia, a descendant of the great sha Abbas, who sat at this time on the throne of Persia, had given himself wholly up to luxury and effeminacy: his prime minister committed acts of the greatest violence and injustice, which this great prince winked at, and this gave rise to forty years' desolation and bloodshed.

Persia, like Turkey, has several provinces, all governed in a different manner; she has subjects immediately under her dominion, vassals, tributary princes, and even nations, to whom the court was wont to pay a tribute, under the name of subsidies; for instance, the people of Daghestan, who inhabit the branches of mount Caucasus, to the westward of the Caspian Sea, which was formerly a part of the ancient Albania; for all nations have changed their appellation and their limits. These are now called Lesgians, and are mountaineers, who are rather under the protection, than the dominion, of Persia; to these the government paid subsidies for defending the frontiers.

At the other extremity of the empire, towards the Indies, was the prince of Candahar, who commanded a kind of martial militia, called Aghwans. This prince of Candahar was a vassal of the Persian, as the hospodars of Walachia and Moldavia are of the Turkish empire: this vassalage was not hereditary, but exactly the same with the ancient feudal tenures established throughout Europe, by that race of Tartars who overthrew the Roman empire. The Aghwan militia, of which the prince of Candahar was the head, was the same with the Albanians on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, in the neighbourhood of Daghestan, and a mixture of Circassians and Georgians, like the ancient Mamelucks who enslaved Egypt. The name of Aghwans is a corruption; Timur, whom we call Tamerlane, had led these people into India, and they remained settled in the province of Candahar, which sometimes belonged to the Mogul empire, and sometimes to that of Persia. It was these Aghwans and Lesgians who began the revolution.

Mir-Weis, or Meriwitz, intendant of the province, whose office was only to collect the tributes, assassinated the prince of Candahar, armed the militia, and continued master of the province till his death, which happened in 1717. His brother came quietly to the succession, by paying a slight tribute to the Persian court. But the son of Mir-Weis, who inherited the ambition of his father, assassinated his uncle, and began to erect himself into a conqueror. This young man was called Mir-Mahmoud, but he was known in Europe only by the name of his father, who had begun the rebellion. Mahmoud reinforced his Aghwans, by adding to them all the Guebres he could get together. These Guebres were an ancient race of Persians, who had been dispersed by the caliph Omar, and who still continued attached to the religion of the Magi (formerly flourished in the reign of Cyrus), and were always secret enemies to the new Persians. Having assembled his forces, Mahmoud marched into the heart of Persia, at the head of a hundred thousand men.

At the same time the Lesgians or Albanians, who, on account of the troublesome times, had not received their subsidies from the court of Persia, came down from their mountains with an armed force, so that the flames of civil war were lighted up at both ends of the empire, and extended themselves even to the capital.

These Lesgians ravaged all that country which stretches along the western borders of the Caspian Sea, as far as Derbent, or the Iron Gate. In this country is situated the city of Shamache, about fifteen leagues distant from the sea, and is said to have been the ancient residence of Cyrus, and by the Greeks called Cyropolis, for we know nothing of the situation or names of these countries, but what we have from the Greeks; but as the Persians never had a prince called Cyrus, much less had they any city called Cyropolis. It is much in the same manner that the Jews, who commenced authors when they were settled in Alexandria, framed a notion of a city called Scythopolis, which, said they, was built by the Scythians in the neighbourhood of Judea, as if either Scythians or ancient Jews could have given Greek names to their towns.

The city of Shamache was very rich. The Armenians, who inhabit in the neighbourhood of this part of the Persian empire, carried on an immense traffic there, and Peter had lately established a company of Russian merchants at his own expense, which company became very flourishing. The Lesgians made themselves masters of this city by surprise, plundered it, and put to death all the Russians who traded there under the protection of shah Hussein, after having stripped all their warehouses. The loss on this occasion was said to amount to four millions of rubles.

Peter upon this sent to demand satisfaction of the emperor Hussein, who was then disputing the throne with the rebel Mahmoud, who had usurped it, and likewise of Mahmoud himself. The former of these was willing to do the czar justice, the other refused it; Peter therefore resolved to right himself, and take advantage of the distractions in the Persian empire.

Mir-Mahmoud still pushed his conquests in Persia. The sophi hearing that the emperor of Russia was preparing to enter the Caspian Sea, in order to revenge the murder of his subjects at Shamache, made private application to him, by means of an Armenian, to take upon him at the same time the defence of Persia.

