Who was peter the great?

He was a Russian tsar, a fair while back, from the late 1600s to the early 1700s. He was a really big bloke, apparently super tall.

His main thing was wanting to make Russia more modern, like the countries in Western Europe. He actually travelled around Europe in disguise to learn how they did things, like building ships.

When he got back, he changed heaps. He built Russia's first navy and made the army a lot better. He also built a whole new capital city, St. Petersburg, to be a 'window to Europe'. He even made the nobles shave their traditional beards and wear Western clothes. He was a pretty full-on guy, but he properly turned Russia into a major power.