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https://theconversation.com/how-vladimir-putin-projects-his-image-as-a-modern-day-peter-the-great-232612>
"Russian energy giant Gazprom is reported to have been hit particularly hard by
sanctions imposed as a result of the war with Ukraine. An internal report –
obtained and published by the
Financial Times – has forecast that the company
is unlikely to recover gas sales lost as a result of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine for at least a decade.
But Gazprom chairman Alexey Miller is apparently pressing ahead with his plan
to build an 82-metre triumphal column in front of his company’s landmark St
Petersburg Lachta Centre skyscraper. The column will celebrate the defeat of
Sweden in the great northern war, after which Russia declared itself to be an
empire for the first time.
The conflict was fought by Russia at the head of a coalition including much of
what would become Poland and Germany as well as Britain, by virtue of its king,
George I, also being the ruler of Hanover. It pitted one of the dominant
historical figures of the age, Charles XII of Sweden, against Peter I of Russia
– also known by the epithet “the Great”.
On September 10 1721, Russia and Sweden signed the Treaty of Nystad, which
awarded Estonia and large parts of what is now Finland to Russia and enabled
Peter to declare Russia to be an empire. St Petersburg, which the tsar had
founded in 1703 at the mouth of the River Neva on the Baltic Sea, was the seat
of the empire and would remain so until February 1917 and the abdication of
then tsar Nicholas II.
So Vladimir Putin’s enthusiasm for the project could be said to reflect his own
aspirations and ambitions for 21st-century Russia under his leadership. There
are a number of parallels the Russian president is keen to stress as part of
his projection of himself as a modern-day Peter the Great."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
