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Peter the Great's Westernization of Russia In 1689, Tsar Peter I forced his way into power in Russia. Better known as Peter the Great, he overthrew his half-sister’s regime and took control of the state. At this time, Russia was dealing with rapid expansion, yet it was still a very backwards country compared to the rest of Europe. Russia was also dealing with economic woes. Peter loathed this backward condition and devised a plan. Within ten years of gaining power, he began to travel through western Europe in search of skilled workers. On his tour of western Europe, Peter met kings, scientists, craft workers and ship builders. He even worked undercover in a Netherlands shipyard in hopes of learning better methods of crafting vessels. Eighteen months later Peter returned to Russia and began to use this new wealth of knowledge to “westernize” his nation. His idea of westernization was the modernization of Russia. He wanted to “turn Russia to the west”. Peter the Great adopted many of the ideas used by Ivan the Terrible in the f