WILL OF PETER THE GREAT, FATHER OF RUSSIAN SHIP-BUILDING.

The following is an authentic copy of the Will of Peter the Great, the first Emperor of Russia. This will is the supreme foundation and law of Russian politics, since his time, and was confidentially deposited in the hands of the Abbe de Bervis, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 1757, and also in those of Louis XV. A copy is also to be found in the diplomatic archives of France, from which this translation is derived:

THE WILL.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

In the name of the most Holy and Indivisible Trinity, we, Peter, the First Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, etc., to all our descendants and successors to the throne and government of the Russian nation:

God, from whom we derive our existence, and to whom we owe our crown, having constantly enlightened us by His spirit, and sustained us by His Divine help, allow us to look on the Russian people as called upon hereafter to hold sway over Europe. My reason for thus thinking is, that the European nations have mostly reached a state of old age, bordering upon imbecility, or they are rapidly approaching it: naturally, then, they will be easily and indubitably conquered by a people strong in youth and vigor, especially when this latter shall have attained its full strength and power. I look on the future invasion of the Eastern and Western countries by the North as a periodical movement ordained by Providence, who, in a like manner, regenerated the Russian nation by barbarian invasion. These emigrations of men from the North are as the reflux of the Nile, which, at certain periods comes to fertilize the impoverished lands of Egypt by its deposit. I found Russia as a rivulet, I leave it a river: my successors will make of it a large sea, destined to fertilize the impoverished lands of Europe, and its waters will overflow, in spite of imposing dams erected by weak hands, if our descendants only know how to direct its course. This is the reason I leave them the following instructions. I give those countries to their watchfulness and care, as Moses gave the Tables of the Law to the Jewish people.

I.

Keep the Russian nation in a STATE OF CONTINUAL WAR: so as to have the soldier always under arms, and ready for action, excepting when the finances of the State will not allow it. Keep up the forces; choose the best moments for attack. By these means you will be ready for war even in time of peace. This is for the interest of the future aggrandizement of Russia.

II.

Endeavor by every possible means to bring in from the neighboring civilized countries of Europe officers in times of war, and learned men in times of peace; thus giving the Russian people the advanges enjoyed by other countries, without allowing them to lose any of their own self-respect.

III.

On every occasion take a part in the affairs and quarrels of Europe; above all, in those of Germany, which country, being the nearest, more immediately concerns us.

IV.

Divide Poland, exciting civil discord there; win over the nobility by bribery, corrupt the diets, so as to have influence on the election of Kings, get partisans into office, protect them, bring to sojourn there Muscovite troops, until such time as they can be permanently established there. If the neighboring powers start difficulties, appease them for a time by parceling out the country, until you can retake in detail all that has been ceded.

V.

Take as much as you can from Sweden, and cause yourself to be attacked by her, so as to have a pretext for subduing her. To accomplish this, sever Denmark from Sweden, and Sweden from Denmark, carefully keeping up their rivalries.

VI.

Always choose, as wives for the Russian princes, German princesses, so as to increase family alliances, to draw mutual interests closer, and, by propagating our principles in Germany, to enlist her in our cause.

VII.

England—requiring us for her navy, and she being the only power that can aid in the development of ours, seek a commercial alliance with her, in preference to any other. Exchange our wood, and the productions of our land for her gold, and establish between her merchants, her sailors and ours a continual intercourse; this will aid in perfecting the Russian fleet for navigation and commerce.

VIII.

Extend your possessions toward the North, along the Baltic, and toward the South by the Black Sea.

IX.

Approach as near as possible to Constantinople and its outskirts. He who shall reign there will be the true sovereign of the world. Consequently, be continually at war—sometimes with the Turks, sometimes with Persia. Establish dock yards on the Black Sea, get entire possession of it by degrees, also of the Baltic Sea; this being necessary to the accomplishment of the plan. Hasten the decline of Persia; penetrate to the Persian Gulf; re-establish, if possible, the ancient commerce of the Levant through Syria, and make your way to the Indies—they are the emporium of the world. Once there, you can do without the gold of England.

X.

Seek, and carefully keep up an alliance with Austria; acquiesce, apparently, in her ideas of dominating over Germany, at the same time clandestinely exciting against her the jealousy of the neighboring provinces. Endeavor that the aid of Russia should be called for, by one and the other, so that by exercising a kind of guardianship over the country, you prepare a way for governing hereafter.

XI.

Give the House of Austria an interest, for joining in banishing the Turks from Europe; defraud her of her share of the booty, at the conquest of Constantinople, either by raising a war for her with the ancient states of Europe, or by giving her a portion, which you will take back at a future period.

XII.

Attach to yourselves, and assemble around you, all the united Greeks, as also the disunited or schismatics, who are scattered either in Hungary, Turkey, or the south of Poland. Make yourselves their centres, their chief support, and lay the foundation for universal supremacy, by establishing a kind of royalty or sacerdotal government; the Slavonic Greeks will be so many friends that you will have scattered amongst your enemies.

XIII.

Sweden severed, Persia and Turkey conquered, Poland subjugated, our armies united, the Black and Baltic Seas guarded by our vessels, you must make propositions separately and discreetly—first to the Court of Versailles, then to that of Vienna, to share with them the Empire of the Universe.

If one of them accept—and it cannot be otherwise, so as you flatter their pride and ambition—make use of it to crush the other—then crush, in its turn, the surviving one, by engaging with it in a death-struggle; the issue of which cannot be doubtful, Russia possessing already all the East and a great part of Europe.

XIV.

If—which is not likely—both refuse the propositions of Russia, you must manage to raise quarrels for them, and make them exhaust one another; then profiting by a decisive moment, Russia will bring down her assembled troops on Germany; at the same time, two considerable fleets will set out—the one from the Sea of Azov, the other from the port of Archangel—loaded with Asiatic hordes, under the convoy of the armed fleets from the Black Sea and the Baltic; advancing by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, they will invade France on one side, whilst Germany will already have been invaded on the other. These countries conquered, the rest of Europe will easily pass under the yoke, without striking a single blow.

XV.

Thus Europe can, and ought, to be subdued.

PETER I.,

Autocrat of All the Russias.

Lest the reader of this WILL may form an opinion antagonistic to its author, it may be well to state that while Peter the Great was a Despot he was also a Patriot—and while a Tyrant he was yet a Humanitarian. This man, who could icily command death by the knout was the same man who yielded up his own life in rescuing a sailor who had fallen overboard in the ice-laden waters of the Neva. And Peter was, above and beyond all, a Statesman, an Inventor, a finished Mechanic and Progenerator of the Russian Life-Saving Service.