Talk:The Will of Peter the Great

OCR text from
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27445356

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) Wednesday 23 August 1843

WILL OF PETER THE GREAT

[The following [?]al document will be read with lively interest. It is the will of Peter the Great, as it was rent to Louis XIV. by the French umbassador at St Petersburg, and in which is found the political idea which has ever since pre-

si.lcii over (lie policy ol the Sovereigns of Ru??i.i ] In the name of ilm Most Holy ami Indivisible Trinity, we, I'etei 1., lo all our duscciidunls and suc j ccaaava lo tlie Tlii'oiK* aiicl Gox'ennnciil of ihc Russian nittion. The gival God from whom we hold our j existence am! our throne, having opened <nw njvs ;md upheld our stefisi, permits me to consider tho iinssi.in | j?'Ople us fore-ordainod to tlio gi.MU'rjil domination ol j Europe. I found this thought upon the fact, thiit European nations have readied, for the most part, a state of old age approaching decay, or they are making rapid strides towards it; it follows, therdoiu, that they must he easily nnd indubitably conquered by a people young and fresh, when Ull3 latter shall have attained its full age and strength. 1 look upon the invasion of the countries of the East and West by the > North as periodical movements, determined by the I designs of Providence, who thus regenerated the Roman people by the invasion of barbarians. The emigrations of the Polar races are like the flow of the Nile, which, at certain periods, are sent to fertilize the impoverished land of Egypt. 1 found Russia a stream, 1 leave it a r'teer; my successors will make it a large sea, destined to fertilize impoverished Europe, and its waves will flow over in spite of the dykes opposed by weak hands, if vay descendants know how to direct its course. It is on that account I leave them the following directions, which I recom mend to their attention and constant observation : — 1. Keep tlie ltussian nation always in a position for ! war, that the soldier may be always inured and in breath ; ls.ive him no repose but for the amelioration of the finances of the state ; remodel the army ; choose | favourable moments (or an attack. In this way make j peace subservient to war, and war to peace, in the in terest and aggrandisement of the increasing prosperity of Russia. 2. Attract, by all possible means, from among the learned people of Europe, captains during war, and the learned during peace, that the Russian nation may profit by the advantages of other countries, without losing any of her own. 3. On every occasion take a part in the ail'airs and debates of Europe, and especially in those of Ger many, which, being nearer, more directly interest. 4. Divide Poland by keeping up continued trouble and jealousy; gain over by geld other powers; in fluence diets; corrupt them, in order to have a Ac cision in the choice of kings; cause partisans to be named, protect thorn, introduce Muscovite troops, and seize the occasion to render them stationary there. If neighbouring powers offer difficulties, appease them momentarily by parcelling out the country till an op portunity oilers of retaking what was given. 5. Take as much as possible from Sweden, and study the means of drawing on her attacks, in order lo have a pretext for subjugating her. To obtain this, separate her from Denmark, and carefully, for their rivalry. <j. Always take wives for Russian princes from among the princesses of Germany, in order to multi ply family alliances; bring interests nearer, and unite Germany itself to our cause, by increasing our influ ence there. 7. Seek from preference the English alliance for our commerce, as being the power most in want of us for her navy, and most useful for the development of our own. Exchange our wood and oilier productions for her gold, and establish between her merchants, her sailors, and ours, frequent intercourse, which will form those of our country in the knowledge of navigation and trade. 8. Extend conquest continually towards the north, along the lkltic, as well as towards the south, by the Black Sea. 9. Get as near as possible lo Constantinople and the Indies. He who shall reign there will hz the true sovereign of the world. In consequence, raise up continual wars, sometimes with Turkey, sometimes with Persia. Establish dockyards on the Black Sea, and monopolise that sea, as well as the Baltic, as a double point necessary to the success of the projret; hasten the fall of Persia; penetrate to the Persian Gulph ; if possible, re-establish, by Syria, tlie ancient trade of the Levant, and advance towards the Indies, which arc the mart of the whole world. Once there, we may do without England's gold. 10. Seek for and keep carefully the Austrian alli ance ; support outwardly its ideas of the future sovereignly of Germany, and excite privately the jealousy of German princes against her. Endeavour to make either the one or the other call in the assist ance of Russia, and exercise a kind of protection over the country, which will pave the way for future domination. 11. Interest the house of Austria to drive out the Turk from Europe, and neutralise its jealousies when Constantinople shall be conquered, either by raising up a war for her amongst the old European States, or by giving her a share in the conquest, which may be retaken from her. 12. Apply yourself io attracting all the disunited or schismatic Greeks scattered over Hungary and Poland ; make yourself their centre, their support, and establish beforehand an universal predominance by a kind of sacerdotal autocracy and supremacy. They will be so many friends thr.t we shall have among our ene mies. 13. Sweden dismembered, Persia conquered, Poland subjugated, Turkey vanquished, our armies assembled, tlie Black Sea and the Baltic guarded by our vessels, it will be necessary to propose, secretly, first to the Court of Versailles, then to that of Vienna, to share with her the empire of the universe. If one of the two accepts, which will infallibly be the case Ly flat tering their ambition and self-love, make use of that one lo crush the other, by engaging her in a struggle, the issue of which cannot be doubtful, Russia pos sessing all the East, and a great portion of Europe. H. If, which it is not at all probable, both refuse the offer of Russia, the latter must know how to raise quarrels between them, and make them exhaust each other. Then, profiting by a decisive moment, Russia should fall upon Germany, with her troops prepared beforehand, at the same time that two considerable fleets should sail—one from the sea of Azof, the other from the port Archangel, freighted wilh Asiatic hordes under the convoy of the armed fleets of the Black Sea and the Baltic. Advancing by the Mediterranean and Ihe ocean, they would overrun France on one side, while Germany was so on the other, and, these two countries vanquished, tlie rest, of Europe would pass easily, without striking a blow, under th - yoke. Thus may, and ought, Europe to be subjugated.

