[FIXED] PINYL #18: They Call Him "The Great" (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

After more than twenty years, the Great Northern War was finally coming to an end. It had sucked in most of Europe at one time or another, but by September 1721, the Tsar of Russia, and sole survivor of the conflict, was able to announce that hostilities had come to an end. The consequences of this act were monumental - everything had changed in the Baltic and in Eastern Europe because of the war's events. Now, Poland, Sweden and Denmark were even weaker than before - little more than vassals on Russia's borders. Now, Russia had a cultural link to the West - she was no longer the barbaric east, at least not to everyone - her victories had made her unignorable. 

More than that though, Russia now had a port in the Baltic, which meant access to Western markets and courts, on a scale never possible before. Given some time, through these routes, Russia's majesty would become even more widely known, and even more terrifying. Also emerging on the scene was Britain's diplomatic ace, an unassuming rotund man by the name of Robert Walpole. Walpole had his own plans, and his own vision, for what Britain should do next, and it didn't gel with the Tsar's worst enemy, King George I. What followed was a perfect storm of intrigue and opportunism, which led conveniently to the Tsar's great moment. Henceforth, he would not be merely Tsar Peter, but Peter the Great, Emperor of the Russians. Poland, in this scene, was the sacrificial lamb that made it all possible.