It’s the early morning of June the 26th, 1718 and in the basement of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg, Russia, lies a young man. His face is covered in bruises, his back is bleeding, and his eyes are sunken holes in their sockets, wreathed in black.

The door is flung open, and another man strides into the prison chamber. In his hand is a hard leather whip about three and a half feet long, ending in a beak-like hook.  He walks over to the prisoner, who closes his eyes and quietly sobs. He knows what’s coming. 

The prisoner is Tsarevich Alexei, heir to the Russian throne. His torturer is his own father, Tsar Peter the Great.  

Peter the Great was one of the most bloody and brutal rulers in Russian history. Known for leading his own torture interrogations, and using forced labour to construct his architectural visions, his son is only one of thousands of people who will suffer at his hands during his reign. Yet he is remembered as one of Russia’s greatest ever rulers. Creating a navy, a city, and being one of the first Tsars to travel Europe in 100 years, his love of science and learning saw him transform his antiquated realm into a European power of the modern age.  

But given the high price paid by his people, his predisposition for violence, and how the future of his reign was cemented by torture, can he truly be seen as Peter ‘the Great’ today? 

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