Date of creation?
Orlando Figes in his Crimean War says (p.71) that the Testament was forged “sometime in the early eighteenth century.” He says the French published it in 1812 but had influenced French policy for decades, appearing in their diplomatic archives in the 1760s.

His source seems to br O. Subtelnyi, Peter I’s Testament: A Reassessment,” in Slavic Review vol.33 (1974).

Any experts care to weigh in? JackKeatsTabbycat (talk) 22:56, 20 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Subtelny (1974) writes that Hungarian diplomats János Pápai and Ferenc Horváth, sent by Francis II Rákóczi as part of his rebellion against Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, presented two memorials to Ottoman grand vizir Ali Pasha in 1706, outlining in part "the coordination, by means of a secret or "intimate" alliance, of the [Russian] tsar's and the [Holy Roman] emperor's offensive strategy both in Europe and against tlhe Ottoman Empire [and] [Russia]'s intention of establishing herself in the Orient...on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. [...] These are some of the points which would appear in all the later versions of Peter I's “plan.”"
 * In 1709 after the Battle of Poltava, Hungarian diplomat Máté Talaba "brought with him [to Charles XII of Sweden, in Bender] a document, complete with maps, which, he maintained, outlined Peter I's projected course of action against the Ottoman [Empire]. The Swedish king, who had been trying for some time to have the Ottomans declare war on Russia, sent copies of this document to the Tatar khan and to the [Ottoman] sultan as proof of the tsar's aggressive intention. [...] According to [the diary of Pylyp Orlyk], Talaba had obtained the plan from the tsar's archive "in some secret manner" and, upon arriving in Bender, sold it to Charles XII for 10,000 talers. [...] In the fall of 1710 ... the [Ukrainian] hetman-in-exile [Pylyp Orlyk] conducted an intensive propaganda campaign against the Russians in the Ukraine. [...] But, in order to make Talaba's materials more relevant to his Ukrainian correspondents, Orlyk edited them, making the Ukraine appear to be the imminent and principal victim of the tsar's voracious designs. [...] For almost thirty years Orlyk continued to shower European statesmen with dire warnings of the Russian menace to Europe and Asia. In 1720 he elaborated on this theme by specifying how Peter intended to conquer Persia and the areas around the Caspian Sea. [...] [After his detainment by the Ottomans] his role as the harbinger of the Russian menace was assumed by his son, Hryhor. [...] Soon after [Hryhor's] death [in 1759] the French Foreign Ministry impounded a major part of his and his father [Pylyp]'s surviving papers and kept them in its archive. [...] Perhaps it was Hryhor Orlyk's influence that made these Frenchmen so conscious of the Russian "menace," [...] [T]he passage in Hryhor's memorial about Peter I's fulfilling the plans of his ancestors was underlined several times by an eighteenth-century reader, and a note was made about the "ambitions of Russia." [...] Many other indications reveal that in the final decades of the eighteenth century the Orlyk papers were assiduously studied by those who had access to the archives of the French Foreign Ministry. In fact, every Frenchman associated with the final formulation of Peter's "plan," d'Éon and Lesur included, had access to these archives." Cilidus (talk) 01:36, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Bingo! merci! JackKeatsTabbycat (talk) 01:40, 21 March 2023 (UTC)