On October 20, 1696 (which corresponds to October 30 according to the Gregorian calendar), the Boyar Duma, on the proposal of Tsar Peter I, adopted a resolution "Sea vessels should be …", and this became the first law on the fleet and was recognized as the official date of its foundation.
And at the beginning of March 1697, the Great Embassy left Russia for Western Europe. The Grand Plenipotentiaries were appointed:
Lefort Franz Yakovlevich - Admiral General, Governor of Novgorod;
Golovin Fyodor Alekseevich - general and military commissar, Siberian governor;
Voznitsyn Prokofy Bogdanovich - Duma clerk, Belevsky governor.
They had more than 20 nobles and up to 35 volunteers, among whom was the sergeant of the Preobrazhensky regiment, Peter Mikhailov - Tsar Peter I himself, who actually led this large-scale expedition to the West to study European experience and, above all, ship art. Peter, who had just conquered Azov, was faced with the task of creating a powerful military fleet. On a special wax seal, which the tsar put on his letters during the journey, there was an inscription: "I am a student and I am looking for teachers."
Formally, Peter followed incognito, but his conspicuous appearance easily betrayed him. And the tsar himself, during his travels, often preferred to personally lead negotiations with foreign rulers. Perhaps this behavior is due to the desire to simplify the conventions associated with diplomatic etiquette.
The Great Embassy of Peter I to Europe (1697-98). On the right is a portrait of Peter dressed as a sailor during his stay in the Dutch Saardam (Saandam). Engravings by Marcus. (1699)
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The embassy visited Courland, East Prussia, Holland, Austria. With part of the embassy, Peter I went to England for three months. The proposed trip to Venice was canceled due to the news of the Streltsy revolt in Moscow and the hasty return of Peter I to Russia in August 1698.
One of the largest maritime powers in Europe, Holland, took a special place in this journey.
Russian ambassadors in The Hague.
Holland, the most advanced country of this time, the world's first bourgeois republic, the main maritime power. In this capacity, she has already surpassed Spain and has not yet lost to England. Of the five ships in the world's oceans, four are Dutch. In Russian, most nautical words are Dutch borrowings, from "accident" and "iceberg" and further down to "skipper", "hose" and "steering wheel".
Holland had long attracted the tsar, and no other country in Europe at that time knew Russia as well as in Holland. Dutch merchants were regular guests of the only Russian seaport of that time - the city of Arkhangelsk. Even during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Peter's father, there were a large number of Dutch artisans in Moscow; Peter's first teachers in maritime affairs, with Timmerman and Kort at the head, were the Dutch, many Dutch ship carpenters worked in Voronezh shipyards during the construction of ships for the capture of Azov. The burgomaster of Amsterdam Nikolai Witzen was in Russia during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and even traveled to the Caspian Sea. During his travels, Witzen developed a strong relationship with the Moscow court; he carried out orders of the tsarist government by order of ships in Holland,hired shipbuilders and all kinds of craftsmen for Russia.
Conversation of Peter I in Holland. Unknown Dutch artist. 1690s GE.
Peter arrived in Holland with his closest entourage on August 8, 1697. He outstripped the ambassadorial wagon train and, without stopping in Amsterdam, went to the small town of Saardam, (present-day Zaandam), which was famous for its shipyards. He arrived in Zaandam on Sunday, August 18, 1697 (old style).
Postcard from 1901.
Approximately where a monument will be erected to him later, the tsar meets the blacksmith Gerrit Kist, a friend from the Voronezh shipyard, and goes to his post. They settled Peter in a small room under the hayloft, Peter slept in a closet, as was the custom then in Holland. It was believed that if you sleep half-sitting - the blood does not flow to the head, it is very good for health. Napoleon was here, he said: "For a great man, nothing is small."
From August 19, Peter starts working at Linst Rogge's shipyard as a simple carpenter. In his spare time, he visited factories, mills and workshops in the Zaansky region. I visited local residents, especially in families whose members worked in Russia. The appearance of foreigners in Zaandam, an unusual phenomenon for that time, attracted the curious. And rumors that a Russian tsar was in Zaandam led to the fact that people from all over the country began to come to the village. Peter's incognito was quickly broken, and intrusive onlookers made his living in Zaandam unbearable. Therefore, on August 25, Peter leaves Zaandam for Amsterdam on the buer he bought here. It took him three hours to sail across the Zaan to Amsterdam.
Subsequently, Peter repeatedly returned to Zaandam, but never stayed here for more than one day.
On July 3, 1814, Emperor Alexander I visited Zaandam and the House of Peter I, where he laid a marble board with the inscription “Petro Mayno. Alexander.
In 1816, the daughter of Emperor Paul I, Anna Pavlovna Romanova, became the wife of the prince and then the king of the Netherlands, Wilhelm II of Orange. On the occasion of the birth of their second son, Alexander, in 1818, Peter's House was presented to her by the King of the Netherlands William I. By order of Anna Pavlovna, a stone case was built for the dilapidated building, modeled on the cover built by Empress Catherine II for the Peter's House in St. Petersburg.
In the spring of 1839, the heir to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, visited The Hague. Together with the second son of Anna Pavlovna, also Alexander, they visited Zaandam in the House of Peter I. This event is captured in the painting "The visit of the Russian Tsar Alexander II to the House of Tsar Peter on April 17, 1839", which is kept in the premises of the House. Accompanying the Grand Duke Alexander, his tutor Vasily Zhukovsky, seeing Peter's hut, composed a patriotic impromptu: Holy angels hover over this poor hut: Great Prince of awe! Here is the cradle of your empire, here great Russia was born!
