Peter the Great was born on June 9, 1672. However, according to the old-style calendar, he was born on May 30, 1672. He was the son of Tsar Alexei's father and mother Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina. When Peter was four years old, his father, Tsar Alexei, died and was succeeded by Peter's half-brother, Fydor III. (Parrish, 2009) On the eve of his tenth birthday Peter the Great ascended the throne despite still being a minor. He grew up under the threat of a palace takeover and enjoyed little formal education. He stood seven feet tall, and his accomplishments would soon match him. (Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein & Smith, 2012)Peter was only ten years old when the Kremlin saw an open and violent power struggle between the Naryshkins and the Miloslavskys. He had witnessed the murders, including that of his mother's former guardian. These vicious and unnecessary killings created in Peter a deep hatred of violence and revulsion against the Kremlin and its politics. Peter spent the next seven years in the village of Preobrazhenskoe and his mother, who now held the role of head of state. Peter then used his own tools to familiarize himself with what military matters and Western technology were actually about. The death of his mother in 1694 and the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1696 made Peter the sole ruler of Russia. (Gupta, 2006) Despite having no formal or comprehensive education, Peter was physically and mentally beyond his years. He acquired knowledge mostly from foreigners regarding technical skills who worked for the Russian service who lived nearby. He spent most of his time in the German Quarter of Moscow learning from scholars at the German University. (Hutchinson, 2011) A new streltsy uprising took place in… the midst of more active politics on its southeastern frontier. Peter himself invaded Persian territory after hearing that the Ottoman Turks would take advantage of Persia's weakness and invade the Caspian region in 1722. In 1723 Persia ceded the western and southern coasts of the Caspian to Russia in exchange for military aid. Peter the Great was Tsar of Russia until 1725. He died in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 8, 1725. He had left an empire that stretched from Archangel on the White Sea to the Caspian, Baltic Sea, and Pacific Ocean. He had not appointed anyone despite having already issued a decree in 1722 that reserved the right to appoint his successor. His widow Catherine I, succeeded him upon the temporary omission of her nephew Peter II. In 1724 Peter the Great crowned Catherine empress. (Alekseevich, 2012)