After the August coup d'etat in 1689, the supporters of seventeen-year-old Tsar Peter Alekseevich (who formally ruled together with his brother Ivan till 1696) came to the power in the country. There were P. K. Naryshkin, T.N. Streshnev, B.A. Golitsyn and others among them.
Important posts were held by the relatives of E.F. Lopukhina - the first Peter's wife (they married in January, 1689). Having left them to rule the country, young tsar spent his time in war games, with the help of foreigners in Russian public service, living in Nemetskaya Sloboda(Kukuya).
Peter surrounded himself by the gifted, energetic helpers and specialists, especially military specialists. Among the outstanding foreigners there were the closest tsar's friend F. Lefort, the experienced General P. Gordon, the talented engineer Y. Bruce and others. Among the Russians there were, forming the group of devoted associates, who subsequently made brilliant careers in politics - A.M. Golovin, G.I. Golovkin, brothers P.M. and F.M. Apraksins, A.D. Menshikov.
With their help Peter's 'potesnhy' army (the base for the two famous in future regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky) was holding maneuvers in Preobrazhenskoe village. Special attention was paid by Peter to Russian sea-faring. In May 1692 his first 'poteshny' ship (Tsar himself took part in its building) was launched on the Pereyaslavskoye Lake.
In 1693-1694 in Archangelsk the first Russian sea-ship was built and another one was ordered in Amsterdam. It was the ship made in Holland where the Russian red-blue-white flag was raised for the first time in real sea campaign arranged by Peter in July 1694. |
History 