Peter had for a considerable time formed a project to make himself master of the Caspian Sea, by means of a powerful naval force, and to turn the tide of commerce from Persia and a part of India through his own dominions. He had caused several parts of this sea to be sounded, the coasts to be surveyed, and exact charts made of the whole. He then set sail for the coast of Persia the 15th day of May, 1722. Catherine accompanied him in this voyage, as she had done in the former. They sailed down the Wolga as far as the city of Astracan. From thence he hastened to forward the canals which were to join the Caspian, the Baltic, and the Euxine seas, a work which has been since executed in part under the reign of his grandson.

While he was directing these works, the necessary provisions for his expedition were arrived in the Caspian Sea. He was to take with him twenty-two thousand foot, nine thousand dragoons, fifteen thousand Cossacks, and three thousand seamen, who were to work the ships, and occasionally assist the soldiery in making descents on the coast. The horse were to march over land through deserts where there was frequently no water to be had, and afterwards to pass over the mountains of Caucasus, where three hundred men are sufficient to stop the progress of a whole army; but the distracted condition in which Persia then was, warranted the most hazardous enterprises.

The czar sailed about a hundred leagues to the southward of Astracan, till he came to the little town of Andrewhoff. It may appear extraordinary to hear of the name of Andrew on the coasts of the Hyrcanian Sea; but some Georgians, who were formerly a sect of Christians, had built this town, which the Persians afterwards fortified; but it fell an easy prey to the czar's arms. From thence he continued advancing by land into the province of Daghestan, and caused manifestoes to be circulated in the Turkish and Persian languages.114 It was necessary to keep fair with the Ottoman Porte, who reckoned among its subjects, not only the Circassians and Georgians, who border upon this country, but also several powerful vassals, who had of late put themselves under the protection of the grand seignior.

Among others there was one very powerful, named Mahmoud d'Utmich, who took the title of sultan, and had the courage to attack the czar's troops, by which he was totally defeated, and the story says, that his whole country was made a bonfire on the occasion.

Sept. 14, 1722.] In a short time afterwards Peter arrived at the city of Derbent, by the Persians and Turks called Demir Capi, that is, the Iron Gate, and so named from having formerly had an iron gate at the south entrance. The city is long and narrow, its upper part joins to a rocky branch of Mount Caucasus, and the walls of the lower part are washed by the sea, which in violent storms make a breach over them. These walls might pass for one of the wonders of antiquity, being forty feet in height, and six in breadth, defended with square towers at the distance of every fifty feet. The whole work seems one uniform piece, and is built of a sort of brown free-stone mixed with pounded shells, which served as mortar, so that the whole forms a mass harder than marble. The city lies open from the sea, but part of it next the land appears impregnable. There are still some ruins of an old wall like that of China, which must have been built in the earliest times of antiquity, and stretched from the borders of the Caspian Sea to the Pontus Euxinus; and this was probably a rampart raised by the ancient kings of Persia against those swarms of barbarians which dwelt between those two seas.

According to the Persian tradition, the city of Derbent was partly repaired and fortified by Alexander the Great. Arrian and Quintus Curtius tell us, that Alexander absolutely rebuilt this city. They say indeed that it was on the banks of the Tanais or Don, but then in their time the Greeks gave the name of Tanais to the river Cyrus, which runs by the city. It would be a contradiction to suppose that Alexander should build a harbour in the Caspian Sea, on a river that opens into the Black Sea.

There were formerly three or four other ports in different parts of the Caspian Sea, all which were probably built with the same view; for the several nations inhabiting to the west, east, and north of that sea, have in all times been barbarians, who had rendered themselves formidable to the rest of the world, and from hence principally issued those swarms of conquerors who subjugated Asia and Europe.

And here I must beg leave to remark, how much pleasure authors in all ages have taken to impose upon mankind, and how much they have preferred a vain show of eloquence to matter of fact. Quintus Curtius puts into the mouths of Scythians an admirable speech full of moderation and philosophy, as if the Tartars of those regions had been all so many sages, and that Alexander had not been the general nominated by the Greeks against the king of Persia, sovereign of the greatest part of southern Scythia and the Indies. Other rhetoricians, thinking to imitate Quintus Curtius, have studied to make us look upon those savages of Caucacus and its dreary deserts, who lived wholly upon rapine and bloodshed, as the people in the world most remarkable for austere virtue and justice, and have painted Alexander, the avenger of Greece, and the conqueror of those who would have enslaved him and his country, as a public robber, who had ravaged the world without justice or reason.