Tsar Peter the Great, the victor at Poltava in June 1709.
In founding his city (St Petersburg in 1703), building his fleet, reforming the army and waging war, tsar Peter the Great laid the foundation for Russia’s hegemony in the Baltic at the expense of Sweden. The fight for the Black Sea continued into the 19th and 21st centuries at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and Ukraine (Crimean War 1853/56 up to the Ukraine War since 2022).

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