Peter was a grandson of Tzar Michael Romanov (who was chosen to be a Tzar in 1613). In 1682, at the age of 10, Peter was proclaimed Tzar, but due to a power struggle between different political forces he had to rule together with his brother Ivan under the patronage of his sister Sofia. In 1689, after the failure of a coup d'etat, Sofia was overthrown and exiled to a convent. When tzar Ivan died in 1696, Peter remained monarch and engineered a series of reforms that were to put Russia among the major European powers.…
