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Cognition 9e Test Bank Chapter 6: Memory Strategies & Metacognition Page 1 of 27
CHAPTER 6: Memory Strategies and

Metacognition
6-1. Lori types her notes on her laptop during her professor’s lectures, but she also checks her
email and monitors Facebook at the same time. Although Lori insists that she’s a good
multitasker, Steve informs her that she would remember the material better if she closed
her email and browser during class. Steve’s good advice is based on knowledge of
a. working memory.
b. divided attention.
c. levels of processing.
d. encoding specificity.
Answer: b
Section Ref: Memory Strategies I: Memory Strategies Informed by Memory Concepts
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.1
Objective text: Review research on attention and long-term memory that has been utilized to
create efficient memory strategies
Bloom’s Level: Application
6-2. Heather complains that her professor’s Powerpoint slides are crowded with details and that
she can’t copy what is on the slides while listening to the lecture and taking notes on
what is being said. Heather’s complaint has to do with the limits of her
a. working memory.
b. divided attention.
c. levels of processing.
d. encoding specificity.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.1
6-3. Suppose that you are studying for a biopsychology examination, and you decide to try
asking yourself questions about why various structures in the central nervous system
operate the way they do. According to the discussion of memory strategies, your
technique would
a. enhance encoding specificity.
b. promote simple rehearsal.
c. lead to divided attention.
d. encourage a deep level of processing.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.1
6-4. Deep processing increases distinctiveness, which can be especially important in learning
a. formulas.
b. complex theories.
c. names.
d. the order of discoveries.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.1
Bloom’s Level: Knowledge
6-5. Suppose that you study for your next examination in this course by reviewing each topic
and asking how the information might be relevant to the career you want to pursue. Your
study technique makes use of
a. the encoding-specificity principle.
b. the self-reference principle.
c. the Pollyanna Principle.
d. the shallow-rehearsal technique.
Answer: b

Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.1
6-6. Sean is studying for his philosophy final exam. He knows that the test will be all essays,
and he knows that the professor often asks students to compare two philosophical
approaches. As part of his studying, he writes several practice essays in which he
compares some philosophical approaches. Sean’s study method makes use of the
cognitive principle called
a. implicit memory.
b. the hierarchy technique.
c. encoding specificity.
d. method of loci.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.1
6-7. According to the principle of memory called the total-time hypothesis,

a. your score on a memory task is related to the amount of time you spend in learning
the material.
b. the total time you spend in learning the material is such an important factor that it
overshadows the combined impact of all the other memory strategies.
c. your score on a memory task is positively correlated with the total time you spend
in strengthening your brain by using general memory-building exercises.
d. the total time spent studying will typically decrease in a linear fashion, for each
repetition of the list
Answer: a
Section Ref: Memory Strategies II: Practice and Mnemonics
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
Objective text: Identify memory strategies that have emerged from the research into practice
and mnemonic devices
Bloom’s Level: Comprehension
6-8. The research on practice and memory improvement demonstrates that

a. for most people, one exposure to the material is sufficient unless that material is
extremely difficult.
b. several reviews of the same material—without taking breaks in between—is
especially effective.
c. in general, we have little evidence for the total time hypothesis.
d. learning is more effective if learning trials are spread out over time, rather than if
you study without a break.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-9. Which of the following students has the best understanding about how to apply the
distributed-practice effect?
a. Shannon: “Your memory is better if you associate each item in a list with a specific
geographic location, but your mental image must leave sufficient space between
these locations.”
b. Akiko: “It’s best to repeat one item over and over for at least a minute, then rest,
and then continue this pattern with subsequent items.”
c. Derrick: “It’s best to take breaks between your study sessions, so that your learning
trials are spread across time.”
d. Joaquim: “When you want to learn a list of word pairs, put a blank space next to
each item, and then fill in the blank with another member of each word pair.”
Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Objective: 6.2
Bloom’s Level: Synthesis
6-10. Suppose that you are a counselor at a summer camp, and you want to learn the children’s
names. You decide to rehearse the names during each mealtime for 3 days. This would be
an example of a technique called
a. the distributed-practice effect.
b. external memory aids.
c. source monitoring.
d. elaboration.
Answer: a

Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-11. Suppose that you hear a lecture about memory improvement, and the speaker says, “We
must remember the value of desirable difficulties.” The speaker is likely to emphasize
that
a. academic tests must be difficult enough to differentiate between the students who
deserve A’s and the students who deserve lower grades.
b. professors who want to assess their academic programs must be sure that the
courses are sufficiently difficult.
c. students’ motivation will be higher if they are allowed to select the appropriate level
of difficulty for the material in a course they are taking.
d. if students test themselves several minutes after learning some material, they will
make more errors, which will encourage them to spend more time studying.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Hard
Objective: 6.2
6-12. According to research on desirable difficulties, you should wait at least _____ between
study sessions in order to maximize long-term retention.
a. 5 minutes
b. half an hour
c. 2 hours
d. 1 day
Answer: d
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-13. According to research on the testing effect,

a. although testing can improve recall, it is not as helpful as spending the same amount
of time studying.
b. testing consistently improves recall, no matter whether the retention interval is short
or long.
c. this effect operates only when students receive feedback on their test scores.
d. one explanation is that test-taking creates desirable difficulties.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
Bloom’s Level: Analysis
6-14. Roediger and Karpicke’s 2006 study of the testing effect indicated that taking memory
tests improves retention as compared to extra studying
a. at short retention intervals but not long ones.
b. only at retention intervals of 1 week or longer.
c. even when students receive no feedback on the accuracy of their test results.
d. only when the format of the first test matches the format of the final test.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-15. Which of the following students provides the best definition of the term mnemonics?
a. Alfredo: “Mnemonics is the use of imagery to assist our memory.”
b. Julia: “Mnemonics is the use of external memory aids to improve our memory.”
c. Cynthia: “Mnemonics refers to using a strategy to improve our memory.”
d. Jaime: “Mnemonics is any memory trick that actually improves our prospective
memory.”
Answer: c
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-16. What can we conclude about the use of imagery to improve memory?
a. Imagery seems to be involved only in retrieval, rather than in encoding.
b. In general, people recall only 10% more if the instructions emphasize imagery,
instead of simple repetition.
c. Compared to repetition instructions, imagery instructions produce much better
recall.
d. Imagery is helpful on recognition tasks, but not on recall tasks.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-17. Suppose that you meet a student named Jane Frostig, and you try to recall her last name
by imagining that she has chocolate frosting spread across her forehead. Which
mnemonic method would this represent?
a. Keyword method
b. Method of loci
c. Chunking method
d. Source monitoring
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-18. According to the research on the keyword method, this technique

a. is no longer considered to be a useful mnemonic.
b. is often helpful for learning people’s names.
c. is actually less effective when people use distributed practice, rather than learning
the material all at once.
d. works only for abstract nouns, rather than concrete nouns.
Answer: b

Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-19. Suppose that a friend tells you a phone number that you need to dial, as soon as you are
done talking. You don’t have a pencil, so you remember it by grouping it into two
sections, one with three digits, and one with four digits. The method you have used is
called
a. the chunking method.
b. the method of loci.
c. the keyword method.
d. the narrative technique.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-20. Mandi is studying for her biopsychology exam by creating a diagram for the parts of the
human nervous system. Her diagram shows two basic divisions, the peripheral nervous
system and the central nervous system; each of these systems is further divided and then
subdivided. Mandi is using
a. the method of loci.
b. the spacing effect.
c. the keyword method.
d. the hierarchy technique.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-21. The hierarchy technique is an example of a mnemonic device that primarily emphasizes
a. mental imagery.
b. organization.
c. the self-reference effect.
d. prospective memory.
Answer: b
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-22. Which of the following is not an example of a mnemonic technique that emphasizes
organization?
a. Keyword method
b. Hierarchy
c. First-letter technique
d. Narrative technique
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-23. Elaine memorized the lakes of the Great Lakes by using the word HOMES (Huron,
Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). Elaine has used the
a. keyword method.
b. narrative technique.
c. first-letter technique.
d. hierarchy method.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-24. The narrative technique

a. is effective only for improving working memory.
b. is effective only for items presented at the beginning of a list.
c. can produce recall that is approximately six times the recall produced in a control
group.
d. requires you to combine the first letter of each word in a list that you need to
remember.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-25. According to the discussion of the narrative technique,

a. this technique is effective if you need to learn a single list of items; its effectiveness
is reduced when learning multiple lists.
b. the research suggests that this technique works well as long as you can create the
story easily and also recall it easily.
c. this technique is effective with college students, but not for people with memory
impairments.
d. this method is so effective that it works even if you use a weak story to link together
the items.
Answer: b
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-26. Chapter 7 discussed a study by Hartwig and Dunlosky, who assessed whether college
students’ study techniques were correlated with their college grades. This research
showed that
a. there was a strong correlation between the measures of “study techniques” and
grades in college.
b. the study was flawed, because of the research was acknowledged to have a serious
problem with the issue that “correlation is not necessarily causation.”
c. surprisingly, there was no correlation between any of the variables.
d. there was actually a negative correlation between study techniques and grades in
college, probably because the students with the lowest grades actually exaggerated
the amount of time spent studying.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-27. Suppose that you need to remember to pick up a book at the library after your
examination today. This kind of memory task is an example of
a. retrospective memory.
b. implicit memory.
c. prospective memory
d. organizational mnemonics.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-28. According to your textbook, retrospective memory

a. means that some new information interferes with some old information.
b. refers to some information that you learned in the past.
c. means that you use some mnemonic devices to improve your memory.
d. refers to your ability to predict how well you will do on a memory test.
Answer: b

Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-29. According to the discussion of prospective and retrospective memory,

a. distinctive encoding improves performance on both kinds of memory tasks.
b. the research on retrospective memory is typically higher in ecological validity than
is the research on prospective memory.
c. a delay period has a stronger effect on retrospective memory than on prospective
memory.
d. retrospective-memory tasks typically activate the frontal lobe of the brain, but
prospective-memory tasks do not.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-30. Which of the following students provides the best definition of the term “ecological
validity”?
a. Emily: “Ecological validity means that you are testing hypotheses that assess
people’s concern about the environment.”
b. Patrick: “Ecological validity refers to research in which you assess two different
dependent variables.”
c. Tessa: “Ecological validity means that there is a high similarity between the
situation where the study is being conducted, and the situation in “real life” where
the results will be applied.”
d. Theodora: “Ecological validity means that you take two dependent variables,
determine whether they are correlated with each other, and then see whether they
are correlated with the independent variable.”
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-31. Absentminded behavior is most likely to occur

a. when you are performing a very important behavior.
b. when you are performing a source-monitoring task.
c. when you are performing a routine activity, but you are thinking about the separate
steps involved in the action.
d. when a prospective-memory task requires you to interrupt a routine activity.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-32. Suppose that people are working on an ongoing task. They are most likely to forget to
complete a prospective-memory task if
a. they create a mental image of that prospective-memory task.
b. they are performing the ongoing task automatically.
c. the ongoing task is relatively easy.
d. they create some concrete, external reminder of the prospective-memory task.
Answer: b
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-33. Absentminded behavior is especially likely to occur

a. when you must remember to do something that is not part of your customary
routine.
b. when you are in an unfamiliar setting.
c. when you are trying to performing a task especially carefully.
d. when you are performing a retrospective-memory task.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
6-34. Prospective memory errors are especially likely to occur when you are simultaneously
a. performing a task automatically in a familiar setting.
b. performing a task effortfully in a familiar setting.
c. performing a task automatically in an unfamiliar setting.
d. performing a task effortfully in an unfamiliar setting.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.2
6-35. According to the discussion of improving prospective memory,

a. external memory aids tend to decrease the accuracy of prospective memory.
b. it’s helpful to figure out a specific reminder that you can place in a relevant
location.
c. the same identical factors influence the accuracy of both retrospective memory and
prospective memory.
d. prospective memory errors are especially likely when people are using focused
attention rather than divided attention.
Answer: b
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.2
Bloom’s Level: Comprehensions
6-36 The term metacognition refers to

a. an especially deep level of processing—even deeper than the self-reference effect.
b. the perspective that memory improvement must be comprehensive, instead of
targeting just one memory strategy.
c. remembering to do something in the future.
d. our knowledge and control of our cognitive processes.
Answer: d
Section Ref: Metamemory
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.3
Objective text: Review research on metamemory in order to learn about ways to strategically
increase learning and memory
6-37. Harrison knows that he will typically perform better in an exam if he reads the textbook
chapters in the early afternoon and if he reviews the material by trying to explain it in his
own words. Harrison is demonstrating
a. levels of processing.
b. mnemonics.
c. metacognition.
d. the keyword method.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-38. Which of the following students provides the best summary of why a person’s confidence
is important to the topic of memory strategies and metacognition?
a. Asli: “In general, people are overconfident that they will remember material
accurately.”
b. Megan: “Ironically, people are overconfident about eyewitness testimony and
underconfident about material they learn in an academic setting.”
c. George: “People are especially likely to be overconfident if they have studied
material by using the self-reference technique.”
d. Xavier: “People are generally overconfident when they use memory strategies and
underconfident when they use metacognition.”
Answer: a
Difficulty: Hard
Objective: 6.3
6-39. Why should you pay attention to metamemory if you want to improve your memory?
a. The guidelines of metamemory suggest that rote rehearsal is the most effective
mnemonic device.
b. Metamemory can help you decide which strategies work best for you.
c. Metamemory allows you to process information in a parallel fashion, rather than a
serial fashion.
d. Metamemory is the study of memory for people’s names, and people report
particular difficulty with memory for names.
Answer: b

Difficulty: Hard
Objective: 6.3
6-40. Suppose that a friend is having difficulty in introductory psychology, so you decide to
give her some memory tips. If you decide to emphasize metamemory, you would be
likely to
a. make her think more about the factors that influence her memory.
b. emphasize that, in the ideal situation, memory is schematic.
c. inform her that the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is more a myth than a reality.
d. emphasize shallow processing for working memory and deep processing for long-
term memory.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-41. If you had one important message about memory improvement that you could convey to
a friend, what should it be?
a. The total amount of time you spend practicing the items is more important than the
study techniques that you use.
b. Interactive images are more effective than non-interactive images.
c. Use the first-letter mnemonic whenever possible.
d. Try to think about your memory strategies, plan how to study, and monitor whether
you understand material.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Hard
Objective: 6.3
Bloom’s Level: Evaluation
6-42. Which of the following definitions for the term “foresight bias” is most accurate?
a. A foresight bias occurs when the researchers try to anticipate—in advance—the
problems with a study.
b. Foresight bias occurs when researchers examine the dependent variables to see
whether they will be high in external validity.
c. Foresight bias occurs when people judge their mastery of some material that they
have been studying, although they have been using an inappropriate mnemonic
device.
d. Foresight bias occurs when people are too confident that they will do well in a
future exam, based on the estimates they make while studying the material.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-43. Which of the following students provides the best comparison between the term
“metacognition” and the term “self-knowledge”?
a. Sue: “Metacognition refers to people’s beliefs about other people; in contrast, self-
knowledge is a broad term that refers to people’s beliefs about themselves.”
b. Audrey: “Metacognition refers to your knowledge about your cognitive skills; self-
knowledge is a general term that includes a wide variety of beliefs about yourself.”
c. Timoteo: “Metacognition refers to your study strategies; in contrast, self-knowledge
refers to your knowledge about whether you will be able to apply those study
strategies.”
d. Sergei: “Metacognition refers to your prediction about your past performance; self-
knowledge refers to your predictions about your future performance."
Answer: b
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-44. According to Baddeley’s approach to working memory, the central executive plays a role
when students are studying for an exam
a. because it is important in source-monitoring tasks.
b. because it helps individuals who have ADHD, so that they can actually suppress
competing answers.
c. because it helps people plan how they will divide their time during studying.
d. because it strengthens and expands the limits of the phonological loop.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Objective: 6.3
6-45. Your textbook discussed a metamemory study that asked students to estimate their total
score on a test that they had just taken. The comparison between the students’ actual
score and their estimated score showed that
a. the students consistently overestimated how well they had performed.
b. the students consistently underestimated how well they had performed.
c. the students with the lowest actual scores provided the most accurate estimated
scores.
d. the students with the highest actual scores provided the most accurate estimated
scores.
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-46. Chapter 6 discusses the accuracy of people’s metamemory for pairs of words on an item-
by-item basis. This research suggests that
a. people are not very accurate in guessing which pairs of words they are likely to
recall at a later time.
b. people clearly underestimate their ability to recall pairs of words at a later time.
c. people are more accurate when predicting on an “item-by-item” basis as compared
to an overall score basis.
d. people have fairly accurate metamemory when the stimuli are pairs of words.
Answer: c

Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.3
6-47. In which of the following conditions is your metamemory accuracy likely to be the
highest?
a. When material is difficult, rather than easy
b. When the material is concerned with nonsense words, rather than English phrases
c. When learning has been incidental, rather than intentional
d. When you wait several minutes before judging whether you’ll remember the
material
Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-48. Suppose that you are studying for a vocabulary test, and you want to accurately predict
your score in that test. Your prediction accuracy would be highest if you
a. tested yourself immediately after learning the words.
b. tested yourself several minutes after learning the words.
c. estimate how many words you already knew before beginning to study.
d. figure out—in advance—whether you typically have trouble on vocabulary tests.
Answer: b
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-49. Chapter 6 discussed college students’ metamemory about factors affecting memory
accuracy. According to this discussion,
a. students with ADHD consistently overestimate their memory accuracy, compared
with students without ADHD.
b. students are usually accurate in predicting how many hours they should study in
order to get a good score in an exam.
c. students usually believe that simple rehearsal is an effective way to study for an
exam.
d. students are aware that the research shows that you remember words better if they
are printed in a large font size, rather than a small font size.
Answer: c
Difficulty: Medium
Objective: 6.3
6-50. Part of the section on metamemory examined how students regulate their study strategies.
If you are typical of the college students discussed in that section—and the task is
relatively easy—you would be likely to
a. spend somewhat more time on the more difficult material, but not as much time as
it deserves.
b. fail to review the material you already know.
c. show no relationship between study time and the difficulty of the material.
d. spend roughly three times as long on difficult topics as on the topics you already
know.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Easy
Objective: 6.3
6-51. According to the research on students’ distribution of their study time, they tend to
a. systematically study the difficult items more than the easy ones.
b. study the difficult items somewhat more than the easy ones.
c. devote the same amount of time to both the difficult items and the easy ones.
d. study the easy ones somewhat more than the difficult ones.
Answer: b
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CHAPTER VI. PETER THE GREAT
When, towards the beginning of the eighteenth century, Peter the Great laid the
foundation of Petersburg or rather of his empire, no one predicted success. Had
anyone at that time imagined that a sovereign of Russia could send victorious
fleets to the Dardanelles, subjugate the Crimea, drive out the Turks from four great
provinces, dominate the Black Sea, establish the most brilliant court of Europe,
and make all the arts flourish in the midst of war—if anyone had said that he would
merely have been taken for a visionary.—Voltaire.b
The question of the succession was now

[1684-1725 a.d.] again thrown open to discussion, and the family
feuds were revived. Ivan, the next in
succession, was nearly blind, and, according to some historians,
nearly dumb, and inferior in mind and body; and shortly before his
death Feodor expressed his wish that his half-brother, Peter, then
between nine and ten years of age, should be nominated to the
throne; a nomination of which Ivan had just sense enough to
approve. The imbecility of Ivan was so great that, had it not been for
the influence of the family to which he belonged, and the bold and
ambitious spirit of his sister Sophia, he must have been set aside at
once, and Peter without further difficulty raised to the sovereignty.
The Miloflavskoi, however, were resolved to preserve the right of
succession in their own blood; and Sophia, a princess of singular
beauty and high mental endowments, in the meridian of youth and
possessed of indomitable courage, set the example of contesting the
throne, first in the name of her idiot brother and next in her own
name: for when her plans were ripe she did not scruple to declare
that she aspired to the sceptre in the default of the rightful heir. But
as all her machinations were carefully conducted with a colour of
justice on behalf of Ivan, she escaped from the charge of interested
motives, which, in the early part of the plot, would have defeated her
grand object.
While Sophia was employed in devising her
[1684 a.d.] plans, the Narishkins urged with unabating
activity the claims of Peter. Friends arose in
different quarters for both parties, and the city was thrown into
consternation. But the Miloflavskoi had the advantage of possession:
the keys of power were in their hands: the officers of the state were
in their immediate confidence, and the bands of the strelitz, the
janissaries of Russia, were under their control. Sophia, availing
herself of these fortunate circumstances, pleaded with her
supplicating beauty in the name of her brother; besought the strelitz,
by arts of fascination which were irresistible, to make common cause
with her; and where her eyes failed to impress their sluggard hearts,
she was bountiful in money and promises. A body so corrupt and
slavish as the strelitz was easily won by bribes to any offices of
depredation, and they accordingly declared for the beautiful and
prodigal Sophia.
The accession of fourteen thousand soldiers to her side—men
who were ready at any moment to deluge the capital in blood—
determined the scales at once. It was necessary in the first instance
to exterminate the Narishkins, the formidable supporters of Peter;
and next, if it could be accomplished with safety, to make away with
the life of the prince. A rumour was accordingly disseminated that
the Narishkins had compassed the death of Feodor, in order to make
room for the young Peter; that they had poisoned him through the
agency of foreign physicians; and that they contemplated a similar
act of treachery towards Ivan. The zeal of the Narishkins seemed to
justify these charges; and the populace, who were universally in
favour of the direct lineal succession, were brought to believe them;
particularly as Galitzin, the favourite minister of Feodor, was the chief
counsellor and friend of Sophia. Affairs were now ripe for revolt. The
chiefs of the strelitz, having previously concerted their plans, broke
out into open violence; and for three days in succession this band of
legalised plunderers committed the most extravagant excesses in
the streets of Moscow, secretly abetted by the encouraging
patronage of Sophia. In their fury they murdered all those officers of
the state whom they suspected to be inimical to the views of the
princess; and bursting into the palace of the czars demanded the
lives of the Narishkins. Two brothers of Natalia, the widow of Alexis,
were sacrificed on the spot, and sixty of her immediate kindred were
shortly after put to death in the most cruel manner.
The czarina herself was forced to flee for safety from the capital,
accompanied, providentially for the destiny of Russia, by the young
prince Peter. For sixty versts she fled in consternation, carrying the
boy, it is reported, in her arms: but the ferocious strelitz had tracked
her footsteps, and followed close upon her path. Her strength at last
began to fail: her pursuers were rapidly gaining on her; she could
hear the sound of their yells, and the tramp of their approaching feet:
her heart trembled at the horrors of her situation, and in despair she
rushed into the convent of the Trinity to seek for a last shelter in the
sanctuary. The strelitz, uttering cries of savage triumph, followed on
the moment: the despairing mother had just time to gain the foot of
the altar, and place the child upon it, when two of the murderous
band came up. One of them seized the prince, and, raising his
sword, prepared to sever the head from the body, when a noise of
approaching horsemen was heard without: the ruffian hesitated—his
fellow murderers at the distant part of the church were struck with
terror—dismayed by the apprehension of some sudden change in
the fortune of the day, he abandoned his grasp of the prince and
fled, and Peter the Great was preserved to Russia.
The immediate result of those violent efforts of the strelitz was the
declaration of the sovereignty in the name of Ivan. That prince,
however, trembled at the prospect of incurring the responsibility of a
trust to which he felt himself to be unequal, and entreated his
counsellors to permit his half-brother Peter to be associated with him
in the government. This request, which was considered on all sides
reasonable enough, could not be refused without increasing the
difficulties of Sophia’s party, and rendering such further measures
necessary as might probably betray her motives too soon. It was
therefore sanctioned by the nobles; and on the 6th of May, 1681, the
coronation of Ivan and Peter were celebrated in due form; Sophia
being nominated regent, on account of the imbecility of the one and
the youth of the other. Thus far Sophia had carried her purpose. She
was now in possession of the power to which her ambition tempted
her to aspire; but she panted to have that power formally assigned
and publicly acknowledged. In order the more effectually to exclude
Peter from any future lien upon the throne, she brought about a
marriage between Ivan and a young Soltikov; trusting to the issue for
an insurmountable obstacle in the path of the prince, whose dawning
genius, even at that early age, she appeared to dread.c
THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PETER
During Sophia’s government Peter continued to reside with his

mother in the village of Preobrazhenski. His education was entirely
neglected; his teacher, Nikita Zotov, was taken away from him and
not replaced by another; he spent his time in play, surrounded by
companions of his own age and without any intelligent occupation:
such an existence would certainly have spoiled and maimed a less
gifted nature. Upon Peter it only had the effect, as he himself
afterwards recognised, of making him feel in later years the want of
that knowledge which is indispensable for a sound education. By
reason of this neglect Peter had to study much when he reached
maturity; besides this, the manner in which his boyhood was spent
deprived him of that training of the character in intercourse with other
people which is the mark of an educated man. From his youth Peter
adopted the rough habits of those who surrounded him, an extreme
want of self-restraint, and hideous debauchery.
But his unusually gifted nature could not be crushed by this
absence of all intellectual interests. Peter had no early instruction,
but the love of knowledge inherent in him could not be destroyed. He
himself afterwards communicated the circumstances which directed
him into the paths he elected to follow. When he was fourteen years
of age, he heard from Prince Iakov Dolgoruki that he had possessed
an instrument “by means of which it was possible to measure
distances or extension without being on the spot.” The young czar
wished to see the instrument, but Dolgoruki replied that it had been
stolen; so Peter commissioned the prince, who had gone to France
as ambassador, to purchase there for him such an instrument. In
1688 Dolgoruki brought from France an astrolabe and case of
mathematical instruments, but there was no one amongst the czar’s
entourage who had any understanding of what they were for. Peter
applied to a German doctor, but neither did he know how to use the
instruments; finally he found a Dutchman, Franz Timmerman, who
explained to him the significance of the objects. The czar began to
study arithmetic, geometry, and the science of fortification with him.
The teacher was not a great authority in these matters, but he knew
sufficient to give Peter indications, and the talented pupil worked out
everything himself; but his education had been neglected to such an
extent that when he was learning the four rules of arithmetic, at the
age of sixteen, he could not write a single line correctly and did not
even know how to divide one word from the other, joining two or
three together with continual mistakes and omissions.
Some time later Peter was in the village of Izmailov, and strolling
through the storehouses, he looked over a lot of old things that had
belonged to the cousin of the czar Michael Feodorovitch—Nikita
Ivanovitch Romanov, who had been distinguished in his time for his
remarkable love of knowledge. Here he found a foreign-built vessel
and questioned Franz Timmerman about it; the latter could tell him
only that it was an English boat, which had the superiority over
Russian boats as being able to sail not only with the wind but also
against it. Peter inquired whether there was anyone who could mend
the boat and show him how to sail it. Timmerman replied that there
was and found for Peter the Dutchman, Christian Brandt (Karstein
Brandt, as Peter called him). The czar Alexis Michailovitch had
thought of building a ship and launching it at Astrakhan, and had
therefore sent for shipwrights from Holland; but the ship that had
been built and launched at Astrakhan was destroyed by Stenka
Radzin, the shipwrights were dispersed, and one of them, the ship’s
carpenter, Karstein Brandt, lived in Moscow where he gained a living
by doing carpenter’s work.
By order of the czar Brandt
mended the boat, put in a mast
and sail, and in Peter’s presence
manœuvred it on the river Iauza.
Peter was astonished at such art
and himself repeated the
experiment several times with
Brandt, but not always
successfully; it was difficult to
turn the boat, which stuck to the
shore because the channel was
too narrow. Peter then ordered
the boat to be taken to a pond in
the village of Izmailov, but there
also navigation was difficult.
Then Peter learned that the lake Peter the Great
near Pereiaslavl would be
suitable for his purpose; it was (1672-1725)
thirty versts in circumference
and had a depth of six sazhen.
[39] Peter asked his mother’s leave to go on a pilgrimage to the
Troitsa monastery, came to Pereiaslavl, and examined the lake,
which greatly pleased him. On his return to Moscow he entreated his
mother to let him go again to Pereiaslavl in order to take the boat
there. The czaritza could not refuse her beloved son, although she
was much against such a project out of fear for his life. Together with
Brandt, Peter built a wharf at the mouth of the river Troubezh, which
falls into the lake of Pereiaslavl and thus he laid the foundation of his
ship building.
At that period Peter’s diversions with his
[1687-1689 a.d.] companions began to lose their playful
character. He enrolled amongst them volunteers
of every condition and in 1687 he formed with them two regular
regiments, called by the name of the two royal villages near Moscow
—the Preobrazhenski and the Semenovski. Sophia and her
partisans endeavoured to represent these diversions as foolish
extravagances; Natalia Kirillovna, the mother of Peter, did not herself
see anything more in them than the amusements of a spirited,
impetuous youth, and thought to steady him by marriage. She found
for him a bride in the person of Eudoxia Lapoukhin, a beautiful young
girl; her father, an okolnitchi, or courtier of the second rank, called
Sarion, had his name changed to Theodore, and the marriage took
place on the 27th of January, 1689. Peter had no attachment or love
for his wife and only married to please his mother; in fact, he married
as the majority of men married at that period. His mother hoped that
when the young man was married he would begin to lead the life that
was considered fitting for exalted personages. But soon after the
marriage, as soon as the ice began to break up in the rivers, Peter
galloped away to Pereiaslavl and there occupied himself with the
building of ships. His mother wished to draw him away and
demanded his return to Moscow under the pretext of a requiem
service for the czar Theodore: “You were pleased to summon me to
Moscow,” wrote the czar to his mother, “and I was ready to come, but
verily there is business on hand.” His mother insisted that he should
come to the capital; Peter obeyed and came to Moscow, but after a
month he was again back at the Pereiaslavl lake. He loved his
mother and in his letters shared with her the satisfaction he
experienced in the success of his work. “Thanks to your prayers,” he
wrote, “all is well, and the ships are a great success.” But the
czaritza Natalia did not understand her son’s passion, and moreover
feared Sophia’s inimical designs; therefore she called him again to
Moscow. His young wife also wearied for his presence and wrote to
him, calling him “her joy, her light, her darling,” and begging him
either to come back or let her come to him. Peter, recalled by his
mother’s persistent demands, unwillingly returned that summer to
Moscow.d
PETER ASSERTS CONTROL

It is alleged, with what truth we know not, that at this period Sophia
and her favourite, Prince Galitzin, engaged the new chief of the
Strelitz to sacrifice the young czar to their ambition. It appears at
least that six hundred of those soldiers were to seize on that prince’s
person, if not to murder him. Peter was once more obliged to take
refuge in the monastery of the Trinity, the usual sanctuary of the
court when menaced by the mutinous soldiery. There he convoked
the boyars of his party, assembled a body of forces, treated with the
captains of the strelitz, and sent for some Germans who had been
long settled in Moscow, and were all attached to his person, from his
already showing a regard to foreigners. Sophia protested her
abhorrence of the plot, and sent the patriarch to her brother to
assure him of her innocence; but he abandoned her cause on being
shown proof that he himself was among those who had been marked
out for assassination.
Peter’s cause prevailed. All the conspirators were punished with
great severity; the leaders were beheaded, others were knouted, or
had their tongues cut out, and were sent into exile. Prince Galitzin
escaped with his life, by the intercession of a relative, who was a
favourite of the czar Peter, but he forfeited all his property, which was
immense, and was banished to the neighbourhood of Archangel.
The scene concluded with shutting up the Princess Sophia in a
convent near Moscow, where she remained in confinement until her
death, which did not happen until fifteen years afterwards. From that
period Peter was real sovereign. His brother Ivan had no other share
in the government than that of lending his name to the public acts.
He led a retired life, and died in 1696.
Nature had given Peter a colossal vigour of body and mind,
capable of all extremes of good and evil. It is impossible to review
his whole history without mingled feelings of admiration, horror, and
disgust. That he was not altogether a monster of wickedness was
not the fault of Sophia and her minister, whose deliberate purpose it
was to destroy in him every germ of good, that he might become
odious and insupportable to the nation. They succeeded only in
impairing the health, corrupting the morals, and hardening the heart
of the youthful czar; it was no more in their power to deprive him of
his lofty nature than to have
given it to him. General
Menesius, a learned
Scotchman, to whom Alexis had
intrusted his education, refused
to betray him, and was,
therefore, driven from his
charge. The first impressions on
the mind of Peter were allowed
to be received from coarse and
sordid amusements, and from
foreigners, who were repulsed
by the jealousy of the boyars,
hated by the superstition of the
people, and despised by the
general ignorance. Thus it was
hoped that he would at last be
driven by public execration to
quit the palace for a monk’s cell;
but to ensure his disgrace Sophia Alexievna
served to lay the foundations of (1658-1704)
his greatness and glory.
Kept at a distance from the
throne, Peter escaped the influence of that atmosphere of
effeminacy and flattery by which it is environed; the hatred with
which he was inspired against the destroyers of his family increased
the energy of his character. He knew that he must conquer his place
upon the throne, which was held by an able and ambitious sister,
and encircled by a barbarous soldiery; thenceforth, his childhood had
that which ripened age too often wants, it had an aim in view, of
which his genius, already bold and persevering, had a thorough
comprehension. Surrounded by adventurers of daring spirits, who
had come from afar to try their fortune, his powers were rapidly
unfolded. One of them, Lefort, who doubtless perceived in this young
barbarian the traces of civilisation, which had perhaps been left there
by his first tutor, gave him an idea of the sciences and arts of
Europe, and particularly of the military art.
MILITARY REFORMS
Lefort, in whom Peter placed his whole

[1692-1695 a.d.] confidence, did not understand much of the
military service, neither was he a man of
literature, having applied himself deeply to no one particular art or
science; but he had seen a great deal, and was capable of forming a
right judgment of what he saw. Like the czar, he was indebted for
everything to his own genius: besides, he understood the German
and Dutch languages, which Peter was learning at that time, in
hopes that both those nations would facilitate his designs. Finding
himself agreeable to Peter, Lefort attached himself to that prince’s
service: by administering to his pleasures he became his favourite,
and confirmed this intimacy by his abilities. The czar intrusted him
with the most dangerous design a Russian sovereign could then
possibly form—that of abolishing the seditious and barbarous body
of the strelitz. The attempt to reform the janissaries had cost the
great sultan Osman his life. Peter, young as he was, went to work in
a much abler manner than Osman. He began with forming, at his
country residence of Preobrajen, a company of fifty of his youngest
domestics; and some of the sons of boyars were chosen for their
officers. But in order to teach those young boyars a subordination
with which they were wholly unacquainted, he made them pass
through all the military degrees, setting them an example himself,
and serving successively as private soldier, sergeant, and lieutenant
of the company.
This company, which had been raised by Peter only, soon
increased in numbers, and was afterwards the regiment of
Preobrajenski guards. Another company, formed on the same plan,
became in time the regiment of guards known by the name of
Semenovski. The czar had now a regiment of five thousand men on
foot, on whom he could depend, trained by General Gordon, a
Scotchman, and composed almost entirely of foreigners. Lefort, who
had seen very little service, yet was qualified for any commission,
undertook to raise a regiment of twelve thousand men, and effected
his design. Five colonels were appointed to serve under him; and
suddenly he was made general of this little army, which had been
raised as much to oppose the strelitz as the enemies of the state.
Peter was desirous of seeing one of those mock fights which had
been lately introduced in times of peace. He caused a fort to be
erected, which one part of his new troops was to defend and the
other to attack. The difference on this occasion was that, instead of
exhibiting a sham engagement, they fought a downright battle, in
which there were several soldiers killed and a great many wounded.
Lefort, who commanded the attack, received a considerable wound.
These bloody sports were intended to inure the troops to martial
discipline; but it was a long time before this could be effected, and
not without a great deal of labour and difficulty. Amidst these military
entertainments, the czar did not neglect the navy: and as he had
made Lefort a general, notwithstanding this favourite had never
borne any commission by land, so he raised him to the rank of
admiral, though he had never before commanded at sea. But he
knew him to be worthy of both commissions. True, he was an
admiral without a fleet, and a general without any other troops than
his regiment.
By degrees the czar began to reform the chief abuse in the army,
viz., the independence of the boyars, who, in time of war, used to
take the field with a multitude of their vassals and peasants. Such
was the government of the Franks, Huns, Goths, and Vandals, who,
indeed, subdued the Roman Empire in its state of decline, but would
have been easily destroyed had they contended with the warlike
legions of the ancient Romans, or with such armies as in our times
are maintained in constant discipline all over Europe.
Admiral Lefort had soon more than an empty title. He employed
both Dutch and Venetian carpenters to build some long-boats, and
even two thirty-gun ships, at the mouth of the Voroneje, which
discharges itself into the Don. These vessels were to fall down the
river, and to awe the Crim Tatars. Turkey, too, seemed to invite the
czar to essay his arms against her; at the same time disputes were
pending with China respecting the limits between that empire and
the possessions of Russia in the north of Asia. These, however,
were settled by a treaty concluded in 1692, and Peter was left free to
pursue his designs of conquest on the European side of his
dominions.
AZOV TAKEN FROM THE TURKS
It was not so easy to settle a peace with the Turks; this even
seemed a proper time for the czar to raise himself on their ruin. The
Venetians, whom they had long overpowered, began to retrieve their
losses. Morosini, the same who surrendered Candia to the Turks,
was dispossessing them of the Morea. Leopold, emperor of
Germany, had gained some advantages over the Ottoman forces in
Hungary; and the Poles were at least able to repel the incursions of
the Crim Tatars.
Peter profited by these circumstances to discipline his troops, and
to acquire, if possible, the empire of the Black Sea. General Gordon
marched along the Don towards Azov, with his regiment of five
thousand men; he was followed by General Lefort, with his regiment
of twelve thousand; by a body of strelitz, under the command of
Sheremetrev and Schein, officers of Prussian extraction; by a body
of Cossacks, and a large train of artillery. In short everything was
ready for this grand expedition (1694). The Russian army began its
march under the command of Marshal Sheremetrev; in the beginning
of the summer of 1695, in order to attack the town of Azov, situated
at the mouth of the Don. The czar was with the troops, but appeared
only as a volunteer, being desirous to learn before he would take
upon him to command. During their march they stormed two forts
which the Turks had erected on the banks of the river.
This was an arduous enterprise, Azov being very strong and
defended by a numerous garrison. The czar had employed several
Venetians in building long-boats like the Turkish saicks, which,
together with two Dutch frigates, were to fall down the Voroneje; but
not being ready in time, they could not get into the sea of Azov. All
beginnings are difficult. The Russians, having never as yet made a
regular siege, miscarried in this their first attempt.
A native of Dantzic, whose name was Jacob, had the direction of
the artillery under the command of General Schein; for as yet they
had none but foreign officers belonging to the train, and indeed none
but foreign engineers and foreign pilots. This Jacob had been
condemned to the rods by Schein, the Prussian general. It seemed
as if these severities were necessary at that time in support of
authority. The Russians submitted to such treatment,
notwithstanding their disposition to mutiny; and after they had
undergone that corporal punishment, they continued in the service
as usual. This Dantziker was of another way of thinking, and
determined to be revenged; whereupon he spiked the cannon,
deserted to the enemy, turned Mohammedan, and defended the
town with great success. The besiegers made a vain attempt to
storm it, and after losing a great number of men, were obliged to
raise the siege.
Perseverance in his undertakings was the
[1696 a.d.] characteristic of Peter the Great. In the spring of
1696 he marched a second time to attack the
town of Azov with a more considerable army. The most agreeable
part of the czar’s success was that of his little fleet, which he had the
pleasure to see completely equipped and properly commanded. It
beat the Turkish saicks that had been sent from Constantinople, and
took some of them. The siege was carried on regularly, though not
entirely after the English manner. The trenches were three times
deeper than the English, and the parapets were as high as ramparts.
At length the garrison surrendered, the 28th of July, 1696, without
obtaining any of the honours of war; they were likewise obliged to
deliver up the traitor Jacob to the besiegers.
The czar immediately began to improve the fortifications of Azov.
He likewise ordered a harbour to be dug, capable of holding large
vessels, with a design to make himself master of the straits of Caffa,
which open the passage into the Black Sea. He left two-and-thirty
armed saicks before Azov, and made all the preparations for fitting
out a strong fleet against the Turks, which was to consist of nine
sixty-gun ships, and of one-and-forty carrying from thirty to fifty
pieces of cannon. The principal nobility and the wealthiest merchants
were obliged to contribute to the fitting out of this fleet; and, as he
thought that the estates of the clergy ought to bear a proportion in
the service of the common cause, orders were issued that the
patriarch, the bishops, and the superior clergy should find money to
forward this new expedition, in honour of their country, and for the
general advantage of Christendom. He likewise obliged the
Cossacks to build a number of light boats, such as they use
themselves, with which they might easily infest the whole coast of
the Crimea. The scheme was to drive the Tatars and Turks forever
out of the Crimea, and afterwards to establish a free and easy
commerce with Persia, through Georgia. This is the very branch of
trade which the Greeks formerly carried on to Colchis, and to this
peninsula of the Crimea, which the czar seemed likely to subdue.
Before Peter left the Crimea he repudiated his wife Eudoxia, and
ordered her to be sent to a convent, where, before his return to
Moscow, she became a nun, under the name of Helena. She had
long made herself distasteful to her husband by her querulous
jealousy, for which, indeed, she had ample cause, and by her
aversion to his foreign favourites and the arts they introduced.
After his successful campaign against the Turks and Tatars, Peter
wished to accustom his people to splendid shows, as well as to
military toil. With this view, he made his army enter Moscow under
triumphal arches, in the midst of fireworks and other tokens of
rejoicing. The soldiers who had fought on board the Venetian saicks
against the Turks led the procession. Marshal Sheremetrev, generals
Gordon and Schein, Admiral Lefort, and the other general officers,
took precedence of their sovereign, who pretended he had no rank in
the army, being desirous to convince the nobility by his example that
merit ought to be the only road to military preferment.
This triumphal entry seemed, in some measure, to resemble those
of the ancient Romans, especially in that as the triumphers exposed
the captives to public view in the streets of Rome, and sometimes
put them to death, so the slaves taken in this expedition followed the
army; and Jacob, who had betrayed them the year before, was
carried in a cart, with the gibbet, to which he was fastened after he
had been broken upon the wheel.
Upon this occasion was struck the first medal in Russia. The
legend, which was in the language of that country is remarkable:
“Peter I, the august emperor of Muscovy.” On the reverse is Azov,
with these words, “Victorious by fire and water.”
SCHEMES OF CONQUEST
The paramount idea of Peter’s whole life displayed itself in the

siege of Azov, his first military enterprise. He wished to civilise his
people by beginning with the art of war by sea and land. That art
would open the way for all the others into Russia, and protect them
there. By it the czar was to conquer for his empire that element
which, in his eyes, was the greatest civiliser of the world, because it
is the most favourable to the intercourse of nations with each other.
But ignorant and savage Asia lay stretched along the Black Sea,
between Russia and the south of Europe. It was not, therefore,
through those waters that Peter could open himself a passage to
European knowledge. But towards the northwest, another sea, the
same whence, in the ninth century, came the first Russian founders
of the empire, was within his reach. It alone could connect Muscovy
with ancient Europe; it was especially through that inlet, and by the
ports on the gulfs of Finland and of Riga, that Russia could aspire to
civilisation. Those ports belonged, however, to a warlike land, thickly
studded with strong fortresses. It mattered not; everything was to be
tried to attain so important an object.
Peter, however, did not deem it proper to begin such an arduous
enterprise until he should have made himself better acquainted with
the nations which he wished to conciliate, or to conquer, and which
were recommended to him as models. He was desirous, with his
own eyes, of beholding civilisation in what he supposed to be its
mature state, and to improve himself in the details of government, in
the knowledge of naval affairs, and of the several arts which he
wished to introduce among his countrymen.
CONSPIRACY TO MURDER PETER

But he was not allowed to depart in peace.
[1697 a.d.] The announcement of his intention was
received with deep disgust by his bigoted
subjects. The strelitz in particular, who saw themselves supplanted
by the regiments disciplined in the European manner, were actively
hostile. The childhood and youth of Peter had several times escaped
from their rage; and now, in the horror which was inspired by his
approaching departure for profane Europe, they determined to
sacrifice the impious czar who was ready to defile himself by the
sacrilegious touch of foreigners whom they abhorred. They saw in
the midst of them twelve thousand heretics, already organised, who
would remain masters of their holy city; while they themselves, exiled
to the army, were destined to fight at a distance on the frontier. Nor
was this their only grievance, for Peter had given orders to construct
a fleet of a hundred vessels; and of this sudden creation they
complained, as being an insupportable tax in the midst of an already
ruinous war, and as rendering it necessary to introduce into their
sacred land a fresh supply of those schismatical artisans who were
preferred to them. A few days before the departure of their
sovereign, Tsikler and Sukanim, two of the strelitz leaders, plotted a
nocturnal conflagration. They knew that Peter would be the first to
hasten to it; and in the midst of the tumult and confusion common to
such accidents, they meant to murder him without mercy, and then to
massacre all the foreigners who had been set over them as masters.
Such was the infamous scheme. The hour fixed for its
accomplishment was at hand. The principal conspirators assembled
at a banquet, and sought in intoxicating liquors the courage requisite
for the dreadful work before them. But drunkenness produces
various effects on different constitutions. Two of the villains lost in it
their boldness, left the company under a specious pretext, promising
their accomplices to return in time, and hurried to the czar to disclose
the plot.
At midnight the blow was to have been struck; and Peter gave
orders that, exactly at eleven, the haunt of the conspirators should
be closely surrounded. Shortly after, thinking that the hour was
come, he went thither alone, and entered boldly, not doubting that he
should find them already fettered by his guards. But his impatience
had anticipated the time, and he found himself, single and unarmed,
in the midst of the ferocious gang at the instant when they were
vociferating an oath that they would achieve his destruction.
At his unexpected appearance they all rose in confusion. Peter, at
once comprehending the full extent of his danger, exasperated at the
supposed disobedience of his guards, and furious at having thrown
himself into peril, had yet the presence of mind to conceal his
emotions. Having gone too far to recede, he unhesitatingly advanced
among the throng of traitors, greeted them familiarly, and, in a calm
and natural tone, said, that “as he was passing by their house he
saw a light in it, and guessing that they were amusing themselves,
he had entered in order to share their pleasures.” He then seated
himself, and drank to his assassins, who, standing up around him,
could not avoid putting the glass about, and drinking his health.
But they soon began to exchange looks and signs. At last one of
them leaned over to Sukanim, and said, in a low voice, “Brother, it is
time!” The latter, for what reason is unknown, hesitated, and had
scarcely replied, “Not yet,” when Peter, who heard these words, and
along with them the footsteps of his guards, started from his seat,
knocked him down by a blow in the face, and exclaimed, “If it is not
yet time for you, scoundrel, it is for me!” This blow, and the sight of
the guards, threw the assassins into consternation; they fell on their
knees and implored forgiveness. “Chain them!” replied the terrible
czar. Then turning to the officer of the guards, he struck him, and
reproached him with his want of punctuality; but the latter showed
him his order; and the czar perceiving his mistake, clasped him in his
arms, kissed him on the forehead, proclaimed his fidelity, and
entrusted him with the custody of the traitors.
His vengeance was terrible; the punishment was more ferocious
than the crime. First the rack, then the successive mutilation of each
member; then death, when not enough of blood and life was left to
allow of the sense of suffering. To close the whole, the heads were
exposed on the summit of a column, the members being
symmetrically arranged around them, as ornaments—a scene
worthy of a government of masters and of slaves, brutifying each
other, whose only god was fear.
PETER TRAVELS TO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE
After this terrific execution, Peter began his journey in April, 1697,
travelling incognito in the retinue of his three ambassadors, General
Lefort, the boyar Alexis Golovin, and Vonitsin, diak, or secretary of
state, who had been long employed in foreign courts. Their retinue
consisted of two hundred persons. The czar, reserving to himself
only a valet de chambre, a servant in livery, and a dwarf, was
confounded in the crowd. It was a thing unparalleled in history, either
ancient or modern, for a sovereign of five-and-twenty years of age to
withdraw from his kingdoms, only in order to learn the art of
government. His victory over the Turks and Tatars, the splendour of
his triumphant entry into Moscow, the multitude of foreign troops
attached to his interest, the death of his brother Ivan, the
confinement of the princess Sophia to a cloister, and the fearful
example he had just made of the conspirators might naturally
encourage him to hope that the tranquillity of his dominions would
not be disturbed during his absence. The regency he entrusted to
the boyar Strecknev and Prince Romadonovski, who in matters of
importance were to consult with the rest of the nobility.
The troops which had been trained by General Gordon continued
at Moscow, with a view to awe the capital. The disaffected strelitz,
who were likely to create a disturbance, were distributed on the
frontiers of the Crimea, in order to preserve the conquest of Azov
and check the incursions of the Tatars. Having thus provided against
every contingency, he gave a free scope to his passion for travelling,
and his desire of improvement. He had previously sent threescore
young Russians of Lefort’s regiment into Italy, most of them to
Venice and the rest to Leghorn, in order to learn the art of navigation
and the method of constructing galleys: forty more set out by his
direction for Holland, to be instructed in the art of building and
working large ships: others were ordered to Germany, to serve in the
land forces and to learn the military discipline of that nation.
At that period, Mustapha II had been vanquished by the emperor
Leopold; Sobieski was dead; and Poland was hesitating in its choice
between the prince of Conti and Augustus of Saxony; William III
reigned over England; Louis XIV was on the point of concluding the
Treaty of Ryswick; the elector of Brandenburg was aspiring to the
title of king; and Charles XII had ascended the throne.
Setting out from Novgorod, Peter first visited Livonia, where, at the
risk of his liberty, he reconnoitred its capital, Riga, from which he was
rudely repulsed by the Swedish governor. Thenceforth he could not
rest till he had acquired that maritime province through which his
empire was one day to be enriched and enlightened. In his progress
he gained the friendship of Prussia, a power which, at a future time,
might assist his efforts; Poland ought to be his ally, and already he
declared himself the supporter of the Saxon prince who was about to
rule it.
The czar had reached Amsterdam fifteen days before the
ambassadors. He lodged at first in a house belonging to the East
India Company, but chose afterwards a small apartment in the yards
of the admiralty. He disguised himself in a Dutch skipper’s habit, and
went to the great ship-building village of Zaandam. Peter admired
the multitude of workmen constantly employed; the order and
exactness observed in their several departments; the prodigious
despatch with which they built and fitted out ships; and the vast
quantity of stores and machines for the greater ease and security of
labour. He began with purchasing a boat, and made a mast for it
himself. By degrees he executed every part of the construction of a
ship, and led the same life all the time as the carpenters of Zaandam
—clad and fed exactly like them; working hard at the forges, at the
rope-yards, and at the several mills for sawing timber, extracting oil,
manufacturing paper, and wire-drawing. He entered himself as a
common carpenter, and was enrolled in the list of workmen by the
name of Peter Michaelov. They commonly called him Master Peter,
or Peter-bas; and though they were confounded at first to behold a
sovereign as their companion, yet they gradually accustomed
themselves to the sight.
Whilst Peter was handling the compass and axe at Zaandam, he
received intelligence of the division in Poland, and of the double
nomination of the elector Augustus and the prince of Conti.
Immediately the carpenter of Zaandam promised King Augustus to
assist him with thirty thousand men. From his shop he issued orders
to his army in the Ukraine, which had been assembled against the
Turks.
His troops obtained a victory over the Tatars, in the neighbourhood
of Azov; and a few months after became masters of the town of
Orkapi, or Perekop. For his part he persisted in making himself
master of different arts. With this view he frequently went from
Zaandam to Amsterdam, in order to hear the anatomical lectures of
the celebrated Ruisch. Under this master he made such progress as
to be able to perform some surgical operations, which, in case of
necessity, might be of use, both to himself and to his officers. He
likewise studied natural philosophy, under Vitsen, celebrated for his
patriotic virtue and for the noble use he made of his immense
fortune.e
Peter in Holland, England, and Austria
Besides ship-building Peter also turned his attention to machinery,

factories, and industry of every kind. Sometimes he was to be found
sitting at the weaver’s loom, sometimes handling the sledge-
hammer, axe, and plane. He could truthfully write to the patriarch
Adrian concerning himself: “We act obedient to the word of God to
our first parent Adam and are working—not because it is necessary,
but in order that we may have a better insight into naval affairs and
be the more able to go against the enemies of Jesus Christ’s name
and conquer by his grace.”
On the 9th of September Peter, accompanied by Vitsen and Lefort,
journeyed to Utrecht for a conference with the hereditary stadholder
William of Orange, king of England. On his return he visited the
whale-fishing fleet which had shortly before arrived, so as to become
acquainted with everything concerning whale-fishing—that important
branch of the seaman’s activity.

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CHAPTER 6: Memory Strategies and

Section Ref: Memory Strategies I: Memory Strategies Informed by Memory Concepts

6-7. According to the principle of memory called the total-time hypothesis,

6-8. The research on practice and memory improvement demonstrates that

Section Ref: Memory Strategies II: Practice and Mnemonics

6-13. According to research on the testing effect,

6-18. According to the research on the keyword method, this technique

Section Ref: Memory Strategies II: Practice and Mnemonics

6-24. The narrative technique

6-25. According to the discussion of the narrative technique,

6-28. According to your textbook, retrospective memory

Section Ref: Memory Strategies II: Practice and Mnemonics

6-29. According to the discussion of prospective and retrospective memory,

6-31. Absentminded behavior is most likely to occur

6-33. Absentminded behavior is especially likely to occur

6-35. According to the discussion of improving prospective memory,

6-36 The term metacognition refers to

Section Ref: Metamemory

Section Ref: Metamemory

The question of the succession was now

THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PETER

During Sophia’s government Peter continued to reside with his

PETER ASSERTS CONTROL

Lefort, in whom Peter placed his whole

AZOV TAKEN FROM THE TURKS

The paramount idea of Peter’s whole life displayed itself in the

CONSPIRACY TO MURDER PETER

PETER TRAVELS TO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE

Peter in Holland, England, and Austria

Besides ship-building Peter also turned his attention to machinery,

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