Peter the Great

Cultural  

1. A Russian czar of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries who tried to transform Russia from a backward nation into a progressive one by introducing customs and ideas from western European countries. He moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to a new city he had built, St. Petersburg, which was renamed Leningrad after the Russian Revolution and has since had its old name restored due to the collapse of communism.

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Example Sentences

Appeared in the December 2, 2025, print edition as 'Putin’s Choice: Peter the Great or Steve Witkoff'.

From The Wall Street Journal

An old Kremlin joke about Vladimir Putin is that the Russian president has only three trusted advisers: Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.

From The Wall Street Journal

“All the way up, at the top of the golden spire. There is a weather vane there in the form of a ship. It is modeled after one of Peter the Great’s actual ships.”

From Literature

Cecily the Great, she had scrawled beneath a drawing of Peter the Great, to which she had added freckles and two long pigtails.

From Literature

And many Western analysts of Russia are convinced that Putin dreams of becoming another Peter the Great, who expanded his empire into the Baltic region, or Catherine the Great, who sent her armies south into “New Russia” – that is, what is today Ukraine.

From Salon