Subsequently, the building passed from one member of the Dutch royal family to another. In 1886, the son of Anna Pavlovna, King of the Netherlands Willem III, presented the House of Tsar Peter to the Russian Tsar Alexander III. By order of Alexander III, beams were installed to support the wooden walls of the house. Later, Nicholas II ordered to build a large case for the house in the form of solid brick walls with a roof.
The house was owned by the Russian royal court until the 1917 revolution.
Since 1921, Mr. Pustoshkin, secretary of the former tsarist mission in The Hague, took over the management of the museum. He spoke on behalf of the Romanov heirs. After the official refusal in 1948 by the two Romanov heirs of the rights to the house, it again passed into the possession of the Dutch state and to this day functions as a museum.
In the notes of A. O. Smirnova-Rosset it is stated that Alexander Pushkin wanted to become a janitor at Peter's house in Holland. In a conversation with Emperor Nicholas I, the Emperor said to Pushkin: "I would like the King of the Netherlands to give me Peter the Great's house in Saardam." - Pushkin replied: "Sovereign, in that case I will ask Your Majesty to appoint me as a janitor." The Emperor laughed and said: "I agree, but in the meantime I appoint you his historian and give permission to work in secret archives."
Inside and partly outside, Peter's house is painted with the names of visitors, among which you can find the signature of Mikhail Kutuzov.
Monument to Peter I on the square, not far from the house.
In Amsterdam, where the Grand Embassy was at that time, through the burgomaster of the city of Witzen, he secured permission to work in the shipyards of the East India Company, whose leadership was able to protect him from undue attention. The tsar was registered as a carpenter for one of the best shipbuilders Gerrit Klaas Poole, and in order for him to take part in the construction of the ship from the very beginning, a new frigate "Peter and Paul" was laid down.
All-wooden shipbuilding three hundred years ago was, in fact, carpentry. In addition to Peter, ten more Russians worked at the shipyard, including the tsar's favorite Aleksashka Menshikov, who, after a whole day of swinging an ax, did not complain of pain in his hands. The Russians are almost professionals, they are here, as it were, in production practice, they build a large frigate from start to finish. It takes three months to build. The leadership of the East India Company will not guess to donate a frigate to Russia and this ship, "Peter and Pavel", will then go to the island of Java, a Dutch colony in Indonesia.
On November 16, the ship was successfully launched. In honor of the Russian tsar, a demonstration naval battle was organized.
A. Stork. Peter I's visit to Holland (Demonstration battle on the Ei River in honor of Peter I. September 1, 1697).
Abraham Storck (* April 1644 in Amsterdam, ibid, † April 1708) is a Dutch marine painter. Several of his works are associated with Peter I's visit to Amsterdam.
The frigate Pieter and Paul on the IJ.
Tsar Peter the Great and his companions cruising off the Dutch coast in his boier.
Czar Peter en route to the newly built fregate Peter and Paul.
On behalf of the government of the Netherlands, Peter I was looked after by the burgomaster of Amsterdam Nicholas Witzen. Peter was well known for his capital work in shipbuilding, as well as for practical matters - Witzen was engaged in the supply of Dutch ships to Russia.
Nicolaes Witsen; May 8, 1641 (16410508) - August 10, 1717) - Dutch politician, entrepreneur, cartographer, burgomaster of Amsterdam from 1682 to 1706.
In his spare time from carpentry work, the tsar, together with the burgomaster, visited factories, hospitals, workshops, laboratories and museums, met with engineers, scientists and artists. At the same time, the embassy was successfully recruiting specialists to work in Russia. In total, about 700 people were hired. Weapons were also purchased. Witsen introduced Peter to the Dutch naturalist, inventor of the microscope, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek.
Jan Verkolje (I) (1650-1693). Portrait of Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) (1680, Naturalis, National Museum of Natural History, Leiden).
With enthusiasm for mastering everything new, Peter acquired a lot of practical skills, including even the extraction of teeth. In the anatomical office of Professor Ruysch, the tsar attended lectures on anatomy and was especially interested in the methods of embalming corpses, for which the professor was famous.
Frederik Ruysch (more correctly: Frederik Ruysch, Dutch. Frederik Ruysch, 1638 - 1731) - a famous Dutch anatomist who studied medicine in Leiden; since 1665 - professor of anatomy, and since 1685 and botany in Amsterdam.
In Leiden at the anatomical theater Boerhaave, Peter himself took part in the autopsy. Passion for anatomy in the future was the reason for the creation of the first Russian museum - the Kunstkamera. In addition, Peter studied the technique of engraving and even made his own engraving, which he called "The Triumph of Christianity over Islam."
During a trip to Utrecht, Peter met with William III, Prince of Orange - the ruler of the Netherlands and the king of England, whom he had heard a lot about in Moscow in the German settlement.
Thomas Murray (1663-1735). Portrait of King William III of England (1650-1702) (National Portrait Gallery, London).
Despite the age difference, friendly relations were established between them. However, it was not possible to conclude, as expected, a political alliance, as well as it was not possible to receive monetary subsidies for the creation of the fleet. In November, the construction of the frigate "Peter and Paul" was completed. Two months later, training at the Amsterdam shipyards was completed, which was confirmed by a certificate issued to the king by master Poole. Having studied the Dutch experience of shipbuilding, Peter realized its main drawback - the lack of a theory of shipbuilding - and, taking advantage of the invitation of William III, in January 1698 he went to study with the shipbuilders of England.
Peter spent four and a half months in Holland. But the king was unhappy with his Dutch mentors. In his preface to the Maritime Regulations, Peter explains the reason for his dissatisfaction: