PETER THE GREAT’S WILL.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 904, 18 May 1877, Page 3

PETER THE GREAT’S WILL.

[Copy of the Plan for compassing European supremacy, left by Peter the Great for his successors on the Throne of Russia, and deposited in the Archives of the Palaces of Peterhoff near St. Petersburg]

*ln the name of the most holy and indivisible Trinity, We, Peter, Rmperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, &c., to all our descendants and successors on the Throne and in the Government of the Russian nation :

‘The Great God from whom We receive Our life and Our Crown, having constantly illumined Us with his wisdom, and upheld Us with his divine support, &c., &c. Here the emperor enters upon a long and rather discucsive argument, showing why, in his opinion—which he believes to be an interpretation of the will of Providence—the people of Russia are destined at some fut ure period to attain to general supremacy in Europe, and to spread themselves over the whole Continent With this object in view he leaves these instructions to his discendants, and desires that they shall be constantly and for ever religiously observed in the manner in which the tablets left by Moses, on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed, have been faithfully followed by the Jewish people. After this preamble the fourteen commands are set forth as follows :

‘ I. Let the Russian nation be kept in a continual state of war, so that her soldiers may be hardy and alway ready for fighting; let there be no repose excepting when it is necessary for the repair of the finances of the Empire, or for the reorganisation of our armies, or for the purpose of waiting for the most opportune moments of attack. Let times of peace be thus made useful for the support of war, and war be conducted so as to give advantages in peace: always keeping in view the aggrandisement and the increase of prosperity of Russia. ‘ 11, Attract by every possible means, from the most cultivated nations in Europe, able captains in times of war, and the best

scholars in times of peace, so that the Russian nation may profit by such advantages as may be obtainable in other countries without any risk of losing those of which she herself is possessed. ‘III. Take a part on all occasions in the troubles and disputes in Europe, particularly in those of Germany, which being the nearest to Russia, have most direct interest for her. * IV. Keep up divisions in Poland and encourage continual jealousies and agitations. * * * If the neighbouring Powers object, they should be momentarily appeased by sharing the country with them until it is possible to retake what has been so ceded. *V. Take from Sweden as much as possible, and manage so that she may attack us, which will give a pretext for her subjugation. With this view isolate her from Denmark by carefully encouraging rivalries between those two countries.

‘ VI. Always choose wives for the Russian princes in the German States, and by such alliances unite their interests with ours, and obtain their support for our views. ‘VII. Encourage a commercial alliance with England, she being the Power which has most need of us for the maintenance of her navy, and which can be most useful to ns for tbe development of our own. Exchange our timber and other productions of her gold, and establish constant friendly relations between her merchants and sailors and ours, by which our people will be improved in seamanship and in the arts of commerce.

‘ VIII. Extend the frontiers of the Empire unceasingly, towards the North along the Baltic Sea, and towards the South along the shores of the Black Sea. ‘ IX. Approach as near as possible to Constantinople and towards the Indies. He who reigns at Constantinople will be the real sovereign of the world, and with that object in view, provoke continual wars with Turkey and with Persia ; establish dockyards in the Black Sea, get possession of the shores of that : iea as well as those of the Baltic, these two things being necessary for the ultimate success of our project; hasten the decadency of Persia, penetrate as far as the Persian Gulf, re-establish the former trade of the Levant by appropriating Syria, and if possible, extend the power of Russia to the Indies, which are the emporium of the world.

‘ Once there, we can do without the gold of England ‘X. Carefully seek and maintain an alliance with Austria, appear to support her ideas of future sovereignty over all Germany, and covertly excite against her the jealousy of the German princes. ‘ Endeavor to induce either one side or the other to solicit the assistance of Russia, and then take the country, as it were, under our protection, by which means we shall be enabled to prepare it for eventual domination. ‘ XI. Interest Austria with us in the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and, when we have conquered Constantinople, neutralise the effect of her jealousy either by stirring up a war between her and the other European States, or by giving up to her a portion of our conquest, which we can retake from her afterwards. « XII. Attach and unite to us all the dissatisfied Greeks and other schismatics in Hungary, Turkey, and the South of Poland, making Russia their centre and support, and establish a universal ascendancy over i hem by a kind of sacerdotal supremacy; this will secure us serviceable friends in the enemy’s country. £ XIII When Sweden has been dismembered, Persia vanquished, Poland subjugated, and Turkey conquered, onr armies united, and the Black Sea and the Baltic in the possession of our fleets, a proposal must be submitted separately, and very secretly, first to the Court of Versailles and then to that of Vienna, to divide with them the empire of the world. «If either of the two accepts, which is not to be doubted, as their ambition and their self-love will be flattered by the suggestion, make use of that Power to crush the other, and afterwards in its turn we must crush the first, which will not be difficult, as by that time Kussia will be in possession of the whole of the East and of a great part of Europe. ‘ XIV. If the improbable case should arise of a refusal from both Powers, it will be necessary to bring about a state of war between the two which will exhaust them both, and then, choosing the decisive moment for action, Russia would fall upon Germany with her armies at the same time that two powerful fleets would issue from the Sea of Azoff and from the Port of Archangel, filled with hordes of Asiatics, and uniting themselves to other fleets in the Black Sea and in the Baltic, they would advance by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, and land them on the shores of France, which will speedily be overrun, whilst our land forces do the same in Germany. Once these two countries vanquished, the rest of Europe will soon pass under our sceptre. ‘ It is by these means that Europe can and must be subjugated.’